The opening day of the RBC Canadian Open did not go as planned for everyone in the field on June 11, 2026. Three players pulled out of the PGA Tour event on the same day, two before they even hit a shot, and one mid-round.

Paul Waring, Jeffrey Kang, and Mark Hubbard all withdrew from the 2026 RBC Canadian Open on Thursday at TPC Toronto. The total purse for the event is $9.8 million, with the winner taking home $1.764 million.

Per PGA Tour Communications on X, Kang withdrew before his first-round tee time. Hubbard also pulled out before starting. Waring's situation was different. He withdrew during the first round due to illness and was not replaced since he had already started his round, per PGA Tour Communications.

Jeremy Paul replaced Kang in the 2:16 p.m. tee time alongside Christo Lamprecht and Sean O'Hair. Ben Kohles took Hubbard's spot in the 1:21 p.m. grouping with Joel Dahmen and Johnny Keefer.

41-year-old Waring had been playing his first event since early April. The Englishman is a two-time European Tour winner.

He missed the cut in each of his first three events of the 2026 PGA Tour season before briefly grabbing the first-round lead at the Texas Children's Houston Open in March with a 63. 

34-year-old Kang has not won on the PGA Tour yet, but he finished tied for sixth place at the Zurich Classic of New Orleans in April. His replacement, Jeremy Paul, finished tied for eighth place at the Puerto Rico Open in March.

The RBC Canadian Open is the last PGA Tour event before next week's U.S. Open.

RBC Canadian Open First-Round Leaderboard

The RBC Canadian Open was first played in 1904. It is the second-oldest tournament on the PGA Tour schedule that is not a major championship. Only the BMW Championship, which began in 1899, is older.

The 2026 edition finds Sahith Theegala in the lead after the first round at TPC Toronto. He shot a six-under-par 64 on Thursday, making seven birdies and one bogey.

It was two shots better than any first-round score he had recorded in his previous 17 starts, not including the Zurich Classic team event. 

Sam Burns, Brooks Koepka, Emiliano Grillo, and Eric Cole all shot six-under-par to share the lead with Sahith Theegala.

Burns made five birdies on the back nine, including one on the 18th. Koepka also birdied the 18th and played his back nine in 30 strokes.

Grillo made five birdies on the front nine and added two more on the back nine. His strong round came just three days after he won the Lambton qualifier in Toronto to earn a spot in the U.S. Open.

Christiaan Bezuidenhout made a hole-in-one on the par-3 seventh hole. It was the first hole-in-one of his PGA Tour career after playing 1,880 par-3 holes.

Which of the five co-leaders do you think will go on to win the 2026 RBC Canadian Open? Let us know in the comments.

Read more at Club Golf!

Written by

Sneha Abraham

Edited by

Surjo Ray