SURREY, England – Alexander Levy of France had rounds of 66-67 to earn one of 11 spots in the U.S. Open from the sectional qualifier Monday in England.

One day after Levy slipped out of the top 60 in the world ranking that would have made him exempt for the U.S. Open, the Frenchman made 14 birdies on the Old and New courses at Walton Heath to lead all qualifiers.

The U.S. Open is June 18-21 at Chambers Bay outside Seattle.

The other players earning spots in the 36-hole qualifier were: Shiv Kapur, John Parry, Alex Noren, Lucas Bjerregaard, Jason Palmer and Marcel Siem. Tjaart Van Der Walt of South Africa had two eagles and a birdie on his final six holes that put him into a five-man playoff for the final four places. He got in along with Garth Mulroy, Thomas Aiken and Marcus Fraser.

Three-time major champion Padraig Harrington made bogey on his final hole and missed the playoff by one shot. Also missing by one was Peter Uihlein, who won the U.S. Amateur in 2010 at Chambers Bay.

In the sectional qualifier in Japan, Liang Wenchong led five players who earned their way to the U.S. Open. Liang had rounds of 65-65 at Kinojo Golf Club. The four who qualified were Masahiro Kawamura, Baek Seuk Hyun, Kurt Barnes and Hiroyuki Fujita.

Oakville, Ont. (Golf Canada) —Golf Canada and Hudson’s Bay today announced a new multi-year partnership that will see Hudson’s Bay become a proud partner as the exclusive official outfitter for Golf Canada’s National Team Program.

As part of the three-year agreement, Hudson’s Bay has developed a new line of men’s and ladies golf apparel under the Hudson’s Bay brand that will be worn by Team Canada athletes as well as coaches and sport science staff in all games and competitions through 2017.

In addition, Hudson’s Bay becomes the exclusive headwear and apparel licensee for Golf Canada’s Team Canada mark. The line of high performance golf apparel will be available for purchase in many of Hudson’s Bay retail locations across Canada as well as online at www.thebay.com.

“Hudson’s Bay’s is committed to supporting Canadian athletes and we are proud to launch this new partnership as the exclusive official outfitter for Golf Canada’s National Team Program,” says Liz Rodbell, President, Hudson’s Bay.

“Hudson’s Bay has a long history of supporting Canada’s Olympic team and we are thrilled to have such an iconic Canadian brand aligned with Golf Canada and our national team program,” said Golf Canada Chief Commercial Officer Gavin Roth. “Hudson’s Bay recognizes that this is one of the most exciting periods in Canadian golf, and their support through national retail and media channels leading up to and through the Pan Am and Olympic Games will help propel our tremendous young golfers to even greater heights.”

Team Canada athletes will be wearing the official Hudson’s Bay apparel in all golf competitions and events starting in the spring of 2015.

The Pan Am games in Toronto this summer will mark the first time the apparel is worn in a major multinational/multi-sport games. Hudson’s Bay will also outfit Team Canada athletes at other major domestic and international championships including the RBC Canadian Open, Canadian Pacific Women’s Open, Canadian National Amateur Championships, World Amateur Team Championships and the 2016 Summer Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

A portion of proceeds from every sale in Hudson’s Bay stores and on-line will go directly towards supporting Team Canada golfers and high performance programming.

The Team Canada golf line of apparel will appear in Hudson’s Bay stores in time for Father’s Day 2015. Merchandise will also be available for purchase onsite during the 2015 RBC Canadian Open, July 20-26 at Glen Abbey Golf Club in Oakville, Ont.

Click here for a link to Golf Canada merchandise available through Hudson’s Bay online collection.

FORT WORTH, Texas – Chris Kirk made a par-saving 7-foot putt after an errant tee shot at the 18th hole, avoiding a playoff at Colonial and winning by a stroke Sunday for his fourth PGA Tour victory.

With a closing 4-under 66, Kirk got to 12-under 268, one ahead of Masters champion Jordan Spieth, playing partner Brandt Snedeker and Jason Bohn.

After Kirk hooked his tee shot at No. 18 into the left rough, he hit his approach from 155 yards over the green. A nice chip set up the winning putt.

Snedeker, who closed with a 67, hit a similar tee shot as Kirk on the final hole and hit to 12 feet. But his birdie try, which would have been his first since making six the first 11 holes Sunday, slid past the hole and kept him from tying Kirk.

Bohn had a 63 that included six consecutive birdies on the front nine. Spieth shot 65, with a near-birdie that became a bogey at the par-3 16th hole.

When Kirk got in trouble at No. 18, Bohn and Spieth went to the nearby No. 1 tee and were hitting balls in preparation for a potential playoff.

Spieth was only a few minutes removed from a 20-foot birdie putt at the closing hole, where more than an hour earlier Bohn had a 28-footer that lipped the cup and left him lifting the putter over his head in frustration.

When Kirk made his putt, Spieth was standing near the 18th green watching.

Kirk’s victory for a $1.17 million check came at a saturated Hogan’s Alley, where the sun finally came out late in the final round after heavy rain overnight and throughout tournament week.

Kevin Na, the outright leader after the second and third rounds, shot 72 and finished in an eight-way tie for 10th at 9 under. He was part of a leading four-way tie that included Spieth after the first round.

A 54-hole leader hasn’t won Colonial since Phil Mickelson in 2008.

Spieth was making a bid to win the first of consecutive tournaments at home in the North Texas for the 21-year-old Masters champion from Dallas.

Like all week, Spieth got a rousing ovation when he got to the 18th green. That got even wilder when he finished by draining the long birdie, which was almost good enough for a playoff.

The PGA Tour’s next stop is the Byron Nelson Championship in Irving, where Spieth twice made the cut as a teenage amateur.

Spieth had a 50-foot putt tracking to the cup at the 16th hole Sunday, but the ball went on the right edge and then curled 7 foot to the left. Spieth missed the comeback putt, dropping out to 10 under and out of the lead.

Like the opening round Thursday, the scheduled start of play Sunday was pushed back three hours because of heavy rain overnight. PGA Tour officials said more than 1 1/2 inches of rain fell after the third round was complete, on top of probably 8 inches or so that had already soaked Hogan’s Alley in the past few weeks.

There were no delays Friday or Saturday, though the third round included threesomes instead of twosomes along with earlier-than-usual weekend tee tees. There were also threesomes Sunday.

Bohn started the day with par at No. 1, hitting into the greenside bunker at the par 5 that is the easiest hole at Colonial. But he responded with birdie streak of six in a row, including Nos. 3-5 known as the Horrible Horseshoe because of the layout of difficulty of that trio of holes. His front-side 6-under 29 included a 36-foot birdie putt at No. 4, the 247-yard par 3.

Canada’s Adam Hadwin tied for 5th at 10 under -his best finish on Tour since his tie for 4th at the 2011 RBC Canadian Open.

VIRGINIA WATER, England – Byeong Hun An shot a 7-under 65 to win the BMW PGA Championship at Wentworth on Sunday with a tournament record total of 21 under.

The South Korean made five birdies and an eagle in a bogey-free round to finish six strokes clear of Thongchai Jaidee of Thailand (69) and Miguel Angel Jimenez of Spain (67).

The 23-year-old An captured his first European Tour victory after Francesco Molinari, who had at least a share of the lead for the first three rounds, only managed a 74. He finished fifth, nine shots back.

“I was really nervous the whole day,” An said. “I had not even played this course until Monday … My iron shots helped me this week, I hit a lot of greens and did not miss many putts.”

An, who won the U.S. Amateur Open in 2009, takes $918,000 for first place at the European Tour’s flagship event.

The victory comes in his first appearance at Wentworth and also secures him a place at the U.S. Open.

An never showed signs of his nerves in an assured performance on the final day.

He started with birdies on Nos. 2 and 4, where he sent a magnificent bunker shot to within two feet of the flag, before accelerating away from the field with some composed iron play and clinical putting on the back nine.

His third birdie came on No. 11 before he was close to an albatross on No. 12. His approach from 193 yards with a 5-iron nestled inches away from the hole.

An duly tapped in for eagle, and his three-shot advantage grew to four when Jaidee bogeyed the 13th. He sealed his record victory with two more birdies on Nos. 15 and 17.

“It was 15, that birdie, where I thought with three holes to go, that my lead would do it,” An said. “Before then, I never thought about winning it. I tried not to look at the leaderboard but it was not easy.”

Molinari, a three-time European Tour winner, made five bogeys and a double-bogey on No. 16, where the Italian teed off into a fairway bunker before three-putting on the green.

England’s Chris Wood finished fourth after a 6-under 66 took him to 13-under 275 for the tournament. His round included a hole-in-one at No. 14, the fifth of the tournament.

FRENCH LICK, Ind. – There were no last-second buzzer-beaters in Larry Bird’s hometown on a bright, breezy Sunday.

Colin Montgomerie turned in a command performance, shooting a 3-under 69 on the treacherous Pete Dye Course at French Lick Resort to win the Senior PGA Championship by four shots.

Montgomerie earned $495,000 for his third senior major championship victory in 10 appearances, including three of the past six. The 51-year-old Scot’s 8-under total of 280 made him one of only five players under par, the fewest since three closed the championship in red numbers at Canterbury in Cleveland in 2009.

Mexico’s Esteban Toledo shot a 69 to finish second.

Montgomerie was happy but drained.

“It was a difficult position to be in at the start of the day, being three ahead,” said Montgomerie, who called Dye’s design one of the iconic courses in America. “Nowhere to go but down with every hole out there a potential double bogey. I could never relax. I could never relax at all.

“Very, very tiring mentally. Every shot had to be executed or you could be in trouble. That’s a test and a half.”

Montgomerie is the first player to successfully defend the Senior PGA title since Hale Irwin won three in succession in 1996-98. Montgomerie is the first to record his first three Champions Tour victories in majors since Jack Nicklaus, who won his first six on the biggest stages.

Montgomerie won the 2013 Senior PGA at Harbor Shores in Michigan, and two months later took the U.S. Senior Open in a playoff over Gene Sauers at Oak Tree in Oklahoma.

It has been an extraordinary life-after-50 turnaround for a player who won 31 European Tour titles, topped that tour’s money list a record eight times, represented Europe in the Ryder Cup eight times but went 0 for 71 in major championships.

Six times he was a runner-up in those majors, three times in the U.S. Open and once each in the British Open and PGA Championship.

“He’s been in contention in majors pretty much his whole career so he’s very familiar with that,” said Brian Henninger, who matched Scott Verplank’s 71 to give both a share fourth place at 2 under. “He obviously hasn’t always executed and performed like he wanted to, but even at his age, he’s probably learned through some of his experiences.”

Toledo started the day at 1 under and but made birdies at 1, 5 and 7 and twice got within a stroke of Montgomerie on the front nine. Both times, the leader answered with a birdie.

After lipping out a short par putt at No. 1, Montgomerie ran off birdies at 5, 7, 9, 10 and 12. He was 9 under for the tournament, five strokes clear of Toledo and in charge.

“That’s what it takes. He knows how to win,” said Toledo, who played without a bogey Sunday. “He loves the pressure. There’s nothing I could have done. It was a great week for me. The course was outstanding, the crowds were great. It was a great tournament.”

Montgomerie made bogeys at 15 and 18 but his lead was too large, his grasp too sure.

“When I holed the putt at 12, I felt safe,” Montgomerie said. “I knew how tough that finish is.”

Montgomerie and his Sunday playing partner and World Golf Hall of Fame colleague, Bernhard Langer, have won four of the last five major championships on the Champions Tour. Jeff Maggert’s win last week in Alabama in the Regions Tradition is the lone exception.

So it seemed the final round might turn into a match play competition between Montgomerie, at 5 under, and Langer, 2 under, in the final twosome, but no drama developed.

Langer caught an awkward lie on the margin of a bunker and the rough alongside the second green and made double bogey. Then he missed the green and bogeyed the par-3 fourth. When Montgomerie birdied Nos. 5 and 7, Langer was seven shots behind.

It was somewhat reminiscent of the 2014 Senior PGA, where they also played in final twosome and Montgomerie shot 65, Langer 70.

Montgomerie’s victory extended an unprecedented Senior PGA streak. International players have won the event four consecutive years: England’s Roger Chapman in 2012, Japan’s Khoki Idoki in 2013 and Montgomerie’s pair.

Canada’s Rod Spittle climbed 30 spots up the leaderboard into a tie for 34th after a final round 69. The St. Catharines, Ont., native finished at 8 over.

WUHAN, China – Champion Justin Shin didn’t play Nos. 7-9 well this week, finishing his four rounds a cumulative 4-over there without a birdie. But he took care of business on the par-5 10th hole. On that hole, he was 5-under for the week, with three birdies and an eagle-3 in the second round.

Justin Shin’s victory is the first by a Canadian in Ping An Bank China Tour – PGA TOUR China Series’ history. This season, other wins have come from Josh Geary (New Zealand) and Shih Chang Chan (Chinese Taipei).

With Chinese Taipei’s Shih Chang Chan taking this week off, New Zealand’s Josh Geary moved back ahead on the Order of Merit. He leads Chan by ￥8,227. Geary earned  ￥34,800 for his tie for ninth this week. With his victory Sunday, Justin Shin slid into the third position on the earnings’ chart. He’s made ￥243,480 this season.

The round of the day belonged to Canada’s Eugene Wong, shooting a 5-under 67, punctuated with a two-foot, 18th-hole birdie putt Sunday. Wong has made all three cuts this year, and his runner-up performance this week is his second top-10 of the year—to go with his tie for eighth at the season-opening Buick Open. He moved to fourth on the Order of Merit.

Gwowu Zhou picked up his career-best finish—a tie for 12th, after firing a 4-under 68 Sunday at Wuhan Yishan Golf Club. A year ago, in 10 Ping An Bank China Tour – PGA TOUR China Series’ starts, Zhou, a native of Guandong, had his best performance at the Earls Beijing Open when he tied for 19th.

Finland’s Teemu Putkonen had the best performance of his Ping An Bank China Tour – PGA TOUR China Series’ career this week, earning a tie for 12th. Putkonen, a native of Jarvenpaa, shot weekend rounds of 68-73 to earn the top-15. In his only other start this season, he missed the cut at The Eternal Courtyard Open in Zhengzhou.

Just like in the second round, the par-4 12th hole at Wuhan Yishan Golf Club played as the most-difficult on the final day, with a stroke average of 4.51—the same as in the second round. The 15th hole was the easiest Sunday, with the par-5 giving up 35 birdies and playing to a stroke average of 4.57. Champion Justin Shin played the 15th in 3-under for the week, with three birdies and a par in the last round.

Justin Shin is the first third-round leader to go on to victory this season after three tournaments. A year ago, 10 of the 12 champions were the 54-hole leaders.

Amateur Zihan She tied for fifth for his first career top-10 on the Ping An Bank China Tour – PGA TOUR China Series. He opened his season with a 69th-place showing at the Buick Open and a 65th-place performance at The Eternal Courtyard Open.

FORT WORTH, Texas – Kevin Na had gone 26 holes without a bogey at Colonial before his last tee shot Friday was swept away by flowing water after going into a rain-swollen drainage culvert.

Not even that could dampen Na’s second round that gave him the lead halfway through the soggy tournament.

Na took the penalty drop near the 17th fairway, and hit a blind approach shot over bleachers to the back side of the 18th green. His two-putt from 20 feet wrapped up a 4-under 66.

“A good bogey,” Na said.

At 10-under 130, Na was two strokes ahead of Ian Poulter (67) and three up on 2013 Colonial winner Boo Weekley (69).

Na also made some long birdie putts. His 30-footer off the fringe at No. 14 came right after rolling in a 22-footer at the 13th, where he broke into a dance for the rowdy fans surrounding the par 3 situated on the edge of Hogan’s Alley.

“I want to call it the Big Bird dance. … It just came out. I wasn’t really thinking about it,” the 31-year-old Na said. “You know, the crowd has been very supportive. I felt like I was from Texas.”

Masters champion Jordan Spieth, a real Texan, was alone in the lead without a bogey before losing four strokes in a two-hole span.

Spieth finished with a 73, nine strokes worse than his opening round 64 that had him in a four-way tie on top. He dropped seven strokes back at 3 under, in a crowded tie for 15th place.

“I had a goal in mind, and it was a higher score than (Thursday) given the conditions,” said Spieth, the 21-year-old Dallas player playing consecutive weeks at home in North Texas. “I wanted to no blemishes, and then we held that late through 12 holes.”

There were periods of steady rain for the morning groups, but no delays. That was after Thursday’s first round started three hours late following more than an inch of rain fell overnight.

With more inclement weather expected Saturday, including the possibility of severe storms in the afternoon, players in the third round will be grouped in threesomes instead of the normal twosomes and go off both tees Nos. 1 and 10.

The lead group of Na, Poulter and Weekley was scheduled to tee off around 9 a.m. Saturday, more than 3 1/2 hours earlier than usual for the leaders’ group at Colonial.

Heavy rain also was in the forecast Sunday.

Poulter, playing his first Colonial since 2010, had bogeys on his first and last holes Friday. His only bogey Thursday came on his last hole, costing him a share of the first-round lead.

A half-inch adjustment in his putting grip has paid off at Colonial, with only 25 putts in each of the first two rounds.

When going through boxes of pictures to find some to put on the wall in a new guest house he is building, Poulter came across one when he noticed the forefinger of his left hand was in a different spot. He first adjusted during the pro-am round Wednesday.

“It felt pretty good, and obviously it was pretty good (Thursday) and it’s continued,” he said. “It’s angled further down toward the shot. So it’s almost more parallel to the shot. … It’s probably only a position of half an inch difference to what it was, but sometimes half an inch makes a big difference on a feel.”

About the same time that Poulter rolled in a 14-foot birdie putt at No. 6 to get to 8 under, Spieth was making a bogey two holes back after he missed the green at the challenging par-3 fourth and didn’t make a 6-foot par- saver to drop to 7 under.

Spieth followed with a triple bogey at No. 5, taking a drop in the rough after hitting his tee shot way right into a hazard adjacent to the Trinity River. His approach rattled around in the upper branches of a tree before dropping about 75 yards short of the green.

With a steady rain falling, Spieth then missed a 4-foot birdie try at No. 6 and bogeyed the par-3 eighth from a greenside bunker.

“That’s kind of unlike me. It’s not something I do, compound mistakes,” he said. “I had chances to bounce back there, and wasn’t able to do it.”

 Three Canadians sat within the top-25 heading into weekend action in Fort Worth. Adam Hadwin (66) was tied for 6th, Nick Taylor (68) had a share of 11th, and Graham Delaet (68) was in a logjam of players who were tied for 25th.

FRENCH LICK, Ind. – Tom Lehman started the second round of the Senior PGA Championship on the 10th tee Friday afternoon. He might as well have started it on a launch pad.

Lehman birdied three of his first four holes on French Lick Resort’s rigorous Pete Dye Course and kept right on going. He shot a 5-under 67 – matching the best round of the week – to take the lead at the halfway point of the Champions Tour’s second major championship of the year.

At 4 under, Lehman led his playing partner of the first two rounds, defending champion Colin Montgomerie, and Brian Henninger by a stroke. Montgomerie shot 69, and Henninger matched Lehman’s 67.

The severity of the course has caused some players to grumble about Dye, its designer. Not Lehman.

“Pete Dye courses, in general, I enjoy,” said Lehman, who hit 16 greens in regulation Friday. “I really enjoy his style of architecture. I like the way he thinks. I like the way he makes the player think.”

There have been only seven rounds in the 60s, all of which came with milder weather conditions prevailing Friday, when tournament officials trimmed more than 100 yards off the first-round setup, from 7,040 yards to 6,914.

Montgomerie relished the buzz of playing with the leader, and he wants more.

“We stood in there battling around,” Montgomerie said. “I’m going to play with him (again) tomorrow, probably in the last group, and I look forward to that.”

Lehman won the British Open in 1996 and the Senior PGA Championship in 2010 in Colorado. Montgomerie dominated the European Tour during the 1990s, topping the money list eight consecutive seasons. In addition to the Senior PGA, he won the U.S. Senior Open last year.

Esteban Toledo was 2 under after a 68. First-round leader Massy Kuramoto had a 72 to drop to fifth at 1 under. Peter Fowler, Woody Austin and Jean Francois Remesy were even par. Fowler birdied the final hole for a 67, Austin shot 71, and Remesy 72.

Henninger and Toledo were PGA Tour journeymen. Being situated so near the top of the leaderboard and doing it on so daunting course in a senior major was not lost on Toledo. It’s new ground.

“This is a different week,” said Toledo, a two-time winner in two-plus seasons on the Champions Tour. “This is a different tournament. This is different conditions. It’s probably one of the toughest I’ve seen.”

The early starters again went off with temperatures in the upper-40s but the sun shone brightly and the day warmed into the mid-70s, although wind made club selection difficult and misses frequent.

Toledo made five birdies and a lone bogey. The Mexican player has thrived on superior ball-striking, hitting 21 of 28 fairways and 26 of 36 greens in regulation.

Bernhard Langer, a 23-time winner on the Champions Tour, was 1 over after a 72.

The Dye Course’s severe slopes and radical bounces can get to a player. Mark Calcavecchia parred the 566-yard, par-5 ninth hole Friday, but it was anything but routine.

He broke two clubs.

Calcavecchia drove into the left rough and, after hitting a second shot he deemed unacceptable, broke his club over his knee. He missed the green with his third shot and snapped the shaft on that club by slamming it into the ground. Calcavecchia missed the cut, finishing at 14 over after a 77.

Rod Spittle was the lone Canadian to make the cut. The St. Catharine’s, Ont., native is 8 over and tied for 66th heading into the weekend.

FORT WORTH, Texas – Masters champion Jordan Spieth got his homecoming off to a leading start with a birdie before dark.

Spieth made a 20-foot putt from just off the fringe on the final hole for a 6-under 64 and a share of the first-round lead Thursday in the rain-delayed Colonial.

“I had a few of those on the back nine, a few good looks where I knew what the putt was doing, I just didn’t match the line and speed right,” Spieth said. “I was getting a little frustrated through 17 there. I was like just one more look. … I didn’t really count (18) as a look, but maybe more like luck, and we’ll take it.”

The closing birdie, just after 8 p.m., tied Spieth with Kevin Na, Boo Weekley and Ryo Ishikawa.

There was a huge roar at No. 1 when Spieth teed off in the first of consecutive events at home in North Texas since becoming a major champion. The Dallas player’s approach at No. 18 landed just off the back right edge of the green surrounded by family, friends and plenty of fans.

“I was little frustrated to see where my ball went, but I was still was able to soak in kind of the welcoming to the 18th green,” he said. “I’m sure it will continue to grow.”

Spieth opened his bogey-free round with a 25-foot birdie putt at No. 1, then started the back nine with a 22-footer at No. 10. He had a great chance for another birdie on the par-3 16th, but a tricky 4-foot try slid by the hole.

Ishikawa, the 23-year-old from Japan, and 2013 Colonial champion Weekley also were without a bogey.

Na, whose only bogey came at No. 18 to close his first nine, curled up in a corner of the locker room and took a nap when tee times for the morning groups like his were pushed back three hours after more than an inch of rain fell overnight at Hogan’s Alley.

“Pulled off a little veteran move, took about an hour nap,” said Na, who grabbed a few extra towels, making one into a pillow, using another for a blanket and throwing another over his head. “So I felt great when I woke up.”

Na originally woke up at 5 a.m. for a scheduled 7:22 a.m. tee time.

The afternoon groups started 2 hours, 40 minutes later than scheduled, but all 122 players managed to finish before dark.

George McNeill and Ian Poulter, who shared the lead before his only bogey at No. 18, were a shot back after shooting 65.

A group of nine players carded 66s on a day when players were able to lift, clean and place their golf balls hit in the fairways.

“We couldn’t have had better scoring conditions today. Just the wind died down, and you could just throw darts, and they were landing and stopping,” Spieth said. “I’d like to play golf in this weather the rest of my life.”

Also carding a 66 was Canada’s David Hearn – who topped the five Canadians in the field.

After the rain, it was an unseasonably cool with temperatures only in the mid-60s. The forecast is for warmer temperatures but more rain through the weekend.

Defending champion Adam Scott had a 72 that included three bogeys and a double bogey. He is No. 11 in the world and hasn’t won since Colonial last year in his first week after becoming the top-ranked player.

Weekley, whose last PGA Tour win was at Colonial, woke up with a stiff back Wednesday that was still bothering him when he finally teed off Thursday.

“We just tried to manage it knowing that we couldn’t hit the full shots, so we went down a club and felt like we just punched it around the golf course,” he said. “And I made some putts. Made a lot of putts actually.”

His 27 putts were a collective distance of 151 feet, 9 inches, Weekley’s fourth-best putting round on the PGA Tour. He made all 12 of his putts from inside 10 feet, but called a 15-foot par-saver at the par-3 13th one of the key moments in his round.

“I kind of chili-whomped it out there to the right side of the green,” he said. “Nine times out of 10 that balls goes in the water, but somehow it hung up and I hit a bad chip there.”

Canada’s Nick Taylor opened with a 68, Adam Hadwin had a 69, Graham DeLaet had 70 and Mike Weir had a 75.

FRENCH LICK, Ind. – Massy Kuramoto’s approach to the difficult Pete Dye Course at French Lick Resort was simple.

“If I’m going to hit straight and hit the fairway, I can play 2 over, 3 over. I tried to play 1 over front nine, 1 over back nine,” he said, grinning, with both index fingers upraised.

Kuramoto did even better than that Thursday in the first round of the Senior PGA Championship.

He shot a 1-under 71 to take the lead.

Defending champion Colin Montgomerie, Billy Andrade, Barry Lane, Jean Francois Remesy and Bart Bryant were a shot back. Bernhard Langer, Tom Lehman and Scott Verplank were in the large group at 73 on a difficult day for golf.

The temperature was in the upper 40s for the early starters and it crept only to 60 as the sun finally broke through in late afternoon. Sweaters and rain jackets were the uniform of the day and scoring on the rugged Dye Course’s twisting fairways and small greens did not come easily.

With 17 major champions and seven World Golf Hall of Fame members in the field of 156 players, only 30 shot 74 or better.

“We’re old,” said Andrade, an early starter. “We’re old guys. When it gets cold, maybe we don’t hit it as far and as well. It’s a survival test.”

Peter Jacobsen knew the feeling.

“It felt like a British Open,” he said after scattering eight bogeys in an 80. “It’s cold. It starts to rain. There’s nowhere to miss the ball on this course.”

Andrade and Montgomerie sat atop the leaderboard nearly all day and they were more than content. It was a day for precision and patience. Montgomerie compared it to the rigors of a U.S. Open.

“I’m very rarely happy with a round of golf – ever,” Montgomerie said. “I’ve shot level par today and I’m very happy leaving here.”

The 59-year-old Kuramoto won 30 times on the Japan Tour, the second-most in that tour’s history. He tied for fourth in the 1982 British Open.

But he’s now chairman of the PGA of Japan. He has no time for practice. He plays only on the side, something he does well enough to have won the Japan Senior Open and one other event while competing in 11 Japan Senior Tour events in 2014.

He hit eight of 11 fairways and 11 greens in regulation Thursday, but scrambled to save par six of seven opportunities. He countered two bogeys with three birdies.

Kuramoto said he hasn’t played three consecutive days of golf since November.

“I don’t have the confidence at all,” Kuramoto said through an interpreter, wife Margie. “So I don’t think that I’m going to be able to keep the lead.”

Weather conditions are expected to ease. The predicted high is in the low 70s for Friday’s second round, climbing toward the low 80s by Sunday.

The challenge will remain.

The Dye Course is situated on a tall hilltop with Hoosier National Forest falling away in all directions. Its fairways plunge and soar over sharp slopes and afford all manner of risky shots and awkward lies. Its small greens are difficult targets and a poorly placed shot can roll off and well away.

The Senior PGA Championship is coming off venues that over the past three years permitted the lowest scoring in tournament history. The field averaged 73.040 for four rounds at Harbor Shores in Benton Harbor, Michigan, in 2012. The number was 72.78 at Bellerive Country Club in St. Louis in 2013, and 73.018 back at Harbor Shores last year.

The field averaged 77.73 for the first round Thursday. There were 56 scores of 80 or higher.

Six players reached 2 under. None could hold on.

“Normally, I would be angry because I finished level par,” said one of them, Remesy, a Frenchman in his second season as a senior. “But I’m pleased to be here and pleased to be in contention.”

Three Canadians are in the field this week. Rod Spittle opened with a 5 over 77, Rick Gibson had a 78 and was 6 over, while Jim Rutledge carded a 79 to sit 7 over.