NOTE: This article was published in 2018. Program details are subject to change and specific amounts and details included in this article may no longer be accurate.

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No matter how many times we talk about the benefits and amenities included with a Golf Canada membership (most recently, here), it doesn’t strike home until, well, it strikes home.

A little while ago, I saw a tweet from a member at a local golf club.

“Somebody stole my putter out of my bag while I was at the range right before my match. My red TaylorMade Spider…,” he lamented, adding a few expletives directed at the thief.

At last check, that putter retails for close to $400. He thought he was out of pocket for a replacement.

The club responded immediately.

“So sorry this happened,” messaged the director of golf. “But glad you are a member of @golfcanada which includes reimbursement for these situations.”

He was unaware of that. And, most likely, so are you.

Golf Canada’s Incident Protection provides up to $2,500 reimbursement for damaged, lost or stolen equipment, among several other advantages you may not be aware of.

Like the fellow mentioned previously, you may think it will never happen to you. But it can. And will.

Like the guy at my club who placed his clubs and bag behind his car and then backed over them.

And if you’re travelling this winter or any time for that matter, your Golf Canada membership protects you.

For example, airlines may or may not reimburse you for accidental or intentional incidents but that’s small consolation.

Team Canada member Maddie Szeryk was on her way to her first tournament of the year at Texas A&M when her clubs came down the airport carousel. The heads of her driver, 3-wood and 5-wood were snapped off.

Golf and travel writer Ted McIntyre has a similar story. “As a frequent traveler, I am a master club packer but had the head fall off my driver when I opened my travel case. Can’t imagine how far they must have fallen upside down for that to occur.”

There are myriad examples. Prior to the Ryder Cup, Denmark’s Thorbjorn Olesen lost not one but two sets of clubs in 10 days. This summer, Graeme McDowell’s clubs disappeared during a flight and he was forced to withdraw from final qualifying for the Open Championship. Another PGA TOUR pro’s clubs went missing thanks to the airline and were discovered for sale at a used sporting goods store.

Do you play a course with adjacent homes? Do you occasionally miss a tee shot? (Rhetorical question.) If you break a window, you’re covered up to $1,000 for the damage you caused.

Golf carts are convenient but as motorized vehicles, they come with risks. If you have an incident while driving one, a Gold-level membership covers you for damages up to $2,500.

As a Gold-level member, you also receive a set of identification labels to affix to your clubs in the event that you misplace one.  Anyone finding it can report it through an online notification system. You will receive an email immediately and be reunited with your club.

Along with providing an official Handicap Factor, these are the main benefits of your Golf Canada membership.

To learn more about Golf Canada membership, click here.

Think it can’t happen to you?

Most likely, these folks didn’t either but when it did, they were relieved to find that their Golf Canada Gold-level membership was there to protect them.

So far this year, according to stats provided by Golf Canada, there were 189 claims for which almost $115,000 was paid out in restitution. Of those claims, 119 were for clubs and other equipment, 39 for window damage and the remainder for various other deductible incidents.

Some examples from claimants:

“Driving cart and strap that holds bag onto cart broke and bag fell off. My driver was in two pieces.”

“Cart containing wallet, car keys, cell phone and golf equipment rolled into lake. Range finder and box of balls lost.”

“The remote-control caddie went into a pond. Retrieved right away but has not worked since.”

“Hit a drive and the ball hit a cart path and went through a residential window.”

“Push cart with clubs rolled down a steep slope and ended upside down in a water hazard.”

PHOENIX – Bernhard Langer celebrated his fifth Charles Schwab Cup with his wife and friends, a glass of red wine in his hand.

He might consider sending the best bottle to Vijay Singh.

Both walked away winners Sunday when Singh produced the best round of his PGA Tour Champions career, a 10-under 61 that turned a six-shot deficit into a four-shot victory in the Charles Schwab Cup Championship and allowed Langer to claim another $1 million bonus for the season title.

“At age 61 to do it is quite an achievement,” Langer said, holding a glass of red wine on the balcony at Phoenix Country Club. “Maybe there’s another in me.”

It was the fourth time in the last five years that Langer won the Schwab Cup.

This one was out of his hands when he could only manage a tie for 13th in the tournament. That paved the way for Scott McCarron, who had a one-shot lead going into the final round and needed to win the tournament to capture his first Schwab Cup. McCarron faltered from the start, however, opening with a three-putt par and hitting a tee shot out-of-bounds for double bogey two holes later.

Singh blew by McCarron and everyone else at Phoenix Country Club, winning by four shots over Tim Petrovic.

Needing a big finish to try to catch the surprising leader, McCarron hit over the green into a corporate grandstand behind the 17th hole and made another double bogey. He closed with a 72 and tied for third.

“There’s not really much to say today about the round. It wasn’t very good,” McCarron said. “I couldn’t quite get it going, but I was still hanging in there. I had a good opportunity at 10, just missed it. And I hit a poor tee shot on 11, which cost me a bogey. By then, I looked up and Vijay’s at 21 or whatever he was at that point and it was like almost over.”

Singh holed putts from everywhere and lost track of his score until it was time to sign his card. His 61 was his lowest score by two shots on the 50-and-older circuit.

“I really didn’t think I had any chance,” Singh said.

Singh said he saw a leaderboard around the 13th hole that showed him tied for the lead, and he poured it on. He punched a wedge under the trees to 30 feet and holed the birdie putt on the 16th, rolled in a 25-foot birdie putt on the 17th and was on his way.

Singh finished at 22-under 262 to win by four shots over Petrovic, who started the final round one shot behind McCarron and closed with a 70.

The 55-year-old Fijian won for the third time this year and finished at No. 4 in the Schwab Cup.

“The way they were scoring all week, I thought if I got to 20 (under), I might finish top 5,” Singh said. “I birdied the first two, hit it close at 4. I just kept going. I didn’t think about much. I didn’t even know what we were shooting.”

Singh missed only one green in regulation.

Langer capped off another remarkable year for a 61-year-old German with an ageless game. He only won twice, his fewest since 2015, but was runner-up six times.

“It doesn’t get old,” he said.

Langer was among only six players who had a mathematical chance to win the Schwab Cup. McCarron was the only one who had a chance to win Sunday, and he wound up second in the Schwab Cup, worth a $500,000 bonus.

Wes Short had a 69 and tied for third with McCarron.

“To look at the start of the year, if you would have said, ‘Hey, with nine holes to go, you had a chance to win the Schwab Cup,’ I’d say, let’s go, let’s take it,” McCarron said. “Unfortunately, I’m a little disappointed in the way I performed today.”

After setting the course record on Saturday with a 61, Canadian Stephen Ames slipped three spots into a tie for 5th with a final-round 72 (+1).

PLAYA DEL CARMEN, Mexico – Matt Kuchar had gone four years, six months and three weeks since his last PGA Tour victory.

The last few holes Sunday at the Mayakoba Golf Classic must have felt just as long.

Kuchar started the final round with a four-shot lead and made only two bogeys in the first 67 holes he played at El Camaleon Golf Club. And then he made back-to-back bogeys, Danny Lee holed a birdie putt from off the 16th green, and Kuchar had no margin for error.

He finished with three pars, making nervy 3-footers on the last two holes, to close with a 2-under 69 for a one-shot victory and a big sigh of relief.

“I didn’t want a 3-footer on the last hole,” Kuchar said. “I was hoping to have a three or four-shot lead for some wiggle room. But man, that felt awfully good.”

Lee, the only player to sustain a serious threat against Kuchar, finished with two pars for a 65.

Kuchar still wasn’t entirely in the clear. His 15-foot birdie attempt on the 17th rolled about 3 1/2 feet by the hole, and he had to make that for par to stay in the lead. And on the final hole, he left his 30-foot birdie putt about 3 feet short and had to roll that in for the victory.

“That was some of the best ball-striking I’ve had, and through 60 some holes, awfully good putting,” Kuchar said. “And then the putter kind of went a little bit on the fritz there coming in. Thrilled to be the champion here. It’s been a long time for me. It feels extra sweet right now.”

The 40-year-old Kuchar had gone 115 starts on the PGA Tour since his last victory in the RBC Heritage at Hilton Head in April 2014. It comes at the end of what had been a disappointing year in which Kuchar finished out of the top 70 on the PGA Tour money list for the first time since 2007, and he failed to make the Ryder Cup team for the first time in 10 years.

“My 2018 wasn’t what I wanted,” Kuchar said. “This is a high note. It’s amazing thing to get a win. I go from ‘Hola’ to ‘Aloha.’ I’m pretty excited about that.”

Kuchar qualifies for the Sentry Tournament of Champions to start next year at Kapalua.

He finished at 22-under 262, breaking by one the 72-hole record at Mayakoba previously held by Harris English.

PGA Tour rookie Cameron Champ had a 12-foot eagle attempt on the 13th hole that would have brought him within two shots, but he missed the putt and sent his next tee shot into the mangroves, making double bogey. He had another double bogey on the 17th hole and had to settle for a 69 to tie for 10th.

J.J. Spaun (66) and Richy Werenski (67) tied for third.

Ryder Cup captain Jim Furyk closed with a 67 and was among those who tied for sixth.

Adam Hadwin (68) of Abbotsford, B.C., tied for 10th at 16 under.

Kuchar won for the eighth time on the PGA Tour in a career marked more by consistency than trophies. This year, he had neither. He had only four top 10s – his best finish was a tie for fifth in Phoenix – and was coming off a tie for 57th in Las Vegas.

He added Mayakoba at the last minute, and with his regular caddie having previous plans, Kuchar hired a local caddie from El Camaleon. He referred to the week as a “working vacation” because of the beaches and amenities at Mayakoba, though it felt like work at the end.

“Golf is such a funny game,” Kuchar said. “It’s hard to predict when it’s going to come around.”

PHOENIX – Scott McCarron moved into position to win the PGA Tour Champions’ season points race, birdieing the final two holes Saturday for a one-stroke lead in the Charles Schwab Cup Championship.

McCarron shot a 5-under 66 on another warm and sunny day at Phoenix Country Club. To win the Charles Schwab Cup and a $1 million annuity, McCarron needs to the tournament Sunday and have Bernhard Langer – tied for 19th at 7 under – tie for fourth or worse.

“All I’m trying to do is put myself in position to win this golf tournament,” McCarron said. “Whatever happens with the Schwab Cup, I really can’t control that. That’s up to some other guys.”

The 53-year-old McCarron, fifth in the points standings entering the finale, has eight victories on the 50-and-over tour, winning twice this year. He won three times on the PGA Tour.

“The one thing I’m doing a really good job is I’m not letting the bad shots bother me too much at all this week, which is great,” McCarron said. “Sometimes I’ll let them bother me a little bit.”

Langer had a 66 after shooting two 70s.

“Obviously, I’m out of the running for winning,” Langer said. “So, I’m just trying to sneak up as far as I can and then it’s all up to the other guys, how they finish.”

McCarron had an 18-under 195 total.

Stephen Ames and Tim Petrovic were tied for second.

?COURSE RECORD ?@StephenAmesPGA ??? pic.twitter.com/fuO7wuOHkI

— Golf Canada (@GolfCanada) November 10, 2018

Ames had a 61. He birdied four of the first five holes and closed birdie-par-birdie-eagle.

“I did it with the putter, which is nice because I had a struggle with it this year,” Ames said. “But overall it was fun. I had to look at my score, my scorecard, to actually realize that I needed eagle on the last hole to go to 10 under. So standing over the putt on the 18th, it was a lot more pressure.”

With an eagle on 18, Canada’s @StephenAmesPGA finishes with a 61 to set the course record and take the lead at @SchwabCupFinale ?? pic.twitter.com/jKQha4NE58

— Golf Canada (@GolfCanada) November 10, 2018

Petrovic shot 66.

Second-round leader Paul Goydos had a 69 to drop two strokes back.

“Today was kind of that round as to why I’m not in the running to win the Schwab Cup,” Goydos said.

Season title contender David Toms (65) was at 12 under with Vijay Singh (67), Wes Short Jr. (65), Glen Day (65) and Marco Dawson (67).

Langer and No. 2 Scott Parel (tied for 21st at 6 under after a 68) would take the Cup with a tournament victory, while McCarron, Toms, Miguel Angel Jimenez and Jerry Kelly need a win and help from other players. Kelly (68) was tied for 11th at 10 under, and Jimenez (69) was 32nd in the 35-man field at even par.

PLAYA DEL CARMEN, Mexico – For three days, Matt Kuchar has felt in total control of his game at the Mayakoba Golf Classic.

It shows in his score.

For the second straight day, Kuchar had enough birdies to atone for one rough hole, and it carried him to a 6-under 65 to set the 54-hole tournament record and build a four-shot lead as he tries to end more than four years without a PGA Tour victory.

Kuchar was at 20-under 193, breaking by three shots his personal best on the tour, and by one shot is 54-hole score to par.

“I felt really, really good for three days,” Kuchar said. “I mean, 20 under is my best 54-hole total. I felt in control of my ball striking. I felt in control of driving, the iron play, the putting. It’s been a great three days.”

Kuchar saved par from just off the green at the 18th to keep his four-shot margin over Whee Kim, who had a 66.

The last time Kuchar had a four-shot lead going into the final round was the 2014 Houston Open, and he wound up losing in a playoff when Matt Jones made a 45-foot birdie putt on the last hole and then chipped in from 40 yards in a playoff.

The other two times Kuchar had the 54-hole lead, he won the Memorial in 2013 one week after losing a one-shot lead at Colonial.

“You know the deal, though. You have to go play good golf,” Kuchar said. “I can’t go out there and think a whole bunch of pars are going to get me in the winner’s circle. I’ve still got to make a good number of birdies, and with that, somewhat have the pedal down.”

Adam Hadwin of Abbotsford, B.C. shot a 68 and was seven shots back at 13-under 200.

Richy Werenski and Danny Lee each shot 67 and were five shots back, followed by a group that included PGA Tour rookie of the year Aaron Wise (63) and Cameron Champ (69). Champ, who played in the final group with Kuchar and Lee, already won this season at the Sanderson Farms Championship.

Kuchar has been piling up birdies at El Camaleon Golf Club, and he began to pull away with four birdies on the front nine. Just like Friday, however, one hole gave him stress. It was the 12th hole in the second round, when he had to make a 35-foot bogey putt. On Saturday, it was a tee shot on the 14th. Kuchar took a penalty from the hazard, and dropped in a good lie a few inches next to the cart path.

Instead of taking relief into deeper rough, he hit with his feet on the path and picked it clean so his fairway metal wouldn’t smack into the cement. It came up just short of the green, and he chipped to 5 feet and made the bogey putt.

Kuchar responded with a tee shot to 4 feet on the par-3 15th to restore his margin to four shots, and he caught a break on the last hole when he pulled his approach, but it struck a tree and came down in light rough to set up a simple up-and-down.

Champ was trying to get into the final group for Sunday with a par on the last hole, but his wedge came out hot from the rough and rolled through the green, his chip came out heavy and he three-putted for double bogey.

Ryder Cup captain Jim Furyk had a 66 and was at 13-under 200. Also seven shots behind was Anirban Lahiri of India, who was tied with Kuchar early on the front line and still in the mix until a double bogey on the 14th hole and a bogey on the 16th. He had to settle for a 69.

Kuchar’s last PGA Tour victory was at Hilton Head in 2014. He won the Fiji International with his dad caddying for him late in 2015, but struggled to contend this year and failed to reach the third FedEx Cup playoff event for the first time in nearly a decade. He also did not make the Ryder Cup team for the first time in 10 years.

“So 2018 has not been my best year, has not been a highlight for me, been a disappointing year,” Kuchar said. “But it’s got signs now of righting the ship and turning into a great start to … maybe it’s a great finish to ’18, great start to ’18-19, however you want to classify the calendar.”

HAINAN ISLAND, China – Gaby Lopez won her first LPGA Tour event with a 1-over 73 to finish one shot ahead of Ariya Jutanugarn in the Blue Bay tournament in China.

Lopez had bogeys on the last two holes at the Jian Lake Blue Bay Golf Club on Saturday and almost let the title slip away. She finished at 8-under 280.

Playing in a group with Lopez, No. 1-ranked Jutanugarn had a birdie on the final hole to also finish on 73.

Celine Boutier shot a 66 and finished two shots off the lead.

Lopez is the first winner from Mexico since Lorena Ochoa, a driving force for the game in that Latin American country.

“I mean, she’s been my inspiration my entire life,” Lopez said of Ochoa. “That’s why I’m actually a professional golfer.”

Ochoa was the LPGA’s top-ranked golfer for several years until she retired in 2010. She won 27 LPGA Tour events.

Lopez said she was also thinking of her grandfather, Jose Lopez, who died recently.

“I always told him that I was going to give him my first trophy,” Lopez said. “Sadly I didn’t, but he was with me all week long and I couldn’t be more lucky, more fortunate to have him still alive in me.”

Jutanugarn played the last two rounds with Lopez and was happy for her – even in defeat.

“She did a great job last two days,” Jutanugarn said, knowing Lopez was “nervous sometimes.”

Lopez turned 25 on Friday and had a hole-in-one in the third round, which turned out to be the difference.

Alena Sharp (75) of Hamilton tied for 33rd place while Brittany Marchand (78) of Orangeville, Ont., was 61st.

The tournament wrapped up five straight weeks of play for the LPGA in Asia.

PHOENIX – Paul Goydos birdied the par-5 18th for a 6-under 65 and a one-stroke lead in the PGA Tour Champions’ season-ending Charles Schwab Cup Championship.

Tied for the first-round lead with Tim Petrovic after a 63, Goydos had six birdies in the bogey-free round in warm, sunny conditions at Phoenix Country Club.

“I was very, in a sense, for lack of a better word, simple,” Goydos said. “I hit a lot of fairways, hit a lot of greens and I made six putts for birdie. A couple of them short and a couple of nice mid-range ones. I think what I take out of it is I didn’t put a lot of pressure on myself.”

The 54-year-old Goydos won the 2016 event at Desert Mountain. He has five victories on the 50-and-over tour after winning twice on the PGA Tour.

“The weather’s supposed to be good, the scores are going to be good this weekend,” Goydos said. “Should be exciting.”

Scott McCarron, one of six players left in the season-long Charles Schwab Cup points race for a $1 million annuity, was a stroke back at 13 under after a 64. He birdied the final two holes.

“I drove the ball pretty well, hit a lot of fairways, gave myself a lot of opportunities, and then hit it close on 17 and 18,” McCarron said. “Always nice to be able to finish the round hitting it close.”

Petrovic was 12 under after a 67.

“Just a little shaky out of gate,” Petrovic said. “Just kind of chunked a chip on the first hole and three-putted on the second hole. That’s not the way you want to start. … I got myself back into it, for sure.”

Wes Short Jr. had a 63 to match Duffy Waldorf (65) at 9 under. Vijay Singh (67) and Marco Dawson (65) were 8 under, and Cup contender Jerry Kelly (67), Stephen Ames (67) and defending champion Kevin Sutherland (68) were another stroke back.

Points leader Bernhard Langer (70) and No. 2 Scott Parel (69) were tied for 20th at 2 under.

Langer and Parel would take the Cup with a tournament victory, while Miguel Angel Jimenez, Kelly, McCarron and David Toms need a win and help from other players. Langer has won the season-long competition four times, three straight from 2014-16.

Toms was 6 under after a 67, and Jimenez 2 over after a 75.

PLAYA DEL CARMEN, Mexico – Matt Kuchar knew he was in trouble when his tee shot sailed so far to the right that he hit a provisional in case the ball was out-of-bounds.

He found the ball, and somehow never lost the lead.

Kuchar escaped his only big mess Friday with a 35-foot bogey putt on the 12th hole, and he rode eight birdies to a 7-under 64 that gave him a two-shot lead over PGA Tour rookie Cameron Champ going into the weekend at the Mayakoba Golf Classic.

Champ, going after his second victory in three weeks, played in the morning and shot 62 with a bogey on his final hole.

Kuchar was at 14-under 128 as he tries to end more than four years without a PGA Tour victory.

“Yesterday was kind of a bogey-free day and just easy, and everything else today was about the same,” he said. “I just had that one challenging hole.”

The challenge was figuring out what to do once he found it.

The ball was under a cluster of trees and bushes with rocks scattered everywhere. Even taking a one-shot penalty for an unplayable lie was not an easy option. If his drop settled between rocks, he would have to play that or take another penalty.

Finally, he found a spot and the drop landed in enough soft soil for him to pitch out of trouble, through the fairway and into the rough. He got his fourth shot onto the green and made the long putt to escape with bogey.

“That was great,” Kuchar said. “I knew I had a par 5 following it, and I figured I was probably going to make double there and birdie on the next. I ended up making bogey there and par on the par-5 13th, so still felt like I was very much in control.”

What put Kuchar in good shape were the five straight birdies on the front nine, and then he took the lead for the first time with a birdie on No. 11 before his wild adventure on the 12th hole. Tied again for the lead, he added two birdies coming in for his two-shot cushion.

Champ already is the talk of the tour for the speed of his swing and how far he hits the ball, though there is more to his game than length. El Camaleon Golf Club is all about location – preferably the fairway – more than smashing it as far as possible.

Two weeks after winning the Sanderson Farms Championship in Mississippi, he worked on a few tweaks in his swing and was in full control of where the ball was going. For the second straight day, Champ missed only two fairways, key to good scoring at Mayakoba.

“It’s not a bomber’s course,” Champ said. “You have to place it off the tee, and some holes the rough is very thick and you’ve just got to whack it out. This course I feel like is very suitable for everyone. Just to be able to place my ball right in the fairways and on the greens and make the putts when I needed is great.”

Adam Hadwin of Abbotsford, B.C., was the only Canadian to make the cut after firing a 4-under 67 to tie for 10th at 10 under. Roger Sloan of Merritt, B.C., Nick Taylor of Abbotsford, Adam Svensson of Surrey, B.C., Mackenzie Hughes of Dundas, Ont., and Corey Conners of Listowel, Ont., all exited the tournament.

An area renowned for its wild weather – rain out of nowhere, plenty of wind – has seen sunshine and calms for two days, and it’s reflected in the scoring.

The cut was at 4-under 138. The weekend will not include Jordan Spieth.

The three-time major champion missed the cut in his final event of the year after a 69. Spieth managed only eight birdies in good scoring conditions and will have the weekend off for the seventh time this year. Next up is his wedding over Thanksgiving weekend.

Kuchar, meanwhile, has more than Champ to worry about the next two rounds.

The seven players at 11-under 131 included defending champion Patton Kizzire, past Mayakoba champion Brian Gay and Anirban Lahiri of India, who has played in the last two Presidents Cups. Eighteen players were within five shots of the lead.

Rickie Fowler (68) and Tony Finau (65) were at 8-under 134, along with their Ryder Cup captain, Jim Furyk, who had a 65.

Brittany Henderson, the older sister of Brooke Henderson, is one of nine people who will officially be inducted into Coastal Carolina University’s Buddy F. Sasser Athletics Hall of Fame.

Prior to putting her playing career behind her to caddy full-time for her sister on the LPGA Tour, Henderson was a member of Team Canada’s Development (2006-2008) Team.

Collegiality, Henderson finished her Coastal career ranked third in program history in career scoring average (75.94). .She led Coastal to a pair of Big South championships in 2011 and 2013 and she was the back-to-back Individual Medalist at the 2012-13 Big South Championships. Henderson is one of two Coastal women’s golfers to compete in an NCAA Regional in each of her four years, and she also advanced to the 2011 NCAA Championship. She was voted the 2013 Big South Golfer and Scholar-Athlete of the Year and was a four-time All-Big South selection. In 2012, Henderson set the Coastal record for the lowest individual score at a Big South Championship (214) and she tied the conference record for lowest individual round at a Big South Championship (68).

Henderson will officially inducted as the Hall’s 28th class on the evening of Nov. 9. The Class of 2018 will also be publicly honored at halftime of Coastal Carolina’s football game versus Arkansas State on Nov. 10.

Big Congratulations to my sister!! Inducted into Coastal Carolina University’s Athletic Hall of Fame last night! So proud of her ? pic.twitter.com/sj0cPB7C9s

— Brooke Henderson (@BrookeHenderson) November 10, 2018

Seven of the nine inductees are former Chanticleer student-athletes, including Henderson (women’s golf), Jose Iglesias (baseball), Chelsy Kimes (volleyball), Erica Peake (women’s track and field), Sebastian Soderberg (men’s golf), Mike Tolbert (football) and Cody Wheeler (baseball). Also being inducted as honorary members are retired women’s basketball coach, Alan LeForce, and retired University photographer, Bill Edmonds.

HAINAN ISLAND, China – How’s this for a birthday present?

Gaby Lopez turned 25 on Friday and celebrated with a hole-in-one that helped her to a 6-under-66 and a one-stroke lead over Ariya Jutanugarn after the third round of the Blue Bay LPGA tournament.

Even better, Lopez will be after her first career U.S. LPGA Tour victory in the final round on Saturday and will play in the last group with Ariya, the No. 1-ranked golfer. They also played together on Friday at Jian Lake Blue Bay Golf Club.

“I have been waiting for this moment,” the Mexican said. “I’m very lucky to share the course with the best player in the world. You know, I had fun. I enjoyed today.”

Lopez aced the 17th, knocking in a 7 iron from 181 yards. She also had six birdies including three to open the round. She said it was her eighth hole-in-one.

“As soon as the ball left the club I knew it was a good shot, but I couldn’t see because the sun was in my face,” Lopez explained. “I turned around and my caddie goes, ‘It went in.’ I couldn’t give myself a better birthday present.”

Alena Sharp of Hamilton, Ont., is 4 over for the tourney and 13 shots off the lead. Brittany Marchand of Orangeville, Ont., is 8 over.

Jutanugarn, of Thailand, led by four strokes after the second round but slipped to a 71, which included a bogey on the final hole.

Sung Hyun Park shot a 67 and fellow South Korean Sei Young Kim had a 68 to put them both five strokes behind the leader.

The tournament wraps up five straight weeks of play for the tour in Asia.