Maum takes a three-stroke lead into the weekend at Osprey Valley Open

CALEDON, Ontario – Blake Maum shot his season-best score for the second straight day, firing an 8-under 63 on Friday, to take a three-shot lead at the halfway point of Osprey Valley Open presented by Votorantim Cimentos CBM Aggregates.

Maum opened the competition with a 64 and stands at 15-under after 36 holes at TPC Toronto at Osprey Valley, giving him the lowest 36-hole score relative to par on PGA TOUR Canada this season.

“I feel pretty good,” Maum said. “It’s a long week, so today is just another day. It’s just this course is very gettable, so you just kind of got to keep going, you know. I feel good, but there’s a long way to go.”

Digby, Nova Scotia’s Myles Creighton shot 63 and jumped 13 spots to hold second place at 12-under. Fellow Canadians Blair Bursey, the first-round leader, and Brendan MacDougall, and American Josh Radcliff are tied for third at 10-under.

Maum had four birdies and two eagles on his bogey-free card. He was 6-under on the par fives, making an eagle at No. 1 and No. 9. It is the 20th time a player has had two eagles in a single round this season.

“Honestly, I just kind of hit it to the right spot that you should, and I had eagle looks on every single one of them,” Maum said. “I made a couple of 25-30 footers, so that was really it. I didn’t stuff them. It’s hard to stuff them on these par 5s out here.”

But Maum may have saved himself at No. 2, where a poor tee shot required him to lay up and make a 15-20-footer to save par. He went on to shoot 31 on the opening nine.

“That kind of gave me a little bit of momentum,” Maum said. “And I just started feeling like, let’s just keep going. From there I just kept hitting it to the right spots and making the putts that sometimes you make and sometimes you don’t. I was just making them today.”

Maum, of Chattanooga, Tennessee, is coming off his best finish of the season a week ago when he tied for 36th at the Commissionaires Ottawa Open. He showed signs of breaking through by shooting 9-under on the final 54 holes.

Maum said, “I’ve just been trying to focus a little bit more on my mindset, trying to think of every day as an opportunity to improve. Just a little more of a growth mindset as opposed to trying to know it’s not the end of the world. If I play well today or play tomorrow, the end goal is still down the road. So I’m just trying to improve every single day.”

Creighton shot a bogey-free 63, his best score on a PGA TOUR-sanctioned event this season. Creighton won the PGA TOUR Latinoamerica’s Inter Rapidisimo Golf Championship presentado por Volvo in June, had five top 10s in 12 events and has already locked up his spot on the 2024 Korn Ferry Tour.

“But that doesn’t start until January, so honestly I’m just trying to find stuff to do until that happens,” Creighton said. “I’m not good at sitting around, so I figured I’d come up here and play a couple of tournaments and just stay sharp.”

Creighton shot 32-31 and had eight birdies, although none were back-to-back.

“I’m usually kind of the opposite. I usually make them in streaks,” Creighton said. "I love this golf course. I played well here last year. I made the cut on the number and then had a good weekend, so I'm comfortable here."

MacDougall, of Calgary, Alberta, shot 67, despite making three bogeys. He had five birdies on the back nine to shoot 32 on the closing side.

"Today was pretty good," MacDougall said. "Played really well in back-to-back rounds. Haven't done that on this Tour for a long time, probably dating back to last year. Easily my best start as a pro."

Bursey followed his first round 63 with a 3-under 69. The Gander, Newfoundland-native had a quiet round that included three birdies and one bogey.

Radcliff began on the back nine and opened with three-straight birdies en route to a 31 on the front nine. He finished with eight birdies and four bogeys to shoot 67.

Four players are tied for sixth at 9-under – Canadian Noah Steele (64), Tommy Kuhl (66), Matt Liringis (68) and Kyle Karazissis (67).

Key Information

There are 36 Canadians competing in this week’s Osprey Valley Open presented by Votorantim Cimentos CBM Aggregates. Through 36 holes, 16 Canadians played well enough to make the cut and see the weekend at TPC Toronto at Osprey Valley, including four inside the Top 10. Here are the top performing Canadians through 36 holes:

Canadians at Osprey Valley Open 

Pos.

Name

Score

1

Myles Creighton

67-63 – (12-under)

T3

Brendan MacDougall

65-67 – (10-under)

T3

Blair Bursey

63-69 – (10-under)

T6

Noah Steele

69-64 – (9-under)

T13

Jared du Toit

69-66 – (7-under)

T13

Brendan Leonard

68-67 – (7-under)

T13

Stuart Macdonald

68-67 – (7-under)

T24

Étienne Papineau

67-70 – (5-under)

T24

Jimmy Jones

69-68 – (5-under)

T24

Cougar Collins

70-67 – (5-under)

T24

Matthew Anderson

67-70 – (5-under)

T24

Drew Nesbitt

70-67 – (5-under)

Sam Jean shot 62 to improve 15 strokes over his first round 77 and make the cut on the number. Jean began on the back nine and shot 31 on both sides. He had seven birdies and eagled the par-5 11th hole.  The 15-stroke differential is the most this season, one better than the 14 that Ryann Ree had in Quebec, when he shot 79-65 in the first two rounds of play.

Eric Lilleboe’s Tour-leading consecutive cut streak came to an end at 12. Lilleboe, who began the streak at the Osprey Valley Open last year, shot 71-76 to finish at 5-over.

There are now just five players to make the cut in each of the first six events of the PGA TOUR Canada season after Lilleboe missed the cut and Devon Bling withdrew prior to the start of this week’s event due to illness – Sam Choi, Nicolo Galletti, Jason Hong, Jimmy Jones and Étienne Papineau

Fortinet Cup points leader Davis Lamb shot even-par 71 and made the cut at 3-under 139.

Stuart Macdonald, who won last week’s Commissionaires Ottawa Open, remained in contention with a second-round 67. He finished strong with a 31 on his back nine. Macdonald moved up 14 places and is tied for 13th at 7-under 135.

There were a season-high 75 players who made the cut at 3-under 139. The previous high was 72 at last week’s Commissionaires Ottawa Open.

Quotable

"Yesterday I scrambled. I hit it horribly. I probably shot the best I could have yesterday and then figured it out on the range a little bit. So I felt pretty good about being to score the ball today and just played really solid." -- Myles Creighton

"I hit it a lot better today and was able to see some putts go in. My speed wasn't great early on, so I had quite a few 4, 5 or 6-footers. Sometimes when you make a few of those you start to see some lines. That helped me, I think." -- Myles Creighton

"Playing here is always nice but playing well here is even more fun." -- Noah Steele after shooting 64.

"Building on each day. Take the good and learn from the bad is probably the best way to put it. As far as the process goes, that's basically all I'm trying to do forget about bad shots. Learn from it and get back to what you were doing before because what I've been doing is pretty good so far." -- Brendan MacDougall

“After yesterday’s round, I was pretty upset and frustrated. I didn’t give myself much of a chance, kind of counted myself out, and made a tee time at the other golf course (for Saturday). So thankful to get to 9-under. It was exciting.” – Sam Jean after shooting 62 to make the cut on the number.

"I feel really awesome right now, from the first tee yesterday to walking down the 18th fairway today. I soaked it all up, all 36 holes. I didn't really score well, but coming into this it was more about the experience and learning to grow as a player, as a person." -- Micah Morris, YouTube sensation making his PGA TOUR Canada debut.

Second-round weather: A mix of sun and cloud. High of 30. Wind southwest 10-15 km/h, gusting to 20 km/h.