Canadian Open: England’s Tyrell Hatton & Aaron Rai in contention after round two

Tyrell Hatton, having one victory in the PGA Tour and six in the European Tour, is now in the running at the Canadian Open. Following the second round, the leaderboard is led by C Yuan from China at -9, closely followed by A Rai, T Hatton, C Conners, and CT Pan all tied at -8. Others on the leaderboard include J Rose and R McIlroy at -6, H Hall and T Fleetwood at -4, C Tarren and M Fitzpatrick at -3, R Knox at level par, and M Laird at +2.

Hatton displayed a strong performance with an eight-under-par 64 in the second round at Oakdale Golf and Country Club. After a level par in the first round, Hatton’s nine birdies and a single bogey in the second round put him one shot behind the leader, sharing the second spot with three others.

Among those in second place is England’s Aaron Rai, who scored a three-under 69. The lead is currently held by China’s Carl Yuan at nine under in total, having shot a five-under 67 on Friday following his opening round of 68.

Canada’s Corey Conners and CT Pan from Chinese Taipei are tied for second place with Hatton and Rai. Hatton remarked on his round, stating, “A lot of putts went in, which was nice,” and noted the unpredictability of the greens.

Justin Rose, two shots behind Rai and Hatton, is at six under, joined by Northern Ireland’s Rory McIlroy, the current defending champion. McIlroy, the world’s third-ranked player and hopeful for his third tournament victory, made a good move with five birdies, leaving him three shots adrift of the leader at this stage of the competition.

McIlroy and Rose are maintaining silence on the topic of a merger.