AUGUSTA, Ga. – Rory McIlroy was hoping for a little sympathy on the 18th green.

No chance.

McIlroy birdied three of his final four holes in the third round, shooting a 1-under 71, but got beat by his amateur playing partner.

Jeff Knox, one of the best amateur golfers who happens to be a member at Augusta National, was selected to serve as a non-competing marker because an odd number of players made the cut. And Knox showed McIlroy a thing or two about Augusta. Knox shot 2-under 70 despite bogeying No. 18.

“I thought he was going to be nice and three-putt the last and we would have a half, but he beat me by one,” McIlroy said. “He obviously knows this place so well and gets it around. I don’t think I’ve ever seen anyone putt the greens as well as he does around here. He was really impressive. I was thinking of maybe getting him to read a few of my putts out there.”

BEAUMONT, Calif. –  Santee, California’s Daniel Miernicki fired a final round 64 at Oak Valley Golf Club on Friday to win medalist honours at PGA Tour Canada’s California Qualifying Tournament.

Miernicki, a teammate of two-time PGA Tour Canada winner Eugene Wong at the University of Oregon, carded eight birdies and finished 15-under total to win by two over three players.

Forty-four players finished 1-over or better to earn status on PGA Tour Canada for 2014, with 18 players earning exempt status. Whittier, California’s J.P. Brown, Montgomery, Alabama’s Hunter Hamrick and Phoenix’s Devin Daniels all birdied the first hole of a six-way playoff to earn exempt status at 3-under par, while 1-over was the cutoff for conditional status.

Miernicki, who fired a 6-under 66 in round one, said he’s looking forward to playing in Canada this summer, especially alongside his old Ducks teammate.

“Planning a schedule when you don’t have status anywhere is tough, so to be able to look at 12 events and know you’ll be in is great,” said Miernicki, who along with Wong was named an All-American in 2012 and led Oregon to the semifinals of the NCAA tournaments. “Eugene and I had similar careers and we really pushed each other, so hopefully we can do the same in Canada. We had some really great teams.”

The 21-year old admitted he wasn’t full of confidence heading into Friday’s final round, but was able to get on a run and put together a bogey-free 64, the best round of the week at Oak Valley.

“I played absolutely horrible yesterday and I got it around somehow, so I was pretty nervous going into today,” said Miernicki. “I just kind of found something and made pretty much everything, so that helps. I’ve been playing pretty well this year, and to do it when it counts means a lot.”

Two shots behind Miernicki were Quebec City resident Aléxis Anghert, England’s Greg Eason and Longwood, Florida’s Sam Ryder, each at 13-under par.

Among the notables to earn exempt status were former NEC Series – PGA TOUR Latinoamérica winner Alan Wagner and Hunter Hamrick, a 3-time All-American at the University of Alabama.

Hamilton, Ont.’s Justin Kim shot a final round 73 to finish at even par for the tournament and earn conditional status for 2014. The former PGA Tour Canada member made one of four cuts in 2013 and will look to improve on a career-best finish of a tie for 57th at last year’s Cape Breton Celtic Classic presented by PC Financial.

AUGUSTA, Ga. – Jordan Spieth already has proven to be a quick study.

A PGA Tour winner before he even had a card. The youngest American to play in the Presidents Cup. And in his first appearance at the Masters, the 20-year-old Texan looks like he’s been playing here most of his life.

Spieth joined the mix at the Masters on Friday with an 8-foot eagle putt on the par-5 15th, and a shot that settled within tap-in range for birdie on the 18th hole. That gave him a 2-under 70 and left him only four shots behind going into the weekend.

Is anyone surprised by this? Spieth sure wasn’t.

“No, I don’t think so,” he said. “I’ve been playing against these guys, and this caliber field, World Golf Championships and other major championships. So I felt like if I could get my game right and really handle myself mentally, then I could have an opportunity to be in contention. That’s where I’m at now, and a lot of work to do.”

Spieth played in the other three majors last summer, missing the cut in two of them.

The Masters was his favorite major as a kid, and one of his mentors is two-time Masters champion Ben Crenshaw.

“This was a big goal of mine this year, to get in contention at a major,” Spieth said. “And the Masters being the one that I dreamt about since I was who knows how old, that’s going to leave more emotion out there. Mr. Crenshaw says it best. The Masters brings out emotion in guys that aren’t emotional.

“I’m already emotional and I got to keep it on the down low.”

Spieth, the John Deere Classic winner last year, held it together late when he got into trouble off the tee at the 17th. Instead of playing a risky shot toward the green, he played back to the fairway, hit wedge to about 15 feet and missed his par putt. That’s OK. His goal for the week is to make nothing worse than a bogey.

And at 3-under 141 thanks to the birdie on the 18th, he was well within range of Bubba Watson.

“Bubba is tearing it up. So we’ve got to go get him,” Spieth said with the bravado of a Texan still not old enough to drink.

Saturday figures to be his biggest test yet. Spieth doesn’t think contention counts until the back nine Sunday. Next up is a pairing with Adam Scott, the defending champion. Then again, the first time Spieth played with one of golf’s biggest stars was at the Deutsche Bank Championship in September. He was paired with Phil Mickelson and shot 62. He played for the first time with Tiger Woods at Torrey Pines earlier this year and shot nine shots better.

No one has won the Masters in his first try in 35 years.

“I can see why experience pays off,” Spieth said. “Ultimately, if you’re playing extremely well and you get the right breaks, then it doesn’t matter if it’s your first time or your 50th. I think that you can win out here.”

AUGUSTA, Ga. – Fred Couples won’t have to worry about squeezing in a few extra practice rounds for the upcoming Greater Gwinnett Championship on the Champions Tour. He’ll be honing his game this weekend at a much tougher venue.

The smooth-swinging former Masters champion fired his second straight 71 Friday to lead a charge of 50-somethings – OK, it’s only a half-dozen guys, but still – into the final two rounds at Augusta National. Once the Masters is complete, the 54-year-old Couples will drive two hours west to suburban Atlanta for the event against guys in his age group.

“I’m not here just to play golf and think that I can’t compete on this course,” he said. “I can’t compete with these guys over a year, but on one week I can compete and I have to do it tomorrow.”

Couples was at 2 under, five shots behind midway leader Bubba Watson, but four ahead of his nearest AARP competitor. Bernhard Langer, Larry Mize, and Vijay Singh – all former Masters winners as well – were at 2 over; followed by Miguel Angel Jimenez at 3 over and Sandy Lyle at 4 over.

Saturday looms large for Couples, who’s made the cut the last four years but hasn’t been in contention since a sixth-place finish in 2010. He shot 75 and 77 on Saturday the last two years.

“My approach will be to average anything lower than that (76) to bring my average down,” he laughed.

“It’s a really, really hard course. And when you panic and then try and do a couple of things because, `Oh, God, I was tied for the lead or in second, now I’m in 12th place’ you try and hit a shot and it doesn’t work out. And you go to 18th place.”

Mize hadn’t made a cut in four years and didn’t expect to play well this week.

“I didn’t,” he said. “And it may have been a blessing in disguise. I kind of got relaxed. I said, `You know, just play and have a good time.'”

Counting amateur Michael McCoy, a dozen golfers 50 and over entered the tournament and half are still around. The 20-somethings here should have it that good. In all, 29 players in that group, including five amateurs, made the field and only 13 will stick around for the weekend.

Couple has grander plans than just hanging around.

“A second win here would be … I have no idea. I don’t know. I’ve never … I don’t think about it.

“When you start thinking about that you kind of go crazy,” Couples added a moment later. “But would I want to put on another jacket here? Yeah. But I’ve got 36 holes. I need to play better than I did the last two days. I’ve got my work cut out for me.”

AUGUSTA, Ga. – Phil Mickelson will be watching the final two rounds of the Masters from home for the first time in 17 years, and it isn’t hard to figure out why – two triple bogeys.

The one on No. 7 in the first round when he was chipping from about 30 feet away. Then the triple bogey on No. 12 in the second round Friday when he went bunker to bunker to bunker before he could get on the green.

Mickelson had a 1-over 73 and missed the cut by one shot.

He says his recent injuries weren’t a problem. Mickelson was worried coming into the Masters that he wasn’t mentally sharp, and that he was capable of making a big number. That’s just what he did.

Mickelson wasn’t the only big name to miss the cut.

For Canadians, there was no “bigger” name at the Masters this year than Graham DeLaet.

The Weyburn, Sask. native also won’t be walking the fairways at Augusta this weekend. Not inside the ropes, that is.

DeLaet greatly improved on his opening-round 8-over 80, shooting an even par 72 Friday. Playing in his first of what will surely be many Masters, DeLaet missed the cut by four shots.

Despite not making it to the weekend, the 32-year-old still enjoyed his memorable, but briefer than hoped time at Augusta. After play Friday he tweeted.

Still the best week of my life…

— Graham DeLaet (@GrahamDeLaet) April 11, 2014

To which his wife Ruby replied.

@GrahamDeLaet you mean except the week you got married ;). #iloveyou

— Ruby DeLaet (@The_Rubes) April 11, 2014

AUGUSTA, Ga. – Trees don’t get eulogized. This one did, more than once.

Golfers and Masters officials talked about the soaring loblolly pine known as the Eisenhower Tree as if it were a deceased family member. The Augusta National landmark guarded the left side of the 17th fairway and was feared by many members – particularly the former president and club member who unsuccessfully lobbied for its removal.

Big hitters generally drove to the right of the 65-foot tree, whose branches leaned over the fairway about 210 yards from tee. Often, the longest guys on tour went right over the top of it. Although many competitors say the tee shot now is easier, scores this year are about the same as they were when the tree was standing.

The tree was irreparably damaged by an ice storm in February and taken down.

As tributes rolled in from past greats like Jack Nicklaus and Arnold Palmer, many of the golfers forced to navigate their way around the sentinel in recent years held their tongues. But with the Masters underway this week, few of those competitors mourned its demise.

“I’m sure the committee here will have some type of replacement there at some point in the near future,” PGA champion Jason Dufner said. “So maybe we can just enjoy it for one year.”

“Seventeen wasn’t my favorite tee shot, let’s put it that way,” former U.S. Open champion Graeme McDowell said. “To say I enjoy it now is an understatement.”

While the view on 440-yard, par-4 No. 17th is very different, the scores through the first two days of the tournament are roughly the same as in previous years. That’s because the hole, dubbed “Nandina,” still requires a drive down a narrow, tree-lined fairway, followed by a short iron approach hit high enough to fly past two greenside bunkers and then stick on a diabolically sloping green.

Last year, the field averaged 4.22 strokes, making it the sixth-toughest hole on the course. In Thursday’s opening round, the average was 4.18 (ranked 5th). Midway through Friday, the average had dipped to 4.14 (10th), although the dry, sunny weather left the fairways fast and firm, which translated into longer drives and shorter approach shots.

Those numbers will add fuel to the debate over whether – and exactly how, to replace the Eisenhower Tree.

“We do not have a definitive plan as to what, if anything, we will do to the 17th hole beyond this year’s tournament,” club chairman Billy Payne said in his annual “State of the Masters” news conference.

“And I think, quite apart from the playability of the 17th hole itself, we are in the process of determining how to permanently commemorate and remember this wonderful part of our history.”

Yet a few moments later, when he was asked whether the club took any precautions to protect the tree when the ice storm was forecast, Payne flashed an embarrassed grin: “A confession here,” he began. “At the time it happened, I was in the Bahamas bone-fishing.”

As landmarks go, the Eisenhower Tree was the most famous in golf, eclipsing the Lone Cypress located along 17-mile drive and between two other very famous golf courses, Pebble Beach and Cypress Point, on the northern California coastline.

The Eisenhower Tree had been struggling in recent years, forcing the club to deploy cables to help hold it together. The storm delivered a fatal blow and after consultation with some of the nation’s best arborists, it was removed down to the roots, cut into sections and put into storage nearby.

Club officials have been tight-lipped about whether those sections will be used for anything beyond firewood, meaning the only semblance of the tree to be found on the grounds at the moment is on one of several Masters’ commemorative coins.

AUGUSTA, Ga. – Bubba Watson likes the way he looks in green. He wants to get that color back in his wardrobe.

Watson surged to the Masters lead with a spree of birdies on the back side Friday, positioning him for a weekend run at his second green jacket in three years.

“I’m trying to get the jacket back,” Watson said. “I want that feeling again.”

The 2012 champion at Augusta National sparked the best run of the tournament so far when he stuck his tee shot at No. 12 within 3 feet of the cup. He tapped in for the first of five straight birdies that propelled him to a 4-under 68.

Even after making his second bogey of the tournament by missing a short putt at the 18th, Watson walked off with his second straight round in the 60s, a 7-under 137 total and a three-stroke lead – the biggest 36-hole advantage at Augusta since 2006.

“It’s not science here,” Watson said. “It’s try to hit the greens, and if you’re hitting the greens that means you’re obviously hitting your tee shots well. So that’s all I’m trying to do, just hit the greens.”

And don’t count out defending champion Adam Scott, who got off to a rough start but rallied for 72. The Aussie was among those four shots back, still solidly in contention to become only the fourth back-to-back winner in Masters history.

Watson opened Thursday with a 69 and went bogey-free through the first 26 holes, finally stumbling at the ninth. But that bogey was quickly forgotten when he put on a dazzling display of the golf that had the patrons roaring. He took advantage of both par 5s, sandwiched around a curling, 40-foot birdie putt at the 14th that prompted him to throw both arms in the air.

Watson made it five in a row at the par-3 16th, pulling off another magnificent tee shot with the 9-iron, the ball rolling up about 4 feet short of the flag. He became only the fifth player in Masters history to run off nothing but birdies from the 12th to 16th holes.

A year ago, the left-hander finished in a tie for 50th last year as the defending Masters champion, his worst showing in five previous appearances. He likes being two years removed from his title a whole lot better.

“I was in awe when I was the champion,” Watson said. “I didn’t know how to handle it the best way, so I didn’t play my best golf.”

Watson’s closest pursuer was Australia’s John Senden, who birdied 14 and 15 on his way to a 68 and 140 overall.

Scott bogeyed three of the first five holes but wound up at 141. He was joined by Denmark’s Thomas Bjorn, who birdied four of the last five holes for a 68; Sweden’s Jonas Blixt, who managed 71 despite a double-bogey at the 11th; and 20-year-old Jordan Spieth, hardly looking like an Augusta rookie when he closed out 70 with a birdie at the tough finishing hole.

Five shots back with Fred Couples were Jimmy Walker, a three-time PGA Tour winner this season who shot 72, and Jim Furyk, whose 68 matched Watson, Senden and Bjorn for the best round of the day.

First-round leader Bill Haas, teeing off on a warm, sunny afternoon with the wind picking up and the greens getting firmer, was still at 4 under approaching the turn. Then came a miserable stretch of holes starting at No. 9: bogey, bogey, double-bogey, bogey, bogey. He staggered to a 78 – 10 shots higher than the day before, knocking him nine shots back.

At least Haas gets to keep playing.

Canada’s Mike Weir also gets to keep playing. The 2003 Masters champion shot an even par 72 Friday and is sitting in striking position at 1-over par. The first lefty to win the masters is tied for 21st.

Weir had a unbelievable start to his Friday round. The Brights Grove, Ont. native was 4-under thru 9 holes, but stumbled on his back 9 – matching his four front-nine birdies with four back-nine bogeys.

He is paired with K.J. Choi for Saturday and tees off at 12:45pm (EDT).

While Weir soared, there were plenty of big-names beyond the cut line.

Graham DeLaet, Sergio Garcia, Luke Donald, Ernie Els, Graeme McDowell, Dustin Johnson, Angel Cabrera and Charl Schwartzel were all headed home before the weekend.

AUGUSTA, Ga. – For some, the burden of defending a championship can be overwhelming.

For Adam Scott, it was pure joy – at least for a day.

With a green jacket already in his collection, Scott felt a sense of calm that carried over to the golf course. The result: a 3-under 69 that got the laid-back Aussie off to just the kind of start he was looking for at the Masters.

Now, to keep it going for three more days.

“Having won last year, in some ways, has taken a little pressure off me,” Scott said. “I kind of felt like what was the worst than can happen? I’m still going to be a Masters champion.”

Bill Haas was leading a major for the first time, shooting a 68 Thursday that left him one stroke ahead of the last guy to win the Masters (Scott), the guy who won it two years ago (Bubba Watson), and the guy Watson beat in a playoff (Louis Oosthuizen).

On a warm, sunny morning, Marc Leishman of Australia got off to a blistering start in the second round, making three straight birdies to become the first player to get to 5 under. Oosthuizen stumbled a bit, shooting a 1-over 37 on the front side, while Watson began with five straight pars.

Haas and Scott had afternoon tee times.

Scott was clearly the most compelling figure on Day 1 of a Masters marked by the absence of Tiger Woods, sitting out for the first time in his career after back surgery. Golf has been waiting for a star to take control all year, and Scott turned in a rock-solid round that was marred only by a double bogey in the middle of Amen Corner, the one time he let the significance of being a major champion get to him a bit.

A roar went up as Scott strolled from the 11th green to the 12th tee. Caught up in the moment, he promptly dumped his tee shot in Rae’s Creek, the first time that’s happened in his career.

Otherwise, no complaints.

“Getting off to a good start in a major is huge,” Scott said. “They are the hardest tournaments to kind of chase. Birdies aren’t that easy to come by usually at the majors, and if you’re six back, five back, 10 back after that first round, it’s a hard three days in front of you.”

That doesn’t bode well for Phil Mickelson, who had two 7s on his card and finished with a 76 – a staggering eight shots off the lead. Not exactly the kind of start Lefty was hoping for in pursuit of his fourth green jacket. No one has come back to win at Augusta from more than seven shots behind after the opening round.

“I was really off,” said Mickelson, who blamed his score on mental lapses rather than anything in his swing. “It was very disappointing.”

Haas, the son of the longtime PGA Tour stalwart Jay Haas, broke 70 for the first time in five Masters appearances, and he’s got his dad helping him every step of the way.

Jay and Bill are staying together in Augusta, and Jay is out on the range every day, passing on helpful hints to his son.

Haas’ performance was especially poignant, given his father played the Masters 22 times and never finished higher than a tie for third in 1995. In fact, the elder Haas never won a major championship despite a long, successful career.

Maybe his boy can take care of that little blemish.

“I think he deserves a major in his career as good as he played,” Bill Haas said. “He was working his tail off to try to win those things, and we all knew as a family that he left it all out there.”

Watson, who slipped that green jacket on Scott last year, played his first bogey-free round in a major since the 2009 U.S. Open. Oosthuizen was the only other player in the 60s – the fewest to break 70 in an opening round at the Masters since 2007, despite a brilliant spring day that made the course seem ripe for the taking. No chance, not with hole locations that were severe for an opening round and greens that got firmer by the hour.

More of the same was expected through the weekend, as temperatures continue to climb into the 80s after a brutal winter.

Mickelson and the other reigning major champions paid the price. PGA Championship winner Jason Dufner took a quadruple-bogey 9 on the 13th hole and wound up with an 80. U.S. Open champ Justin Rose shot 40 on the front and scrambled for a 76, matching Mickelson.

Haas knows better than to put too much stock into what happens on a Thursday. He was leading after the opening round in Houston last week and tied for 37th.

Only one first-round leader in the last 30 years has gone on to win the Masters.

“There’s tons of golf left,” Haas said.

AUGUSTA, Ga. – If connections were all it took to make a splash at the Masters, Bill Haas would have contended long before now.

“We’ve had a bunch of family play here,” said Haas, whose opening-round 68 catapulted him into the lead.

“A bunch,” as it turns out, is hardly an exaggeration. Bill’s father, Jay, played the tournament 22 times from 1976 to 2005. His uncles, Jerry Haas and Dillard Pruitt, made the field once and twice, respectively. His great uncle Bob Goalby won in 1968.

But golf is not one of those enterprises where a dad simply hands over the keys with a pat on the back, says “good luck,” and the business runs exactly the way it did before.

It’s easier to inherit size, strength and speed, apparently, than touch. Even casual fans can come up with the great father-son pairings in most other pro sports: Bobby and Barry Bonds (baseball); Archie and Peyton and Eli Manning (football); Rick and Scooter, Jon, Drew and Brent Barry (basketball); Bobby and Brett Hull (hockey); Dale Earnhardt Sr. and Junior (NASCAR).

To find golf’s best father-son tandem, you have to turn back almost 150 years. That would be Tom Morris Sr. and Tom Morris Jr., who were known as “Old Tom” and “Young Tom” to avoid any confusion, since they each won four of the first dozen British Opens.

At least nine father-son tandems have won golf tournaments since, and a dozen have played in the Masters – but never in the same tournament together until Craig and Kevin Stadler did it Thursday.

Asked why golf didn’t seem quite as family-friendly as the other sports – at least in terms of success – Haas was ready with an answer.

“I’ve been asked that before, and I think (it’s) purely numbers. The odds of getting out on tour are small. And then you take it down to how many tour players have sons, and then how many have sons that even like golf.

“And then if you like golf,” he said finally, “the best part about this game is that you have to earn it.”

Haas, from Greenville, S.C., did just that on his sixth go-round at Augusta National with his own scorecard in his pocket. He got off to a shaky start with a bogey at No. 1, then found another gear and tore off six birdies. His second hiccup came at 17, when his iron shot landed just past the flag yet somehow slid all the way off the right side of the green.

“The wind somewhat switched, maybe,” Haas said, “at least that’s what I’m claiming.”

Bill was along for plenty of Jay’s rounds and even toted the bag on one occasion. He had no trouble recalling his previously most memorable trip. That was 1995, when Jay was leading by two strokes midway through the tournament. Oddly enough, the wind figured into that one, too.

As Jay stood over a short putt, a gust moved the ball, costing him one stroke. He dropped another when his shot into 15 slid off the green and into the pond.

“I never remember thinking, `Man, I wish I could hit this shot for my dad. But there’s some times now, I’m like `I wish my dad could hit this shot for me.'”

Jay, who is 60 and a force on the Champions Tour, won nine times on the PGA Tour. But his dream of getting the locker next to Goalby’s in Augusta National’s champions room never got closer than that third-place finish.

“That can’t happen,” Jay told The State newspaper of Columbia, S.C., last week, “but I hope Bill can.”

Bill has been aiming at that goal since high school. A friend took Jay and his sons to Augusta back then and they squeezed in 27 holes, in addition to playing in the pre-tournament Par 3 contest.

“Did you beat him?” a reporter asked Bill, referring to Jay.

“I don’t think so. I don’t beat him much, honestly,” Bill replied.

“Even now?” came the follow-up.

“Even now, yeah,” Bill conceded. “He’s good.”

CALGARY—Rocco Mediate has confirmed he will be back in Calgary this summer to try and successfully defend his Shaw Charity Classic title, but he will have to knock off two of the biggest names on the the Champions Tour if he wants to hold the trophy for the second straight year.

Mediate, who ran away with the inaugural tournament last August, will return to Calgary with 2013 Charles Schwab Cup winner, Kenny Perry, along with 1989 British Open winner, Mark Calcavecchia. The trio lead what promises to be a star-studded field for the second annual event, August 27-31, 2014 at Canyon Meadows Golf and Country Club. Both Perry and Calcavecchia originally committed to play in the inaugural event, but were forced to withdraw due to injury.

“I always said I would bet all of the guys will be here next year,” said Mediate. “A sales pitch is really not necessary because that first year event created a huge buzz in the locker room. Everybody loved the golf course. And the turnout was probably the best of the year outside the U.S. (Senior) Open. All of the players loved it. How could you not?”

Mediate’s two wins including his seven-shot runaway victory at Canyon Meadows Golf and Country Club earned him the 2013 Rookie-of-the-Year honours on the Champions Tour. His impressive display of golf in Calgary tied the lowest 54-hole total at 22-under-par 191 on the senior circuit.

A 14-time winner on the PGA Tour, Kenny Perry took home the Player-of-the-Year award on the Champions Tour thanks to his three victories in 2013, including the U.S. Senior Open and Constellation Senior Players Championship. Perry’s stellar play throughout the season helped him claim the prestigious season-long Charles Schwab Cup. Perry has five wins while teeing it up against some of the greatest names in the game 50 and over.

One of the most colourful characters on the Champions Tour, Mark Calcavecchia, rounds out the first trio of players committed to make the trip to the Stampede City this summer. A 13-time winner on the PGA Tour, Calcavecchia has a special place in his heart for Canada. In addition to winning the 2005 Canadian Open and the 1997 Greater Vancouver Open, one of his two Champions Tour victories came in 2012 at the Montreal Championship. Calcavecchia is a four-time member of the U.S.A. Ryder Cup Team.

Tournament officials made the player announcement with the Shaw Charity Classic Patron Group, including PGA Tour professional Stephen Ames, while hosting corporate Calgary and media for an event coined “Augusta with Ames” – an exclusive Masters celebration, presented by the Calgary Sport Tourism Authority.

“The Masters Tournament unofficially signifies the start of the golf season in Calgary, and I can’t think of a better way to celebrate this great week on the golf calendar than by kicking off our marketing and sales efforts with three of the greatest names in the game,” said Sean Van Kesteren, tournament director, Shaw Charity Classic.

Van Kesteren and his team leveraged an interactive Masters session with Ames to highlight the breadth of hosting and participation opportunities available to golf enthusiasts at this year’s Shaw Charity Classic, including Pro-Am spots, corporate tents, and sponsorship opportunities at all levels.

“The goal of the Shaw Charity Classic is to provide Calgarians with the opportunity to witness elite golf while raising money to support children’s charities in southern Alberta. Having these three impressive names express their intent to play this early reinforces the commitment of the patron group, our title sponsor Shaw, and the Canyon Meadows Golf and Country Club to build on our foundation year and ensure this evolves into the most successful event on Tour.”

The inaugural Shaw Charity Classic, which was recognized with an Outstanding Achievement Award for a first year event by the PGA Tour, made a record-setting charitable donation of $2,276, 251 for a Champions Tour event.  The legends of the game will play for a purse of $2.25 million, an increase of $250,000 from last year, when they return to Calgary’s Canyon Meadows Golf and Country Club for the 2014, August 27-31.

Tickets for the Shaw Charity Classic are available online at www.shawcharityclassic.com. Youth 17 and under are admitted free with a ticketed adult.