RBC Canadian Open Round 2: Eighth Alternate Cameron Champ Takes a Two-Shot Lead as McIlroy Crashes Out

A week ago, Cameron Champ was getting ready for a Korn Ferry Tour event in South Carolina. On Friday night, he was sleeping on the 36-hole lead at the RBC Canadian Open.

Champ followed Thursday's 62 with a bogey-free 4-under 66 at TPC Toronto at Osprey Valley to reach 12-under 128 and take a two-shot lead into the weekend. Andrew Putnam shot the round of the day, a bogey-free 62, to climb into second at 10 under. Thorbjorn Olesen, Victor Perez and Canadians Nick Taylor and Richard Lee are tied for third at 9 under, and six more players sit at 8 under, including Shane Lowry, Sam Burns and Ryan Fox.

The Eighth Alternate

The backstory makes this one of the best leaderboards of the season so far. Champ, a three-time PGA TOUR winner whose last victory came at the 2021 3M Open, lost his TOUR card last year. He was the eighth alternate here, and the call came while he was preparing for that Korn Ferry event. He landed in Toronto around 2 a.m. Wednesday with one day to prepare.

"I definitely didn't think I was getting in," Champ said.

Since then, he has played 36 holes without a single bogey. That is not a guy getting hot with the putter for a day. According to the PGA TOUR, Champ hit 12 of 14 fairways on Friday, averaged more than 320 yards off the tee, hit 15 of 18 greens and got up and down all three times he missed. CBS Sports noted he entered the weekend third in strokes gained off the tee and eighth in strokes gained putting for the week.

Champ has also been open about the mental grind of the past couple of years, going back and forth between tours with limited starts. He said he is working with someone to help with that side of the game, and that the goal this week is to stay out of his own way. According to the PGA TOUR, it is his first lead after any round since the second round of the 2023 Shriners Children's Open.

Putnam Goes Low

Putnam started Friday hovering around the cut line and finished it in Saturday's final pairing. His 62 was bogey-free and built on the simplest recipe in golf.

"I hit a lot of fairways, hit a lot of good iron shots, too, and my putter was on fire," Putnam said.

CBS Sports credited Putnam with roughly 95 feet of made putts on the day, which is how you jump from the bottom of the board to second place in a single afternoon.

The Canadian Contingent Holds

The home crowd has two players right in the thick of it. Taylor, the 2023 champion at Oakdale, shot 65 to get to 9 under and capped the round with a birdie on the last. "Making a birdie on the last was important to end the day nicely," Taylor said.

Lee shot 64 to join Taylor in the tie for third.

Above them, Thursday's co-leaders cooled off. Olesen followed his 61 with an even-par 70 and still sits tied for third. Cristobal Del Solar, who flirted with 59 a day earlier, shot 71 and slipped into the group at 8 under.

McIlroy Crashes Out

The biggest headline of the day was the wrong kind for Rory McIlroy. The Masters champion shot 8-over 78, his worst round in nearly a year, and missed the cut by a mile at 9 over, 21 shots behind Champ. The damage included an 8 on the fifth hole and a double bogey on the 11th, plus four bogeys against only two birdies.

McIlroy had arrived with a new driver hoping to fix his problems off the tee. It did not work, and with the U.S. Open at Oakmont next week, he did not hide from the concern. "Of course it concerns me," McIlroy said, adding that he is still searching for the missing piece off the tee.

He was not the only big name heading home. The cut fell at 3 under, and Max Homa, Justin Rose, Tom Kim, Sungjae Im and Gary Woodland all missed it, as did Luke Clanton in his professional debut.

Weekend Stakes

Here is the shape of things. Champ is chasing a fourth TOUR title and the job security that comes with one. Putnam is two back with momentum. Taylor and Lee have a country behind them. And the group at 8 under is loaded. Lowry is still looking for his first individual PGA TOUR win since the 2019 Open, Burns is one of the bigger names in the field, and Fox is the only player in the top 10 who has already won this season.

With a dozen players within four shots of the lead on a course that has been giving up birdies all week, two shots is not much of a cushion. Champ said the fairways firmed up a little on Friday but the course played close to the way it did on Thursday. If that holds, Saturday will be a shootout.

Catch up on Thursday in our Round 1 recap. Full scoring is on the official PGA TOUR leaderboard (opens in a new tab), and the TOUR's Round 2 recap (opens in a new tab) has more.

Sources: PGA TOUR (Round 2 recap, Champ feature, leaderboard), AP, CBS Sports. More golf coverage on Undrafted.

Photo: PGA TOUR.