LONDON, Ont. – The only all-Canadian group at the Canadian Pacific Women’s Open got more than polite golf claps from the many fans who followed them throughout the first round.

“They clapped for everything,” Brooke Henderson said. “It was awesome. The support out there was amazing.”

Buoyed by that support, Jennifer Kirby had the best day of any Canadian with a 5-under 67, while Henderson and Rebecca Lee-Bentham each shot 2 under.

Inside the ropes, Kirby said playing with two friends made her feel “comfortable.” The Paris, Ont., native was able to play it safe and still hole five birdies.

“Bogey-free round, took advantage of the par 5s for the most part and hit it close on a few and didn’t really make any big mistakes,” Kirby said.

Kirby goes into Friday’s morning tee time four strokes behind leader So Yeon Ryu, who set a new course record at the London Hunt and Country Club with her 9-under 63.

Henderson, the 16-year-old amateur phenom, and Lee-Bentham aren’t far off the pace. There was plenty of pressure on Henderson going into the tournament, but she showed no signs of cracking Thursday.

“I hit the ball great all day,” the Smiths Falls, Ont., native said. “I hit a lot of greens and had a lot of opportunities for birdie. They didn’t fall today but hopefully over the next couple of days they’ll make up for it.”

Lee-Bentham, who’s from Toronto, said she “felt a lot of love” from the crowd all day.

“It’s more than usual, so it was more fun out there,” she said.

A few other Canadians were able to have fun without stressing about playing in front of home-country fans. Amateur Elizabeth Tong of Thornhill, Ont., and Sara-Maude Juneau of Fossambault, Que., joined Henderson and Lee-Bentham at 2 under.

Tong, who’s going back to school at the University of Indiana next week, just qualified Monday and called being in the tournament a bonus.

“That beat my expectations,” Tong said of her first round. “I was just looking to shoot like around par, keep it together, because I definitely knew people were going to shoot like 64, 65 the whole day. Just keep myself in there because the main goal is to make the cut, if anything. I think I put myself in a good position there.”

Sue Kim from Langley, B.C., was the only other Canadian of the 15 in the tournament to be under par at 1 under.

Alena Sharp (Hamilton) and amateur Jennifer Ha (Calgary) shot an even-par 72; Lorie Kane (Charlottetown), Maude-Aimee LeBlanc (Sherbrooke, Que.) and Erica Rivard (Tecumseh, Ont.) shot 73; Samantha Richdale (Kelowna, B.C.) and Nicole Vandermade (Brantford, Ont.) shot 74 and Jessica Wallace (Langley) and Natalie Gleadall (Stratford, Ont.) shot 75.

(Bath, ON) – Briston, Tennessee’s Jay Vandeventer shot an 8-under 64 on Thursday at Loyalist Golf Club to take the first round lead at The Great Waterway Classic. The 23-year old led by one over a group of players that included Baddeck, Nova Scotia’s Peter Campbell, Austin, Texas’ Creighton Honeck, Aberdeen, Scotland’s Paul Cormack and Santee, California’s Daniel Miernicki.

Vandeventer, a University of Tennessee graduate, carded six birdies and an eagle on the day, and credited a hot putter for his round, the best of his first season on PGA TOUR Canada.

“I finally got the putter rolling early, which was a change from the last couple of events,” said Vandeventer, who has three top-25 finishes in his first PGA TOUR Canada season, with his best finish a tie for 18^th at the Syncrude Boreal Open presented by AECON. “I’ve been hitting it pretty well. I’ve just been lacking some putts to fall.”

The round was nearly one stroke better, with 10-footer for eagle at 18 suffering a hard lip-out. Vandeventer settled for birdie, his second straight to finish off his round, and said he was pleased with his start and prospects for the rest of the tournament.

“I had a pretty good read on it and actually hit a really good putt,” said Vandeventer of the 10-footer for eagle. “It was dead centre right there just about a foot out and just broke, but I was really happy with the birdie. I made a bunch of pars on the back nine, so to birdie 17 and 18 feels pretty good.”

“This is a good round today, but I have three more, hopefully. I just want to keep that putter hot and keep my composure and go on from there,” added the PGA TOUR Canada rookie.”

One shot back of the group at 7-under were eight players, including Canadians Max Gilbert of St. Georges, Quebec and Ted Brown of Peterborough, Ontario.

CAMPBELL CONTINUES SOLID PLAY WITH 65
Coming off his best career PGA TOUR Canada finish with a tie for second at the Forces & Families Open, Baddeck, Nova Scotia’s Peter Campbell kept the solid play going on Thursday with a 7-under 65 to sit tied for second.

“I’m just trying to keep the momentum going. The putter’s still rolling good, and that makes a huge difference,” said the 31-year old, who added that he feels re-charged for the season’s final four events after a week off at his residence in Windermere, Florida. “It was good to go home, chill out a little bit and spend some time with my little girl and my wife.”

Campbell, who currently sits 31^st on the Order of Merit, also ranks 23^rd on the NEC Series – PGA TOUR Latinoamérica Order of Merit, and is looking forward to the opportunity to earn status on the Web.com Tour on both Tours.

“That’s the goal,” Campbell said. “I think I’m in a decent position to move up that money. I’m in a good position here, and I’ve got a chance in Latin America if this doesn’t work out, so I’ve got two shots at it.”

MIERNICKI RIDES HOT PUTTER AFTER TIME OFF
California Qualifying Tournament medalist Daniel Miernicki hasn’t played on PGA TOUR Canada since a fourth place finish at the Staal Foundation Open presented by Tbaytel, partially due to a nagging wrist injury. He showed no signs of rust on Thursday, though, firing a 7-under 65 to share second place after day one.

“I had nine putts on the front, so I pretty much made everything. It was a good way to get out of the gate,” said Miernicki. “I finished up well birdieing my last two so that felt good.”

Miernicki Monday Qualified for the Stonebrae Classic on the Web.com Tour earlier this month, but withdrew to tend to his wrist. With a clean bill of health on Thursday, the 24-year old said he’s excited about his chances for this week.

“I was a little rusty – I haven’t been playing that much, especially with my ballstriking, but I putted awesome, so if that comes around hopefully I’ll have a chance come the weekend.”

Peter Campbell is the leading Canadian , he’s  tied for second. Ted Brown and Max Gilbert are tied for sixth.

LONDON, Ont. – On the eve of the Canadian Pacific Women’s Open, So Yeon Ryu, Na Yeon Choi and Inbee Park got together for dinner with some fellow South Korean golfers. While Park picked up the tab after winning the LPGA Championship, all three benefited from the fellowship.

Ryu set a new course record with a 9-under 63, Choi was one shot behind her and Park three off the lead after the first round of the US$2.25-million tournament at the London Hunt and Country Club. Traditional Korean food was on the menu, but Ryu credited the company, rather than the cuisine, for her strong start.

“We had a talk together to help us relax,” Ryu said. “Sometimes when you’re hanging out with really good friends, it can make you more relaxed and enjoy the golf. Today, I really enjoyed my golf. That comes from great friendship.”

Ryu’s 63 was one shy of the tournament record, and her 9-under-par tied the best mark, set in 2009 by Song-Hee Kim. The 63 was also a competitive course record at London Hunt and Country Club. The 24-year-old hit nine birdies and played a bogey-free round.

Choi chipped in three times during her morning round, and her 8 under looked like it would stand up until Ryu got hot on the back nine. Choi knew she chipped in twice from inside of 10 yards and once from a bunker 25 yards away but had to check her scorecard to figure out how many birdies she hit.

“I felt good about my game, but I didn’t really realize I had five birdies in a row,” Choi said. “I didn’t really think about I want to birdie every hole.”

Choi credits Canadian manager Greg Morrison for her love of and strong play in Canada. Her career-best round of 62 came in last year’s Manulife Financial LPGA at the Grey Silo Golf Course in Waterloo, Ont.

When Ryu saw Choi’s score before she teed off, she thought 3 under would be a realistic goal for her.

“But I shot 9 under, so I’m more happy,” Ryu said with a smile.

Swede Anna Nordqvist, who was playing with and pushed along by Ryu, was alone in third at 7 under.

“She made nine birdies today and I made seven,” Nordqvist said. “It gives you a lot of momentum or a lot of positive energy just seeing a lot of birdies.”

Park, who lamented missing a few five- or six-foot putts, was part of a group at 6 under along with Azahara Munoz, Danielle Kang and Xi Yu Lin. Other than that, she called it a “perfect round.”

“Ball-striking was almost perfect,” Park said. “Everything as pretty much right on line. These greens, they didn’t have much breaks in them, but I misread them, a couple of them. Hopefully I’ll play a little bit better tomorrow and hole some more putts.”

Park predicted that, given the softened conditions of the course due to overnight rain, she would have to be more than 20-under par to win this tournament. Choi didn’t think that was realistic until she wrapped up.

“Actually I was thinking like under 15,” Choi said. “But after my score today, which means – if I shoot like 8 under, I think everyone could shoot like 8-under, so we will see.”

Jennifer Kirby (Paris, Ont.) finished at 5 under as the low Canadian. Her playing partners, Brooke Henderson (Smiths Falls, Ont.) and Rebecca Lee-Bentham (Toronto) were each 2 under, along with amateur Elizabeth Tong (Thornhill, Ont.) and Sara-Maude Juneau (Fossambault, Que.).

“I think this course is very scoreable, so I think that it was a good round today, but I still left a few out there,” Kirby said.

Choi left at least one shot on the course, too, as her birdie putt on No. 9 – her final hole of the day – lipped out. A tie for the lead might’ve done wonders for a player who hasn’t won a tournament since the 2012 U.S. Open.

Similarly, Ryu hasn’t won in two years, so the two friends can try to help each other through.

“We kind of talk about how can we get through this one, how do we think about this situation,” Ryu said. “I realize I’m not the only (one going) through the hard time. That kind of conversation makes me more relieved.”

If Ryu and Choi manage to keep up this play through the weekend, one of them might pick up the tab at the next team dinner.

“I’m glad to buy a dinner for them,” Ryu said. “I haven’t won any tournaments the last two years so I’ve been waiting. I wish I can win this week.”

VYSOKY UJEZD, Czech Republic — Jamie Donaldson shot a 6-under 66 on Thursday to take first-round lead at the Czech Masters and boost his chances of securing a spot on the European Ryder Cup team.

Seeking his third European Tour victory, the Welshman produced two straight birdies on his last two holes to top the leaderboard. He made a total of eight birdies and two bogeys at the Albatross Golf course near Prague.

“I played nicely all the way, really,” Donaldson said. “I just need more the same over the next three rounds. There’s a lot of difficult holes.”

Sweden’s Mikael Lundberg was one stroke back in second place, with a group of 10 players carding 68.

Donaldson currently has a qualifying spot for his debut Ryder Cup but still needs a good result to guarantee a place in Paul McGinley’s team for next month’s match against the United States at Gleneagles.

Two other Ryder Cup hopefuls – Stephen Gallacher of Scotland and Joost Luiten of the Netherlands both shot 70.

Play was delayed by an hour due to lightning.

NANJING, Chine ─ Les Canadiens Maddie Szeryk et Tony Gil ont pris les  15^e et 22^e places ex æquo de leur division respective au terme des trois rondes en partie par coups de la compétition de golf des Jeux olympiques d’été de la jeunesse, à Nanjing en Chine.

Szerik, qui possède la double citoyenneté canadienne et américaine, a signé trois cartes consécutives de 74 pour terminer 222, plus 6, au Club de golf international de Zhongstan. La golfeuse de 18 ans a été constante en troisième ronde, réussissant 16 normales tout en étant débitée de deux bogeys, terminant ainsi la journée à plus 2.

La Sud-Coréenne Soyoung Lee a remporté la médaille d’or dans la division des filles, à moins 14. La Taïwanaise Ssu-Chia Cheng a raflé l’argent et la Thaïlandaise Supamas Sangchan le bronze.

Chez les garçons, Tony Gil, de Vaughan en Ontario, n’a pu continuer sur sa lancée de la première ronde alors qu’il avait signé une carte de 69 et réussi ce faisant un trou d’un coup. Âgé de 16 ans, Gil a remis une carte de 76, plus 4, en ronde finale pour terminer à 220, plus 4 (69-75-76). Le membre de la formation de développement d’Équipe Canada a fini à 15 coups du médaillé d’or, l’Italien Renato Paratore, sixième du classement mondial amateur.

L’entraîneur de l’équipe, Robert Ratcliffe, a identifié les facettes du jeu sur lesquelles les deux Canadiens devront concentrer leurs efforts lors de la compétition par équipes qui débutera dimanche.

« Nous allons focaliser sur les roulés au cours des prochains jours », de dire Ratcliffe qui est aussi l’entraîneur-chef de la formation de développement d’Équipe Canada. « Les verts sont très spongieux et un peu plus lents ici, ce qui a causé des ennuis à Maddie et Tony. »

La compétition par équipes durera trois jours, chaque ronde se déroulant selon une formule différente, soit alternance des coups, meilleure balle et score combiné.

 Cliquez ici pour les résultats de la division des garçons.

Cliquez ici pour les résultats de la division des filles.

NANJING, China – After three days of stroke play, Canada’s Maddie Szeryk and Tony Gil have finished T15 and T22 in their respective divisions.

Szeryk, a dual-citizen of Canada and the U.S., carded three consecutive rounds of 74 to finish at 6-over par in a tie for 15^th.  The 18-year-old had a steady final round, posting 16 pars to go along with two bogeys, putting her at 2-over par for the day.

The gold medal for the girls went to Korea’s Soyoung Lee, who finished at 14-under par. Silver was won by Ssu-Chia Cheng of Taiwan, and bronze by Supamas Sangchan of Thailand.

In the boys division, Tony Gil of Vaughan, Ont. struggled to mirror the success of his Tuesday’s opening round 69 – the 16-year-old posted a 4-over 76. In the end, the Team Canada Development Squad member finished at 4-over (69-75-76), 15 strokes back of the gold medal winner, Italy’s Renato Paratore, the no.5 ranked male amateur in the world.

Team coach, Robert Ratcliffe has identified some areas that they will focus on to improve results heading into the team competition later this week.

“We are really going to be working on some putting in the next few days,” said Ratcliffe, also Team Canada’s Lead Development Squad Coach. “The greens are very soft and a bit slower here, which caused some struggles for both Maddie and Tony.”

Team competition will run for three days, consisting of a different format each round. Sunday’s opening round will be better-ball, followed by alternate shot, and then by combined score.

Team competition will kick off at 8:30 am (CST) on Sunday.

Click here for girls results.

Click here for boys results.

Sherbrooke, Qué. (Golf Canada) – Mary Ann Hayward of Aurora, Ont. held onto her opening round lead in the second round of play on Wednesday at the Canadian Women’s Senior Championship, hosted by Club de golf Milby in Sherbrooke, Qué. 

Her second round score of 2-under 71 puts her seven strokes ahead of Pincourt, Qué.’s Helene Chartrand, who sits at even-par for the tournament.

“I felt good going into today’s round,” said Hayward. “It’s a very demanding course so you can’t take much for granted out there. I just wanted to have another good ball-striking day.”

The three-time champion is looking for her fourth win, which would earn her an exemption into the 2014 U.S. Women’s Senior. Hayward was a semifinalist in the international event in 2010. She will enter Thursday’s third and final round with a combined score of 5-under 141 for the tournament. 

“My game plan is the same for tomorrow,” Hayward said. “The key to this course is just keeping it on the right side of the hole.”

In the Inter-Provincial Team Competition, which is contested over the first 36 holes of the competition, the Team Ontario contingent of Hayward, Judith Allan-Kyrinis of Thornhill, Ont., and Ivy Steinberg of Stouffville, Ont. claimed the 2014 title with a total combined score of even-par 294. Team Québec’s squad of Marie-Therese Torti of Candiac, Qué., Marlene Desbiens of Clermont, Qué., and Susan Pearl of Ottawa, grabbed the runner-up spot with a final score of 6-over 310. 

Nova Scotia’s Ruth Maxwell of Dartmouth claimed the Super Senior (60+) title, also contested over the first 36 holes of the tournament. Maxwell grabbed first place in the division by one stroke with a combined score of 8-over 154, Teri deLuis of Brockville, Ont. and Holly Horwood of Vancouver shared second place in the division at 9-over for the championship. 

Starting times, post-round results, full field list, and live scoring are available here.

LONDON, Ont. – Winter was not kind to the London Hunt and Country Club, and Stacy Lewis heard stories about the poor condition the course was in.

But when the No. 1-ranked golfer on the LPGA Tour arrived for this week’s Canadian Pacific Women’s Open, she didn’t notice the effects of the snow and cold weather.

“The fairways are probably some of the best fairways we’ve had to hit off all year,” Lewis said. “You really can’t tell.”

Sixteen of 18 greens were unplayable, and course superintendent Jayson Griffiths said four or five were “over 90 per cent injured,” including the 18th hole. Of the four acres of greens, three of them were gone.

Players who walked the course in recent weeks could tell there had been damage, and they raved about the improvement.

“Coming into this week I was pleasantly surprised of how well (the greens) were rolling,” Canadian amateur Brooke Henderson said Wednesday. “I can’t imagine the amount of work they must have put in to get this course in such immaculate condition.”

Griffiths said it took “countless hours.” Those were spent preparing, seeding, watering, maintaining and waiting.

The result was something he is proud of going into this tournament, which features nine of the top 10 players in the world.

“It’s just a humbling experience, it really is, and it’s just a lot of hard work,” Griffiths said Tuesday. “I don’t think there was a weekend where both Brent McDougall and Deb (Dale), my assistant, left this golf course. We were watering from morning till night if need be. It was 24/7, 14 weeks to get here. It was just a lot of extraordinary efforts.”

Griffiths began to realize in November how bad a winter this could be, and over time he saw the “worst-case scenario” develop. With the ground frozen “well below four feet” and no irrigation system as a result, he and his staff had a three-day window in April to get the greens back up to par.

A crew of about 18 people seeded, germinated, watered the greens through 10,000-square-foot covers and waited. For a while, the course had just two greens to play on and 16 temporary ones, and members only got to play all of them beginning June 27.

“We keep calling it the fifth season: patience,” Griffiths said “We know that foot traffic on new seedlings, it just would not work. We would not be where we had if we had traffic.”

By the time players saw the course this week, it was tournament-calibre again. That’s essential with a field that features Lewis, LPGA Championship winner Inbee Park, two-time defending champion Lydia Ko and Suzann Pettersen, the top four players in the world.

Tournament director Brent McLaughlin of Golf Canada said the field is “second to none,” as usual.

“We obviously want the best,” he said on a conference call last week. “We are so lucky to have a long laundry list of such great players.”

Among the top-10 women’s golfers, only 2010 champion Michelle Wie is not here. Wie withdrew last week because of a hand injury.

Wie’s absence makes it a bit easier of a tournament on the other top players, but Ko – who won this event the past two years, in Edmonton and Vancouver – would like to beat the best.

“We would never say that, ‘Oh it’s good that she’s out,”’ Ko said on a conference call. “It’s really unfortunate that she has a fracture. She’s such an awesome player, and it would’ve been great to have Michelle there.”

Eight former champions will tee off Thursday: Ko, LPGA Championship runner-up Brittany Lincicome, Pettersen, Katherine Hull-Kirk, Cristie Kerr, Meena Lee, Karrie Webb and Laura Davies. Kerr won this tournament in 2006, the last time it was at London Hunt and Country Club.

How the course plays out the rest of the week, Griffiths said, will depend on how much it rains. Storms moved through the area Wednesday, and there were more in the forecast for Friday.

Ko, a 17-year-old from New Zealand who seems to bring her best golf to Canada, said no matter the weather it’s important to play the course’s giant greens as if they’re in sections.

“If the pin is on the left side you kind of want to think that the green is only that left half,” she said Wednesday. “But it’s going to be tough especially when you miss a couple shots, because even around the greens it’s not like there is fairway and then rough. It’s just rough straight on.”

It’s a difficult course because of that, but Canadian Jennifer Kirby expects a low-scoring tournament.

“The rough is thick, but it’s not too, too bad,” Kirby said. “I think that the scores will be pretty low, but the greens are massive, so I guess it all depends on where they put the pins.”

PARAMUS, N.J. – Rory McIlroy isn’t just biding his time for the next seven months until the Masters and his chance to complete the career Grand Slam.

Next up is the FedEx Cup and its $10 million bonus.

“It’s my next goal,” McIlroy said. “So I’m going to put everything into that.”

The FedEx Cup playoffs get underway Thursday at Ridgewood Country Club with The Barclays, the first of four tournaments in which the field size will be reduced each week until 30 players reach the finale at East Lake for the Tour Championship.

McIlroy has won his last three tournaments – two of them majors – and at No. 1 is starting to get some separation from the rest of golf.

He is the top seed at Ridgewood, but given these playoff events are worth five times the value of a regular PGA Tour event, that could be gone in one week. Because this is a Ryder Cup year, and the matches are overseas, the PGA Tour agreed to stage these playoff events in successive weeks.

The top 100 players in the FedEx Cup advance to the second week outside Boston; the top 70 advance to the third week in Denver; the top 30 go to Atlanta.

Here are five things to look for at the start of the FedEx Cup playoffs:

MCILROY’S MISSION: McIlroy went wire-to-wire to capture the British Open and he won a tense back-nine battle at the PGA Championship to become the third-youngest player (25) with four majors. Take a bow, Boy Wonder.

Now get back to work.

“I could just say, `Look, I’ve had a great year, it’s been an awesome summer. I’m going to just see what happens for the next few weeks and not really work hard,'” McIlroy said. “But I want to finish the season well. I want to be up there in contention week in and week out. I feel like the season I had deserves a finish like that.”

TOUGHEST FIELD: The Barclays could make a case as the strongest and deepest field all year on the PGA Tour.

The strongest goes to the PGA Championship, which invited the top 100 in the world ranking. But it also has 20 club pros. The strongest and deepest probably is The Players Championship because all 150 players have a chance to win. But The Players includes winners from the previous year who are not in good form.

The Barclays features the top 125 players from the current year on the world’s strongest tour. Everyone is in good form and prepared for a big stretch.

RIDGEWOOD: Ridgewood Country Club figures to be a stronger test than the final major of the year. The rough is 3 inches and looks even longer and deeper in spots. Some of amateurs struggled to get shots back to the fairway. Jimmy Walker could only advance one shot with a 9-iron.

“Unless you happen to get a good lie or the rough gets matted down, it’s going to be tough to play out of the rough,” Rickie Fowler said.

MICKELSON AND MAHAN: Phil Mickelson and Hunter Mahan are the only players who can extend their streak of reaching the Tour Championship every year since the FedEx Cup began in 2007. Steve Stricker was on that list, but at No. 103, he withdrew with a hip injury and thus his season is over.

Mickelson moved up to No. 45 thanks to his runner-up finish at the PGA Championship. The top 30 make it to East Lake for the Tour Championship. Mahan is at No. 62, and his immediate goal is to stay in the top 70 after the first two events to advance to the third one. Mahan is the only player to have never missed a FedEx Cup playoff event.

FOWLER: Rickie Fowler is having one of his best seasons, considering he hasn’t won. He was runner-up in the U.S. Open and British Open. He had the lead on the back nine (briefly) at the PGA Championship. He had to settle for being the first player in history to finish in the top five at all four majors without winning one.

The byproduct of all this? He qualified for the Ryder Cup team for the first time (he was a captain’s pick in 2010), and he starts the FedEx Cup playoffs at No. 15. That’s important, because as popular as Fowler has become, he has never made it to the Tour Championship. This is his best chance yet.

NANJING, China – Canadians Tony Gil and Maddie Szeryk failed to make much ground on Wednesday’s second round at Zhongshan International Golf Club – both athletes are tied for 13^th heading into Thursday’s final stroke play round.

Gil, a 16-year-old Vaughan, Ont. native, posted a 3-over 75, dropping eight spots down the leaderboard. The Team Canada Development Squad member was in good shape early on, sitting at 1-under through eight holes until double-bogeying the par-4 9^th.

Gil was unable to bounce back after that, posting four bogeys on the back nine to sit at even par overall for the tournament. He will look to bring more flashes from his opening round (which featured a hole-in-one) into Thursday’s final. He currently sits eight strokes back of the leader, Viktor Hovland of Norway.

On the girls side, 18-year-old Maddie Szeryk matched her opening round score of 74, leaving her at 4-over par.

The 2013 Canadian Junior Girls Champion caught fire on the back nine, opening with three consecutive birdies. The run didn’t last, however, as Szeryk double-bogeyed the 14^th and 15^th.

Szeryk now sits 11 strokes back of the leader, Korea’s Soyoung Lee.

The third and final stroke play round resumes tomorrow. Szeryk will lead off the girls in the opening group at 8:30 am (CST). Tony Gil will tee-off at 9:30 am (CST).

Click here for boys results

Click here for girls results