PORTLAND, Ore. – Stacy Lewis took a three-stroke lead Saturday in the Cambia Portland Classic in her bid make a big donation to hurricane relief in her hometown and end a long winless streak.

From The Woodlands in the Houston area, Lewis has pledged to give her earnings – first place is worth $195,000 – to the relief efforts. The 11-time LPGA Tour champion also is trying to win for the first time since June 2014.

“You try not to think about the finish line and what could happen tomorrow, but it would definitely be up there with a major,” said Lewis, a two-time major champion. “It would be probably one of my most special wins, just to be able to do this for the people in Texas and do it, too, when everybody is watching. I kind of put all the eyeballs on me and put some pressure on myself, so it’s nice to kind of see myself performing, too.”

Her husband, Gerrod Chadwell, is the University of Houston women’s golf coach.

Tied for the second-round lead with two-time defending champion Brooke Henderson and In Gee Chun, Lewis had eight birdies – five on the front nine – in a 7-under 65 at tree-lined Columbia Edgewater. She had a 17-under 199 total after opening with rounds of 70 and 64.

Moriya Jutanugarn was second after a 66. Chun was another stroke back after a 69.

Henderson of Smiths Falls, Ont., had a 74 to drop into a tie for 13th at 8 under. Hamilton’s Alena Sharp fired a 69 and is 7 under while Maude-Aimee Leblanc (75) of Sherbrooke, Que., is 2 over.

Ai Miyazato also was 8 under after a 72 in her final start in the United States. The Japanese star plans to retire after The Evian Championship in two weeks in France.

Lewis is trying to break through in Portland after finishing second twice – two strokes behind Suzann Pettersen in 2013 and four shots behind Henderson last year.

“I know it’s been a while since I won. Everybody talks about it. I really feel like the last few months I’ve been playing some good golf. I’ve just needed a couple good breaks here and there,” Lewis said.

Lewis calls Columbia-Edgewater “one of my favourite courses we actually play all year,” and her recent results back it up.

“You have to hit shots. You have to hit a little fade or a little draw. You can’t just get up there and bomb it,” Lewis said. “My caddie (Travis Wilson) has been here way more times than anybody probably in this field, and so I think we have an advantage as far as knowing the golf course.”

Jutanugarn briefly flirted with the lead after making six birdies on the first 10 holes. She’s trying to win her first LPGA Tour title after watching younger sister Ariya win six times in the last two years.

“I have been hitting solid and put myself in a lot of really good chances for birdie. Make some, miss some, but it’s still pretty solid round,” Jutanugarn said. “Back nine just a little rush, a little rough sometimes. Still, I think it hit it pretty good.”

Henderson, playing alongside Lewis, failed to break par for the first time in 11 career competitive rounds at Columbia-Edgewater, dashing the 19-year-old Canadian’s bid to become the youngest three-time winner of a tournament in LPGA Tour history.

Lewis rebounded from a bogey at the par-3 16th with a 5-foot birdie putt at the difficult par-4 17th. She’s within reach of the tournament 72-hole record of 21-under 267, set by Henderson in 2015.

Chun is playing the event for the first time. The South Korean player tied for third last week in the Canadian Pacific Women’s Open and has four runner-up finishes this season. Both of her LPGA Tour victories have come in majors – the 2015 U.S. Women’s Open and the 2016 Evian Championship.

CALGARY – Scott McCarron has had his way with the par-5, 18th hole at Canyon Meadows Golf and Country Club.

McCarron eagled the final hole of the par-70, 7,086-yard course for the second straight day to move atop the Shaw Charity Classic leaderboard on Saturday.

“I’m kind of expected to make some eagles out there and that’s a hole that sets up pretty well for me,” said McCarron, who leads the PGA Tour Champions circuit with 16 eagles so far this season. “Coming up 18, it’s just a lot of fun for us to have that grandstand with all the fans up there. I’ve been lucky enough to make two long putts. Hopefully I can do it again (on Sunday).”

McCarron also had five birdies to go with one bogey for a round of 6-under 64. Through two days of action at the three-day event, McCarron’s at 13-under par and has a two-stroke lead over first-round leader Kevin Sutherland and Miguel Angel Jimenez.

“There’s some really good players and I’m going to have to put the pedal down and make a bunch of birdies,” said McCarron when asked what it will take to win his fourth event this season.

Jimenez shot 65 to move into a tie for second at 11 under with Sutherland, who followed up the 62 he shot in the first round with a 67.

“I played very, very solid giving myself a chance for birdies,” said Jimenez, who needed just 28 putts on Saturday. “From the tee I didn’t play as good as (Friday), but the rest of the game was pretty good. If you are not in the fairways, it’s very difficult to hit the greens, but any time I hit the fairway, I gave myself a chance for birdie.”

Scott Dunlop and Todd Hamilton both had rounds of 66 on Saturday and are tied for fourth place overall at 10 under, just one shot ahead of Nick Faldo, Bob Estes and Jerry Kelly.

Faldo shot 64 to tie McCarron for the Saturday’s low round to move into contention, despite playing in only his fifth tournament of the year.

“I haven’t shot 64 in whatever ? a long time,” said the 60-year-old World Golf Hall of Fame member. “It was nice to feel that I could go for it. That was the goal for coming here and playing. I’ve been working on enough things that it’s just putting it to the test, so that was really great.”

McCarron counted Faldo among the group of golfers that he’ll have to fend off on Sunday.

“Then you’ve got Nick Faldo,” McCarron said. “I mean, what’s he doing? He’s supposed to be announcing somewhere, isn’t he?

“Here you’ve got a guy, one of the best players in the world during his time, hasn’t played hardly at all for years and comes out here and joins us. It’s a big boost for us to have Nick Faldo to come out and to come out and play well, I think that’s really impressive.”

Vancouver’s Stephen Ames is the top Canadian after carding a round of 66 to move him up the leaderboard and into a tie for 18th spot at 5 under with a group of six others, including 2014 Shaw Charity Classic champion Fred Couples.

“I played well, better than (Friday),” said Ames, who noted that he struggled with his ball striking during the first round. “I didn’t make as many putts as (Friday). That kind of goes with the game. It’s going very well.”

Rod Spittle of Niagara Falls, Ont., is just one shot back of Ames at 4 under after a 69. Although Victoria’s Jim Rutledge also carded a 1-under round of 69 on Saturday, he’s well back of the front runners heading into Sunday’s final round in a tie for 69th spot at 1 over.

INDEX: SPORTS

NORTON, Mass. – Jon Rahm accomplished so much so quickly that he began to wonder what else was left for him to achieve in his first full year on the PGA Tour.

He now has 10 million reasons to play his best golf.

Already very much in the hunt for the FedEx Cup and its $10 million bonus, Rahm took another step Saturday when he made an eagle and five birdies over his last 10 holes for a 5-under 66 and a two-shot lead at the halfway point of the Dell Technologies Championship.

Rahm already has a short history of strong finishes in his first trip to the TPC Boston.

One day after he birdied four of his last five holes, he made a 12-foot eagle putt on the par-5 18th and then shot 31 on the front nine to reach 9-under 133.

No one could catch him in the afternoon, least of all Dustin Johnson.

Johnson, the world’s No. 1 player who had a one-shot lead going into the second round, had a pair of double bogeys after a quick start and needed a birdie on the 18th hole to keep from falling further behind. Johnson shot a 72 and was five shots behind.

It’s already been an amazing year for Rahm. The 22-year-old Spaniard was No. 137 at the start of the year. Now he’s at No. 5. His two main goals were to get to East Lake for the Tour Championship and win a tournament.

Check. Check.

But after a runner-up at Colonial, he has missed the cut twice and finished out of the top 25 in three other PGA Tour starts.

“It’s probably because I got to the point where I had accomplished so much more than I had set myself to in the beginning of the year that I felt like there was nothing else to do,” he said. “It made me complacent of what I had accomplished all year. I didn’t play with the same intensity. I really didn’t have a goal.

“It’s taken me two months to realize what I’ve done, and hopefully I can keep surprising myself.”

Paul Casey, who played in the final group last year until Rory McIlroy ran him down, had a 65 and was two shots off the lead along with Canadian Adam Hadwin (65), Kevin Streelman (65) and Kyle Stanley (68).

Hadwin of Abbotsford, B.C., fired a 65 and had one eagle, five birdies and a bogey. Mackenzie Hughes of Dundas, Ont., is at 4 under following a 68 while Graham DeLaet of Weyburn, Sask., shot a 69 and is 1 under. Nick Taylor (72), also of Abbotsford, is 2 over.

Streelman is at No. 90 in the FedEx Cup, and only the top 70 after the Labor Day finish advance to the third playoff event in two weeks outside Chicago.

Rahm was only part of a cool, calm day that left a large crowd entertained, and at times surprised.

Lucas Glover (No. 16) and Grayson Murray (No. 8) each made a hole-in-one that the PGA Tour estimated were 65 seconds apart. Phil Mickelson dropped only one shot on his way to a 67. He was just three shots off the lead at 6-under 136, his best 36-hole score since the FedEx St. Jude Classic in June. Jordan Spieth also turned around his fortunes. Despite missing a pair of birdies inside 7 feet, Spieth still shot a 65 and was in the group four shots behind.

Spieth attributed his slow start in the opening round Friday to waking up on the wrong side of the bed.

“For me, it was just a matter of just stop being cranky,” Spieth said. “I don’t know what to tell you. I was getting more mad at bad breaks than you should. It was a bad day at the office yesterday and a really good one today. I’m going to need two really good ones again. But to be within four shots after yesterday’s round is a tremendous accomplishment.”

McIlroy, meanwhile, was headed home after missing the cut as the defending champion for only the second time in his career. McIlroy also missed the cut as defending champion in the 2012 U.S. Open.

McIlroy will still advance to the BMW Championship, though he will need a top finish to get to East Lake for the Tour Championship.

That’s no longer a concern for Rahm. He is No. 5 in the FedEx Cup, already assured of going the distance. He won at Torrey Pines in January. He even won his first European Tour title at the Irish Open.

And he now has a very clear goal over the next few weeks.

“I think we all have the same goal in the next few weeks, which is the FedEx Cup,” he said with a smile.

He still has a long way ahead of him at the TPC Boston. Twenty players were within five shots of the lead with two rounds to go, and players were bracing for a Sunday of wet weather. The tee times were moved back and will be played in threesomes because of the forecast.

The cut was at 3-over 145, which spared the likes of Bubba Watson, who is at No. 72 in the standings. Watson missed a 3-foot par putt on the par-5 18th hole and figured he would miss the cut until Patrick Rodgers hit into the junk on the 18th hole, had to take a penalty drop and made bogey.

Adam Scott wasn’t so fortunate. He came up short of the 18th with a sand wedge and missed a 6-foot par putt, giving him a 75. He wound up missing the cut by one shot after flying in from Australia to try to extend his season.

PORTLAND, Ore. – Two-time defending champion Brooke Henderson of Canada shot a 5-under 67 on Friday for a share of first place after two rounds at the Cambia Portland Classic.

The 19-year-old from Smiths Falls, Ont., fired six birdies and an eagle to jump up the leaderboard from second to first place, where she was tied with first-round leader In Gee Chun of South Korea and American Stacy Lewis at 10 under.

Chun shot a 68 while Lewis had a 64. The trio have a two-shot lead over Jodi Ewart Shadoff, Moriya Jutanugarn and Ai Miyazato heading into the weekend.

Brooke Henderson’s 2nd consecutive 67 puts her at 10-under and tied for the lead going into the weekend @PortlandClassic.

Highlights>> pic.twitter.com/62e4ise88F

— LPGA (@LPGA) September 2, 2017

“It was a little bit up and down today,” said Henderson. “I made a lot of birdies and an eagle, which was awesome, although I made a couple bogeys that I’d like to take off the card for the next two days.

“But overall I feel like I have a solid game plan and any time I’m double digits over two days I’m really happy. So I hope I can continue that trend over the next two days.”

Henderson won the tournament in 2015 and 2016 and is trying to become the first golfer to win at Portland in three straight years.

Alena Sharp of Hamilton was 4 under after a 71 and Maude-Aimee Leblanc of Sherbrooke, Que., had a 73 to sit at 1 under after two rounds.

Henderson eagled on the par-4 11th hole. She also had three bogeys.

“It was pretty cool,” Henderson said of her shot on the 11th. “It was a really tough shot and to see it go in just made me really happy and it changed my day. I was able to go 4 under par after that point which was really important and help me get to 10 under.”

NORTON, Mass. – Now that he’s finally won again, Dustin Johnson is starting to look as dangerous as ever.

One week after Johnson ended a five-month dry spell brought on by a back injury, he easily handled the early cold and a steady win at TPC Boston for a 5-under 66 to take a one-shot lead in the opening round of the Dell Technologies Championship.

And the world’s No. 1 player made it look easy on a tough day for scoring.

He started with a 35-foot birdie putt on No. 10. He made the turn with a 6-iron from 220 yards that sailed high and rode the left-to-right wind into 4 feet for eagle. When another big tee shot settled into a divot on the reachable par-5 second hole, he laid up short of the water and still made birdie.

“Put together a pretty good score,” Johnson said.

Masters champion Sergio Garcia opened with five birdies on the front nine, and then saved his day with a par on his final hole. He hooked his tee shot into the trees, got a bounce into the rough, laid up and then hit wedge to 12 feet and made the putt for a 67.

Jon Rahm also had a 67 that he felt was the best he could have possibly done. It helped that the 22-year-old Spaniard birdied four of his last five holes in the afternoon as the temperature warmed slightly and the wind never went away.

Marc Leishman and Kyle Stanley also were one shot back among the early starters who had to face the surprising chill of morning, a cruel reminder that the end of a New England summer is not far away.

Adam Hadwin of Abbotsford, B.C., and Mackenzie Hughes of Dundas, Ont., both opened with 70s while Graham DeLaet of Weyburn, Sask., and Nick Taylor, also of Abbotsford, shot 72s.

Phil Mickelson, in his last tournament before the picks are made for the Presidents Cup, felt more energy after seeing a doctor and kept his focus on enough good shots for a 69.

“It was nice to have a solid round,” Mickelson said, who had not broken par in the opening round since The Greenbrier in early July. “I played well tee-to-green, and it made for a stress-free day on a very difficult day.”

Johnson played in the group featuring the top three in the FedEx Cup. PGA champion Justin Thomas made 16 pars in his round of 71. British Open champion Jordan Spieth, who lost to Johnson in a sudden-death playoff last week on Long Island, didn’t make a birdie until his 13th hole and shot 72.

“Each part of my game was a little off,” Spieth said.

Nothing looked wrong with Johnson, except for one bad swing and one aggressive putt.

His 25-foot birdie attempt on the 14th hole ran about 5 feet by the cup, and he missed that coming back to slow some early momentum. He bounced back with a wedge into 6 feet for birdie, made eagle on the 18th to reach the turn at 4 under and then had a simple iron off the tee at No. 1. But it sailed right into the woods in a hazard, and he punched out and missed an 8-foot par putt.

Otherwise, there was very little stress except for one young fan who kept referring to him as “Shank.”

“When you win, you’re playing well, so it gives you a lot of confidence,” Johnson said. “For me, that was one thing that was probably lacking a little bit the last few months is just the confidence, because I wasn’t seeing the shots that I wanted to see. I wasn’t consistently hitting them. But after last week, I’ve got a lot of confidence now. I feel like the things I’ve been working on, they are back to working.”

That was as close as a dissertation on golf as the No. 1 player will allow. Johnson doesn’t spend deep analysis over the way he plays. He sees the shot, pulls a club and usually hits it where he’s aiming. That’s what led him to three straight victories going into the Masters until he wrenched his back when he slipped on the stairs and had to withdraw from the first major of the year.

The victory last week was his fourth of the year, tied with Thomas for most on the PGA Tour this season.

As easy as it looked for Johnson, it was anything but that for Kelly Kraft. At No. 64 in the FedEx Cup, his season might be over after he took a 12 on the par-5 second hole. Kraft hit his third into the water and his fifth shot over the green. He tried to hit a shot from a native area, took another penalty drop to go back to the fairway and hit that one into the water. He eventually two-putted for a 12 and withdrew after 14 holes with a sore foot.

Ryan Moore, who missed time with a shoulder injury this summer, had four double bogeys in his round of 82. He also withdrew.

CALGARY – Kevin Sutherland made the most of an early start at the Canyon Meadows Golf and Country Club on Friday.

Sutherland was in the second group out on the back nine of the par-70, 7,086-yard course and had birdies on his second and fifth holes before adding six more on the front nine for an 8-under 62.

His round held up as the best of the day, leaving him atop the leaderboard after the opening round of the Shaw Charity Classic.

“It was nice to get out early in the day,” said Sutherland, who birdied five of his final seven holes. “The weather was nice and cool, which was something that we haven’t had a lot lately, so it was nice to get a nice cool day out here.”

On his final hole, Sutherland had a chance to make another birdie to tie the course record of 61, but he just missed the putt to the low side of the hole.

“I had no idea,” said Sutherland. “If I would have known, I might have tried to hit it a little higher.”

Sutherland has finished second three times this season on the PGA Tour Champions circuit and also has 12 top-10 showings in 16 starts.

“I’ve been playing well all year,” he said. “I feel like my game’s in a really good place right now. I’m hitting a lot of really good, quality iron shots, which is giving me a lot of good opportunities.”

Rod Spittle of Niagara Falls, Ont., wasn’t surprised to hear that Sutherland continued his fine form on Friday.

“I’ve played a bunch with Kevin the last month or so,” said Spittle, who finished as the low Canadian after shooting a 3-under 67. “He’s playing really, really well. He’s a terrific player.”

Spittle finished Friday’s round in a tie for 23rd spot with nine other golfers including 2014 Shaw Charity Classic winner Fred Couples.

“The course is in such terrific condition,” Spittle said. “The greens are so smooth. That’s the reason for the low scores.

“It’ll be, I’m sure, a birdie-fest for the fans to watch for the next couple days, without a doubt.”

Scott McCarron received a nice round of applause after he eagled the par-5, 18th hole to shoot 63 and finish alone in second spot after the first of three days of competition.

“You make the eagle and it’s a nice reaction – almost feels like you’re winning a tournament or something like that and it’s only Friday,” McCarron said. “The 18th is just fantastic – great theatre.”

Miguel Angel Jimenez also eagled the 18th hole to finish in a four-way tie for third spot with Todd Hamilton, Billy Andrade and Scott Dunlop at 6-under 64.

Vancouver’s Stephen Ames had a 69 to finish in a tie for 45th with nine other golfers, including defending champion Carlos Franco.

Victoria’s Jim Rutledge finished well back of the pack with a 72.

Shaw communications is donating $500 for every birdie made on the 18th hole throughout the tournament to support the shaw charity classic’s 156 youth-based charities across the province. Today, 27 birdies were made on the par-5, 18th hole, bringing shaw’s birdies for charity total to $13,500.

Varying the distance of your shots on the range will help you dial in exact numbers and distance control.

The beauty of wedge play is that it is an easy area for players to really separate themselves on the course. By strengthening this part of your game, you will make more birdies and save more pars after unfortunate mistakes off the tee. And it does not require crazy power since most shots are within 110 yards.

With that in mind, I recommend trying one of my favourite drills called Wrong, Wrong, Right where I place three markers out at, say, 40, 60 and 110 yards on the range then have our players — in this picture Team Canada’s Stuart Macdonald (left) and Hugo Bernard (right) — hit three balls to each cone. But instead of instructing them to try to hit all three shots exactly, for example, 60 yards, I have them try to fly the first ball 55 yards, the second ball 65 yards and then dial in the third ball to the correct distance, which would be 60 yards.

Practising this Wrong, Wrong, Right approach allows players to feel out a correct distance and understand the small adjustments needed in swing speed/swing length and distance control to hit that target. Harnessing this feel will naturally make you a much better wedge player.

THE SETUP
-Position the ball in the middle of your stance.
-Shift slightly more weight — maybe 55 per cent — onto your lead foot versus your trail leg.
-Lean your shaft slightly forward towards the target at address.

Follow @dingramgolf

This article was originally published in the Summer Issue edition of Golf Canada Magazine. Click here to view the full magazine

Alamo, California’s Cody Blick, Powhatan, Virginia’s Jay Woodson and New Philadelphia, Ohio’s Blake Sattler all shot rounds of 6-under 66 on Thursday at Bell Bay Golf Club to take the first round lead at the Cape Breton Open, the 10^th event of the 2017 Mackenzie Tour – PGA TOUR Canada season.

The trio all reached 6-under, just ahead of a group of five players at 5-under when play was suspended due to darkness at 7:47 p.m. One group was left to finish on the course with Round 1 set to resume at 8:15 a.m. Friday morning.

Blick, who recorded his best finish of 2016 with a T10 at last year’s Cape Breton Open, fed off friendly memories of Bell Bay to shoot 6-under and share the lead.

“It’s just the atmosphere in Baddeck here. The town’s so relaxing and welcoming, it’s great. I just love coming out here,” said Blick. “The course is gettable. You’ve got to hit it well, but then it’s gettable and I just feel at home when I come out here. Today, the putter just got hot, and it went from there.”

.@codyblick closed with a 64 at the 2016 @CapeBretonOpen.

He opened with a 66 today.

Safe to say he's a fan of @BELLBAYGOLFCLUB. pic.twitter.com/e6fJeTefIV

— Mackenzie Tour (@PGATOURCanada) August 31, 2017

Woodson, who came into the week having missed the cut in all but one of his nine starts this year, found a spark with four birdies and an eagle on day one.

“Obviously the year hasn’t gone the way I would have liked, but sometimes when you have a lot of events bunched up together and you don’t have a lot of time off, it happens. I know how these things go and I’ve been playing for a long time, and sometimes you hit some rough patches and you’ve got to keep playing. It only takes one good shot or one good round to get some momentum going, and that’s all you can do,” said Woodson.

Sattler, who’s coming off his best finish of the season with a T10 finish at the National Capital Open to Support Our Troops, defied the early rainy conditions with a bogey-free day that included a closing birdie at the par-5 18^th.

“I got off to a good start in the rain. It was kind of sprinkling when we started, then it got windy and was a pretty good solid rain for a little bit, but I birdied the first hole and the third hole, and when I made the turn the skies kind of lightened up. I just kept it in front of me,” said Sattler.

A nice way to finish the day for Blake Sattler.

He rolls in a birdie putt at the last to tie the lead at 6-under. #CapeBretonOpen pic.twitter.com/7uIR271AoJ

— Mackenzie Tour (@PGATOURCanada) August 31, 2017

Florida’s Lee McCoy, Germany’s Max Rottluff, Oregon’s Zach Foushee, California’s Kaz Hoffman and Ontario’s Michael Gligic were a shot off the lead at 5-under 67, while another 13 players were a stroke further behind at 4-under.

Click here to view the full leaderboard.