CALGARY—A stellar field of golfers playing an enhanced golf course will combine to raise significant money for youth-based charities in southern Alberta at the 2014 Shaw Charity Classic.

Shaw Communications has announced it will commit $1.275 million to YouthLink Calgary Police Interpretive Centre and Hull Services – the title sponsor’s two official charitable partners for the second annual Champions Tour event in Calgary.

“On behalf of my family and our 14,000 employees across Canada, we are proud to support two fantastic local charities that help educate and support the well-being of our children,” said Brad Shaw, CEO, Shaw Communications. “As an international event that supports our community, the Shaw Charity Classic has quickly become a hallmark event on the Calgary summer calendar. We look forward to continuing to work with our Champions Tour and Patron Group partners to make it even more successful in 2014.”

Tournament officials also confirmed it will support a handful of other youth-based charities in southern Alberta through the 2014 event including: Kids Cancer Care Foundation of Alberta; KidSport Calgary; Children’s Wish Foundation (Alberta and N.W.T.); Ronald McDonald House of Southern Alberta; United Way All-In for Youth; and Sheldon Kennedy Child Advocacy Centre.

“The Shaw Charity Classic has always been focused on providing Calgarians with the opportunity to witness elite golf to raise money to support children’s charities in southern Alberta,” said Sean Van Kesteren, tournament director, Shaw Charity Classic. “We are grateful of Shaw’s continued support in helping us stay true to our mission.”

YouthLink Calgary is a Calgary Police Foundation funded program that educates youth about crime and its consequences, and helps teach parents and educators how to begin discussions with their children about sensitive and timely topics such as Internet safety, how to handle bullies, how to say no to peer pressure involving drugs and alcohol, and how to recognize the many faces of exploitation and abuse.

Abuse and neglect in childhood leads to behavioural and mental health issues that are painful and costly. Hull Services breaks the cycle with programs designed to end children’s mental health issues as a problem in our community. For more than 50 years, Hull has changed the direction for thousands of children and their families.

Brad Fritsch named Forces & Families Open golf ambassador

TOYOTA CITY, Japan – Team Canada’s Development Squad members collectively finished seventh after play came to a close on Friday at the Toyota Junior Golf World Cup.

Together, the Canadians fired a 3-under 213 on Friday’s final round to finish at 9-under par for the tournament. The team’s three lowest scores for the day were contributed by Matt Williams of Calgary (67), Tony Gil of Vaughan, Ont. (71) and Etienne Papineau of St-Jean-sur-Richelieu (72).

Williams stellar round also included an ace of the par 3, 6th hole.

Knocked in my first ace today… Final round of Junior Golf World Cup. #finally #roundofcokes @TheGolfCanada pic.twitter.com/LV5NnORTGC

— Matt Williams (@MWilliamsGolf) June 27, 2014

Carter Simon (Sutton, Ont.) posted a final round of 75, which was discounted as the team’s highest for the day.

In the end, the Canadians trailed champion Norway by 11 strokes, who took home top spot with a four-stroke margin over runner-ups United States and Venezuela.

Individually, Carter Simon and Etienne Papineau finished tied for 15^th at 1-under. Matt Williams came in tied for 33th at 3-over par and Tony Gil finished tied for 37th at 5-over par.

The Canadians climbed the leaderboard in the end, having been as high as 10^th throughout the four stroke play rounds.

Click here for the leaderboard showing all 15 national team scores.

LANCASTER, Pa. – Three of the five Canadians have advanced through to the match play round of 16 at the 114^th Women’s Western National Amateur Championship on Thursday.

Naomi Ko, 16, of Victoria, B.C., bested Liz Breed of Waynesboro, Pa., 6 and 4. She now acts as the lone representative of Team Canada’s Development Squad, as both Taylor Kim (Surrey, B.C.) and Sabrine Garrison (Calgary) lost their respective matches.

Also moving on was Delaney Howson of Newmarket, Ont. The Murray State senior knocked off Niki Schroeder of Avon Lake, Oh., 3 and 2.

The third Canadian moving on is Josee Doyon of St-Georges-de-Beauce, Que. Doyon, a sophomore at Kent State, defeated Celia Kuenster of Mendota Heights, Minn., 3 and 1.

Play will resume tomorrow with the round of 16 beginning in the morning and the round of 8 to follow in the afternoon.

Click here for the full leaderboard, including results from all other flights.

PITTSBURGH – Joe Durant is trying desperately to hold onto his old job on the PGA Tour.

If it doesn’t work out, his new gig is looking more promising all the time.

The Champions Tour rookie shot a 6-under 64 on Thursday in the first round of the Senior Players Championship, making seven birdies against one bogey to join David Frost and Doug Garwood atop the leaderboard at defenseless Fox Chapel.

Bernhard Langer, Corey Pavin, Larry Mize, Steve Pate, Olin Browne, Bart Bryant, Peter Fowler and Wes Short Jr. shot 65. Colin Montgomerie, the Senior PGA winner last month, opened with a 5-under 30 on the front nine before fading to a 69.

The 50-year-old Durant, a four-time winner on the main tour, is trying to split time between both circuits this summer. The pressure to earn enough money while making limited PGA Tour starts has been draining. In a way, the 50-and-over tour is allowing him to recharge.

“I’m trying so hard to make magic happen in one week (on the PGA Tour) and it’s just not working out very well,” Durant said.

Durant tied for 31st last week in Connecticut in the PGA Tour’s Travelers Championship, a finish he believes should have been higher had he not slogged through the second and third rounds.

“It easily could have been a top-10 week if I had just managed my game a little better Friday and Saturday,” Durant said.

There were no such issues Thursday. Durant holed out from the greenside bunker on the par-3 third, kick-starting his round. He ended it with a sliding left-to-right birdie putt on the par-5 18th for his 64, matching his best round since joining the Champions Tour after turning 50 in April.

“It all comes down to making putts,” Durant said. “If you make putts, the game is real easy. If you’re burning edges, it’s not that easy.”

Frost and Garwood quickly joined Durant atop the leaderboard.

Frustrated after a middling 39th-place finish at the Encompass Championship last week in Illinois, Frost ditched the shafts on his irons for the first time in four years, trading them in for something that offered a little more forgiveness. The move paid off with a near flawless round in which he missed only one fairway and three greens.

“I almost want to kick myself for not (switching shafts) earlier,” Frost said.

Garwood, a two-time All-American during his college career at Fresno State, has finally found a home on the Champions Tour after spending most of his adult life on pro golf’s fringe. He never played in a PGA Tour event and sold insurance among other things before trying to give the 50-and-over circuit a shot last spring.

After some initial struggles, it is paying off handsomely.

Garwood lost a playoff four weeks ago in the Principal Charity Classic and backed it up with a runner-up finish last weekend. Garwood’s round included three straight birdies on Nos. 12-14, including a 35-footer on the par-4 14th. His birdie attempt on the 18th stopped one roll short of giving him the lead.

Being near the lead is becoming familiar territory for Garwood, though he has done his best to downplay his steady rise.

“I’ve always believed the lower the expectation, the easier it is to meet,” he said, laughing. “There’s enough pressure just being out there with all the hoopla. So I just go out and try to shoot my best … trying to shoot 64, it just kind of happens.”

Defending champion Kenny Perry, looking for his fourth major title in the last year, failed to take advantage of the prime scoring conditions. Playing his eighth tournament in nine weeks, Perry shot an even-par 70.

Perry’s score was actually one better than the 71 he posted in the opening round last year. Perry responded last June by shooting a combined 20 under over the final 54 holes to edge Fred Couples and Duffy Waldorf for the first major pro title of his lengthy career.

The 53-year-old Kentuckian, the Tradition winner last month in the first senior major of the year, doubted Fox Chapel would be as generous this time around, but with wide open fairways and damp greens, it wasn’t a fair fight. More than half the 81 players finished at even par or better. Canada’s Rod Spittle was one of those players. He shot a 1-under 69 and was five shots off the lead, tied for 29th after the opening-round. The other Canadian in the field, Jim Rutledge, finished at 2-over and was tied for 61st.

BETHESDA, Md. – Tiger Woods was back on the PGA Tour for the first time in more than three months Thursday and said he felt “fantastic.”

He was talking about his back, not his game.

One day into his most recent return from injury, that’s what mattered to him.

Woods opened with two straight bogeys, made five more bogeys in a seven-hole stretch around the turn at tough Congressional and finally found his groove late in the opening round of the Quicken Loans National for a 3-over 74.

Woods was tied for 83rd – only 19 players had a higher score – and he will have to score better Friday if he wants to avoid missing the cut for the first time in two years.

“I made so many little mistakes,” Woods said. “So I played a lot better than the score indicated.”

Congressional had a lot to do with that.

Two weeks after a U.S. Open that had no rough, Congressional made it feel like one. Any shot just off the fairway was buried, making it difficult for even the powerful players to reach the green on some of the longer par 4s.

Greg Chalmers finished with three straight birdies for a 66 and a one-shot lead over Ricky Barnes and Freddie Jacobson. Defending champion Bill Haas, Patrick Reed, U.S. Open runner-up Erik Compton and Tyrone Van Aswegen shot 68. Compton birdied his last four holes.

“I didn’t think it was easy at all,” Chalmers said. “I played really well, and I think anybody who plays really well can shoot a low score. You just have to be coming out of the fairway, and I didn’t that the majority of the time today.”

Only 26 players in the 120-man field broke par.

This day, however, was all about Woods.

He has been golf’s biggest draw since he turned pro in 1996 and accumulated 79 wins on the PGA Tour and 14 majors. He won the last two times he played Congressional, in 2009 and 2012.

Even with an early start, the gallery lined the entire left side of the 218-yard 10th hole, with hundreds of others watching from the patio and veranda of the famed clubhouse at Congressional.

Two holes into Woods’ opening round, they had reason to ask: We waited three months for this?

But it wasn’t just Woods. He played with Jason Day and Jordan Spieth, and that trio of top-10 players combined for six bogeys in two holes. All three of them were in the fairway on the same hole one time the entire round – on No. 11, the hardest at Congressional, and only because Day’s tee shot ricocheted off a tree.

Day had a 73, while Spieth shot 74.

“It was cool playing the first one back,” Spieth said. “I love playing alongside Jason, as well. We are all rooting for each other, and that’s a good feeling. It was hard to root for each other because it just looked like the lid was closed on the hole. But once we all started hitting a couple fairways, it got better at the end.”

Woods looked about the same as he has all year. He gave away shots with his short game, with some ordinary chips and not making as many putts as he once did.

On his second hole, No. 11, he had a 50-foot putt from the fringe that came up 18 feet short of the hole. He missed consecutive 6-foot putts – one for birdie, one for par.

He did most of the damage to his card around the turn, failing to get up-and-down for par on the 15th, 17th and 18th holes, hitting a poor chip from the side of a bunker on the long par-3 second, pulling a pitching wedge into a bunker on No. 3 and missing a 5-foot putt.

That put him at 6 over for the round. At the time, Day was 4 over and Spieth was 5 over.

“We were all kind of looking to break 80,” Woods said. “It was a bit of a fight today for all of us, but we all hung in there.”

Woods found some rhythm from there, hitting an approach from 196 yards on the 467-yard fourth hole to 3 feet, and ending with short birdie putts on the par-3 seventh and short par-4 eighth by wisely using the slopes in the greens to feed it close to the hole.

More telling was his final hole. He thought he had a chance to end his round with a 35-foot birdie putt, and as it broke just right of the cup, he quickly dropped to a crouch and then rose up to go mark his ball. That was the best evidence there was no problem with his back.

“The back’s great,” Woods said. “I had no issues at all – no twinges, no nothing. It felt fantastic. That’s one of the reasons why I let go on those tee shots. I hit it pretty hard out there.”

Woods last played at Doral on March 9, when he closed with a 78 while coping with pain in his lower back. He had microdiscectomy surgery March 31, causing him to miss the Masters and U.S. Open.

His return this soon was a surprise, and Woods was candid in saying that he might not have played if the Quicken Loans National did not benefit his foundation’s work with children. He also made it clear he was not risking further injury by playing now.

The only issue Thursday was rust.

“We saw what happened when he found his rhythm,” Spieth said, alluding to Woods making three birdies over his last six holes, and missing only one green.

Mike Weir, the lone Canadian in the field this week, shot a 3-over 74 and was tied for 83rd after the opening round.

BETHESDA, Md. – Tiger Woods was back on the PGA Tour for the first time in more than three months Thursday and said he felt “fantastic.”

He was talking about his back, not his game.

One day into his most recent return from injury, that’s what mattered to him.

Woods opened with two straight bogeys, made five more bogeys in a seven-hole stretch around the turn at tough Congressional and finally found his groove late in the opening round of the Quicken Loans National for a 3-over 74.

Woods was tied for 83rd – only 19 players had a higher score – and he will have to score better Friday if he wants to avoid missing the cut for the first time in two years.

“I made so many little mistakes,” Woods said. “So I played a lot better than the score indicated.”

Congressional had a lot to do with that.

Two weeks after a U.S. Open that had no rough, Congressional made it feel like one. Any shot just off the fairway was buried, making it difficult for even the powerful players to reach the green on some of the longer par 4s.

Greg Chalmers finished with three straight birdies for a 66 and a one-shot lead over Ricky Barnes and Freddie Jacobson. Defending champion Bill Haas, Patrick Reed, U.S. Open runner-up Erik Compton and Tyrone Van Aswegen shot 68. Compton birdied his last four holes.

“I didn’t think it was easy at all,” Chalmers said. “I played really well, and I think anybody who plays really well can shoot a low score. You just have to be coming out of the fairway, and I didn’t that the majority of the time today.”

Only 26 players in the 120-man field broke par.

This day, however, was all about Woods.

He has been golf’s biggest draw since he turned pro in 1996 and accumulated 79 wins on the PGA Tour and 14 majors. He won the last two times he played Congressional, in 2009 and 2012.

Even with an early start, the gallery lined the entire left side of the 218-yard 10th hole, with hundreds of others watching from the patio and veranda of the famed clubhouse at Congressional.

Two holes into Woods’ opening round, they had reason to ask: We waited three months for this?

But it wasn’t just Woods. He played with Jason Day and Jordan Spieth, and that trio of top-10 players combined for six bogeys in two holes. All three of them were in the fairway on the same hole one time the entire round – on No. 11, the hardest at Congressional, and only because Day’s tee shot ricocheted off a tree.

Day had a 73, while Spieth shot 74.

“It was cool playing the first one back,” Spieth said. “I love playing alongside Jason, as well. We are all rooting for each other, and that’s a good feeling. It was hard to root for each other because it just looked like the lid was closed on the hole. But once we all started hitting a couple fairways, it got better at the end.”

Woods looked about the same as he has all year. He gave away shots with his short game, with some ordinary chips and not making as many putts as he once did.

On his second hole, No. 11, he had a 50-foot putt from the fringe that came up 18 feet short of the hole. He missed consecutive 6-foot putts – one for birdie, one for par.

He did most of the damage to his card around the turn, failing to get up-and-down for par on the 15th, 17th and 18th holes, hitting a poor chip from the side of a bunker on the long par-3 second, pulling a pitching wedge into a bunker on No. 3 and missing a 5-foot putt.

That put him at 6 over for the round. At the time, Day was 4 over and Spieth was 5 over.

“We were all kind of looking to break 80,” Woods said. “It was a bit of a fight today for all of us, but we all hung in there.”

Woods found some rhythm from there, hitting an approach from 196 yards on the 467-yard fourth hole to 3 feet, and ending with short birdie putts on the par-3 seventh and short par-4 eighth by wisely using the slopes in the greens to feed it close to the hole.

More telling was his final hole. He thought he had a chance to end his round with a 35-foot birdie putt, and as it broke just right of the cup, he quickly dropped to a crouch and then rose up to go mark his ball. That was the best evidence there was no problem with his back.

“The back’s great,” Woods said. “I had no issues at all – no twinges, no nothing. It felt fantastic. That’s one of the reasons why I let go on those tee shots. I hit it pretty hard out there.”

Woods last played at Doral on March 9, when he closed with a 78 while coping with pain in his lower back. He had microdiscectomy surgery March 31, causing him to miss the Masters and U.S. Open.

His return this soon was a surprise, and Woods was candid in saying that he might not have played if the Quicken Loans National did not benefit his foundation’s work with children. He also made it clear he was not risking further injury by playing now.

The only issue Thursday was rust.

“We saw what happened when he found his rhythm,” Spieth said, alluding to Woods making three birdies over his last six holes, and missing only one green.

Mike Weir, the lone Canadian in the field this week, shot a 3-over 74 and was tied for 83rd after the opening round.

SANDWICH, KENT, England – Team Canada’s Anne-Catherine Tanguay and Augusta James have been eliminated from the Ladies British Amateur after losing their matches on Thursday morning at the Royal St. Georges Golf Club.

Tanguay, 23, of Québec City, came in as the 9^th seed after the qualifying rounds but was unable to pass Germany’s Laura Fünfstück, losing 2&1.

James, a junior at N.C. State University, lost to 5^th seed Noemi Jiminez of Spain, 5 & 3. The Bath, Ont., native narrowly made the cutline as the 60^th of 64 seed.

Click here for the full leaderboard

SANDWICH, KENT, England – Team Canada’s Anne-Catherine Tanguay and Augusta James have been eliminated from the Ladies British Amateur after losing their matches on Thursday morning at the Royal St. Georges Golf Club.

Tanguay, 23, of Québec City, came in as the 9^th seed after the qualifying rounds but was unable to pass Germany’s Laura Fünfstück, losing 2&1.

James, a junior at N.C. State University, lost to 5^th seed Noemi Jiminez of Spain, 5 & 3. The Bath, Ont., native narrowly made the cutline as the 60^th of 64 seed.

Click here for the full leaderboard

COLOGNE, Germany – Danny Willett and Rafa Cabrera-Bello both shot 8-under 64s to share the clubhouse lead while local favorite Martin Kaymer endured a frustrating round on the opening day of the BMW International Open on Thursday.

Willett, the Englishman who won the 2012 tournament on the same Gut Laerchenhof course, finished with his eighth birdie to match his Spanish playing partner’s bogey-free round.

Kaymer, making his first competitive appearance since winning the U.S. Open, made five birdies but was let down by two bogeys and a double bogey in a 1-under 71.

“It was a tough day for me on the greens,” said Kaymer, who was given a rousing reception despite the 7:40 a.m. tee off. “It was very, very playable today. It was the best conditions you can get here, but I didn’t make many putts, especially the last five holes. It was probably the worst I can do.”

There was a six-way tie for third, with Spain’s Alvaro Quiros and Northern Ireland’s Michael Hoey joining early leaders Anders Hansen of Denmark, Gary Stahl of France and Englishmen Andy Sullivan and Graham Storm on 6-under 66.

Ireland’s Shane Lowry, France’s Romain Wattel and Spaniards Nacho Elvira and Jorge Campillo were in a group at 5 under.

Irish Open winner Mikko Ilonen finished 4 under, while playing partner and 11-time European Tour winner Sergio Garcia was 1 under.

World No. 2 Henrik Stenson managed an eagle on the 13th hole and finished 4 under with another two birdies.

COLOGNE, Germany – Danny Willett and Rafa Cabrera-Bello both shot 8-under 64s to share the clubhouse lead while local favorite Martin Kaymer endured a frustrating round on the opening day of the BMW International Open on Thursday.

Willett, the Englishman who won the 2012 tournament on the same Gut Laerchenhof course, finished with his eighth birdie to match his Spanish playing partner’s bogey-free round.

Kaymer, making his first competitive appearance since winning the U.S. Open, made five birdies but was let down by two bogeys and a double bogey in a 1-under 71.

“It was a tough day for me on the greens,” said Kaymer, who was given a rousing reception despite the 7:40 a.m. tee off. “It was very, very playable today. It was the best conditions you can get here, but I didn’t make many putts, especially the last five holes. It was probably the worst I can do.”

There was a six-way tie for third, with Spain’s Alvaro Quiros and Northern Ireland’s Michael Hoey joining early leaders Anders Hansen of Denmark, Gary Stahl of France and Englishmen Andy Sullivan and Graham Storm on 6-under 66.

Ireland’s Shane Lowry, France’s Romain Wattel and Spaniards Nacho Elvira and Jorge Campillo were in a group at 5 under.

Irish Open winner Mikko Ilonen finished 4 under, while playing partner and 11-time European Tour winner Sergio Garcia was 1 under.

World No. 2 Henrik Stenson managed an eagle on the 13th hole and finished 4 under with another two birdies.