TORONTO – It’s not often you can credit a traffic jam for a nice round of golf, but in the case of Wil Bateman, that certainly played a small role in his success Friday at the RBC Canadian Open.

Golfers at Oakdale are shuttled from the driving range to the first tee and with mid-afternoon Toronto traffic holding up his van, Bateman decided he would switch out his putter for Friday. On Thursday he needed 32 putts en route to a 2-over 74 and was 149th in Strokes Gained: Putting. Friday he went from an Odyssey mallet-style putter to an Odyssey ‘San Diego’ blade from Toulon Design and only needed 23 putts – nine fewer than the day prior. He moved all the way up to third in Strokes Gained: Putting during the second round.

Thanks to his impressive effort on the greens, Bateman shot a second round 6-under 66 at Oakdale Golf and Country Club – setting the composite-routing course record at the Toronto club in the process. He made it up to 7 under through 11 holes (the formal course record at Oakdale is an 8-under 64) before making two late bogeys.

“I felt like I hit it great yesterday and just, I didn't make anything at all,” Bateman said. “Last night I was like, ‘You know what, I'm just going to put the blade in the bag and go warm-up with it this morning and see what happens.’

“I had about seven minutes until my tee time when I got on the putting green. I took the blade out, I'm like, ‘Okay, let's just see.’ I made like the first six putts from like 20 feet or so. And I was like, ‘Okay, this is in the bag today.’”

When asked why he had multiple putters with him to begin with, Bateman, with a laugh, said he “likes to dabble” with putters and has plenty to choose from. The new putter has more weight to it, while the other one had a soft insert.

This was the first round he’s ever used the new putter.

“I felt like I struck it pretty well yesterday, just couldn't get anything going. Then I made a couple putts there early and that kind of kept the momentum going,” Bateman said.

Bateman, from Edmonton, Alberta, won the Fortinet Cup and PGA TOUR Canada Player of the Year honors last season, earning an exemption into the RBC Canadian Open in the process. This marks his RBC Canadian Open debut and it’s his second start on the PGA TOUR after the 2016 Puerto Rico Open.

Bateman’s 6-under effort moved him up nearly 100 spots on the leaderboard after the Friday morning wave in Toronto. He sits five shots back of the lead held by Carl Yuan, who shot rounds of 68-67 and is at 9 under through 36 holes.

Bateman started on the back nine and made five birdies. He added two more in a row after making the turn for four-in-a-row. He then added a final circle to the scorecard on the par-5 7th.

“I was just trying to keep hitting the shots and just let the outcome take care of itself,” Bateman said. “When they bring out the cameras and the little fuzzy little mic you know you're doing something right. But I just tried to just stay in the moment and […] just really excited for the weekend.”

And along for the ride this weekend? His new putter.

“It's staying in the bag,” Bateman said with a smile, “for sure.”