RIDGEDALE, Mo. –  Former college teammates John Cook and Joey Sindelar shot a 10-under 60 in better-ball play Friday to take the first-round lead in the Champions Tour’s Bass Pro Shops Legends of Golf.

“It’s pretty special to remain friends for over 30 years after we’ve been done, 35 years actually,” Cook said. “So, it’s a great partnership. We’ve had a nice run in this event, chance to win a couple of times and it’s good to see him healthy and back. I’m happy to be back out playing. I feel like I haven’t played hardly at all this year. We kind of pulled each other along and going to enjoy the next couple days.”

Cook and Sindelar birdied the final four holes on Buffalo Ridge’s regulation Springs course in the round that was delayed an hour at the start because of rain.

“To watch the rain that happened and then one hour later be on them and the ball is going forward as it hits on the greens and the putting was fantastic,” Sindelar said. “Whether you made them or not, it wasn’t the greens, they were magnificent. … These greens held up so beautifully.”

The teams of Jay Don Blake-David Frost and Mark Brooks-John Huston were tied for second. They also opened at Buffalo Ridge.

Ian Woosnam and Sandy Lyle had the best score at the par-3 Top of the Rock course, a 7-under 47 for nine holes of modified alternate shot and nine holes of better ball.

“I quite enjoyed that format and it worked well for us,” Lyle said. “We made some birdies and birdied some of the hard holes as well, which is always a little bonus.”

They grew up near each other, with Lyle in Scotland and Woosnam in Wales.

“We’ve known each other since we were about 12,” Woosnam said. “We only lived 20 miles from each other and we’ve been playing basically in the same competitions since 12 years of age.”

Larry Nelson and Larry Fleisher led the Legends Division for players 65 and older, shooting a 47 on the par-3 course. John Bland and Graham Marsh were second after a 66 at Buffalo Ridge.

Jack Nicklaus and Gary Player were tied for third at 3 under after a 51 on the Nicklaus-designed par-3 layout.

“I think both Gary and I hit the ball reasonably well,” the 75-year-old Nicklaus said. “We did what we had to do. We didn’t make too many mistakes. We did three-putt a hole on the front nine, first nine we played, but we hit a lot of good shots.”

AVONDALE, La. – Hudson Swafford didn’t want to dwell on the pressure of the high-stakes weekend that awaits him.

Tied for the Zurich Classic lead after a 6-under 66 on Friday in the suspended second round, the 2011 Georgia graduate was eager to meet some college friends from New Orleans and take advantage of being in Louisiana during crawfish season.

“I’m probably going to eat some mud bugs with my wife, some crawfish downtown, just walk around,” said easygoing Southerner, winless on the PGA Tour. “Got to see the sights here and take in the good food.”

Boo Weekley also was tied for the lead at 11 under when play was suspended ay at TPC Louisiana because of the threat of severe thunderstorms. Weekley, tied for first-round lead after a 64, had three holes left.

Jason Day, ranked sixth in the world, was 5 under for the round through 14 holes, pulling him into a five-way tie for third at 10 under with Brandon de Jonge, Cameron Tringale, former Zurich champion Jerry Kelly and Daniel Berger. Tringale had a 65, and de Jonge shot 70. Kelley was on the 18th green when play was stopped, and Berger had three holes left.

Canada’s David Hearn had a share of 8th at 9-under thru 11 holes.

Second-round play was scheduled to resume Saturday at 8 a.m. CDT.

De Jonge, from Zimbabwe, was the co-leader after the first round and might have remained atop the leaderboard had he not narrowly missed several putts. But he was briefly tied for the lead again late in his morning round when he hit his tee shot within a few feet of the pin on the par-3 17th and made his birdie putt. He narrowly missed another birdie putt on 18.

“I gave myself a lot of chances,” de Jonge said. “I just didn’t make any putts.”

De Jonge, who has more than 220 PGA Tour starts without a victory, is well aware that seven of the past 10 Zurich Classics have concluded with first-time Tour winners, and hopes to continue that trend.

“Obviously, I would like to win and get the monkey off your back,” he said. “But when it’s your time;, it will be your time.”

The field remained tightly packed with birdies seemingly harder to come by on Friday. Many players cited a combination of wind, soggy turf from recent rains and thick, swampy air as reasons the course to play even longer than usual.

Six players were tied for eighth, just two shots off the lead. They were Chad Campbell, Morgan Hoffman, Steven Bowditch, Justin Thomas, Chris Stroud and David Hearn.

Seven more players were at eight under, including Marc Leishman, who returned to the PGA Tour this weekend after taking a month off from golf to tend to family when his wife became gravely ill.

With his wife, Audrey, recovering, Leishman came to New Orleans saying he just wanted to “knock off some rust.” He did a lot better than that and is now in line for a nice pay-day, given officials were estimating the cut line at four under.

Leishman was 10 under for the round through 17 holes, putting him in position to set a course record with a birdie on the par-5 18th. But after a booming drive, Leishman gambled on an aggressive second shot, using his driver on the fairway. He pushed his ball to the right and into a water hazard. When play was stopped, he was on the fringe, lying four, needing to sink his next shot on Saturday morning to tie the course record of 62.

“Hopefully, I’ll hole out or get up and down for bogey,” said Leishman, who shot a 74 on Thursday. “It was a good day, my expectations were pretty much non-existent this week.

“It’s just good to be out there and knock the cobwebs off,” the Australian added. “Today, I hit some good shots and holed some putts and all of a sudden you’re 10-under.”

Weekley, a three-time PGA Tour winner, continued to play well with new shafts that he credited for a strong first round after missing the cut in three of his previous four tournaments.

Swafford, in only his second season on the tour, had six birdies during his second round.

His best finish is tied for eighth at the Frys.com Open last October, though his most impressive outing may have been at last month’s Arnold Palmer invitational at Bay Hill, where he tied for 11th.

Swafford said he has been gaining confidence since adjusting his back swing earlier this year and figured he’d contend for a win before long.

“I have seen it coming, I really have,” Swafford said. “I’ve seen a lot of good golf, seen a lot of good motions, displayed a lot of patience. So I’m not overly surprised with this.”

DALY CITY, Calif. – Brooke Henderson fiddles with her earrings between shots, purses her lips and anxiously watches each shot, then politely responds and makes eye contact when someone in the gallery engages her with a compliment.

Henderson is the new 17-year-old with serious swagger in women’s golf.

She shot a tournament-record 7-under 65 to take the lead halfway through the second round of the Swinging Skirts LPGA Classic on Friday.

“That’s pretty cool,” the 17-year-old Smiths Falls, Ont., native said about her low score.

That round put her at 9 under at Lake Merced Golf Club, where world No. 1 and defending champion Lydia Ko shot an even-par 72 to remain 5 under after taking the first-round lead Thursday. There were still afternoon rounds to play Friday, including by local favorite Juli Inkster after her opening 68.

Na Yeon Choi was two strokes back at after a 68. The 27-year-old South Korean eagled the par-5, 475-yard 14th and had three birdies on her front nine.

Yueer Cindy Feng of China stood in third place at 6 under.

As Ko celebrated her 18th birthday, she cleared the way for a new teen star to shine.

“I think I’m ready. Yeah, 17 is young,” Henderson said. “As you’ve seen with Lydia Ko and Lexi Thompson and even Jessica Korda, there are a lot of great names that have been able to do it. I’m hoping that I’m one of them.”

The long-driving Henderson eagled the 14th, hitting a 3-wood approach and making a 15-foot putt. She also had six birdies.

Henderson regularly hears how she is fearless and goes for it on shots when others might be more conservative, and that approach sure worked for her in the tricky conditions at Lake Merced.

Not that she has necessarily noticed any extra hype.

Caddie Bunk Lee insists they didn’t even know she had jumped to the top of the leaderboard in just her 10th career LPGA Tour event. Though Henderson grabbed a few glances at the leaderboard “here and there.”

“I was able to stay in a rhythm today,” Henderson said. “I got into it early, and I was able stay there all day, which was nice.”

She and her older sister, Brittany, tied for second place in last month’s Florida’s Natural Charity Classic, a Symetra Tour event that earned them each $10,000-plus paydays.

In many ways, Henderson – a member of Team Canada’s Young Pro Squad – appears to be a veteran unfazed by golf’s big stage.

“She’s far above most 17 year olds as far as maturity is concerned,” Lee said. “She’s very calm, she’s very patient, her thought process is very clear. Her ability to focus is astounding. … It’s an absolute joy to be on this bag.”

While she wasn’t particularly happy with her golf, Ko was serenaded with “Happy Birthday” and presented with a cake, and she covered her face briefly in embarrassment. Some 300 people followed her group in the gallery for parts of the round.

Ko, the first-round leader after a leading after a 67, drew an early tee time and had evening dinner plans to celebrate with friends. She got a new iPhone from her mother and her peers have told her she “upgraded.”

She was headed for some Korean barbecue, “go to the original roots.”

“No more singing, please,” Ko joked after her round. “Really cool to share this birthday with a lot of the people out here. Lots more time to celebrate tonight. It was a good day. It is really cool that now I’m an adult … big 18.”

And Ko found herself again talking about the fact age is no issue in golf, this time not about Inkster but someone younger – Henderson.

“She’s still 17 in a lot of ways, and that’s a good thing,” the caddie, Lee, said. “She’s not getting ahead of herself, and I think it’s very refreshing. We rolled into the parking lot and it started from there, and it was a good day.”

PONTE VEDRA BEACH, Fla. – The Quebec Championship has been dropped from the Champions Tour schedule. The event was scheduled for Sept. 4-6.

The PGA Tour announced the decision Friday, saying tournament organizers recently informed the Champions Tour they were unable to adequately fund a full-field event this year following financial difficulties last season during the inaugural tournament.

Wes Short Jr. won in September at La Tempete Golf Club in Quebec City. The tournament was the first PGA Tour-sanctioned event in the area since the 1956 Labatt Open at Royal Quebec.

PONTE VEDRA BEACH, Fla. – Tiger Woods has added The Players Championship to his schedule, another indication that he is getting back to a normal golf season.

Woods won The Players the last time he played in 2013. He missed last year while recovering from back surgery that forced him to miss a combined seven months in 2014. He sat out two months earlier this year to work on his game – particularly his chipping – after posting a career-high 82 in Phoenix.

Woods is No. 106 in the world ranking and did not qualify for the Match Play Championship next week in San Francisco. The Players Championship is May 7-10.

Jack Nicklaus said earlier this week that Woods told him he would be at the Memorial, which is June 4-7.

Looking forward to going back to THE PLAYERS this year, hoping for a repeat of 2013.

— Tiger Woods (@TigerWoods) April 24, 2015

SHANGHAI – Julien Quesne shot a 5-under 67 Friday to take a one-stroke lead over defending champion Alexander Levy and Peter Uihlein after the second round at the Volvo China Open.

The Frenchman, a two-time winner on the European Tour, had six birdies and one bogey for an 8-under 136 overall score.

“We had less wind today so it was a little bit easier,” Quesne said. “I don’t miss many shots so I was very confident.”

Levy (68) was also playing confidently, making three straight birdies on the back nine to take a one-stroke lead at 9 under. But he tried to hit out of a bunker with an iron on the par-4 16th and went into the water, taking a double-bogey.

Then, on the par-3 17th, Levy hit into the bunker off the tee and two-putted for bogey. He got one stroke back with a birdie on the 18th – his seventh of the day.

“It’s a shame to make a double because I played really good today,” Levy said. “Maybe next time I do a different thing, a more safe play out of the bunker on the right, but it’s OK.”

Levy joked that he might make a bet with Quesne on who will perform better this weekend, but his friend still owes him 10 euros from a wager they made last week at the Shenzhen International about a shot that eventual champion Kiradech Aphibarnrat hit on the final day.

“Maybe tomorrow I ask him on the first tee. Maybe he give it to me,” the Frenchman said.

Uihlein finished his round with an iron shot over a water feature on the par-5 18th that rolled straight into the hole for eagle. It was only the second eagle of the day on the difficult greens at Tomson Golf Course.

“It’s funny you can go for really all of (the par 5 holes). I’ve gone for all of them this week,” the American said. “They’re really small, undulating greens. … You can see from the scoring, it’s a tricky little course.”

Both Quesne and Uihlein are coming off solid performances last week in Shenzhen, where they tied for fourth. Levy finished last season on a roll with a win at the Portugal Masters and a tie for second at the BMW Masters, but he’s yet to get a top-10 result this year.

Six golfers were just two strokes behind Levy and Uihlein on a crowded leaderboard, including Kiradech (68), rising Chinese star Li Haotong (68) and Matteo Manassero (68).

Manassero is trying to recapture the form that saw him become the youngest winner in European Tour history at 17 in 2010. The Italian said his game hit a low point over the past eight months when he failed to crack the top 40 at any tournament and missed five straight cuts to start the year.

He said he started to turn things around last week in Shenzhen, where he finished in a tie for 29th.

“I don’t want to say I’m out of the woods but I’m definitely in a much better path,” Manassero said. “I can still miss, but one mistake doesn’t drag me into something that leads to other mistakes. I can handle it. Probably that right now is what makes all the difference.”

LOMPOC, Calif. – France’s Julien Brun managed a 2-under 70 Thursday at La Purisima Golf Course to take the lead through three rounds at PGA Tour Canada’s California Qualifying Tournament.

The three-time NCAA first team All-American, who is playing as an amateur and will complete his collegiate career with the Texas Christian University Horned Frogs following Q-School this week, led by one over Albuquerque’s Sam Saunders, who is also competing as an amateur, along with Danville, California’s Jeff Hamm and League City, Texas native Curtis Donahoe.

“It was very solid. I didn’t put myself in many bad situations. I didn’t have to save many pars from all over the place, and it was really a stress-free round,” said Brun, who owns nine career NCAA victories along with a Challenge Tour win in 2012. “I was able to put myself in the fairway many times and gave myself a lot of opportunities despite the wind. It was a very good round.”

This week marks a stretch of important events coming up for Brun, who will join his teammates at the Big 12 conference championships immediately after Q-School, with NCAA Regional and National Championships in the following weeks. Still, Brun said his focus remains on earning status on PGA Tour Canada for when he begins his professional career later this spring.

“I’m just taking it one day and one hole at a time. It’s a tough course and a good field, so I can’t take it easy out there. I need to play my best,” said Brun.

Donahoe posted his second sub-par round of the week to reach 4-under with Hamm and Saunders, whose brother Steve is a Web.com Tour member and PGA Tour Canada alumnus, while 36-hole leader David Mills shared fifth spot with Nathan Tarter at 3-under.

Canada’s Taylor Pendrith slipped to eighth after a third-round 76.

The medalist this week will earn exempt status on PGA Tour Canada for 2015. Finishers 2-18 will be exempt through the first six events and subject to the re-shuffle, with the rest of the top 40 (plus ties) earning conditional status. The cutoff for the top 18 through the first round was at 3-over, with the cutoff for the top 40 at 7-over.

AVONDALE, La. – Boo Weekley solved his uncharacteristic ball-striking problems with new shafts.

A day after changing the shafts in his irons, Weekley shot an 8-under 64 on Thursday in the Zurich Classic of New Orleans for a share of the first-round lead with Brendon de Jonge.

“You go to tinkering around with clubs and you finally find a shaft, and (True Temper) finally stepped up and built me a set of clubs and they worked,” said Weekley, the three-time PGA Tour winner who missed the cuts in four of his past six tournaments. “I’ve been missing something in my game, and it was because I (haven’t) been able to control my irons. It just starts messing with you mentally.”

Weekley had an eagle, seven birdies and a bogey at rain-softened TPC Louisiana. De Jonge, from Zimbabwe, had eight birdies in a bogey-free round.

Sean O’Hair and Canada’s David Hearn shot 65 on the Pete Dye-designed layout.

Tour rookie Mark Hubbard had five consecutive birdies in the middle of his round and finished with a 66. He was tied with Erik Compton, Brian Davis, Greg Owen and Daniel Berger.

Dustin Johnson, ranked No. 7 in the world, was at 67 in a large group that included former Zurich winner K.J. Choi and Jason Day, the highest ranked player in the field at No. 6.

Weekley, from Milton, Florida, played in front of a number of family and friends. He eagled the par-5 second hole and added birdies on the fifth and eighth holes. He bogeyed the ninth, but rallied with birdies on Nos. 11-13 and closed with a birdie on the par-5 18th.

“I felt like if the putts would have fallen that I hit, I felt like it could have been a 59 easy,” Weekley said after posting his lowest score in more than two years. “I felt like I should have easily shot 8-under on the front side.”

De Jonge, starting on the back nine, birdied three consecutive holes after a par on his first hole and made the turn at 4 under. He had four straight birdies on the back, but failed to birdie the par-5 eighth.

De Jonge, who hit 12 of 14 fairways and 15 of 18 greens, played the par 4s in 7 under but was only 1 under on the par 5s in his lowest round of the year.

“I left a couple of shots on the par 5s but made it up on the par 4s,” said de Jonge, who added he has never played well at TPC New Orleans. “The course was there for the taking. You’ve obviously got to hit the fairways, but the tour let us play (lift, clean and place), so that was the key out there today.”

O’Hair was 3 under after his first two holes, including an eagle on the first when he knocked in his second shot from 123 yards. He was 7 under through his first 11 holes, but bogeyed the 12th before closing with a birdie on the 18th.

“I kind of caught myself pressing on the back nine,” said O’Hair, who has two top 10s in his past four tournaments, including a sixth-place finishes this past week at the RBC Heritage. “Once I got to 7 (under) I was kind of pushing a little bit, forcing a little bit on the greens.”

Players were allowed to lift, clean and place their balls in anticipation of showers that arrived in mid- afternoon, suspending play for 1 hour, 18 minutes. A calm wind for much of the day along with soft greens left the course defenseless.

“Hopefully, the weather (Friday) will be good,” Day said after a round in which he hit two balls in the water on the par-3 third for a double-bogey 5 and followed with a bogey on the fourth hole. “It will be good to see the course dry out, and obviously when the weather comes in it’s no fun for anyone.”

DALY CITY, Calif. – As Lydia Ko geared up to turn 18 on Friday at the Swinging Skirts LPGA Classic, right behind her on the leaderboard was 54-year-old Juli Inkster.

Refreshed and ready to make a run at defending her title, the top-ranked Ko returned from two weeks off to take the first-day lead Thursday at 5-under 67.

Ko nearly chipped in for eagle on the par-5 14th, but the ball deflected off the pin and she settled for a tap-in birdie putt, and that moved her to the top of the leaderboard at Lake Merced Golf Club.

“This is a very tough golf course. You need to position yourself well,” Ko said. “I hit the ball pretty good where I wasn’t in too much trouble. If I did miss it a little bit, I did get away with it, too. It’s a really good start but I know I’ve got three long days to go.”

Ko will celebrate her birthday on the course Friday then go out for a nice dinner with friends. Paired with Anna Nordqvist and Lexi Thompson, Ko pulled on a jacket midway through her round in the afternoon chill and finished strong.

Ko had a one-stroke lead over three others, including Inkster. Stacy Lewis, last year’s runner-up to Ko at Lake Merced, was two strokes back at 69.

“It was probably one of the craziest rounds of golf I’ve ever played,” said Lewis, who recovered from four bogeys on her front nine with an eagle on the par-4 11th and three birdies on the back.

Ko had birdies on consecutive holes three times – Nos. 5-6, 8-9 and 13-14 – with just one bogey.

“The first couple holes were playing down wind, so that made it a lot easier,” she said. “A lot depends on the wind. It really depends on the conditions of the day and the scores are really good.”

Ko was followed by a gallery of about 100 fans early, and first-day attendance seemed to be a noticeable improvement from a year ago for the tournament’s inaugural round. The wind picked up significantly in the afternoon.

Inkster, done hours earlier before the wind began whipping in earnest, quickly corrected the notion she is facing a talented LPGA field with women her daughters’ ages.

“Yeah, they’re a lot younger than my daughters,” she said with a grin. “They’re 25 and 21. Out here that’s a seasoned veteran. You know what, that’s the beauty about golf. I mean, age matters in a lot of things as far as how your body feels and how far you hit the ball and how much time you can put into it. You can still go out there and compete at 54.”

Inkster, a local icon, birdied six of her first 10 holes for a 68 on a cool, breezy morning off the ocean. She had no idea that put her on top of the leaderboard after the morning rounds.

“I didn’t know I was,” Inkster said. “The way I played today, no, I’m not surprised. … Coming into this week, my game feels pretty good.”

Lewis joked that a leaderboard with Inkster on top would make a good “Throwback Thursday” photo.

Ha Na Jang, who also shot a 68, made a 35-foot birdie putt on the par-3, 162-yard eighth for one of her eight birdies. P.K. Kongkraphan also had a 68.

Team Canada Young Pro Squad member Brooke Henderson had a share of ninth place after an opening-round 70.

British Columbia’s Sue Kim carded a 72 Thursday for a share of 28th.

Back for a second straight year at Lake Merced in the San Francisco suburbs, the tournament drew 18 of the top 20 players in the world – and it would have been one more before eighth-ranked Suzann Pettersen withdrew Wednesday because of an ailing shoulder.

Paula Creamer was at risk of missing the cut after a 10-over 82. She had four bogeys and a pair of double bogeys.

TORONTO — Team Canada Young Pro Squad member Brooke Henderson can add another award to her already extensive trophy case, as she was named the Syl Apps Ontario Athlete of the Year Award recipient by the Ontario Sports Hall of Fame.

The Hall announced their 2015 inductees and award winners April 22. Henderson, a Smiths Falls, Ont., native had a terrific 2014 season as an amateur before turning professional in December.  She will be presented the award at the 20^th annual Ontario Sports Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony, which will be held Sept. 24 in Toronto.

The Syl Apps Ontario Athlete of the Year Award was unveiled in 1998 and is named after former Toronto Maple Leafs captain and Olympic pole-vaulter Syl Apps.

As the 2014 winner, Henderson is the first female golfer to win the award and only the second female to take the prize. It is the fourth time an Ontario golfer has earned the honour as Mike Weir was the 1999, 2000 and 2003 recipient of the honour. At just 17-years-old, Henderson is also the youngest winner of the award.

Henderson had an impressive 2014 where she won the Ontario Women’s Amateur Championship, Porter Cup, Scott Robertson Memorial Tournament, South Atlantic Ladies Amateur, Canadian Women’s Tour – Ontario, Espirito Santo Trophy and finished runner up at the U.S. Women’s Amateur. Henderson was also the number one ranked amateur in the world before turning professional.

Since turning pro, Henderson has already captured two Sun Coast Series championships and played in numerous LPGA and Symetra Tour tournaments.

The Syl Apps Ontario Athlete of the Year Award is voted on by Ontario-based sports writers, broadcasters/personalities (with at least 10 years experience covering sports in the province), members of the Ontario Sports Hall of Fame Board of Directors and the Hall’s Advisory Board. Points are awarded on a five, three and one point structure with voters asked to name their top three athletic performers on their ballot.

To be eligible for the Award, athletes must be Ontario-born or Ontario-based and made an outstanding and memorable contribution to Ontario sports during the previous calendar year.