The future of golf is here — and it’s thriving on PGA TOUR Americas.
PGA TOUR Americas Vice President Scott Pritchard joins Adam Scully for an inside look at the tour’s growing impact ahead of its North American summer swing.
They dive into:
🏌️♂️ The incredible success of PGA TOUR Americas alumni — with 48 graduates competing in the 2025 RBC Canadian Open
🏆 What this means for the next generation of pro golfers
🌎 How PGA TOUR Americas is expanding its footprint across North America
📍 The inspiring story behind TPC Toronto at Osprey Valley becoming a TPC property
If you’re a fan of rising talent, golf development, or Canadian golf history in the making, this is a must-watch.
🎙️ Brought to you by Golf Talk Canada
#pgatour #rbccanadianopen #pgatouramericas #tpctoronto #northamerica #future #development #golfhighlights #golflife
a good friend of the show Scott Pritchard PJ Tour America’s vice president scott welcome back thank you thanks for having me it is so good to see you here in person i think we we’ve done this three or four years consecutively here I want to say what’s what’s this week like for you it’s a exciting week um you know we from PJ Tour Americas we have 48 players that have played our tour that are in the field in fact just on the rink hole right now Danny Walker Oh yeah uh who finished had a good finish at the at the players he won here on our tour on the Heathland’s course uh so it’s like a homecoming for him and there’s a lot of players that have are familiar with the property um you think of players like Jake Knap he finished second here um along with Taylor Pender uh back in 2019 so um I was actually had the uh talking to Hayden Buckley uh who won the ATB Classic on our tour in Calgary uh he’s playing this week he actually played that week he said to me he said “You know that week I birdied the last three holes to get to 20 under.” And he’s like “I was fist pumping.” And he he finished like T8 uh cuz I think it was 26 under at the time on the old uh course well the same course but old layout if you will um so yeah there’s lots of players in the field that have familiarity with the with the facility and uh hopefully that will help some of them as they come down the stretch on Sunday that 48 player number is huge and that’s incredible what’s it like for you to see graduates have success who have gone through PGA Tour Americas and now are not only playing on the PGA Tour but winning on the PGA Tour yeah i mean we’ve had over uh a hundred players graduate uh from our tour to the PGA Tour and uh over 40 wins uh by that group so you know I think there’s a a the easiest way to explain it would be a sense of pride um yeah you know seeing these players you know for us as a staff you know playing a small role in their trajectory uh as they ascend to the PJ tour and that’s really the goal that all of these players have so to see them reach their goal of getting to the PGA Tour and competing on the PGA Tour uh brings a a great sense of pride we’re going to get into PJ Tour Americas and the North American Swing coming up but I understand you have a story about how this golf course became part of the TPC family tell us about that i do i do so uh back in 2013 around that time frame when we started PJ Tour Canada the commissioner of the PJ Tour at the time Tim Finchum uh essentially tasked uh Jeff Monday and I who was the former president of PJ Tour Canada to find a potential TPC facility in Canada um there was really a an effort to grow the the TPC brand internationally and so we as as luck would have it um Brad Panell who was the general manager at Point Gray when we played our event there for a number of years left Point Gray to come here and that’s around the same time that Chris Human took essentially control of the of the facility uh from you know with his family but was became the the leader uh here and um one day Brad and I were were catching up uh for a beer and I mentioned you know what about Osprey Valley as a potential TPC facility and Brad right away was like I love it you know let me talk to Chris and and so he he brought it to Chris and you know Chris loved the idea uh at the time the vision that he had aligned with with what the TPC brand could bring in terms of international recognition the facility um and so from there we we brought up the TPC team and did a site tour and at the time you know there was nothing here it was just the golf courses the old clubhouse and you know for them they saw the vision you know Chris obviously did a great job of laying out the idea of what he had for for here um no clubhouse at the time and you know I again I give those guys a lot of credit for being able to see you know the golf courses as as anyone in the GTA or anyone that’s ever been here um know that the golf courses are strong um and so from there um you know things uh took off so you know talk about pride with the players that’s a sense of pride for us as well to to have a TPC facility in Canada and obviously now um hosting the RBC Canadian Open and when PJ Tour Americas was here back in September we had a very different weather week didn’t we it was it was blowing hard and what was 10 guys under par for the week do I have that right yeah I I don’t know the exact number but it’s around there or even less yeah right so what I mean what we saw yesterday was I mean at any golf course when the best players in the world are playing with softer conditions if they hit the fairway they’re they’re going to throw darts here but now that the weather it seems like we’re going to get to get some breeze some some sun that sort of thing what kind of test are you expecting this golf course to be yeah I I think I kind of predicted and you know I’m not much into the prediction business because I often am prove wrong but I kind of thought it was going to be in that 16 under uh range um when we played here in September it was very cold it was wet five under one uh the course is long i mean if you listen to any of the interviews uh from the players um you know especially the Bob doing the great stories with the Canadians they’ll tell you it’s you know it’s playing long but it’s also getable in spots and so I think um the players that that play those long holes at par or better um are going to are going to have a chance to win um but I you know yesterday they were playing lift clean and play so that’s another element to add to the elements if you will um but I I think it’ll it’ll stand up i think uh you know it’s a beast it’s a beast and if the wind blows I mean we’re not looking at much wind today i’m hearing you know 19 kilometer wind gust so that’s not much yeah um but I think the guys that teed off in the morning yesterday you know they’re going to get the win in the afternoon so they there would be word around the locker room uh you know things like that you know I got a bad draw which is the luck of the draw um but you don’t often see nine under in an afternoon round it’s typically the guys in the morning get out to a good start um and and set the pace for the day and those numbers usually hold up in the morning like Taylor’s five under you know I thought was a pretty good score um but then you see a couple nine unders so but I I think I I don’t think you’ll see that but you know these guys are they’re they’re so good that um you know you’ll you’ll see you know you could potentially see someone run away with it yeah totally and uh Mark and I know firsthand how long this course is because we played in the Celebrity ProAm on Monday and Mark thought it’d be a good idea to tip it out and not only Yeah not only did we tip it out we went we were one step off the back because they’re preserving all the tea deck so we’re playing probably closer to like 75 7600 yards my back’s still a little sore from some of the uh the plays from the rough there but it it’s a great facility and I’ve loved this tournament so far but getting back to PJ Tour Americas it’s been a great season so far the North American swing gets going in July is that right yeah so June 30th the week of June 30th so first week of July uh Canada Day we’ll have some celebrations and festivities at our event uh the Explorer New Brunswick Open uh which we’re really excited to to get started we’re currently conducting some qualifying schools for players to have uh access to the remaining uh 10 events on the season uh we’ll conduct our final one in PEI at Mil River which uh they’re super excited to to host the the Q school think some of the players that you know are just turning pro it’ll feel like a professional event to them because they’re there’s a ton of volunteers as you would expect in the East Coast that have stepped up um they’re talking about feeding lobster dinners and and things like that so that you know the we’re excited to we did that uh strategically having the Q school in Prince Edward Island close proximity to the start of the event in Predictton um and then from there we uh we get going yeah and I’m so excited for the the rest of the PGA Tour America season and not to not to put you on the spot Scott but I think you knew I was going to ask you this question because every time you come on the show you you just you rattle off every event here uh there’s no script there’s no teleprompter uh what uh what’s the rest of the schedule look like big picture yeah so we’re we we fundamentally changed the the cadence if you will of the of the tournament schedule where traditionally we would jump around where we would start in the west and we would jump to the east and then go back to the west and finish in the east and sometimes finish in the west so this year for the first time in a very long time we’re starting in the east so we export New Brunswick open then we go to the Bront Open presented by Dejardan Insurance uh and then from there we have a week off Commissioners Ottawa Open uh presented by Le Pin Apartments which we just signed to a a four-year deal which we’re excited about we’ve got some more announcements coming um with respect to uh the Commissioner’s Ottawa Open then we come right here to the Osprey Valley Open we’re playing on the Heathland’s course which we’re really excited and I know the guys here uh are excited for and then we have the bio steel championship in Windsor uh at Ambassador and they’re plugging away down there doing doing very well then we we take a week off uh we go to the Manitoba Open at Breezy Bend we just signed a deal there five-year rotation with clubs within the city so uh this is the first year that we’ll be at Breezy Bend which we’re we’re excited about uh then we go to the CRMC Championship presented by Northern Pacific Center in uh Brainard Minnesota um a former tournament of the year on PJ Tour Americas so they’re doing a great job down there then we have another week off we head to Edmonton Northern Bear uh for the ATB Classic uh and then that’s followed by the Times Colonist Victoria Open Penultimate event and then the Fortnite Cup Championship at Morgan Creek uh in Vancouver so uh we’re really excited about going to Morgan Creek they’ve never hosted an event of this magnitude uh Tom and Megan uh at Morgan Creek are doing a fantastic job uh we’ll have some some partnership announcements there um uh a player in this field will uh be involved in a charity outing on the Monday uh which I’m not at liberty to discuss at this point we can talk off air Scott yes but uh lots of exciting things happening happening in and around uh PJ Tour Americas okay again there was no script in front of you there’s no there’s no secret teleprompter over there you’ve done it again oh man it’s I I always love when you do that and what I love on this show and I’ve told you this a hundred times I’ll tell you it again i love speaking with the winners on PGA Tour Americas in fact Davis Lamb the last time we had a winner on the show he said “Whenever I get a text from Adam Scully I know it’s a big day and we’ve actually we’ve actually clipped that as a as a drop and we’re going to use it on every show here.” Uh moving forward but Scott it’s a busy time uh thank you so much for taking time out of your busy schedule thank you for reeling off the entire schedule on PGA Tour Americas and we have much more PJ Tour America’s coverage coming up throughout the season on Golf Talk Canada appreciate it i’m glad you didn’t ask me the dates cuz that would be a whole new uh Maybe we’ll we’ll save that for next year yeah the the dates of the works but uh yeah that’s Scott Pritchard the uh vice president of PGA Tour Americas
