THE RECAP: Costa Mesa, California’s Jake Knapp cruised to victory on Friday at the Mackenzie Tour – PGA TOUR Canada’s USA West #2 Q-School, shooting a 3-under 68 at the Country Club at Soboba Springs to earn medallist honours and exempt status on the Mackenzie Tour in 2017.

The 22-year old finished the week seven strokes ahead of Valencia, California’s Nick Delio, taking advantage of his length off the tee and an improved wedge game to conclude the week at 16-under 268.

“I had the advantage on a lot of the holes to be able to take some of the hazards out of play, so if I knew if I could drive it straight and have a lot of shots between 100-150 yards, that would give me opportunities to make birdies,” said Knapp.

After playing his way onto the Tour mid-way through last season, Knapp made two of seven cuts and said he’s looking forward to having another chance at competing in Canada this Summer.

“Overall, getting a little redemption back,” said Knapp of his goals for the season, speaking optimistically after working on tightening his wedge game in the offseason. “My game’s changed enough now where I think it’s going to fit the courses a little bit better. It’s about being able to score a little better and ideally put myself in a position to win.”

Vancouver, British Columbia’s Stuart Macdonald was the top Canadian, closing with three straight birdies for a closing 68 and a T9 finish to earn exempt status for the first four events of the season.

FINAL SCORES FOR MACKENZIE TOUR STATUS: After 72 holes this week, every player inside the top 40 and ties earned Mackenzie Tour status for 2017. Below is a breakdown of the cut-offs for status:

1^st (Exempt for 2017 season): -16/1st

5^th (Exempt for first 8 events, subject to 2^nd reshuffle): -6/5th

16^th (Exempt for first 4 events, subject to 1^st reshuffle): E/T16*

*(Dearborn, Michigan’s Evan Bowser prevailed in 4-for-1 playoff)

40^th (Conditional status): +7/T36

THEY SAID IT:

“I love Winnipeg. That’s where my family’s actually from, and I get to stay with family that week and go out to Gimli and hang out with them.” – Jake Knapp, on which city and tournament (Players Cup) he’s looking forward to most in 2017.

“I really enjoyed my time on that Tour, and it’s helped me develop my game a lot. I’m really excited to get back up there and have some guaranteed starts, especially at the start of the year.” – Jake Johnson, who closed with a 6-under 65 to finish solo fifth.

“I was thinking, ‘you can do this, just stay strong.’ I was little disappointed to be in the playoff, because I was only one shot away, but everyone could find one shot to pick up somewhere, so I said ‘it’s okay, you have a chance right here.’” – Evan Bowser on prevailing in a 4-for-1 playoff to secure exempt status for the first four events.

PLAYER NOTES:

Below are notes on the top 16 players from this week’s Q-School:

JAKE KNAPP: Former standout at UCLA, where he recorded two individual wins and qualified for the 2015 U.S. Open. Made two of seven cuts on the Mackenzie Tour last season.

NICK DELIO: 2008 California Amateur Champion won the Dakotas Tour Order of Merit in 2013.

KEVIN LUCAS: Played collegiate golf at the University of Nevada-Reno and won the Money List on the 2014 eGolf Tour.

CAMERON DAVIS: Turned pro in 2016 after a standout amateur career that included individual wins at the 2015 Australian Amateur and 2016 World Amateur. Finished T15 at the PGA TOUR’s OHL Classic at Mayakoba in 2016.

JAKE JOHNSON: Played college golf at Sacramento State and held Mackenzie Tour status each of the last two seasons, making three cuts in nine starts.

CHASE WRIGHT: Won the Indiana State Open in 2010 and record six top-10 finishes on the Web.com Tour from 2014-16.

FEDERICO ZUCHETTI (a): Texas Tech Senior won the 2013 Italian International Amateur and the 2015 St. Andrews Links Trophy.

CHRIS KILLMER: Former University of Washington Husky won the Players Cup in 2012 and has earned conditional status on the Web.com Tour each of the last two years.

STUART MACDONALD (a): Member of Golf Canada’s National Amateur Team and recent Purdue University graduate. Finished third at the 2016 Canadian Amateur Championship.

JAMIE MARSHALL: University of Arkansas grad helped the Razorbacks to a runner-up finish at the 2009 NCAA Championship. Owns one pro win on the Adams Tour.

WYNDHAM CLARK (a): University of Oregon Senior is currently the No. 1 ranked player in Golfweek’s Men’s Collegiate Rankings on the strength of two individual wins this season.

MATT HANSEN: Two-time NCAA All-American at UC-Davis finished 66^th and 67^th, respectively, on the Order of Merit the last two seasons on the Mackenzie Tour.

JARED SAWADA: Played collegiate golf at the University of Hawaii at Manoa. He has played in the PGA TOUR’s Sony Open in Hawaii twice, including a T69 finish in 2017.

NAHUM MENDOZA III (a): Current San Diego State senior was named a 2^nd team NCAA All-American in 2016 and represented the United States in the Palmer Cup.

NIGEL LETT (a): University of Oregon Senior helped the Ducks to NCAA Team Championship last year along with close friend and Mackenzie Tour alum Aaron Wise.

EVAN BOWSER: Played collegiate golf at Oakland University and qualified three times for the U.S. Amateur Championship.

Miscellaneous notes:

• Weather: 21 degrees Celsius, sunny, winds 14 km/h.
• Former PGA TOUR member Matt McQuillan finished with a 7-under 64 to move up 41 spots into a tie for 22^nd.
• Canadians to earn status (5): Stuart Macdonald (-3/T9), Eric Banks (E/T16), Matt McQuillan (+3/T22), Raoul Menard (+4/T25), David Rose (+5/T28)
• Click here for scores. 

RIO GRANDE, Puerto Rico – Former U.S. Amateur champion Bryson DeChambeau ran off four straight birdies in a stop-and-start round Friday and finished with a 7-under 65 to share the lead with D.A. Points in the rain-delayed Puerto Rico Open.

Points hit all 18 greens in regulation at Coco Beach Golf and Country Club, though he didn’t have as many reasonable looks at birdie as he would have liked. Points also had a three-putt bogey to go with four birdies in his round of 69.

They were at 11-under 133 when the second round was suspended by darkness.

Heavy rain kept the opening round from finishing, and there was another two-hour rain delay on Friday.

Bill Lunde, the former Las Vegas winner who is playing his first PGA Tour event in five months, was at 11 under with three holes to play. David Hearn (69) of Brantford, Ont., was the low Canadian in a tie for 10th at 9 under. Ottawa’s Brad Fritsch (70) was at 3 under, while Graham DeLaet (70) of Weyburn, Sask., and Nick Taylor (72) of Abbotsford, B.C., finished the day at 1 under.

DeChambeau has shown spells of good golf since turning pro, starting with a tie for fourth at Hilton Head in his pro debut. He earned his PGA Tour card last year and has struggled at time, including a dispute with the USGA that disallowed his side-saddle manner of putting.

After making only one cut in his last seven tournaments, he tied for 27th two weeks ago in the Valspar Championship and thought that could have been better.

“A couple of weeks ago at Innisbrook I three-putted a couple times – six times, in fact – and just cut the momentum out of me and that was kind of a disappointment. I never really got a low round there and I could have pretty easily. So I took the three-putts out this week.”

Tim’ Wilkinson shot a 63 and was in the group at 10-under 134 that included J.J. Henry, San Juan native Rafael Campos and J.J. Spaun, a PGA Tour rookie who had a pair of top 10s during the West Coast Swing.

When play was suspended, there were 80 players at 3 under, meaning the cut was likely to be no worse than 3-under 141. Among those likely to miss the cut were Graeme McDowell and Ian Poulter, who is running out of time to keep full status under his major medical extension from a foot injury last year.

He has five starts remaining to earn 117 FedEx Cup points or $177,729.

Points is a two-time PGA Tour winner, most recently at the Houston Open in 2013, who has a low priority ranking and had a tough time getting into tournaments after the first month of the year.

The Puerto Rico Open is opposite the World Golf Championships event in Texas, meaning it gets reduced FedEx Cup points and the winner is not automatically invited to the Masters. But it still comes with an exemption, and other perks like the PGA Championship and The Players Championship.

That would mean plenty to Points and other players in the field. Lunde is playing out of the past champion’s status.

Points ended the opening round by holing a 9-iron from the fairway. On Friday, his 40-foot birdie putt on the opening hole hit the middle of the cup and came back out

“All the guys in the group just kind of laughed at me,” Points said. “They were like, ‘That hole knew you holed out yesterday to finish the round.’ That was kind of how the day started. But I stayed patient and really didn’t play poorly, hit a lot of fairways, hit a lot of greens and then finally holed a couple putts coming in.”

Wesley Bryan was at 6 under with three holes remaining. He has to win this week to have any chance of moving into the top 50 and earn a spot in the Masters.

Another former U.S. Amateur champion, Peter Uihlein, was at 8 under through 13 holes. Uihlein primary plays on the European Tour and received a sponsor’s exemption.

AUSTIN, Texas – Dustin Johnson and Phil Mickelson showed the simple side to the Dell Technologies Match Play. For three straight days in warmth, wind or rain, they built early leads and never let anyone get close to them in advancing out of their groups to the knockout stage.

For just about everyone else, it was a matter of surviving.

Bill Haas delivered another amazing escape when he chipped in from 120 feet to save par and extend a sudden-death playoff that he eventually won in six holes.

Marc Leishman made it to the round of 16 by playing two holes on Friday. He was awarded a victory because Jason Day withdrew on Wednesday, got a reprieve when Lee Westwood beat Pat Perez to force a three-man playoff, and beat Westwood on the second hole with a 12-foot birdie.

“Pat was either going to beat Lee and I was flying home tomorrow morning, or I was going to get to play golf and try to advance,” Leishman said. “I got the latter and advance. So it was a great day.”

It was an easy day for Johnson and Mickelson.

Johnson, the No. 1 seed going for his third straight PGA Tour victory, again won the opening hole and showed why he might be the most feared player in golf at the moment. He shot 30 on the front nine, and all PGA champion Jimmy Walker could do was make the match last as long as he could.

Johnson won, 5 and 3, and goes into the weekend having led after all 46 holes he has played this week.

Mickelson only made two birdies, but he had no mistakes and no trouble in a 6-and-5 victory over J.B. Holmes. Mickelson has led 41 of his 42 holes this week, and he has played so well from tee to green – and especially on the greens – that he has yet to see the 16th, 17th or 18th holes in competition at Austin Country Club.

Mickelson advanced out of the third round for the first time since 2004, so long ago that Lefty was known as the best player without a major and Tiger Woods was starting to work with a new swing coach, Hank Haney.

Johnson and Alex Noren (No. 8) were the only top 10 seeds left going into the weekend. Rory McIlroy (2) was mathematically eliminated on Thursday; Day (3) withdrew; Hideki Matsuyama (4) didn’t win a match all week; and Jordan Spieth (5) didn’t make it out of group play for the second time in three years.

Justin Thomas (6) also was knocked out. Thomas had a 2-up lead with five holes to play until Matt Fitzpatrick won the next four holes with birdies to win the match. That got Fitzpatrick into a playoff with Kevin Na, who had a 4-up lead until Chris Wood won the next six holes and seven out of the next eight.

Their playoff didn’t start for two hours, then Na hit a wedge to 3 feet and he advanced.

Fitzpatrick didn’t even endure the greatest frustration. That belonged to Tyrrell Hatton, his fellow Englishman, who lost to Rafa Cabrera Bello to set up a three-man playoff of stroke play involving Charles Howell III.

Hatton had a 10-foot putt to win on the first extra hole, but just missed on the left. When he went to tap in, he set his putter down and nudged the ball. Under a new local rule, he could have replaced it with no penalty. But he tapped in and incurred a two-stroke penalty, and he was walking back to the clubhouse as Cabrera Bello and Howell played on. Howell wound up winning on the fifth extra hole.

Asked if he knew the rule, Hatton replied, “I really wasn’t thinking at that stage.”

Sergio Garcia (7) lost in a battle of the Spaniards when rising star Jon Rahm took him down. Garcia at least provided one unforgettable moment when a burst of rain during his tee shot on the 13th hole caused him to lose his grip. The tee shot squirted left about 30 feet.

“First, I thought I missed the ball. Second, I thought the club was gone,” Garcia said. “Anyway, the match was already in bad shape there.”

Ross Fisher of England came up with another clutch moment. He only assured himself a spot in the Match Play three weeks ago with birdies on his last three holes in Mexico to tie for third and move up in the ranking. On Friday, he beat Jim Furyk and then holed a 20-foot birdie putt to beat Louis Oosthuizen in a playoff.

Reaching the round of 16 leaves him a good chance to be in the top 50 in the world at the end of the week and get into the Masters.

And now, everyone starts with a clean slate.

It’s single-elimination the rest of the way, starting with the fourth round and quarterfinals on Saturday.

Canada’s Mackenzie Hughes was a 13-year-old with big dreams when he first got a chance to pick Mike Weir’s brain on the golf course.

The PGA Tour rookie plans to do so again next month ahead of his first career appearance at the Masters.

Hughes, Weir and Adam Hadwin will all play this year at Augusta National, the first time in almost a half-century three Canadians will be in the same field at the major event. Weir, the 2003 Masters champion, recently asked if they wanted to play a practice round together on the famous course and Hughes and Hadwin were quick to confirm.

“I’m going to try to pick up 15 years of knowledge in four or five hours,” Hughes said Friday.

Hughes booked his ticket to the Masters last November when he won the RSM Classic. The 26-year-old Hamilton native has posted four top-25 results and earned over US$1.6 million this season.

Hadwin, 29, is enjoying a breakout year with four top-10 finishes this season, including a victory at the Valspar Championship this month. The Abbotsford, B.C., native became the first Canadian to shoot a 59 on the PGA Tour last January.

The trio will lead the first three-man Canadian charge at the Masters since George Knudson, Al Balding and Gary Cowan were in the field back in 1968.

(Photo by Andrew Redington/Getty Images)

Weir, from Bright’s Grove, Ont., won the green jacket just as Hughes was starting to play in junior golf tournaments. The influence that performance had on the youngster was profound.

“It was a huge boost of confidence knowing that a guy from not too far from me in Ontario just won the Masters,” he said.

Hughes focused on golf through his teenage years and won the Canadian amateur title in 2011 and 2012. The Kent State University product turned pro in 2013 and joined the Web.com Tour last season.

A victory at the Price Cutter Charity Championship set him up with a PGA Tour card. His win last fall gave him exempt status on the Tour through the 2018-19 season.

His accomplishments were the stuff of fantasy when Hughes caddied in a pro-am before the 2004 Canadian Open at Glen Abbey. Hughes was in Weir’s group and took the opportunity to learn as much as he could.

“The biggest takeaway was he was so genuinely nice to me,” Hughes said. “Really he probably was annoyed with me but he was still being really nice to me. I was asking him a lot of questions and hanging around pretty close.”

It was an 18-hole walk he would not soon forget.

“I just thought to myself, ‘I would love to do this one day,’ ” Hughes said. “I didn’t know how much work it would take or how hard it would be. But I thought, ‘Wow, this is really cool.’ I was in love with the game at the time, I just didn’t know what it would all entail.

“But I thought, ‘Wow, I’d love to be doing what Mike Weir is doing right now.’ ”

Weir went on to lose a playoff to Vijay Singh in one of the more memorable Canadian Open tournaments in recent memory. Weir has battled injuries in recent years and no longer has status on the Tour but he has a lifetime exemption to play the Masters as a former champion.

All of his experience on the course will give Weir plenty of fodder to share with his compatriots.

“He’s still a huge source of inspiration,” Hughes said from Charlotte, N.C., during a conference call. “I will always think of Mike Weir as the greatest Canadian golfer that’s ever lived.”

Hughes has made 10-of-14 cuts this season and sits 12th in the FedEx Cup standings. He’ll play at the Shell Houston Open next week before returning to Georgia.

He has managed to get a few practice rounds in at Augusta, a course he described as “a very good golf course for me.”

“You have to be thinking all the time and I’m usually one of the guys that is thinking all the time,” he said. “So I think it’ll be a really great track for me.”

The practice round with Hadwin and Weir is set for April 4, two days before the opening round at the Masters.

Danny Willett won the green jacket last year. This year’s tournament purse is $10 million.

CARLSBAD, Calif. – Cristie Kerr, Mo Martin and In Gee Chun each shot a 6-under 66 Thursday to share the lead after the opening round of the Kia Classic at Aviara.

Kerr, the 2015 Kia champion, and Martin, a native of Southern California, were among the first groups to tee off.

Chun was in one of the last groups on the course and made an impressive charge in the late-afternoon shadows, with birdies on five of her last seven holes. After almost hitting her drive on the par-4 18th into a pond, she had a 60-foot putt for the lead but rolled it about 15 feet past. She made that one for par and a share of the lead.

Kerr’s round would have been better if not for putts lipping out on the first two holes, including a 2-footer on No. 2 that left her with her only bogey.

“It was nice they all went in from there,” said Kerr, who closed with birdie-birdie.

Asked if she needed to make any adjustments, she said: “Just keep shooting 6 under. I don’t think I have to adjust much.”

Martin, who grew up in Pasadena and played at UCLA, had a bogey-free round on the 6,540-yard layout, part of which hugs Batiquotis Lagoon.

With a handful of family and friends wearing “Go Mo” buttons, Martin had a “really good putting day,” starting when she rolled in a downhill 15-footer on the first hole. She also birdied Nos. 5-7, draining a 35-foot putt on the par-3 sixth hole.

“I love everything about this week. It’s pretty much home territory,” Martin said. “The weather is perfect. I mean, the course in and of itself I love playing it. Love the setup. Keeps you on your toes all day. When you’re not hitting shots you’ve got beautiful scenery, wildflowers.”

Defending champion Lydia Ko struggled with her putter and had a disappointing start with a 2-over 74.

“The drive was great, but from there it was pretty average,” Ko said. “It was really hard to get anything rolling when you’re not putting that good either.”

Ko planned to spend the afternoon on the putting green.

“No matter if you’re hitting it good or not, if you can putt and you can make up and down when you’re missing the greens, that makes a huge difference,” she said.

Tied at 4 under were Marissa Steen, Alison Lee, Karine Icher, Mirim Lee, Hyo Joo Kim

Anna Nordqvist, the 2014 Kia champion who won last weekend in Phoenix, shot a 3-under 69.

Azahara Munoz hit an 8 iron for her first hole-in-one as a pro, on the par-3 No. 3, during her round of 3-under 69.

“I was pretty excited,” she said. “I actually hit a really good shot. Sometimes people say, ‘I hit it thin or whatever.’ No, I hit it really good. Bounce about that far right of the pin, went forward, and spun back in.”

Muoz gave the ball to a little girl.

“My caddie was actually telling me that I should keep it. I’m like, ‘No, I’ll give it away to a little girl.’ You never know. She could be out here with us in a few years.”

THE RECAP: Costa Mesa, California’s Jake Knapp carded a flawless 6-under 65 on Thursday at the Country Club at Soboba Springs to take the third round lead at the Mackenzie Tour – PGA TOUR Canada’s USA West #2 Q-School.

Knapp was without a bogey and made six birdies on the day to reach 13-under through three rounds, two strokes ahead of Sydney, Australia’s Cameron Davis with one round to go.

“It was great keeping the bogeys off the scorecard,” said Knapp. “Even the mistakes that I made, I kept them in relatively playable positions, and I was able to create a stress-free round.”

A long hitter off the tee, Knapp admitted he didn’t have his best ball-striking day but benefited from offseason work he’s put into his game around the greens, getting up-and-down whenever he needed to.

“Normally, when I’m playing well it means I’m striking the ball really well, but I’ve had times where my short game has had to pick me up, too, and that’s helped me a lot,” said Knapp.

Two strokes behind Davis in solo third was Valencia, California’s Nick Delio, while former Players Cup champ Chris Killmer was a shot further behind in solo fourth.

CURRENT SCORES FOR MACKENZIE TOUR STATUS: After 72 holes this week, every player inside the top 40 and ties will earn Mackenzie Tour status for 2017. Below is a breakdown of where the cut-offs stand:

1^st (Exempt for 2017 season): -13/1st

5^th (Exempt for first 8 events, subject to 2^nd reshuffle): -5/5th

16^th (Exempt for first 4 events, subject to 1^st reshuffle): -1/T12

40^th (Conditional status): +5/T35

BACKGROUND ON THE LEADER: A standout at UCLA, where he recorded two individual wins and qualified for the 2015 U.S. Open, Knapp decided to forgo his senior season with the Bruins to begin his pro career in January 2016.

He spent the 2016 season adjusting to the nuances of the professional game with some success, and played his way onto the Mackenzie Tour thanks to a solid performance after Monday Qualifying at the GolfBC Championship.

Now a year into his pro career, the 22-year old says he’s more used to the fast-paced world of playing for your livelihood.

“I think for me,” said Knapp, “professional golf has been much faster. In amateur and college golf, you have an event, and then an off week. It’s not as quick and you have more time to practice.

“When you’re playing professionally, you have to learn to practice on the road and try to get more out of your rounds and learn from every shot.”

With an eye on the upcoming season, the long-bombing Knapp says he’s looking forward to competing in Canada and playing on some of the tree-lined, tight courses commonly found on the Mackenzie Tour.

“You have to learn to play all kinds of golf, so picking the Mackenzie Tour was the best fit for me because I felt like it was going to improve the parts of my game that I felt like needed to get better,” said Knapp.

THEY SAID IT:

“I made some good putts in the mid 20-foot range. I got off to a shaky start with a bogey, but just kind of calmed myself down knowing that I had made two the day before and played really well.” – Former Players Cup champion Chris Killmer on bouncing back from an early bogey on Thursday.

“I’m driving it a lot better. I’m just hitting it a lot better. Last year was just a struggle. My short game was actually decent, but I didn’t give myself enough good looks, and the scores are so low there that you have to give yourself chances.” – Nick Delio, who made four cuts in 11 starts last year, on improving his game from 2016 to 2017.

“I had been scrambling a lot the first couple of days, so I came out to the course early to work on my game a little bit. Even though I was 2-over through seven, I knew I had better game than the scores were showing.” – Eric Banks, who moved up to T18 with a 2-under 69 on Thursday.

MORE PLAYER NOTES:

Cameron Davis

Davis turned pro in 2016 after a standout amateur career that included individual wins at the 2015 Australian Amateur and 2016 World Amateur. He narrowly missed out on earning a spot in The Masters after finishing second at the 2015 Asia Pacific Amateur.

Upon turning pro, Davis made a splash by finishing T15 after earning an exemption into the PGA TOUR’s OHL Classic at Mayakoba.

Miscellaneous notes:

• Weather: 17 degrees Celsius, sunny, winds 15 km/h.
• Canadians in position to earn status: Stuart Macdonald (E/T18), Eric Banks (E/T18), Matthew Whittaker (+2/T23), David Rose (+3/T26), Ki Taek Lee (+5/T35)
• 18- and 36-hole co-leader Wyndham Clark stumbled to a 3-over 74 to sit T6 through 54 holes.
• Click here for scores. 

RIO GRANDE, Puerto Rico – Five days after getting married, Trey Mullinax ran off nine birdies and saved par with a 15-foot putt on his last hole for a 9-under 63 to take the lead at the Puerto Rico Open.

The first round Thursday was suspended when showers turned into heavy rain at Coco Beach Golf & Country Club and the course was too wet to continue.

Mullinax was coming off consecutive missed cuts in Florida when he got married Saturday to Abi Essman, whom he has dated since high school. Several of his Alabama teammates were at the wedding in Birmingham, Alabama, including Justin Thomas.

And then it was off to Puerto Rico, and Mullinax posted his best round of the year. He had a one-shot lead over D.A. Points.

“Obviously, to shoot the score I shot today you have to putt well,” Mullinax said. “But it was nice to hit the ball like I feel I’ve been playing. I feel like I’ve been hitting the ball well, just haven’t been scoring. But today I hit the ball nice and it was a good result.”

Points finished his round of 64 with a 9-iron that he holed from the ninth fairway for an eagle.

“Today was the calmest day I’ve ever seen here, so it was pretty much a perfect 9-iron,” he said. “I knew I had a little backstop and I could hit it as hard as I want, and I threw it 149 yards and it spun back and went right in.”

David Hearn of Brantford, Ont., is the top Canadian. He shot a 6-under 66. Nick Taylor of Abbotsford, B.C., and Ottawa’s Brad Fritsch are 1 under, and Grahem DeLaet of Weyburn, Sask., is 1 over.

It was an important start for Points, who has a low priority this year on the PGA Tour and has had trouble getting into tournaments.

He last played seven weeks ago at Pebble Beach, where he won in 2011 with Bill Murray as his amateur partner. Points has tried Monday qualifying for some PGA Tour events.

“I’m proud of myself for not just sitting on my butt and not doing anything,” he said. “I’ve been playing and practicing and trying to stay sharp and I think that paid off today.”

Former Las Vegas winner Bill Lunde, playing for the first time in five months, and Xander Schauffele were at 65. The group at 66 included Harold Varner III, David Hearn of Canada and Jonathan Randolph, who still had three holes remaining.

The first round was to resume Friday morning.

Former Puerto Rico Open winner Scott Brown was at 67. San Juan native Rafa Campos was at 5 under with four holes remaining when the rain arrived. A year ago, Campos opened with a 64 and eventually tied for eighth.

The Puerto Rico Open is opposite the World Golf Championships event in Texas this week, meaning a winner does not earn an automatic spot in the Masters. Wesley Bryan would need to win to have any chance of moving into the top 50 in the world ranking and qualifying for Augusta National.

Bryan opened with a 63.

AUSTIN, Texas –With a big lead on the back nine, Jordan Spieth put the ball in water again.

Gulp.

This time, there was no collapse, just a grind-it-out “must win” to beat Japan’s Yuta Ikeda in Thursday’s second round at the Dell Technologies Match Play in gusty wind that lived up to the legendary tough conditions of Texas golf.

Spieth beat Ikeda 4-and-2 at the Austin Country Club a day after losing his first-round match by the same score to Japan’s Hideto Tanihara.

Thursday’s victory, coupled with the draw between Tanihara and Ryan Moore, leaves Spieth needing to beat Moore on Friday and for Tanihara to draw or lose to Ikeda if Spieth is to move on to Saturday’s knockout rounds.

“I’ve got to play better than I did the last two days and I know that. I’ve just got to have complete trust because why not at this point. It’s a win or go home situation,” Spieth said.

Beating Ikeda took some work in conditions that saw gusts top 30 mph, often blowing straight in the golfer’s faces.

The pair made the turn with Spieth 2-up before he stuck his tee shot to within 18 inches on the par-3 11th and tapped in for birdie to win the hole. But Spieth hit a wild tee shot on No. 13 that plunked into the Colorado River – much wider than Rae’s Creek at Augusta – and he peeled out of the shot in disgust.

Instead of seizing the opening for a rally, Ikeda’s tee shot splashed as well. They halved the hole and Spieth steadily closed out the match without any mistakes the rest of the way.

“We both made a mess of the 13th, but all in all, it was a step in the right direction after yesterday,” Spieth said, referring to his opening-round 4-and-2 loss to Tanihara.

As a Texas native, playing in the Lone Star State provides both a comfort zone and an emotional pressure cooker for Spieth.

He plays in front of adoring galleries who cheer his big shots and groan over his mistakes. Youngsters plead for autographs or high-fives whenever he’s within reaching distance. And the Austin Country Club, where he played several times during his short college career at the University of Texas provides a familiar layout of rolling hills and windy riverside greens.

The pressure of his week also comes from what awaits him in two weeks: a return to the Masters, where he won in 2015 but blew a five-shot lead on the back nine last year in an epic collapse as England’s Danny Willett won.

Willett, playing in Spieth’s home territory, has had a ragged tournament with two losses already. A 6-and-5 loss to Bill Haas on Friday eliminated Willett from playing on the weekend.

Before he’d even teed up in Austin, Spieth said he’s ready for this year’s Masters and the questions about the collapse to be behind him. Then he opened the match play tournament with the loss to Tanihara.

Needing a win Thursday just to give himself a chance to get to the championship rounds, Spieth was greeted with a large crowd at the first tee and “Hook’em Horns!” cheers at every hole. Spieth was 3-up after eight holes as the wind belted the players on every swing.

A bogey on the par-4 10th allowed Ikeda an opening until Spieth’s laser tee shot into the 11th put him back in control.

“(Conditions) were about as tough as I think I’ve ever seen it. I couldn’t really fall back on much from school,” Spieth said. “In match play, you’re not upset with these conditions. One-on-one, I think the tougher conditions are better for us. We’ve kind of always believed that so I kind of hope tomorrow is more of the same.”

AUSTIN, Texas – Soren Kjeldsen and Alex Noren won their groups in the Dell Technologies Match Play, one round before group play is even finished.

Rory McIlroy took the day off, and he’s already guaranteed the weekend off.

Thursday was as wild as it gets in this tournament, even without wind ripping so hard through the edge of Hill Country that Phil Mickelson chipped into the water and still halved the hole.

Brandt Snedeker, showing class in the midst of such exasperating conditions, conceded a 7-foot putt when Andy Sullivan’s ball rolled up toward the hole and the wind blew it back.

“I’m sure everybody saw some funny-looking shots out there,” Charles Howell III said, who kept his hopes alive with a clutch pitch and a 1-up victory.

The wind had nothing to do with a domino-effect of withdrawals that allowed Kjeldsen and Noren to get a day of rest Friday.

One after Jason Day withdrew because his mother faces surgery for lung cancer, Gary Woodland pulled out because of a personal family matter. He was scheduled to play McIlroy in the second round, and while McIlroy was conceded a victory, he was eliminated four hours later when Kjeldsen won his second straight match. Kjeldsen was to play Woodland in the third round, so he was assured of winning the group at 3-0.

And so ended McIlroy’s week – 17 holes on Wednesday when Kjeldsen beat him with four straight birdies, no golf on Thursday, and a meaningless match Friday. All that’s left is for McIlroy to decide whether to play the Houston Open next week. He has played just 13 competitive rounds this year.

Noren, meanwhile, had an easy time over Bernd Wiesberger for his second straight victory. He only had to beat Francesco Molinari on Friday, but then Molinari withdrew with a wrist injury, assuring Noren a 3-0 record and a spot in the knockout stage this weekend.

Molinari pulling out also eliminated Wiesberger and Thongchai Jaidee, who get to face each other Friday with nothing at stake.

Along with two players already advancing, 23 players from the 64-man field already are mathematically eliminated.

It was even wilder on the golf course.

Mickelson, who has made it past the third round only once in his 12 previous appearances at Match Play, has never trailed all week and had no trouble against Daniel Berger. But the wind was gusting to 30 mph, and the sun baked out greens that became like Texas hardpan.

Berger was in the water on the par-5 12th and Mickelson was just right of the green in two. His pitch rolled – and rolled – beyond the flag, off the green and into the water. They halved with bogeys.

“It happens,” Mickelson said. “I just didn’t think that we would have the course so severe where that shot would be a problem.”

Still, Mickelson used a word seldom heard at Austin Country Club on Thursday. He said he had “fun.”

Match play made it acceptable.

Jordan Spieth stayed in the game with a 4-and-2 victory over Yuta Ikeda. They halved the 13th hole with double bogeys when Spieth hit into the water, and then Ikeda hit into the water. The wind was that strong, and it was even tougher on the greens.

Dustin Johnson had another easy time as he tries to get in position for his third straight victory, but he still has one more match to claim his group. Ditto for Brooks Koepka, who has yet to see the last five holes in competition. Koepka has closed out both his matches on the 13th hole.

Jon Rahm and Sergio Garcia both won two matches and now square off Friday to see which Spaniard wins the group. That also will be the case with Charl Schwartzel and Paul Casey, 2-0 in their groups and facing each other Friday.

“Now we get into the meat of this thing,” Casey said. “For me, it’s straight knockout tomorrow. It’s enjoyable. That’s what I like, and everything is on the line.”

Everything else is still up in the air.

With round-robin play – head-to-head results do not apply in case of a tie – there’s a possibility of two-man, three-man, even four-man playoffs to decide who advances out of group play into single elimination on the weekend.

Bay Hill winner Marc Leishman also had a chance to clinch his group if he had beaten Pat Perez, because Leishman was to face Day in the third round. Perez won on the 17th hole. If he doesn’t win his match Friday, he faces Leishman in a playoff.

“I knew I had to win today. If not, Leish could go drink all night and get ready for Saturday,” Perez said. “Massive performance, I think, on my part today to get that done.”

It may be our nation’s 150th birthday but Canada is providing a gift to you.

Courtesy of Parks Canada, all Canadians — and guests too — are encouraged to enjoy the beautiful and majestic landscapes of our nearly 10,000,000-square-kilometre country.

Any individual, group or family just needs to sign up for a free 2017 Discovery Pass, providing unlimited opportunities to enjoy National Parks, National Historic Sites and National Marine Conservation Areas across the country. (Normally, entry into one of Canada’s National Parks costs anywhere from $8 to $10 per day.) Each pass, which expires Dec. 31, 2017, is valid for everyone arriving in the same vehicle at a national park, or arriving together at a marine conservation area or historic site.

At some locations, the Discovery Pass may not cover separate fees for activities, tours, camping or parking. Green fees fall under that category too, but the experience of golfing in a National Park can be priceless. Courses within National Parks of Canada include the following:

Cape Breton Highlands (Cape Breton Highlands National Park, NS)
Clear Lake Golf Course (Riding Mountain National Park, MB)
Fairmont Banff Springs (Banff National Park, AB)
Fairmont Jasper Park Lodge (Jasper National Park, AB)
Fundy National Park Golf Course (Fundy National Park, NB)
Gros Morne Golf Course (Gros Morne National Park, NL)
Revelstoke Golf Club (Mount Revelstoke National Park, BC)
Twin Rivers Golf Course (Terra Nova National Park, NL)
Waskesieu Golf Course (Prince Albert National Park, SK)
Waterton Lakes Golf Course (Waterton Lakes National Park, AB)

Several other layouts — though not inside a National Park — are located within minutes by car, including Radium Hot Springs (Kootenay National Park, B.C.), Club de golf St-Ignace (Kouchibouguac National Park, N.B.), Oak Bay G&CC (Georgian Bay Islands National Park, ON), Erie Shores G&CC (Point Pelee National Park, ON), Stanhope G&CC (Prince Edward Island National Park, PEI)and Smuggler’s Glen Golf Course (Thousand Islands National Park, ON).