CALEDON, Ont. – Matthew Anderson went to bed co-leading the RBC Canadian Open after his sparkling opening round and was fired up, he said for Friday. As the final golfer in the final group of the day on Thursday, it was awfully quiet as he made his late surge up the leaderboard. But the second round saw the Canadian play through the midday rush, hear plenty of cheers, and even roast a 407-yard drive on his final hole of the day.
The 26-year-old remained firmly in the mix as the low Canadian for most of the afternoon at TPC Toronto Friday and was just three shots back of the lead for most of the day as well.
“I knew I had the game to contend in this tournament. I play this course a ton. I practice here a lot. I played, I don’t know how many rounds I played on the North Course, but I’ve hit those tee shots and approaches a lot, the greens I know pretty well,” said Anderson, who is from Mississauga. “I’m comfortable out here, and I knew my game coming in was trending, and I could kind of play well at any point.
“Obviously, it’s nice to be in this position but not a surprise by any sort.”
Anderson, who teed off at 9:12 a.m. Friday, couldn’t have asked for a better start to his second round, as he rolled in a 37-foot eagle on the very first hole to move him into the solo lead. With a laugh, Anderson admitted to Sportsnet.ca that that was the only putt of any distance he made through the balance of the day, but on an extremely windy second day, he was happy with his 1-under 69.
“Definitely had some juices flowing. It was good. I played a pretty solid round of golf,” Anderson said. “I thought I played pretty similarly (to Thursday), just didn’t really get too much to fall. I was good inside short range, just didn’t really get too much to go in today, but hopefully they go in this weekend.”
Anderson made his debut at the Canadian Open in 2019, where he missed the cut at Hamilton Golf and Country Club as a 20-year-old. He missed the cut as well in 2024 but found the weekend last year and ended up tied for 47th after rounds of 70-65 to open his week. He had a solid campaign on the Korn Ferry Tour last year, the highlight being back-to-back weeks early in the year when he finished T7-T3 to essentially lock up status on the feeder circuit for 2026. But as the calendar turned, he’s struggled to find a run of good results.
Anderson has no top-10 finishes so far this year (he did finish solo 11th at the Astara Golf Championship in February, however) and came into the week of the Canadian Open having missed five cuts in a row. Despite there being a Korn Ferry Tour event this week as well – and Anderson likely in need of earning some valuable points at a key time of the year – he was always going to be teeing it up in Canada instead. His game, he said, had been feeling good, he was just hoping to see a few things click.
And a good result here could be a tidy springboard for the rest of the year on the Korn Ferry Tour.
“Sometimes you’re not going to get out of it what you’re putting in – and you just have to be OK with that,” Anderson’s coach, Alf Callowhill, told Sportsnet.ca. “He’s done a great job of not stressing over it and just continuing to be patient and build in the right things, that way you’re not digging a deeper hole. Now it’ll come. You just have to believe it’ll come.”
A top-10 finish this week also automatically earns a golfer who is not otherwise exempt into the field of the next full-field PGA Tour event (in this case it would be the John Deere Classic at the end of the month) and if Anderson continues his fine play he could also earn a spot in The Open Championship.
Anderson will head into the weekend in the mix but trailing with star-in-waiting Ben James at 10-under after a sizzling 63. James was tops on the PGA TOUR University list this year and with that, he earned a PGA Tour card right away.
Now, after seven wins in college, he leads the way in his professional debut.
“I wasn’t really thinking about really results at all this week. Just worried about getting comfortable, making new friends and having fun, and just seeing where everything kind of falls,” James said. “Being so young, I’m just excited. I have no expectations. I’m going to play the best I can like I did the last two days.”
Through the afternoon at TPC Toronto James was ahead of a foursome of golfers by one, who sat at 9 under. Amongst that group is Sam Burns, who lost in a playoff to Ryan Fox last year, while Fox himself is just one more shot back at 8 under alongside Brooks Koepka. Fox is looking to become the first golfer to win the tournament in back-to-back years since Jhonattan Vegas in 2016-17 (Rory McIlroy won it in both 2019 and 2022, but of course, there were two years’ worth of cancellations due to COVID-19).
And then, nipping at their heels, is Anderson. Ready for one big weekend that could define his legacy.
“I was here last year doing this, it was obviously a really cool experience,” Anderson said. “I’m looking forward to doing it again.”