Ben James leads with Burns right behind: RBC Canadian Open Round 2 notes:

The wind arrived Friday. Gusts to 30mph, a cold front, the field averaging nearly four big misses off the tee per round. Twelve players shot 68 or better anyway. The leaderboard is telling us who can handle this course when it stops cooperating.

Ben James leads at -10. He's 23 years old, making his professional debut after finishing No. 1 in PGA TOUR University, and shot a bogey-free 63. There's no season baseline in our model, since he doesn't have one yet, so there's no analytical framework to apply. What we can say is that his TourCast dispersion was among the tightest in the morning wave, he eagled Hole 1 both days, and he said afterward he wasn't thinking about results at all. Take that at face value or not. He's in the last group Saturday.

Sam Burns is one shot back at -9 and his profile at this course is becoming harder to dismiss. His approach has been above his season baseline in both rounds. His putting cooled in the wind on Friday — delta down about a stroke from R1 — and he still shot 67. His last three competitive rounds at TPC Toronto: 62, 64, 67. The floor here is real.

Tommy Fleetwood is tied for seventh at -8 and has the most analytically clean two-round profile of anyone near the lead. His approach has been above baseline both days. His driving dispersion is the tightest of any contender in the TourCast data, and well below the field average both rounds. He hasn't been flashy but the data keeps pointing at him.

Brooks Koepka is also at -8. His approach slipped in R2 and his driving widened noticeably from R1 to R2. He acknowledged it: "ball striking probably hasn't been what I would say it's been all year." He's making birdies with his putter, which works until it doesn't — and it hasn’t most of this year.

Eric Cole missed the cut. His approach collapsed in R2 (nearly three strokes below baseline) when the wind came and the putter cooled. The course did exactly what the preview said it would to a putter-first profile without the approach to sustain it.

Weather: Saturday is expected to be dry, partly cloudy, gusting to 26mph. Sunday likely brings rain and falling temperatures. If someone is going to make a move, Saturday’s the better day.