CALEDON, Ontario — Masters champion Rory McIlroy tumbled out of the RBC Canadian Open on Friday with his second-highest score to par in any PGA Tour round of his career, with Cameron Champ taking a two-stroke lead into the weekend in the final event before the U.S. Open.
McIlroy shot an 8-under 78, making a mess of the fifth hole with a quadruple-bogey 8 in his highest total score since also shooting 7-over 78 last year in the first round of the Open Championship, which also was the last time he missed a cut.
He had a double bogey on No. 11, four bogeys and two birdies Friday.
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“Of course it concerns me,” McIlroy said. “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.”
It’s the fifth time McIlroy has carded an 8-over round and trails only the 10-over 80 he shot in the opening round of the 2018 U.S. Open. It’s his outright highest score in any non-major PGA Tour round.
At 9 over, the two-time Canadian Open winner was 21 strokes behind Champ on the rain-softened North Course at TPC Toronto at Osprey Valley. He missed the cut by 12 shots and won’t play the weekend in a non-major tour event for the first time since the 2023 Players Championship.
“Obviously, going to Oakmont next week, what you need to do more than anything else there is hit fairways,” McIlroy said. “Still sort of searching for the sort of missing piece off the tee.”
Champ had four birdies in a 68 in the morning a day after opening with a 62. He was at 12 under, playing the first 36 holes without a bogey.
“It’s firmed up a little bit, but fairly similar to yesterday,” Champ said. “The fairways I feel like were firming up a little bit. The greens slightly, but pretty close to how they were yesterday.”
The three-time PGA Tour winner got one of the last spots in the field after being the eighth alternate Friday when the commitments closed.
Rory McIlroy again struggled with his new driver, a troubling sign heading into next week’s U.S. Open. Minas Panagiotakis/Getty Images
“I definitely didn’t think I was getting in,” Champ said.
Andrew Putnam was second after a bogey-free 62 on the course hosting the event for the first time. He won the 2018 Barracuda Championship for his lone tour title.
“I hit a lot of fairways, hit a lot of good iron shots, too, and my putter was on fire,” Putnam said. “Pretty much did everything right. Didn’t really make many mistakes.”
Thorbjorn Olesen of Denmark, tied for the first-round lead with Cristobal Del Solar after a 61, had a 70 to drop into a tie for third at 9 under with Canadians Richard Lee (64) and Nick Taylor (65) and France’s Victor Perez (65).
Taylor won the 2023 event at Oakdale.
“Hung in there,” Taylor said. “Making a birdie on the last was important to end the day nicely.”
Del Solar was 8 under after a 71. Shane Lowry (68) also was 8 under with Ryan Fox (66), Jake Knapp (69), Sam Burns (66) and Matteo Manassero (65).
Information from ESPN Research and The Associated Press was used in this report.
