Arizona State's Jared du Toit one back at RBC Canadian Open
22 Jul 2016
by AmateurGolf.com Staff
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Jared du Toit
(Arizona State Athletics Photo)
OAKVILLE, Ontario (July 22, 2016) -- Well the cinderella ride of Jared du Toit will continue for at least one more day. With 36-holes in the books at the RBC Canadian Open du Toit is tied for third at 6-under and just one-stroke off the lead held by Dustin Johnson and Luke List.
"I'm a little surprised," du Toit told reporters after his round. "I knew I could play well but on this stage with the best guys in the world it definitely feels pretty good."
On a difficult afternoon to play with winds blowing and firm fast conditions, du Toit began his round at Glen Abbey Golf Club, on the 10th hole and promptly birdied it to move to 6-under. A few holes later the British Columbia native dropped back to even-par for the day with a bogey on No. 14. The return to 5-under didn't last long, following pars on Nos. 15 and 16 du Toit birdied the 17th and 18th holes, back-to-back to reach 7-under and a share of the lead.
However, almost as quickly as du Toit moved into the lead he slipped up on the the 2nd hole. Following a par on No. 1 the Arizona State senior triple-bogeyed the ensuing hole.
After driving it nearly out of bounds off the tee on the 527 yard par-5, du Toit punched out and then laid up. Facing a 167 yard third shot du Toit put his approach shot into the green side bunker and was dealt the always difficult fried egg lie.
From there all that could be done was a blast out across the green and into the rough, from there it took three additional strokes for du Toit to get up and down for an eight.
"I have to thank my caddie because I was pretty down, pretty mad about how things panned out (on No. 8) but he kind of regrouped me," said du Toit. "He told me to keep going and get back to the game plan and it worked out."
Now at 4-under du Toit did drop one more shot on the 5th, before rolling in three consecutive birdies on Nos. 6-8 to return to 6-under. Du Toit has now shot rounds of 67-71.
"I didn't have a lot of expectations coming in, so to vault up the leaderboard, it kind of caught me a little bit off guard," du Toit said. "But everything from now is just cream on top. I have had a lot of fun so far in these few days and I am excited to go out there tomorrow and to keep having fun."
A second amateur has made the cut, two-time Canadian Mid-Amateur champion Garrett Rank. A NHL referee when he isn't golfing, Rank is even-par after rounds of 69-75. Rank is scheduled to play in next weeks Porters Cup at Niagara Falls Country Club.
Former top-ranked amateur Jon Rahm, a teammate of du Toit at Arizona State, is presently part of the three-way tie for third at 6-under. Speaking about his former teammate after his round du Toit said, "I'm playing out of my mind and I still can't beat him. That is school and last semester just in a nut shell right there"
Du Toit will begin his third round in third from last group at 1:15 p.m. local time. He will be playing alongside Ricky Barnes.
Rank will be playing with Henrik Norlander at 9:55 a.m.