McDOWELL MAKES HIS MOVE IN MONTREAL TOURNAMENT

• The Graeme and Graham show at RBC CANADIAN OPEN

  • FROM THE US PGA TOUR WEBSITE
    By Adam Stanley, PGATOUR.COM
• Graeme McDowell looks for his first win this season while Graham DeLaet is playing for first TOUR win. (photos by Sam Greenwood/Getty Images)

L’ILE BIZARD, Quebec – Thursday at the RBC Canadian Open was all about the three P’s – Petrovic, Putnam, and Pendrith. On Friday, at least according to the crowd’s excitement and the numbers on the leaderboard, it was all about the Grahams (or, the Graemes, depending on your choice of spelling).
After a day where Graeme McDowell admitted he was feeling tired – “It’s kind of bedtime in the UK for me right now,” he said Thursday evening – he “felt a lot fresher this morning” and his score reflected that.
His 5-under 65 puts him at 7-under for the championship, and tied for fifth with three others.
Jim Furyk leads the way at 10-under, tied with first round co-leader Tim Petrovic. 

Meanwhile, Graham DeLaet had one of the rounds of the day: he and playing partner Jim Furyk both shot 7-under 63s to match Royal Montreal’s course record. DeLaet finished at 8-under, and is tied for third with Kyle Stanley.
Both said they were feeding off the success of each other, and in the case of McDowell, he was seeing what was happening ahead of him – the Furyk/DeLaet group – and was trying to keep up.
“If it’s possible to feed off the group in front of you, I was kind of doing that a little bit. Some good players up there,” McDowell said.
DeLaet wasn’t aware of what McDowell, playing behind him, was doing. But, the fine play of his other group members was driving him to score well too.
“All of us were making so many birdies out there. I mean, there could have been more. But it was a good day,” explained DeLaet. “It was fun.”
Although Graham and Graeme won’t be playing together Saturday, they did play an exhibition match at the already-famed Cabot Links in Nova Scotia in September 2013. At the time, McDowell said Cabot Links looked a lot like his native Portrush and hoped for something of a home field advantage. 

It worked out in McDowell’s favor that day, as he drummed DeLaet by five strokes and set the course record.
Today was slightly reversed, as it was DeLaet shooting the course record. He did so on the heels of some strong putting – something different for the 32-year-old. DeLaet is ranked 137th in strokes gained-putting this year, but this week he’s first in the field.
“When you see putts rolling in from everywhere like it was in our group today, you just feel like putting is easy or something,” he admitted.
For now, McDowell and DeLaet remain separated by one shot on the leaderboard and a couple letters in their names.
But, they both want their name – no matter the spelling – to be called as the “RBC Canadian Open Champion” come Sunday night. 

LEADERBOARD
par 140 (2x70)
130 Jim Furyk 67 63, Tim Petrovic 64 66
132 Graham DeLaet 69 63, Kyle Stanley 65 67

SELECTED SCORE
133 Graeme McDowell (N Ireland) 68 65 (T5)

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