VICTORIA – Scott McCarron birdied five of the first six holes and finished with an 8-under 62 to take the first-round lead Friday in the Pacific Links Bear Mountain Championship.

The 51-year-old McCarron birdied all four par-5 holes – Nos. 1, 12, 13 and 18 – in chilly conditions at Bear Mountain Resort, the first-year venue in the PGA Tour Champions event that was played in Hawaii from 2012-14.

“I really enjoy the golf course. I love the layout,” McCarron said. “It’s really one of the prettiest golf courses I’ve ever played in my life, it’s just fantastic. It’s my new favourite golf course, of course.”

McCarron won the Principal Charity Classic in June in Iowa for his first victory on the 50-and-over tour after winning three times on the PGA Tour.

“It was a tough day – we had a little drizzle, little bit of breeze and the fog came in and out,” McCarron said. “There were a couple of holes where we had to wait until we could see the fairway. But I got off to a good start. I birdied the first three holes, made a couple nice putts and hit some good shots and the rest of the round kept going. I made another three birdies in a row in the middle of the round, and it was really nice to birdie the last hole to shoot 62.”

Doug Garwood and Jerry Smith were tied for second at 64. Garwood played the back nine in 6-under 30, and Smith had eight birdies and a bogey.

Woody Austin and Jeff Sluman shot 65, and Olin Browne and Wes Short Jr. followed at 66. Austin has three victories this year.

Hall of Famers Vijay Singh and Colin Montgomerie topped the group at 67.

England’s Paul Broadhurst, the winner last week at Pebble Beach, had a 69. He won the Senior British Open at Carnoustie in July.

Bernhard Langer opened with a 70. The 59-year-old German star leads the tour with four victories this season. Langer played alongside Singh and former European Ryder Cup teammate Miguel Angel Jimenez (69).

Rod Spittle topped the four Canadians in the field with a 72. Jim Rutledge shot 73, Stephen Ames 74, and Murray Poje 82.

ATLANTA – Dustin Johnson is playing better than anyone in the world, and Kevin Chappell can’t wait to watch him at the Tour Championship.

Even if that means having to beat him.

Johnson powered his way down the fairways and occasionally out of the brutal rough at East Lake on Friday for a 3-under 67, giving him a one-shot lead over Chappell and moving him one round closer to the $10 million FedEx Cup prize.

The U.S. Open champion is on a different level at the moment.

Even on a demanding test like East Lake this year – only 10 players remain under par – Johnson is hitting his driver long and straight. His wedge game has gone from a weakness to a strength. A new putter he put in play two weeks ago when he won the BMW Championship is giving him a better feel for alignment.

Small wonder that this was his seventh straight round at 68 or better during the FedEx Cup playoffs.

“The game is never easy. I wish it was,” Johnson said. “Obviously, I’m playing good right now. I’ve got a lot of confidence in my game. Every week, I feel like I bring the same game, which is nice. But I put in a lot of work to get to where I am.”

Johnson was at 7-under 203.

Chappell, one of two players at the Tour Championship who has yet to win on the PGA Tour, was just as solid, even if it doesn’t look as spectacular. He has made only one bogey in 36 holes, quite a feat on a course where the Bermuda rough is so punishing that balls sink to the ground and sometimes can’t be seen from a foot away.

He shot a 68 and will be in the final group of a playoff event for the second time this year.

Kevin Kisner (70) and Hideki Matsuyama (71) were four shots behind, while Rory McIlroy overcame another rough start on the front nine to post a 70. He was in the group five shots behind, which isn’t much of a deficit at the halfway point except for Johnson being the one they have to chase.

If nothing else, Johnson all but eliminated nearly everyone not among the top five seeds vying for the FedEx Cup. McIlroy is No. 6 and still has a chance, though he would have to win the Tour Championship and Johnson would have to finish third.

“I need to win, and I just need someone to play as good as Dustin this week,” McIlroy said.

Jason Day is out of the picture. The world’s No. 1 player withdrew in the middle of a round at the second straight tournament, citing the same nagging back issues that he hopes will be cured by rest.

By Day withdrawing, Johnson won the points-based PGA player of the year award and is likely to win the player vote as PGA Tour player of the year because of his three victories, with perhaps another to follow.

But there is still work ahead of him, and that starts with Chappell.

“I promise you, I’ll be watching Dustin,” Chappell said. “He’s the best player in the world right now, and it’s an opportunity for me to see where my game is. There’s a golf tournament going on, and I have a chance to win that. That’s the ultimate goal. But I also have a chance to see why he’s the best player in the world right now, and I look forward to taking advantage of that opportunity.”

Chappell has been a runner-up three times this season and keeps running into the wrong guys – Kisner at Sea Island, Day at Bay Hill and The Players Championship. He also was in the mix at the TPC Boston until McIlroy pulled away.

“It seems I like going against the hot player at the time,” he said.

Russell Knox matched the low score of the tournament with a 66 that allowed him to get back under par at 1-under 139, along with Justin Thomas, who is still hopeful of a Ryder Cup pick at the end of the week.

Thomas lost a shot when his ball moved right as he set his putter down behind a short par putt on the 11th hole. The PGA Tour reviewed it on videotape and gave him a one-shot penalty under Rule 18-2, the same penalty applied to Johnson at Oakmont in the U.S. Open.

Thomas disagreed with, but accepted, the penalty. His argument was it was not a flat surface and the greens were running fast

“It’s nothing against the rules officials. It’s a god-awful rule,” Thomas said. “It’s very fortunate it didn’t cost Dustin a major championship. I hope it doesn’t cost me anything. I don’t feel like I did anything wrong.”

Mark Russell, the vice-president of rules and competition for the tour, said, the wind was light and the ball had been at rest “for quite some time.”

“And the moment that Justin put his club behind the ball and addressed the ball, the ball moved,” he said. “In that situation, the evidence is against the player and he was penalized.”

That left him six shots behind Johnson instead of five. Either way, it’s a tall order for Thomas or anyone to catch Johnson.

ATLANTA – Jason Day has withdrawn from the Tour Championship because of recurring back pain.

It’s the second straight FedEx Cup playoff event that the world’s No. 1 player did not finish because of back pain. Day stopped midway through the final round of the BMW Championship. His agent said Friday at East Lake this was the same issue, and Day was withdrawing as a precaution.

The withdrawal means Dustin Johnson wins the points-based PGA player of the year. Johnson is likely to win the player vote for PGA Tour player of the year.

Day was 3 under for the tournament when he pulled his tee shot into the water on No. 8, hit his next shot well to the right and couldn’t reach the green out of deep rough.

Carlsbad, Calif. – TaylorMade announced today the contract extensions of the number one and two players in the Official World Golf Rankings, Jason Day and Dustin Johnson.

Jason Day, who first signed with TaylorMade in August of 2006, made his debut on the PGA TOUR that same year and hasn’t looked back since.

“For so many years, I aspired to play at the highest levels of the sport and become the best player in the world. I chose TaylorMade at the onset of my PGA TOUR career because they made products that performed. They’ve supported me on my quest for world #1 since day one. I’m excited to continue working with the great team at TaylorMade and playing the best performing equipment in the game.”

Dustin Johnson, who first signed with TaylorMade in December of 2007, earned his 2008 PGA TOUR card by way of successfully navigating qualifying school. Johnson’s first victory on the TOUR came at the Turning Stone Resort Championship in October 2008. Just four months later, he captured TOUR victory #2 at the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am. He then successfully defended his title the following year for his 3rd PGA TOUR victory. Johnson has had at least one victory in each of the last nine PGA TOUR seasons, the longest such active streak on Tour.

Johnson’s rise to a career-best #2 in the OWGR has been a steady climb since he turned pro, when he was ranked 1,375th. By the beginning of the ’15-’16 season, Johnson found himself at #8, joining stablemate Jason Day as the second TaylorMade Tour staffer in the top 10. A dramatic victory in the 116th U.S. Open Championship at Oakmont, a career milestone for Johnson, lifted the 32-year-old to #3, and he then elevated to #2 two weeks later with his victory at the WGC-Bridgestone Invitational and then cemented himself atop the FedExCup Playoff Standings entering the Tour Championship with a dominant win at the BMW Championship.

Arguably the longest hitter on Tour, Johnson has been ranked inside the top five on the PGA TOUR in driving distance every year since earning his card, and held the top spot at the conclusion of the 2015 season. Thus far through the ’15-’16 season, Johnson still holds the #1 position with a 314.2 yard average off the tee.

“When I started my professional career, my goal was to be the best and win tournaments. I chose TaylorMade because they made products that outperformed anything else I had ever played. Since day one, I’ve had a great relationship with the TaylorMade team and especially the guys who support me every week out on TOUR. I’m looking forward to continuing our teamwork and playing equipment that I believe in and has helped me to succeed.”

For more information on TaylorMade Golf equipment or Tour staff players, visit TaylorMadeGolf.ca.

WELLESLEY, Mass. – Judith Kyrinis, 52, of Thornhill, Ont., will be playing in the first match Wednesday at the U.S. Senior Women’s Amateur – one of 13 national championships conducted annually by the United States Golf Association.

Kyrinis, who was medalist during qualifying, outlasted 54-year-old Robin Burke of Houston, in 20 holes before having an easier time in the Round of 16 Tuesday, with a 4-and-3 win against Evelyn Orley, 50, of Cardiff, Calif.

Kyrinis advanced despite an inflamed right elbow, which she said wasn’t a factor.

“It bothered me my first match more than anything,” she said. “This morning was not my best ball-striking, but I was better this afternoon, so that’s good to see.”

The quarterfinals will begin at 8 a.m. EDT on Wednesday; the first semifinal match is scheduled to start at 12:45 p.m.

Kyrinis is the last Canadian standing. Three Canadians fell in the Round of 32.

The competition consists of 36 holes stroke play followed by six rounds of match play, with the 18-hole championship match scheduled to take place Thursday, Sept. 22.

VICTORIA, B.C. – The 2016 Pacific Links Bear Mountain Championship will get underway this Friday at Bear Mountain Golf Resort’s Mountain Course, with 81 of the top Champions Tour players competing for one of the year’s top purses of US$2.5 million.

Headlining one of the strongest fields of the 2016 Champions Tour season are World Golf Hall of Fame members Bernhard Langer, Vijay Singh, Colin Montgomerie, Mark O’Meara and Tom Kite.

Langer, who currently leads the Charles Schwab Cup standings with $2,432.659 in 2016 earnings, has put forth one of the strongest seasons in Tour history at the age of 59, with four wins – including major championship victories at the Regions Tradition and Constellation SENIOR PLAYERS Championship earlier this year.

The two-time Masters Tournament champion owns 29 career titles on Champions Tour, which puts him tied for second on the all-time victories list with Lee Trevino, trailing only Hale Irwin, who has 45 career wins.

Singh won 34 times during a stellar career on the PGA TOUR, including major championship titles at the 1998 and 2004 PGA Championship, as well as the 2000 Masters Tournament.

The 53-year-old native of Fiji ranks 14th on the PGA TOUR’s all-time victories list, and recorded a staggering 31 of his 34 wins during what is commonly referred to as the “Tiger Woods era.” Singh was inducted into the World Golf Hall of Fame in 2005.

Montgomerie, 53, has notched three victories on Champions Tour, including the 2014 and 2015 Senior PGA Championship presented by KitchenAid, as well as the 2014 U.S. Senior Open – all of which are senior major championships.

The Scotland native won the European Tour’s Order of Merit a record eight times during a standout career which gave way to Hall of Fame honors in 2013. Montgomerie drew the ire of American golf fans through the years, posting a 20-7-1 record in the biennial Ryder Cup without losing a singles match.

Other notable players in the field include former Masters Tournament champions Craig Stadler (1983), Larry Mize (1987) and Ian Woosnam (1991), as well as former Open Championship winners Mark Calcavecchia (1989) and Todd Hamilton (2005).

Two-time U.S. Open champion Lee Janzen and 1987 U.S. Open winner Scott Simpson will tee it up on Friday, as will former PGA Championship winner Jeff Sluman (1988).

The inaugural Charles Schwab Cup Playoffs are set to get underway at the end of October, which makes the Pacific Links Bear Mountain Championship a crucial stop on the 2016 calendar as one of the final three events in the Tour’s Regular Season. The top 72 players will qualify for the Playoffs.

The Charles Schwab Cup standings during the Regular Season are based on earnings, in turn making the US$375,000 winner’s share this week an attractive target for players looking to win the prestigious season-long race. Only three events in the Tour’s 26-tournament schedule have larger purses than the US$2.5 million offered this week, with all three being major championships.

The field at the Pacific Links Bear Mountain Championship will consist of 52 former PGA TOUR winners, and 11 players who have won on Champions Tour this year alone.

Tournament week in Victoria will begin with Official Pro-Ams on Wednesday and Thursday, followed by 54 holes of championship play from Friday through Sunday, with no cut. All three competitive rounds will be broadcast live by Golf Channel to more than 200 million homes in 84 countries and 11 languages around the world.

Tickets are available for both pro-am rounds and tournament rounds, and are offered in a variety of packages, including the popular Champions Club.

Nestled against the Credit River, within shouting distance of Lake Ontario and a mere 17 minutes (without traffic, of course) from downtown Toronto, lays one of the country’s most iconic and celebrated layouts.

And when Mississaugua Golf and Country Club hosts the 2016 World Junior Girls Championship from September 27-30, all eyes will once again be on the Percy Barrett/George Cumming/Donald Ross/Stanley Thompson design.

But, you don’t have to travel all the way to Mississauga to check out the venerable layout. Here’s a bird’s eye view of all 18 holes.

And, here’s a unique look at the historic clubhouse.

For more info on the World Junior Girls Championship, visit www.worldjuniorgirls.com.

London, Ont. – A day removed from his career-low, 9-under 61 at Highland Country Club, France’s Paul Barjon posted a final-round 2-under 68 to win the Freedom 55 Financial Championship, the final event on the 2016 Mackenzie Tour – PGA TOUR Canada schedule by a stroke over French Polynesia’s Vaita Guillaume at 22-under 258, a Mackenzie Tour record for 72 holes.

With the win and a first-place check of $36,000, Barjon jumped from No. 30 to No. 6 in the final Order of Merit and will advance to the final stage of the Web.com Tour Qualifying Tournament.

Langley, B.C.’s Adam Cornelson finished T50, high enough to clinch Freedom 55 Financial Canadian Player of the Year honors, which comes with a $25,000 prize.

Members of Dan Halldorson’s family presented Adam Cornelson with the Dan Halldorson Trophy as Player of the Year. pic.twitter.com/YYlZMTB4nB

— Mackenzie Tour (@PGATOURCanada) September 18, 2016

Up by six strokes over 18- and 36-hole leader Aaron Wise after his eagle at the par-5 second hole, Barjon remained in the driver’s seat all day and never lost his lead, despite a 10-under 60 by Guillaume. Barjon offset three bogeys with four birdies and an eagle.

“Yesterday was like a round that came out of nowhere,” Barjon said of his 61 in round three. “Today was a little different, when you play with the lead. You have everybody trying to chase you, but I was able to suck it up until the end and it worked out well, even with a 60 by Vaita.”

Barjon’s victory marks his third top-10 finish of the season, bettering a pair of T6 showings at the Bayview Place DC Payments Open presented by Times Colonist and the ATB Financial Classic.

“This is absolutely one of the best golf courses we play all year,” Barjon said of Highland. “It was a good one for me, everything worked out for me and it turned out successful for me.”

Barjon’s nearest threat in the end proved to be Guillaume. Beginning the day nine strokes off the lead at 11-under-par, Guillaume birdied his last four holes en route to a 10-under 60, tying the course record at Highland set by Curtis Reed in 2015. The Campbell University grad finished just a stroke back at 21-under 259.

Wise, the NCAA 2016 individual champion with the Oregon Ducks, finished three shots shy at 19-under after shooting a final round 68.

Freedom 55 Financial established the Canadian Player of the Week award in 2013 to recognize top Canadian players on the Mackenzie Tour. At each event, Freedom 55 Financial presented this award to the Canadian player who had the lowest total score. Winners also received $2,500 to use toward attaining future goals.

With scores of 65-70-67-65—267 (-13) to finish T9, Aaron Cockerill took home top-Canadian honors at this week’s Freedom 55 Financial Championship.

“It’s a huge honour to be the top Canadian at this event,” Cockerill said. “There are so many great players from across Canada here this week, and the competition on this Tour is so strong. Thanks to Freedom 55 Financial for their support in helping players like me chase their dream of making it to the PGA TOUR.”

BOISE, Idaho – Michael Thomson won the Web.com Tour Finals’ Albertson Boise Open on Sunday at Hillcrest Country Club to regain a PGA Tour card.

Thompson finished with his second straight 7-under 64, birdieing five of the first seven holes on the back nine, for a three-stroke victory over Argentina’s Miguel Angel Carballo. He holed out from a bunker for birdie on the par-3 13th.

The 31-year-old Thompson finished at 23-under 261 and earned $180,000 in the second of four events that will determine 25 PGA Tour cards. He won the 2013 Honda Classic for his lone PGA Tour title.

Carballo eagled the par-5 second hole in a 66. He earned $108,000 to also wrap up a PGA Tour card.

Greyson Murray was third at 18 under after a 64. He already earned a card as a top-25 finishers on the Web.com money list.

England’s Andrew “Beef” Johnston (68) was 17 under and also earned a PGA Tour card, making $48,000 to push is two-event total to $54,910

“A few sodas! Yeah, I think there will be a Coke or a Fanta or something like that,” Johnson joked about his card-earning celebration. “Nah, there’s going to be a few beers, man!”

The series features the top 75 players from the Web.com money list, Nos. 126-200 in the PGA Tour’s FedEx Cup standings – Thompson was 145th, and Carballo 187th – and non-members such as Johnson with enough PGA Tour money to have placed in the top 200 in the FedEx Cup had they been eligible.

The top 25 players on the Web.com regular-season money list earned PGA Tour cards. They are competing against each other for tour priority, with regular-season earnings counting in their totals. The other players are fighting for 25 cards based on series earnings . Last year, Rob Oppenheim got the last PGA Tour card with $32,206. In 2014, Eric Axley was 25th at $36,312.

Three-time PGA Tour winner Scott Stallings (71) tied for fifth at 16 under with Ryan Blaum (64) and Canada’s Mackenzie Hughes (68). Tied with Thompson for the third-round lead, Stallings eagled the par-5 16th and made a double bogey on the par-4 18th. He has made $68,875 in the first two events to regain his PGA Tour card after finishing 128th in the FedEx Cup standings.

Hughes already earned a card from the Web.com money list.

Wearing a violet shirt and a white cap under a blue-gray sky, Judith Kyrinis, of Canada, needed to make a 4-foot putt on Wellesley Country Club’s 18th green on Sunday to post a red number.

She missed, but the 52-year-old Kyrinis still earned medalist honors in the 55th U.S. Senior Women’s Amateur Championship with her second consecutive round of even-par 74 on the 6,049-yard Wellesley (Mass.) Country Club layout.

Kyrinis led by two strokes after the first round; her 36-her total of 148 was five strokes better than Kim Eaton and two-time champion Ellen Port.

“We all joke that you should four- or five-putt on the final green if you’re going to be the medalist,” said Kyrinis, the runner-up in the 2014 championship. “But I’m OK with it. It means I played well.”

Her joke was a reference to the difficulty that medalists have in going on to win the championship. The last medalist to win was Carol Semple Thompson in 2002.

Her challengers didn’t have such worries; they were more concerned with moving up the leaderboard and qualifying for match play. Eaton, 57, of Mesa, Ariz., had just one birdie in her first 30 holes.

“I just have a hard time making birdies on this golf course,” she said.

Eaton overcame that problem on the 446-yard, par-5 13th by making a 40-foot eagle putt from short of the green. She still may have had just one birdie, but she also owned the lowest round of the championship, a 2-under 72.

One of 13 national championships conducted annually by the United States Golf Association, 10 of which are strictly for amateurs, the U.S. Senior Women’s Amateur Championship consists of 36 holes stroke play followed by six rounds of match play, with the 18-hole championship match scheduled to take place on Thursday, Sept. 22.

The Round of 64 will begin at 8:30 a.m. EDT on Monday.

The final four spots were determined by a six-woman playoff. Jen Holland, 53, of Branford, Conn., clinched the final spot by making an 18-inch putt in the gloaming at 7:04 p.m. EDT, well after the sun had set at 6:48.

“That was the longest foot-and-a-half putt I have made in my life,” said Holland as she received congratulatory hugs from fellow competitors.

Other players who had finished earlier had to wait longer to see whether they would be playing on Monday.

On the 18th hole, defending champion Karen Garcia, 53, of Cool, Calif., made a 6-footer for bogey that she approached as if it were a putt to win the championship.

“It might make the difference between me making the cut and not,” said Garcia immediately after shooting 84 for a two-round total of 163. “I was leaking on the way in.”

After posting 91 in the first round, her worst competitive score in 41 years,  Martha Leach, 54, of Hebron, Ky., came back to shoot 75. Thanks to her 16-stroke improvement, her 91 was the second-highest score by any player qualifying for match play in championship history. (Sally Tomlinson shot 92 in qualifying for match play 10 years ago.)

Pam Kuong, 55, of Wellesley Hills, Mass., also went lower in the second round, albeit not as dramatically as Leach. Playing in front of a hometown gallery, Kuong had difficulty judging the speed of her putts until her last five holes. She made birdies on four of them to shoot 78, six strokes better than her first round.

“There were neighbors, friends from work, clients of mine, fellow Charles River Country Club members, a bunch of other competitors from [Massachusetts Golf Association] events,” said Kuong, last year’s runner-up. “I went through a stretch where I had four-putts and three-putts, I was like, well, since my friends are still following me, I can’t give up.”

When Garcia, Leach and Kuong finished their rounds around lunchtime, they all thought their scores – 15-over 163 for Garcia, 18-over 166 for Leach, 14-over 162 for Kuong – would place them near the cutline.

They had different plans for Sunday afternoon. Garcia would practice her putting, Leach would watch football and Kuong was hosting a barbecue at her house for some of her fellow championship competitors. But all would have an activity in common.

“We’re all going to be following the scores on the computer,” said Kuong.

The leader board brightened for them as the afternoon progressed. When Kuong had finished at 12:20 p.m., she was tied for 62nd place. By the time play finished, she had moved into a tie for 30th.

Notable players qualifying for match play include 2009 champion Sherry Herman, 2010 champion Mina Hardin, 2004 U.S. Women’s Mid-Amateur champion Corey Weworkski, 2005 Mid-Amateur champion Mary Ann Hayward and 2016 USA Curtis Cup captain Robin Burke.

USGA champions Anna Schultz (2007 U.S. Senior Women’s Amateur), Diane Lang (2005, ’06 and ‘08 U.S. Senior Women’s Amateur) and Robin Donnelly (1989 U.S. Women’s Mid-Amateur) failed to qualify.