SILVIS, Ill. – Jhonattan Vegas shot a 9-under 62 on Friday in the John Deere Classic to take a one-stroke lead into the weekend.

Off since missing the cuts in the Memorial and U.S. Open in June, , the three-time PGA tour winner from Venezuela said he “found something really good” on the range Thursday after an opening 67.

“Probably the best I’ve felt all year, to be honest,” Vegas said. “I hit the ball extremely well, kind of what I’ve been struggling with a little bit the past few months. It felt really good, in control the whole time with the ball-striking, which is my type of game. So I’m glad that stuff is back.”

Vegas had a 13-under 129 total at TPC Deere Run.

“It’s usually soft, and it’s been a little firmer because of the conditions, obviously a little warm,” Vegas said. “It’s the best I’ve ever seen it. The greens are perfect. The fairways are rolling more. It’s actually a little bit tricky because a lot of the fairways, as undulated as they are, you have to be a little careful with some of those run-outs.”

He last won on the tour in 2017 at the RBC Canadian Open.

Andrew Landry was second after his second 65. He birdied the first three holes on his second nine, then played the next six in 1 over with a bogey on the par-4 sixth hole.

“I’ve been hitting the ball very, very well all year long,” Landry said. “The putter has just kind of been letting me down all year long, and it seems to be working pretty good the last two days.”

Lucas Glover had an albatross on the par-5 10th in a 64 that got him to 11 under. He holed out with a 3-iron from 255 yards after a 318-yard drive.

“Honestly, I was trying to hit it over short left, chip up the green, and I pushed it 5, 8 yards, and it bounced and rolled and I guess it went in. I didn’t see it,” Glover said. “I was just trying to make birdie, and I got lucky with a 2.”

Three Canadians made the weekend cut.

Roger Sloan of Merritt, B.C., shot 65 and sits 9 under, while Adam Svensson of Surrey, B.C., also had a 65 and is 7 under. Nick Taylor of Abbotsford, B.C., is 6 under after shooting 69.

Harold Varner III (65), Russell Henley (68), Daniel Berger (66), Cameron Tringale (66) and Adam Schenk (65) were 10 under. Varner chipped in for eagle from 42 yards on the par-4 14th.

“I hit a really good drive in the rough and it was perfect, and I blasted it and it went too far and smashed the pin and went in,” Varner said. “It was awesome.”

First-round leader Roberto Diaz closed with a double bogey for a 73 that left him at 7 under.

Matthew Wolff, the rookie who won last week in Minnesota, was 4 under after a 71.

Michael Kim, the winner by eight shots last year, missed the cut with rounds of 73 and 72.

SYLVANIA, Ohio – Sei Young Kim shot a 7-under 64 on Friday to take a one-stroke lead over U.S. Women’s Open champion Jeongeun Lee6 in the Marathon Classic.

Kim had four straight birdies on Nos. 3-6 and also birdied the par-4 12th and 15th holes and the par-5 18th to get to 11-under 131 at Highland Meadows Golf Club. The South Korean player won the LPGA MEDIHEAL Championship in May in California for her eighth tour title.

“My play wasn’t good the last two weeks,” Kim said. “I’m just trying to do my best this week. So, I’m very happy with the (better) result than I expected.

Lee6 shot her second straight 66. The South Korean birdied two of the last three holes.

“It was pretty good,” Lee6 said. “The greens were not too soft, not too firm. It was so easy to play with my second shot in order to control my shots. Satisfied with it.”

Lexi Thompson, Stacy Lewis and Jennifer Kupcho were 9 under. Kupcho shot 66, Thompson 67, and Lewis 68, with Lewis playing alongside Kim the first two days.

Lewis won the last of her 12 LPGA Tour titles in 2017. She was born in nearby Toledo and has an endorsement deal with Marathon Oil. From Texas, she’s treated like a hometown player.

“I love it,” Lewis said. “It was pressure at first, but now it’s fun. It’s nice having the crew out there behind me and give them something to cheer about this year, which is awesome.”

Canadian Alena Sharp carded a 1-over 72 to slip into a tie for 11th after holding a share of the 18-hole lead.

Kupcho is making her sixth tour start as a pro. The former Wake Forest star won the inaugural Augusta National Women’s Amateur in April.

“I’m hitting the ball really good this week, reading the putts well, and putting good rolls on them,” Kupcho said.

She parred the par-5 17th and 18th after birdieing three of the previous four holes.

“Obviously, walking off 17 and 18, two par 5s to finish, you expect to get at least one,” Kupcho said. “Left 17 short and just pushed 18’s putt. It’s a little upsetting.”

Thompson is coming off a two-week break.

“I just took yesterday’s round and came into today with the same confidence and same mindset,” Thompson said. “Just firing at pins and focusing on one shot at a time. I feel good with where my game is at. It was perfect weather. Couldn’t ask for anything better.”

Yealimi Noh, the 17-year-old from California who tied for sixth last week in Wisconsin in her LPGA Tour debut, missing the cut with rounds of 73 and 72. She played on a sponsor exemption after Monday qualifying last week.

The 2019 Rules include a new form of stroke-play called “Maximum Score” where a player or side’s score for a hole is capped at a maximum number of strokes set by the Committee.

Visit golfcanada.ca/rules to learn more.

Golf Canada caught up with 21-year-old superstar Brooke Henderson at Magna Golf Club, site of the 2019 CP Women’s Open from August 19-25.

If you take an action near your ball and cause it to move, you get a one-stroke penalty, unless your ball is on the putting green.

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LOS ANGELES, Calif. – The trophies continue to pile up for Canadian superstar Brooke Henderson.

The 21-year-old Smiths Falls, Ont., native was honoured with an ESPY award on Wednesday night for the Best Female Golfer of 2019. Earlier this spring, Henderson collected her ninth LPGA Tour title, becoming the winningest Canadian professional golfer in history.

The Excellence in Sports Performance Yearly Awards are presented by the ABC television network and were previously put on by American sports network ESPN.

“Extremely honoured to receive Best Female Golfer at the #ESPYS!! So cool!” said Henderson from her verified Twitter account.

She was unable to attend the ESPY Awards in Los Angeles because she’s competing at the Marathon Classic at Highland Meadows Golf Club in Sylvania, Ohio, this week.

Extremely honoured to receive Best Female Golfer at the #ESPYS!! So cool! ☺️??

— Brooke Henderson (@BrookeHenderson) July 11, 2019

Henderson, a graduate of Golf Canada’s National Team program, captured the hearts of Canadians from coast-to-coast in August of 2018 when she became the first Canadian to win the National Open since 1973. 

The other nominees were Ariya Jutanugarn, Jin-Young Ko and Sung Hyun Park.

When your ball is on the putting green, your caddie is now allowed to mark, lift and clean it, with or without the player’s approval.

Visit golfcanada.ca/rules to learn more.

WINDSOR, Ont.— Entering the final round of the Windsor Championship with 26 players within four strokes of the lead, the stage was set for an incredible day of golf. Sunday did not disappoint.

Especially if your name is Dawson Armstrong.

Opening with two birdies in his first three holes, the Lipscomb University alum managed a clean card, marking down three more circles throughout the day.

Not having to make a par putt from outside three feet for the duration of the round, Armstrong picked up his first-career Mackenzie Tour title by one stroke over six players.

“I’ve never seen a leaderboard as jam-packed as that one,” said Armstrong following the victory. “Come about No. 16 today there were 12 guys within two shots of the lead, it was just jam packed all day and anyone could make a run at any given time.”

Playing in the third to last grouping of the day, Armstrong tapped in for par on hole No. 18 at 20-under and managed to dodge bullet after bullet as he became a highly-engaged spectator. This was already after Patrick Fishburn missed a short par putt on the last hole in the group ahead to drop to 19-under.

Playing competitor Ryan Ruffels missed a six-foot birdie putt which would have matched Armstrong in the clubhouse. At the same time, the entire final group of Bryson Nimmer, Jonathan Garrick and Will Register, who were all within one-stroke of the lead, made bogey on the difficult No. 16 to fall two back.

Register managed birdie on No. 17, giving himself a chance to force a playoff, but had to chip out from the fescue following his drive, leaving himself 65-yards to the pin.

“I called my fiancé [after finishing] and she said, ‘don’t get excited until you know for sure’,” said Armstrong. “I really kept an even keel and came out here and watched, there was nothing I could do but just accept whatever happened.”

What happened was that Register almost made it, twice. The ball landed two inches from the pin, jumped a few feet past, and slowly trickled back, burning the edge of the cup; Armstrong hugged caddie Derek Bayley.

“That was the most nerve-racking shot I’ve ever seen from someone, he’s got some guts to hit that shot when he needed it,” said Armstrong. “Sadly, he didn’t make it and sadly we didn’t have the chance to perform in a playoff. (Register) is a deserving player and he’s going to get his share out here.”

Entering the week in spot No. 13 on the Order of Merit, Armstrong said that it was his previous professional experience that helped propel him through Sunday.

“This is my 15^thevent up here, so putting myself in contention two of the last four events, I’m really happy with where I was,” said Armstrong. “The game felt great and I’m more confident than I’ve ever been

“To have it all cap off this week was really special, because it feels good to be back in that situation where you have the nerves running and you have to calm down and just perform, that was the best feeling.”

His second year on the Mackenzie Tour, Armstrong had a moderately successful debut campaign, finishing in spot No. 34 on the order of merit following a successful collegiate career where he managed the lowest career scoring average (71.2) in Lipscomb history.

“Last year I never felt like I could get myself in contention, whether it was me backdooring a top 10 or worrying about the cut every week, it was a different mindset last year compared to this year,” said the 23-year old. “Instead of trying to finish top-10, I’m going out trying to win, and this week it worked out pretty good.”

Fishburn, Ruffels, Garrick, Register, Paul Barjon and Anthony Maccaglia made up the grouping one-stroke back, while Riley Wheeldon managed his second Canada Life Canadian Player of the Week title of the season, as well as his first top-10 finish of the year, finishing two-strokes back at T8.

BLAINE, Minn. – Matthew Wolff shot a 9-under 62 Saturday to share the lead with Collin Morikawa and Bryson DeChambeau at 15 under after three rounds of the inaugural 3M Open.

Morikawa shot a 64 at the TPC Twin Cities, while DeChambeau had a 70.

Wolff, 20, who won the NCAA individual title on Memorial Day, is playing in his third event since turning professional, and the 22-year-old Morikawa his fourth.

DeChambeau, who opened the day with a two-shot lead, is vying for his sixth career win and first since the Shriners Hospitals for Children Open in November.

Seeking his first tour win in 31 starts, Wyndham Clark, 25, shot a 64 and was tied with Canada’s Adam Hadwin (69) one shot back.

Fellow Canadians Roger Sloan of Merritt, B.C., and Adam Svensson of Surrey, B.C. are both inside the top 20 at T9 and T17, respectively.

Sixteen players are within four shots of the lead, including Hideki Matsuyama, Charles Howell III and Troy Merritt, who graduated from nearby Spring Lake Park High School. Each shot a 66 and were two shots behind.

Playing in ideal weather conditions – temperatures in the low-80s, increasing clouds and no wind – 65 of the 85 players shot under par on the par-71 layout.

Wolff, who made his professional debut two weeks ago by finishing 80th at the Travelers Championship and missed the cut at last week’s Rocket Mortgage Classic, used stellar approach shots to help him record six straight birdies on Nos. 5-10. None of the putts were longer than 8 feet. Birdies at No. 13 and 15 made a round of 59 seem possible.

However, Wolff missed a 4-foot birdie putt on No. 16 and a tee shot into a bunker led to bogey on the par-3 17th. He scrambled for birdie on No. 18 after an errant tee shot.

Named the Pac-12 Men’s Golfer of the Year in May, Morikawa made his professional debut four weeks ago and finished tied for 14th at the RBC Canadian Open. He tied for 35th at the U.S. Open and tied for 36th at the Travelers Championship two weeks ago.

Morikawa birdied five of his first seven holes, but only three the rest of the way.

DeChambeau birdied the first and last holes, had one bogey and 15 pars.

Clark, 25, who has two top-10s in his previous 30 events since 2017, had eight birdies, including four straight to start the back nine, as part of a 7-under 64.

You or anyone else are now allowed  to repair almost any damage on the putting green.

Visit golfcanada.ca/rules to learn more.