RBC CANADIAN OPEN

June 11, 2026

Taylor Pendrith

TPC Toronto at Osprey Valley (North Course)

Quick Quotes

Q. Obviously you had a great start to the week. What's working for you so far?

TAYLOR PENDRITH: Made a lot of putts today which was nice. Felt like I drove it really well. I hit some really nice wedge shots, specifically on the first hole today was the best shot of the day and ended up making double, which was a little frustrating to start like that. But rolled in some nice putts pretty much all day.

Q. You followed that double up with I think four birdies. What's the trick to that?

TAYLOR PENDRITH: Just trying to forgive yourself a little bit. I mean, I really didn't hit a bad shot, I got a bit of a bad break, I felt like, and hit a nice 7-iron into 11 and was able to roll that in and that kind of settled me down. Yeah, to make three more after that was great and then I was off to a good start.

Q. Obviously you're comfortable around here. Do you think you maybe played more rounds on this course than anybody in the field, and how does it feel to come back here each year?

TAYLOR PENDRITH: I probably have, yeah. I played two Mackenzie Tour events here and I played multiple rounds with my friends in carts with music and maybe a beverage. So it's nice to come back here and have some -- it's very familiar to me and a friendly faces that I haven't seen in awhile cheering me on. So I love playing here and, yeah it's a good spot.

Q. Are there any considerable changes from last year to this year that you can see?

TAYLOR PENDRITH: Not really. I only played the back nine Wednesday, so just saw the front nine today for the first time and I think it's pretty similar. If I remember correctly last year it rained all Thursday and it was really soft and kind of felt similar to today. It rained on us for a little bit. But the greens were tricky. It was blowing pretty good and you really had to control your spin with your wedges because the greens were spinning. So it was hard to get close to some pins, I thought. But I feel like it was pretty similar.

Q. Tricky greens, do you feel like you have a good feel for 'em?

TAYLOR PENDRITH: Yeah, for sure. These are the type of greens that I kind of grew up putting on, so I definitely feel comfortable on them. It was nice today to make a bunch of putts. That always feels good, especially early in the round it kind of gives you a little bit more confidence throughout the day. But, yeah, they're just hard to get the ball close from the fairway. You're hitting wedges into the wind and the pins are on the back tier with big slopes before, so you really have to flight the ball down and knock some spin off, which is kind of hard to do into the wind.

Q. What's the thread that allows guys to persevere and get to this point? Not everyone's a prodigy.

TAYLOR PENDRITH: Yeah, I feel like everybody's got a different path. My path was took me longer to get here than I thought it would. My first couple years as a pro I felt like I was playing really good golf and moved up from the Mackenzie Tour rights to the Korn Ferry Tour and then took me six more years probably to get there to get here, I guess. So, yeah, everybody's different. I feel like it's becoming harder and harder to get here going through the development tours, but I think they're a really good place to play and develop your game and get a good pathway to the PGA TOUR.

Q. (No Microphone.)

TAYLOR PENDRITH: I mean, I feel like a lot of the young guys coming out of college are big power hitters. Everybody seems to hit it far these days, so that's definitely a skill that's needed out here. That's where the game's trending towards as everybody bombs it and you kind of go from there. But, yeah, I don't know.

Q. What's the primary defense of this golf course? Would it be the wind or the rough, and if it is the wind is that unique compared to a lot of TOUR events and maybe why, even in nice conditions, you don't see really, really low scores very often here?

TAYLOR PENDRITH: Yeah, it's definitely, it was definitely breezy today, for sure. It was a little bit swirly coming in, I thought. But, yeah, the fairways are relatively wide, greens are pretty big, and it rained kind of hard on us for a little bit, so the course was still soft. I think if the fairways get a little firmer, some of them are sloped pretty severely left-to-right, so they're hard to hold the fairways, and then playing from the rough, the rough is thick here. The fairways are just a little bit wider today than I think they generally are, just because it is soft. But, yeah, the wind was really tricky today, I thought.

Q. Who were the players of your earliest memories from watching on TV or attending the Canadian Open?

TAYLOR PENDRITH: I feel like the first one I went to was Angus Glen. Angus Glen, Glen Abbey, I would say that those are my early memories of the Canadian Open. Mike Weir, Graeme DeLaet. And then even when I've had first turned pro Hadwin I think was out here and those guys. And I didn't get my TOUR card until 2021, so Corey and Mac and all those, Nick Taylor, all those guys. But I would say Mike Weir and Graeme DeLaet was the first kind of two -- and David Hearn, I guess, in my memory.

Q. I know you're a big fan of hockey and baseball. Where are you at on with soccer? Do you follow the game at all?

TAYLOR PENDRITH: I couldn't tell you one player, unfortunately. No, I'm not a big soccer guy.

Q. Tomorrow obviously Canadians always wear red on Friday at the Canadian Open. Are you expecting to see a lot of Canadian soccer mixed in, given that Canada is going to be playing in Toronto in the afternoon?

TAYLOR PENDRITH: Yeah, hopefully. It's a big day, we got Canadian Open, soccer, and I think the Blue Jays play tomorrow as well. So, yeah, it's a big day in Toronto. But I think they're going to have the game going here, from what I've heard. So, yeah, I'm expecting to see a lot of support for sure and lots of red tomorrow.