OLYMPIA FIELDS, Ill. – Canadian Austin James won his third consecutive match on Thursday to advance to the U.S. Amateur quarter-finals at the Olympia Fields Country Club.

The Bath, Ont., native started out the day squaring off against American Denny McCarthy in the morning’s round of 32. James came out of the gate hot, winning five of the first six holes to put the pressure on McCarthy, who currently holds the No. 10 rank on the World Amateur Golf Rankings (WAGR).

The Charleston Southern junior lost some momentum with a string of four consecutive bogeys, before bouncing back to close out McCarthy with a 3 and 2 victory.

James kept his foot on the gas in the afternoon’s round of 16 match against No. 3 seed Jake Knapp of Costa Mesa, Calif. They traded shots back-and-forth all match, with James holding a slight one-hole advantage at the turn.

The match was squared after a Knapp birdie on the par-4 11^th before James took advantage of two bogeys to earn the 2-up victory.

James is gearing up to face No. 22 seed Sean Crocker of Westlake Village, Calif., who is coming off a 20-hole victory. The match will begin at 1:30 p.m. CDT.

The championship will run three more rounds of match-play, concluding with a 36-hole final on Sunday.

Olympia Fields Country Club, a two-time U.S. Open venue, will host its first U.S. Amateur with stroke-play being conducted on the 7,037-yard South Course and match-play on the 7,234-yard North Course.

In 2014, Canadian Corey Conners of Listowel, Ont., fell in the final 36-hole match to South Korea’s Gunn Yang, 2 and 1. Both finalists are usually invited to compete in the Masters tournament the following April, alongside exemptions into next year’s U.S. and British Opens.

Click here for full scoring.

Click here for round of 16 highlights.

GREENSBORO, N.C. – Tiger Woods kept saying his game was getting better, even though his results didn’t show it.

On his first day at the Wyndham Championship, his score finally did.

Woods had his best round in more than two years Thursday, shooting a 6-under 64.

Two-time heart transplant recipient Erik Compton, William McGirt and Tom Hoge shared the first-round lead at 62.

Morgan Hoffman, Jim Herman and Derek Ernst followed at 63, and Martin Kaymer, Davis Love III and Carl Pettersson joined Woods at 64.

It was Woods’ lowest score on the PGA Tour since a 61 in the second round of the WGC-Bridgestone Invitational in 2013.

He and the others took advantage of a low-scoring day at what he called a “tricky” Donald Ross-designed course at Sedgefield Country Club that gave up bunches of birdies after morning showers softened the fairways and greens.

“When it’s like this,” Woods said, “you’ve got to throw darts and go low.”

And while Compton and McGirt threatened the tournament record, the clear story of the day was Woods.

That low score couldn’t have come at a better time for the biggest name in the sport.

He set the tone by holing a 54-foot chip shot on his first hole, the par-4 10th, for the first of his seven birdies.

“Finally,” he said, “I got something out of my round.”

Woods arrived insisting he was playing better than his recent results might indicate.

He had missed the cut in three straight majors and had not finished better than a tie for 17th at the Masters. He’s at No. 187 on the FedEx Cup points list and probably needs a win to move into the top 125 and earn a playoff spot.

Yet he said after last week’s early exit from the PGA Championship that those results belied the improvement he was making in his game.

“I know it’s crazy to say, but I wasn’t playing that poorly at PGA,” Woods said. “Any borderline shot (at Whistling Straits) I never got away with it, and that’s the way it goes. I felt like I was hitting the ball good enough and just kept progressing, and today was just a continuation of it.”

Especially on that first hole.

His shot from the left side of the green landed about 8 feet from the cup and rolled in.

“I went for the shot, and instead of playing something more conservative, the greens were hard and fast, and I wanted to play something long,” Woods said. “I got aggressive with it, and I went for it, and I pulled it off. … I could see it going in.”

Hoge, playing in the day’s final grouping, made a late charge up the leaderboard, closing his round with a 5-foot birdie putt on the 18th.

Compton, who started on the back nine, finished with a 29 on the front nine with seven birdies in that span.

“Any time you can break 30 in nine holes, you’re obviously doing something really cool,” Compton said.

It’s the latest positive for a 35-year-old who earned his tour card in 2012 – four years after his second heart transplant.

He’s chasing his first victory, and so is McGirt, who finished in a tie for eighth here last year. At No. 86 on the points list, McGirt is in virtually no danger of missing the playoffs.

Compton – who’s closer to the cutoff at No. 114 – is just trying not to lose any ground.

Meanwhile, for the others closer to the postseason bubble, things are a little more stressful.

Ernst, who’s at No. 178 and is playing in the final tournament of the 2-year exemption he earned for his lone victory – at the Wells Fargo Championship in 2013 – shot the best round of his four-year career.

But perhaps nobody’s dealing with more than Billy Hurley III.

Hurley’s first round came two days after he attended the funeral of his father, who died last week of a self-inflicted gunshot wound.

The 33-year-old Hurley is at No. 131 on the points list and is only here this week because he’s trying to secure his PGA Tour card for next year.

“It wasn’t really a hard decision” to play, Hurley said, “but it’s certainly hard to do.”

He said he nearly felt overwhelmed on the putting green, “almost didn’t know what I was doing in some ways” during his first handful of holes, then “scrambled my way around” the back nine.

By the end of his 69, Hurley said he “felt like almost a golfer again.”

Ottawa, Ont. – Ohio’s Ross Beal, Michigan’s Matt Harmon, and North Carolina’s Zack Byrd shared the clubhouse lead at 6-under when play was suspended due to inclement weather at 6:51 p.m. on Thursday, with co-leader and Mackenzie Tour rookie Mookie DeMoss still to finish the 18^th hole.

Byrd, the only of the three clubhouse leaders to have played in the rain, was teeing off on his final hole when heavy rain began.

“We stood on the ninth tee and saw it coming and all just quick-hit it off the tee box,” Byrd said. “My bag was just behind the eighth green with my rain gear, my umbrella, and everything so I hit and took off running and it started dumping after that.”

After struggling with the ninth hole in both of his practice rounds, Byrd went on to birdie it in the rain with a 25-foot putt to tie the leaders with a round of 65. He attributes the last-second birdie to a caddy’s familiar eye.

“Luckily, I’ve got a caddie who really knows the golf course,” Byrd said. “It was so dark that it was almost impossible to read putts and he said ‘trust me’ and he was spot on with the read.”

Harmon is making his first start on the Mackenzie Tour since finishing second on the 2014 Order of Merit and starting the season on the Web.com Tour. Harmon carded four birdies and an eagle for a bogey-free round. Despite the strong first round, the 30-year-old felt he didn’t play his best golf on Thursday

“I was pretty fourtunate to be bogey-free,” Harmon said of his return, adding that he was forced to make a bunker shot for par on the par-3 14^th hole.

As with Byrd, Harmon credited the familiarity with the course, having played at Hylands Golf Club and finished T25 last season, as the biggest factor towards a successful round.

“Just playing on courses I know is the biggest thing. I’ve spent three half-seasons up on the Web.com Tour and really haven’t played the same course more than one time. Getting out here, it’s familiar and that helps a lot,” said Harmon, last year’s Cape Breton Celtic Classic presented by PC Financial Champion.

Beal, fresh off victory in Tuesday’s official pro-am with an 8-under 63, was confident he could control the course despite the wind.

“It got pretty blustery but luckily I’m long enough that the down wind holes played short, and into the wind I hit almost every fairway so I was able to control it into the greens,” Beal said following his round of 65.

The Youngstown State University grad wasn’t convinced the Pro-Am success helped give him an extra boost though, noting that previous success in Tuesday outings hasn’t always translated to official tournament rounds.

“Including this one, I’ve won the past four Pro-Ams I’ve played in and I’ve made one cut out of those four,” Beal said, shaking his head.

For the rest of the field, Hylands Golf Club presented some challenges to open this year’s National Capital Open to Support Our Troops, with rain threatening and gusty winds throughout the day.

“It was very tough, very windy. You can’t miss fairways or greens out here, the wind definitely made it harder,” said Order of Merit leader J.J. Spaun of the conditions. “If you’re expecting it to play like how it did yesterday, you’re in for a rude awakening.”

Still, Spaun was pleased with how he managed it.

“You’ve just got to kind of accept it and fight through it,” Spaun said following a round of 67. “I’m very happy with where I’m sitting right now. Anything under par I feel like is really good out there.”

After leaving a 15-foot eagle putt on his final hole of the day short for the solo lead, Beal hopes the weather will calm down so that he can attack the course over the weekend.

“If it’s less windy I don’t see any reason why I can’t just fire at everything even more tomorrow.”

First, DeMoss – among 18 players yet to finish – will have to resume his opening round from the 18^th fairway.

The first round will resume at 7:30 a.m., pushing tee times for the second round back 15 minutes.

It’s official. Rory McIlroy and One Direction star Niall Horan have hit bromance status.

The two Irishmen played together on Thursday at The National Golf Club of Canada, one of Canada’s premier golf courses.

Great round of golf with @NiallOfficial today at The National Golf Club in Toronto. Thanks for having us guys, course is in great shape!

— Rory Mcilroy (@McIlroyRory) August 20, 2015

Horan caddied for McIlroy at this year’s Masters Par 3 contest and played with the world No. 2 golfer at this year’s BMW PGA Championship Pro-Am.

McIlroy finished in 17^th at last week’s PGA Championship after being sidelined due to injury since July 6. McIlroy, who was supplanted this week as the World No. 1 by Jordan Spieth, has captured two wins this season and is currently ranked ninth in the FedEx Cup standings heading into next week’s first FedEx Cup playoff event.

One Direction is in Toronto for their “On the Road Again Tour 2015” at the Rogers Centre on Thursday night.

AALBORG, Denmark – David Horsey shot an 8-under 63 to secure a one-shot lead after the first round of the Made in Denmark tournament on Thursday.

Starting on the 10th hole, the Englishman shot an eagle on the par-5 11th and five consecutive birdies on Nos. 13-17 to finish the back nine in 28. His one stumble was a bogey on the fifth.

Welshman Oliver Farr was one shot behind and Paul Laurie of Scotland third with a 6-under 65.

Denmark’s Soeren Kjeldsen, who celebrated reaching 500 European Tour appearances, led a field of seven players at 66.

17-year-old Smiths Falls, Ont., native Brooke Henderson dreamed of winning on the LPGA Tour for as long as she can remember. Last week at the Cambia Portland Classic, that dream became a reality, along with earning a coveted LPGA Tour card following her petition to overrule the under-18 membership stipulation.

With the win, all eyes were on Henderson—and rightfully so. The Young Pro Squad member was already a story to follow this season, and the win in Portland has her well on the way to becoming a Canadian household name.

On Tuesday morning, Henderson caught up with CTV’s morning television show, Canada AM, to talk about realizing her dreams in one special weekend. Watch the clip here.

A day earlier on Canada AM, Golf Canada’s Chief Sport Officer, Jeff Thompson, shared some insight into Brooke’s journey with Team Canada and her dedication to becoming one of the world’s elite golfers. Click here to watch the interview.

ST. ANDREWS, SCOTLAND and FAR HILLS, N.J. – Ireland’s Leona Maguire has won the Mark H. McCormack Medal as the leading women’s player in the 2015 World Amateur Golf RankingTM.

Maguire has enjoyed an outstanding season, which she came close to rounding off with a victory in a professional event on the Ladies European Tour when she finished one shot behind the winner, Beth Allen, at last month’s ISPS Handa Ladies European Masters at the Buckinghamshire Golf Club.

The 20-year-old, who attends Duke University in Durham, N.C., has won three events this season: the Darius Rucker Intercollegiate, the ACC Championship and the NCAA South Bend Regional. In May, she received the 2015 ANNIKA Award as the best golfer in American women’s college golf.

Maguire was the leading qualifier after the stroke play stage of the Ladies British Open Amateur Championship at Portstewart Golf Club in Northern Ireland, where she reached the last 16. In June, she was part of the Great Britain and Ireland team which lost to their continental European counterparts in the Vagliano Trophy at Malone Golf Club and was undefeated, securing 3 ½ points out of 4.

The R&A and United States Golf Association (USGA) award recognizes Maguire’s outstanding performances this year and is named after Mark H. McCormack, who founded sports marketing company IMG and was a great supporter of amateur golf.

“It’s a huge honor to win the Mark H. McCormack Medal,” said Maguire. “To be able to call myself the best female amateur in the world is a nice feeling. In the last few years a lot of big names have won it and they have gone on to do great things in the game. It caps a fantastic year for me and it is rewarding after all the hard work I have put in and my family as well.”

Johnnie Cole-Hamilton, Executive Director – Championships at The R&A, said, “I would like to congratulate Leona on her performances in what has been a tremendous season. To secure three victories in such a competitive environment as collegiate golf is a great achievement but to go on and come so close to winning a professional event is remarkable. Leona is a hugely talented golfer and an extremely worthy winner of the McCormack Medal.”

John Bodenhamer, USGA Senior Managing Director, Rules, Competitions & Amateur Status, said, “On behalf of the USGA, it gives me great pleasure to extend our congratulations to Leona for winning the McCormack Medal. Her outstanding play throughout the season in NCAA competition, as well in both the amateur and professional ranks, makes her a very deserving recipient. We look forward to following Leona in the future.”

The World Amateur Golf RankingTM, which is supported by Rolex, was established in 2007 when the men’s ranking was launched. The men’s ranking encompasses more than 2,300 counting events, ranking more than 6,000 players from 96 countries worldwide. The women’s ranking was launched in 2011 and has a calendar of more than 1,370 counting events with over 2,940 ranked players from 71 countries worldwide.

GREENSBORO, N.C. – It’s now or never for many players at the Wyndham Championship – the last chance to qualify for golf’s postseason.

That group includes Tiger Woods.

The biggest name in the sport is playing the final event of the PGA Tour’s regular season for the first time, in an effort to get his game back on track and make a last-gasp push for the playoffs.

“I’ve started to build. I just need to get more consistent with everything, and start stringing together not just holes, not just rounds but tournaments,” Woods said Wednesday. “That’s why this tournament’s important to me. Hopefully I can win it, get into the playoffs and play a bunch of golf.”

Woods, who missed the cut at the PGA Championship last week, beat last Friday’s deadline to enter the Wyndham but didn’t finalize his commitment until Monday.

He said he had “a blast” playing a pro-am round Wednesday with NBA All-Star Chris Paul – a native of nearby Winston-Salem who starred at Wake Forest.

And now he wants to stick around for a while.

In 10 previous events this year, Woods has missed the cut in four of them and withdrew from another.

He’s had three rounds in the 80s, his best finish was a tie for 17th at the Masters and his best week came at The Greenbrier Classic where he finished just six shots out of the lead.

He’s eager to test his game on the Donald Ross-designed course at Sedgefield Country Club that puts a premium on strong iron play and features fast, undulating Bermuda grass greens that Woods is trying to quickly figure out.

During a soggy pro-am, though, the course played a bit differently with more, well, woods.

“It’s going to be a lot of irons off the tee, but it wasn’t the case because it’s so wet,” Woods said. “Balls are plugging. Lot of mud balls out there.”

The Wyndham has relished its spot as the last chance for the four’s bubble players to force their way into the FedEx Cup playoffs, which begin next week at The Barclays in New Jersey.

Woods – who’s at No. 187 on the points list – is pretty far from the bubble. Only the top 125 players will make it to The Barclays, which means he probably needs a victory in his first visit here.

Recent history seems to be against him: Last year, only one player outside the top 125 – Sang-Moon Bae – earned enough points here to move into the playoffs. A 14th-place tie helped him jump from No. 126 to No. 120. The year before, nobody did it.

“If I don’t win this event,” Woods said, “I’ll have my offseason early.”

Also on the bubble: Luke Donald is 124th, followed by Charl Schwartzel, Scott Langley, Seung-Yul Noh, S.J. Park and last year’s winner, Camilo Villegas. The top 125 in the standings also will earn 2015-16 tour cards.

“There’s so much to play for,” said Webb Simpson, the 2011 winner who’s safely at No. 49 on the points list. “It’s definitely on guys’ minds, I think.”

This would rank as one of the best fields in the 76-year history of the tournament even if Woods hadn’t made his last-minute decision to play Sedgefield.

Adam Scott joins Woods as two of the six former world No. 1 ranked players in the field. Until Woods’ late entry, Scott was arguably the biggest attraction for the event.

He also was in a pro-am foursome that was immediately behind the one with Woods and Paul, and with so much of the gallery following them, Scott could go through his round in relative anonymity.

“There’s no doubt about things created by Tiger,” Scott said. “It happens everywhere he goes. You can tell how passionate the local people and everyone involved in the tournament here are about this tournament, and it means such a great deal to them to have Tiger Woods in the field. I think it’s fantastic.

“We’re in for a great week, no matter what,” he added.

The Canadian Men’s Mid-Amateur Championship, Canada’s premiere competition for amateur golfers over 25, will make its way to Abercrombie Golf & Country Club from August 24-28.

“Golf Canada is looking forward to returning a national championship to Nova Scotia,” said Tournament Director Russell Mackay. “It is always a pleasure to bring competitions to golf fans across the entire country. The course is in great shape and will provide our competitors with an excellent challenge.”

The town of New Glasgow, N.S., in the heart of Pictou County is home to Abercrombie Golf & Country Club. Situated among the region’s picturesque woodlands, the course offers scenic backdrops across sprawling fairways and well-groomed greens. Throughout its 96 years, Abercrombie has accumulated a wealth of history and has hosted a number of championships at both the provincial and national levels.

In addition to claiming the President’s Cup as Canadian Mid-Amateur champion, competitors will vie for a prized exemption into the 2016 RBC Canadian Open to be held at Glen Abbey Golf Club in Oakville, Ont., from July 18-24.

A field of 152 golfers will take to Abercrombie, including defending champion Garrett Rank. The Elmira, Ont., native will continue a busy summer which has included representing Canada at the Toronto 2015 Pan Am Games and competing in his first RBC Canadian Open, as well as, a five-stroke victory at the Golf Association of Ontario’s (GAO) Investors Group Men’s Mid-Amateur Championship and a T2 finish at the 2015 Canadian Men’s Amateur Championship.

Rank, 27, is currently playing in the U.S. Amateur Championship being hosted by Olympia Fields Country Club in Olympia Fields, Ill.

Joining Rank in the field is a number of players who have seen success at the Canadian Mid-Amateur Championship. The competition’s most decorated winner, Graham Cooke, won the first edition of the event in 1987. The Hudson, Que., native followed the performance with six subsequent victories, including a string of three-in-a-row between 2000 and 2002.

Kevin Carrigan will look to become a three-time winner in this competition. The product of Victoria, B.C., registered back-to-back victories in 2012 and 2013. The 29-year-old’s final-round 7-under 65 at the 2015 Canadian Men’s Amateur Championship propelled him into a tie for sixth place.

Woodbridge, Ont., native Dave Bunker is hoping to add a fourth Canadian Mid-Amateur title to his resume after three consecutive victories from 2008-2010. The 50-year-old is coming off his second of back-to-back GAO Ontario Men’s Match Play Championship titles.

Introduced in 2006, the Mid-Master division will be contested by competitors over 40. Darren Shaw of Stoney Creek, Ont., will return to defend his title following his seven-stroke victory in 2014. First contested in 1992, an inter-provincial competition will be played concurrently with the opening two rounds of stroke play for the prestigious R. Bruce Forbes Trophy. Team British Columbia emerged victorious in 2014 with a combined total of 1-over 289 – four strokes clear of Team Alberta.

Following the first 36 holes of play, the field will be reduced to the low-70 competitors and ties. Additional information regarding the 2015 Canadian Men’s Mid-Amateur Championship can be found here.

Alena Sharp, Canada’s No. 2 ranked golfer on the Rolex Women’s World Golf Rankings, conducted a Golf Fore the Cure presented by Subaru clinic on Tuesday at the Seymour Golf & Country Club in North Vancouver, just 20 kilometres from the Vancouver Golf Club—site of this year’s CP Women’s Open.

Sharp, one of three program ambassadors, was on hand to provide instruction to over 50 female members of Seymour Golf & Country Club. The Hamilton, Ont., native has backed Golf Fore the Cure presented by Subaru since 2011—supporting the program’s objective of increasing women’s participation in golf while raising money to fight breast cancer.

Golf Fore the Cure presented by Subaru was created in 2003 by Golf Canada – the National Sport Organization – to drive women’s participation in the game of golf with the use of fun, non-intimidating activities. Through a unique partnership structure with the Canadian Cancer Society (and Québec Breast Cancer Foundation), the program has women across the country participating in golf activities and raising money and awareness for a cause close to Canadian hearts – the fight against breast cancer.

With the help of volunteers across the country, the program has welcomed more than 100,000 women to the game of golf. These women have been able to raise over $5.1 million towards the fight against breast cancer.

Golf Canada’s Golf Fore the Cure program is proudly sponsored by presenting partner, Subaru. For more information on Golf Fore the Cure, visit golfforethecure.ca