OTTAWA, June 6 (Xinhua) -- On a day when World No. 2 Rory McIlroy missed the halfway cut for the first time in nearly a year, American Cameron Champ carded a six-under 66 on Friday to open up a two-stroke lead through two rounds of the RBC Canadian Open in Ontario.
As Champ continued his run of bogey-free golf at the TPC Toronto at Osprey Valley (North Course) to get to 12-under 128 through 36 holes, McIlroy, who won the Masters in April to complete his career Grand Slam, struggled with a new driver on his way to a 78, missing the cut for the first time since last year's British Open Championship.
His round featured a quadruple-bogey eight at the 447-yard fifth hole, a double bogey, four bogeys and two birdies, one at them coming at the last.
With the U.S. Open at Oakmont next on his schedule, McIlroy said he would have to do "a lot of work" over the weekend to "try to at least have a better idea of where my game is going into next week".
"You don't want to shoot high scores like the one I did today. Still, I felt like I came here obviously with a new driver thinking that that sort of was going to be good and solve some of the problems off the tee, but it didn't," he said.
"Obviously going to Oakmont next week, what you need to do more than anything else there is hit fairways. Still sort of searching for the sort of missing piece off the tee. Obviously for me, when I get that part of the game clicking, then everything falls into place for me. Right now, it isn't. Yeah, that's a concern going into next week."
With the weather sunny and warm for the second round of Canada's 114th national championship, American Andrew Putnam shot an eight-under 62 for the low-round of the day to sit two shots off the lead. Overnight co-leader Denmark's Thorbjorn Olesen (70) was three shots back in equal third with Frenchman Victor Perez (65) and Canadians Richard Lee (64) and Nick Taylor (65).
Chilean Cristobal Del Solar, the other overnight co-leader, was four shots off the pace after a 71, tied for equal seventh in a group of six players that included 2019 British Open winner Shane Lowry (68).
Defending champion Robert McIntyre shot a two-over 72 to make the weekend play exactly on the three-under halfway cut. Beijing native Cao Yi, the only Chinese in the field, improved to a 68 but missed the cut by one stroke.
Starting his morning round on the back nine one shot off the lead, Champ got to 10-under when he made a birdie three at the 362-yard 12th hole, his third hole. After making another birdie at the 18th hole, his ninth hole, he picked up two more shots on his back nine, the front nine.
"Definitely didn't hit it my best compared to yesterday. Yesterday felt pretty easy, pretty easy flowing. Today kind of hit a couple squirrelly iron shots," said California native Champ, a three-time winner on the PGA Tour.
"I feel like my game plan, and how I was approaching the holes, playing to the right sides, moving the ball to the hole, again, not trying to hit the perfect straight ball all the time, is kind of working out. I'm very proud of myself for that."
Putnam, whose lone win on the PGA Tour came in 2018, matched his low score of the season when he carded eight birdies in his bogey-free round.
"I hit a lot of fairways, hit a lot of good iron shots too, and my putter was on fire. Pretty much did everything right. Didn't really make many mistakes," said the 36-year-old journeyman from Washington State.
"I've always loved coming to Canada. Feel like the people are extremely happy. The sun's out. They have terrible weather all year, so this week they're always very excited to be outside in a short-sleeve shirt. I'm used to that, being from Seattle... I guess I should have been coming here more often."
Lee, the Asian Tour regular, made his first cut at a PGA Tour event when he carded a bogey-free round featuring six birdies, including four straight from the first hole, his 10th hole, after starting his morning round on the back nine.
"I'm feeling great. Just had a perfect scorecard today and just love being out here in front of the Canadian fans. It's been a while," said the 34-year-old Vancouver native who had a gallery of 10 family members watching him.
"I'm sure my dad has a lot of things to say to people about my game, bad and good. If I just perform the way I did today, I think it would probably make him pretty happy." ■