The pair of Billy Walsh and Danny King opened a sizeable gap between themselves and the rest of the field at the Nike Golf PGA Team Championship of Canada yesterday at Mid Ocean Club.

Walsh and King, who are ranked No 1 and No 4 in the PGA of Canada player rankings presented by RBC, sit at 12-under par after two rounds after a second round score of two-under par 69 in the foursomes format.

The team of Ed Maunder and Ian Doig matched the low round of the day and sit alone in second place at seven-under for the championship. They will be paired with the lead team of Walsh and King in today’s final group.

The inaugural Nike Golf PGA Team Championship of Canada features different team formats for each day — fourball, foursomes and scramble — with the eventual winners taking home $12,000 of the $90,000 total prize purse.

Players faced stiff ocean breezes as well as periods of heavy rains yesterday, completely different to Tuesday’s first-round conditions which made for good scoring. However, many players said they enjoyed playing championship golf in challenging conditions.

“This golf course is just so much fun to play,” said King, who won this year’s PGA Championship of Canada. “With the team formats we’re playing this week, Mid Ocean is really the perfect venue for this national championship because there’s so many holes where you’re presented with varying options to make birdie.”

Thomas Keddy and Conrad Riley, who were tied for the lead after the first round on Tuesday, are third at six-under, with Max Gilbert and Jean-Pierre Morin at five-under in fourth place. The teams of Luc Boisvert and Louis-Pierre Godin and, Keir Smith and Gordon Burns round out the top five.

Today’s final round features a scramble format, which is expected to produce plenty of movement on the leaderboard.