ANCASTER, Ont. -- Course records aren’t what they used to be, The Silver Scot, Tommy Armour, shot 64 in the 1930 Canadian Open at Hamilton Golf and Country Club and the mark stood until this past Thursday. Now, they’re going past Armour in bunches.

Sacramento, Calif., native Kevin Sutherland became the fourth man in the field at the Canadian Open to shoot a professional course-record of 7-under-par 63, navigating through the raindrops with a pair of eagles Saturday, jumping from the cut line of even-par 140 to the edges of a congested leaderboard.

Justin Rose, who shot 63 in Thursday’s opening round, started the damp day with three birdies to open some space at the top of the leaderboard, which at one point showed eight golfers tied for the lead and another seven within one stroke. Included among the contenders are Jim Furyk, who shot the tournament’s first 63, and Brett Quigley, who added a 63 Friday. Bart Bryant, Camilo Villegas, Sean O’Hair and Trevor Immelman also were crowding the leader board as the field, delayed in the morning by rain a couple of hours, turned for home.

“It’s just the weather. I wouldn’t be surprised if someone shot 8- or 9-under behind me,’’ said Sutherland, who is looking to improve on his 118th-place standing on the PGA TOUR money list. “The greens are soft and they’re really good, which lends itself to shooting good scores.

Kevin Sutherland eagled twice on Saturday. (Badz/PGA TOUR/WireImage)

“I was one of the first guys out and the greens were really good. The greens are going to be a little more bumpy later in the day. Poa annua, when it gets soft, gets a little bumpy. Some guys deal with it a little better than others. Some guys get a little upset. You just kind of have to roll with it,’’ he said.

“The rough is thick, but if you’re driving the ball straight, you’re going to have a lot of birdie putts. Obviously the fairways are bigger because it’s so soft and the ball’s not rolling into the rough. It’s probably playing about as easy as it’s going to play.’’

The overall course record at the 6,983-yard Hamilton layout, a Harry Colt design that opened in 1916, was set in the 1991 Ontario Amateur Championship by Warren Sye, who was playing out of Toronto’s West Golf and Country Club. The course, in those days of old club and ball technology, was about 200 yards shorter.

Sutherland, whose best finish this year is a tie for 11th at the Reno-Tahoe Open, said he felt fortunate even to make the cut, needing a 3-under-par back nine Friday including a 20-foot birdie putt at the final hole to advance to the weekend.

“All this is kind of gravy,’’ he said. “I felt if I could shoot a really good round I could get back into it with everybody packed together. I think 7 under was leading (through 36 holes) and the cut was even par and it seemed like a lot of the guys were more toward the even par. If you could shoot a good score you could really jump up the leader board.’’

Sutherland made a pair of eagles, hitting a hybrid club to 3½ feet at the par-five fourth, then draining a 40-foot bunker shot at the par-five 17th. He made a handful of good par saves, plus four birdie putts, from between five and eight feet, giving full credit to his putter for the record-tying round. His only mistake came at the par-three 13th, when he got caught between clubs, hit his tee shot into a bunker and couldn’t get up and down.

Morning showers scrapped original tee-off plans. The field, which teed off a couple of hours late, was re-paired into threesomes in order to regain the scheduled finishing time.