LONDON, ON – Freedom 55 Financial announced today it has extended its endorsement agreement with PGA TOUR golfer and Team Canada Young Pro Squad athlete, Mackenzie Hughes. The London-based company signed Hughes as its first #TeamFreedom athlete in 2014 and has since assisted the young Canadian on his road from Mackenzie Tour – PGA TOUR Canada to achieving his goal of being a PGA TOUR card holder. The new agreement between the athlete and company will span an additional three years.

Hughes is one of many young athletes on the Freedom 55 Financial #TeamFreedom roster, a group of young Canadian athletes striving to reach the pinnacle of their athletic dreams. Freedom 55 Financial assists these athletes on their path to achieving their dreams while emphasizing the values of goal-setting and surrounding themselves with the right people they need to succeed.

“At Freedom 55 Financial, we’re dedicated to helping Canadians achieve their goals and dreams. Mackenzie is a tremendous young athlete and it has been the utmost pleasure to witness his path from our event in London to achieving his dream of being a PGA TOUR member,” said Mike Cunneen, Senior Vice-President, Freedom 55 Financial. “Mackenzie serves as a great representation of the values we express as a company while also being a role model to Canadian youth as a member of Team Freedom”

A Dundas, ON native, Hughes recently earned his PGA TOUR membership last season after winning the Price Cutter Championship and finishing in the Web.com Tour’s top 25 money rankings during the regular season. Hughes and Freedom 55 Financial have enjoyed the path to the PGA TOUR together. From being named Freedom 55 Financial Canadian Player of the Year and one of “The Five” at the 2013 Freedom 55 Financial Championship (Mackenzie Tour) event in London, ON, to transitioning to the Web.com Tour over the last three seasons and graduating to the PGA TOUR for the 2016/17 season. Last week, Hughes made his debut as a PGA TOUR card holder at the Safeway Open in Napa, CA, finishing T13.

“I am incredibly thankful to Freedom 55 Financial for being a teammate and great supporter as I have made my way to achieving a lifelong dream,” said Mackenzie Hughes. “I am excited to extend my partnership as a member of Team Freedom and continue to set new goals and aspirations on the TOUR.”

VENICE, Fla. – Ten Canadians are among 210 competitors vying to punch their tickets to the third and final stage of LPGA Qualifying School from Oct. 20-23 at the Plantation Golf & Country Club.

Playing on the Bobcat and Panther courses, all athletes will compete in the 72-hole stroke-play event (with no cut) to earn one of the Top 80 slots (plus ties) to advance to the third stage at LPGA International in Daytona Beach, Fla., from Dec. 1-4.

Canadians in the field:

• Aram Choi, Surrey, B.C.
• Christina Foster, Toronto, Ontario
• Jennifer Ha, Calgary, Alberta
• Sara-Maude Juneau, Quebec City, Québec
• Anna Kim, Richmond Hill, Ontario
• Taylor Kim, Surrey, B.C.
• Jennifer Kirby, Paris, Ontario
• Megan Osland, Kelowna, B.C.
• Elizabeth Tong, Thornhill, Ontario
• Vivian Tsui, Markham, Ontario

Players failing to advance to the final stage will receive 2017 Symetra Tour status depending on completion of 72 holes.

Click here for pairings  I  Click here for live scoring.

NAPA, Calif. – Right when Brendan Steele thought he might have a chance to win at Silverado, all he could think about was how he lost.

A year ago, Steele had a 54-hole lead in the PGA Tour’s season opener when he made a sloppy bogey on the 12th hole, shot 40 on the back nine and threw it away. He was two shots behind on Sunday in the Safeway Open with little room for error when he three-putted No. 12 for bogey and figured he was done.

“I thought that was it for me,” Steele said. “I thought I would have to do something special. Last year, I tried not to make mistakes.”

This time, he made birdies.

Steele overcame a four-shot deficit in the final round, closed with three straight birdies on rain-soaked Silverado for a 7-under 65 and won by one shot over a faltering Patton Kizzire. It was Steele’s first victory in 141 starts on the PGA Tour dating to his rookie season when he won the Texas Open.

“This is a little bit of redemption from last year,” Steele said. “It’s nice to close it off this way.”

It was a tough ending for Kizzire, who had a one-shot lead going into the final round and looked like a winner when he stuffed his tee shot into 2 feet for birdie on the 11th hole for a two-shot lead.

He struggled to hit fairways the rest of the way, and while he dropped only one shot on the 12th, he couldn’t keep Steele from gaining ground.

Steele hit 2-iron onto the green at the par-5 16th for a two-putt birdie. His 18-foot birdie putt on the 17th curled in the left side of the cup. And then he hit wedge into the par-5 18th and poured in a 7-foot birdie putt.

“You’ve got to really make something happen, especially when the conditions are soft,” Steele said. “I wanted to be aggressive and I didn’t want to just kind of coast in and just make sure that I had a decent week.”

He had a great week, which sends him back to the Masters for the first time since 2012.

Kizzire drove left into the base of trees on the par-5 16th and had to chip out sideways, eventually making a 15-foot par save from the bunker. With a wedge on the 17th, he left it short and watched it spin back off the green, forcing him to save par again. His final chance was to birdie the final hole and force a playoff. He drove left again, had to lay up and then missed the green with a 9-iron and failed to chip in. Kizzire closed with a 70.

“It was intense,” Kizzire said. “I didn’t finish it off. I’m really disappointed, but I played well. It’s a building block, for sure.”

Johnson Wagner stayed close the entire back nine but had to settle for pars over the final eight holes. He closed with a 70 and tied for third with Paul Casey (69), former Cal star Michael Kim (67) and Scott Piercy (70).

Casey has finished no worse than fourth in his last four tournaments dating to the FedEx Cup playoffs.

“So close, isn’t it?” Casey said. “I mean, I played great. I had another wonderful week.”

Steele, who finished at 18-under 270, won for the first time since the anchored stroke for long putters was outlawed at the start of the year.

He made the switch right after the new rule was proposed in 2014, and while he putted well at times, he still had doubts he could make the big putts when they mattered. Sunday at Silverado answered those questions, along with getting rid of that sour memory from last year when he made five bogeys in six holes on the back nine.

“You don’t often get that chance in life to really redeem yourself in the same way at the same place, and to basically do just the opposite,” Steele said.

The final round was delayed two hours by rain that began soaking Silverado on Friday and led to delays the rest of the way. The third round was not completed until Sunday morning, and Kizzire made a birdie on the final hole for a 66 to take his first 54-hole lead.

And for the longest time, he made it last.

Piercy fell back with a pair of bogeys at the end of the front nine. Casey also dropped careless shots. Phil Mickelson had his chances, too.

In his first domestic fall PGA Tour event in a decade, Mickelson was poised to make a charge on the back nine until missing too many chances. He closed with a 67 and tied for eighth. Mickelson has finished in the top 10 in one-third of his 549 career starts on tour.

Kizzire did well to stay in the game. After his bogey from a fairway bunker on No. 12, Kizzire holed a 15-foot par putt on the 14th after driving under a tree, made another 15-footer on the par-5 16th and a nervy 5-footer for par on the 17th to keep his hopes alive. He just couldn’t make birdie, and it cost him.

Mackenzie Hughes of Dundas, Ont., finished with a share of 13th in his debut as a PGA Tour member after graduating from the Web.com Tour. The Team Canada Young Pro Squad member collected eight birdies on the day to close with a 4-under 68 after three consecutive rounds of 69.

CARY, N.C. – Doug Garwood ran away with the SAS Championship on Sunday for his first PGA Tour Champions title, closing with an 8-under 64 for a four-stroke victory.

The 53-year-old Garwood won in his 44th start on the 50-and-over tour . He finished at 16-under 200 in the regular-season finale at Prestonwood Country Club.

“It hasn’t really settled in yet,” Garwood said. “Someone asked me last week when my last tournament win was and I blanked, I couldn’t think of one, so now I won’t have so much trouble. Feels great. It was a great day, played well. Beat a champion in Bernhard Langer, and Larry Mize in my group.”

Langer, two strokes ahead of Garwood and Mize entering the day, had a 70 to finish second.

“Doug just played phenomenal,” Langer said. “His putter was hot. He just hit it and went in, hit it and went in. He started walking after it and it dropped. He was like 9 under after 16 holes. That’s pretty amazing golf.”

Garwood birdied the last three holes on the front nine for a 6-under 30, made it four in a row on the par-4 10th, added birdies on the par-5 13th and 16th and closed with a bogey.

“The putter was obviously hot today,” Garwood said. “I made a little adjustment. I was aiming a little bit right yesterday and I worked on that and rolled in the 12-footer on 1, rolled in the 40-footer on 3 from the fringe, a short putt, about 4-footer on 4 for a two-putt birdie.

“I guess they were saying I was walking them in. The first one at 7 I was walking because it was short. I just played it off like I thought it was going in. Then same thing on 8 and same thing on 9. I knew I had made those when I was walking.”

Garwood earned $315,000 to jump to 19th on the money list with $798,744. He also got a two-year exemption to the Mitsubishi Electric Championship in Hawaii.

“I didn’t figure it would ever happen really,” Garwood said. “I never anticipated winning. I’ve never been goal oriented, you know, projecting the future. I like to take it a day at a time, just live in the now. I just enjoy playing golf.”

Langer had four birdies and two bogeys. The 59-year-old German star leads the tour with four victories and $2,697,459. He won the 2012 event.

“I just didn’t have my A-game today,” Langer said. “I missed a few shortish putts from eight to 10 feet, three of four of them that I made the last few days. Then missed a few fairways as well. And this course out of the rough, it’s a very tough golf course because you don’t know how far that ball’s going, whether you get a flyer or not. And when it hits the green, it doesn’t stop.”

Mize shot a 69 to tie for third with Tom Byrum (65) and Jeff Sluman (68) at 11 under. Miguel Angel Jimenez (65) was 10 under, and Colin Montgomerie (67) topped the group at 9 under.

Calgary’s Stephen Ames shot 68 to finish T19 at 5-under. Fellow Canadian Rod Spittle of St. Catharines, Ont., closed with a 73 to earn a share of 55th.

The top 72 players on the money list earned spots in the Charles Schwab Cup Playoffs opener, the PowerShares QQQ Championship at Sherwood in California on Oct. 28-30.

Corey Pavin finished 72nd with $183,192, but is sidelined by a right elbow injury and won’t play at Sherwood. Michael Bradley was 73rd, $2,388 behind Pavin. Bradley closed with a 69 to tie for 13th at 6 under. John Daly got in at 70th with $191,261 after skipping the event.

A spot also was available for the top finisher in the top 10 in the tournament who ended up outside the top 72 for the season, but all the top-10 finishers were in the top 72.

INCHEON, South Korea – Carlota Ciganda beat Alison Lee with a birdie on the first hole of a playoff Sunday in the rainy LPGA KEB HanaBank Championship after each player lost big leads.

The 26-year-old Spaniard won with a 6-foot putt after Lee’s birdie chip from the rough off the back edge of the green missed a half-inch to the right.

Ciganda overcame a five-stroke deficit to Lee on the front nine, then blew a five-stroke lead on the final five holes – getting into the playoff when Lee bogeyed the par-5 18th after hitting her third shot into the water.

Ciganda played the final five holes in 4 over – making a double bogey on 14 and bogeys on 16 and 18 – for a 2-over 70 at Sky 72 in the event that had an emotional start with Se Ri Pak ending her Hall of Fame career Thursday in front of her home fans.

Three-strokes ahead of U.S. Women’s Open champion Brittany Lang entering the day, Lee had a 75 to match Ciganda at 10-under 278 on the Ocean Course. The 21-year-old American, still a student at UCLA, is in her second season on the tour.

Ciganda won her first LPGA Tour title and became the third European winner this year, joining Sweden’s Anna Nordqvist and Germany’s Caroline Masson.

Ciganda birdied five of the first eight holes, taking a one-stroke lead with a 6-foot birdie putt on the par-3 eighth. The two-time European Solheim Cup player added a 20-footer on the par-4 10th and was five strokes ahead entering the par-4 14th. She made a double bogey there, dropped another stroke on the par-4 16th and three-putted 18.

Needing a par on 18 for her first victory, Lee hit a wedge that smacked into the front bank and bounced into the water. She was able to drop a few feet off the right edge of the green, chipped past and made a 5-footer to force the playoff.

Lee had four birdies in a five-hole stretch in the middle of the round to seemingly fall out of contention. But while Ciganda faltered in the group ahead, the American made a 5-foot birdie putt on the par-4 15th and a 12-footer on the par-3 17th.

China’s Shanshan Feng (70) and South Korea’s Min-Sun Kim (71) tied for third at 8 under. Feng had her third straight top-four finish in Asia after tying for fourth in China and finishing second last week in Taiwan. The tour will return to China next week for the Blue Bay LPGA on Hainan Island, then make stops in Malaysia and Japan.

Lang had three bogeys in a 75 to tie for third at 7 under.

Lexi Thompson, the winner last year, had a 73 to tie for 13th at 4 under. Second-ranked Ariya Jutanugarn (69) and No. 3 Gee Chun (71) also were 4 under.

Hamilton, Ont., product Alena Sharp carded a 74 to earn a share of 39th.

Top-ranked Lydia Ko closed with a 74 to tie for 51st at 3 over. She has four victories this year, one behind Jutanugarn for the tour lead.

Fourth-ranked Brooke Henderson also struggled, shooting 78-72 on the weekend to finish at 5-over. The Canadian teen plans to play all six weeks in Asia.

NAPA, Calif. – Johnson Wagner chipped in for birdie, and wound up taking a one-shot lead in the Safeway Open by keeping bogeys off his card as the rain began to pound Silverado on Saturday.

Wagner was at 15-under par through 15 holes when the third round was halted by the wet conditions. The course was playing so long and tough at that point that Wagner hit a driver and a fairway metal and still had a 9-iron for his third shot.

Scott Piercy, who had led from his opening 62 that set the course record, was one shot behind and just short of the par-5 16th in three shots when he told officials he couldn’t continue. The front of the green was one big puddle, and it wasn’t getting any better. Patton Kizzire also was 14 under through 16 holes.

Paul Casey, in the final group with Wagner and Piercy, was two shots behind. Casey hit a tee shot on the par-5 fifth hole that clipped a tree, ricocheted somewhere and was never found, costing him two shots.

Phil Mickelson hit a wild tee shot on the par-5 18th in the rain and made bogey for a 69, leaving him six back.

They were still in the game, mainly because of the rain. Shots became longer. Putts became more difficult to hole. The players still on the course, which included Martin Laird at 12 under through 16 holes, were to return Sunday morning.

Starting times for the final round already have been pushed well forward because of more rain in the forecast.

No person was more responsible for the PGA Tour’s season-opening event having a decent chance to finish than JT Poston. In his first PGA Tour event, he holed an 8-foot birdie putt on his final hole for a 69 that moved the cut line to 3-under 141.

That meant 70 players made the cut. His birdie knocked out 16 players.

Piercy still had the lead after finishing his second round in the rain-delayed event Saturday morning. He made only one birdie coming in for a 67, but that was enough to give him a three-shot lead over Casey and Wagner going into the third round.

Casey had another lost ball late in the second round, but this turned out much better. He was about 30 seconds away from abandoning the search when a spectator held up a ball with the Nike swoosh and a blue pen dot and said, “Is this it?” The spectator had found it in the hazard, so while Casey still had a one-shot penalty, he was able to drop away from the grandstands and save par for a 68.

Casey birdied the par-3 second hole in the third round from 6 feet, and he was on the verge of getting within one shot of Piercy with a 4-foot birdie putt on the next hole until he missed it. Two holes later, the lost ball led to double bogey.

Piercy dropped a shot on No. 6, though it was a good bogey. He was stymied by a tree from the fairway and right of the green, played back to the fairway and hit a 100-foot pitch-and-run to 2 feet. He also missed a pair of birdie putts inside 6 feet. One was at No. 8, downhill with a wicked break from right-to-left. The other was on the 10th hole.

Wagner, meanwhile, plodded along. He was short of the green on No. 8 when he chipped in for birdie, and his chip from short of the ninth green lipped out. He pulled within one shot of the lead with a short birdie on the 10th, and caught Piercy with a 30-foot birdie on the 12th.

Piercy fell out of the lead with a bogey from just off the 14th green.

Kizzire started the third round six shots behind and made up ground quickly with five birdies on the front nine, only one of them longer than 12 feet. He finally dropped back in the rain, three-putted the 14th when his birdie attempt rolled some 6 feet by.

Cody Gribble, the lefty from Texas, was having the best rookie debut and was three shots off the lead until a double bogey on the 17th. He was at 10 under and in the rough left of the 18th fairway when play was halted.

Right behind him was Canada’s Mackenzie Hughes. The Dundas, Ont., native was 9-under and had a share of 10th with the third-round set to resume Sunday morning.

CARY, N.C. – Bernhard Langer birdied the final four holes for his second straight 5-under 67 and a two-stroke lead Saturday in the PGA Tour Champions’ SAS Championship.

Langer had a bogey-free round at Prestonwood in the regular-season finale. The 59-year-old German star leads the tour with four victories and earnings of $2,512,659. He won the 2012 event and tied for third the last two years.

“I played pretty steady golf throughout the whole day,” Langer said. “Had to be very patient in the middle of my round because just the putts didn’t go in. I didn’t hit my irons really close, had a few chances here and there, but just didn’t make anything. Then toward the end I hit the ball really well. Hitting irons a little closer and finally made some good putts coming in.”

Langer is tied for second with Lee Trevino with 29 career victories on the 50-and-over tour. Hale Irwin is the leader with 45.

“Two shots is nothing,” Langer said. “You can lose two shots in one hole. You make a bogey and the other guy makes a birdie and it’s gone. You still have to have the mindset of going out and playing hopefully the best round or one of the best rounds of the day.”

Larry Mize and first-round leader Doug Garwood were tied for second at 8 under. Mize had a 69, and Garwood followed his opening 65 with a 72. Jeff Sluman (67) and Senior British Open winner Paul Broadhurst (69) were 7 under.

The top 72 players on the money list after the tournament – and one player in the top 10 in the event but outside the top 72 for the season – will get spots in the Charles Schwab Cup Playoffs opener – the PowerShares QQQ Championship at Sherwood in California on Oct. 28-30.

Langer began the late with a 12-footer on the par-4 15th, and got up-and-down for birdie from over the green on the par-5 16th.

“Driver, 3-wood straight at the pin and rolled through the green into the rough and had a very tough pitch because it was straight downhill,” Langer said. “Played it pretty decent, got it to about 5 feet.”

He added 14-footers on par-3 17th par par-4 18th.

“That was nice because I hit a good putt, but it didn’t turn until the very, very end and just snuck in on the high side,” Langer said about 17. “That was nice to see that one turn in. And then 18 was a perfect putt, went right in the middle.”

Defending champion Tom Lehman was tied for 10th at 4 under after a 68.

INCHEON, Korea, Republic Of – Alison Lee took a three-stroke lead Saturday in the LPGA KEB HanaBank Championship, putting the 21-year-old UCLA student in position for her first victory.

Lee shot a 4-under 68 in calm and firm conditions at Sky 72, saving par on 17 and birdieing 18 to stretch her margin over U.S. Women’s Open champion Brittany Lang – her U.S. Solheim Cup teammate.

“The past few days, all week, I’ve been striking the ball really well,” Lee said. “I’ve been giving myself a lot birdie chances. Even though I shot 4 under today, I still left a lot of birdie putts other there.”

Playing her second season on the tour while remaining in college, Lee had a 13-under 203 total on the Jack Nicklaus-designed Ocean Course.

“Everyone back home is cheering me on,” Lee said. “Even my roommates and some of the girls in the sorority. They know nothing about golf, but they’ve been tuning in to the Golf Channel.”

Lang had a 72. South Korea’s In-Kyung Kim, the winner two weeks ago in China in the first of six straight events in Asia, was third at 9 under after a 69. She also won an event in Germany last month.

Lee was asked about sleeping on the third-round lead.

“I have to go back and do some reading for class, so that’ll keep my mind off it for sure,” Lee said “I have reading for every class. I’m behind in every class.”

She also has some time for fun, starting at the Delta Gamma House.

“We have a lot of sorority stuff when I get back home, too,” Lee said. “We have big/little reveal on Thursday where I get my little sis.”

And there’s rooting for the Bruins’ football team.

“I haven’t missed any home games yet and I don’t think I will,” Lee said.

Lee rebounded from a bogey on the par-4 14th to birdie the 15th. A day after chipping in for eagle on the short par 4, she hit a full approach that tracked across the green to 4 feet.

After missing a 7-foot birdie putt on the par-4 16th, she got an 8-foot comebacker to fall for par on the par-3 17th. She made a 4-footer on the par-5 18th, seeing the line when Cristie Kerr – the third member of the all-Solheim Cup (and all-PXG equipment) group – hit a bunker shot inches behind Lee’s marker and holed her birdie putt.

Lee also rebounded well from her first bogey, following a dropped shot on the par-3 third with four straight birdies. She then made six pars before missing a 5-footer on 14.

“On No. 3, I missed like a 3-footer for par,” Lee said. “I three-putted and that kind of spooked me. … I think the bogey almost helped because it kind of snapped me back into the game and got me more focused.”

Spain’s Carlota Ciganda had a 69 to reach 8 under, and Kerr’s 72 left her at 7 under with Taiwan’s Candie Kung (69) and South Korea’s Min-Sun Kim.

Sung Hyun Park, tied for the lead early in the round, had consecutive double bogeys on the back nine in a 73 to fall to 6 under. The Korean LPGA member tied for second behind Lexi Thompson last year.

Thompson also was 5 under a 72, making five birdies, three bogeys and a double bogey. She and Lang are the only U.S. winners this year.

In Gee Chun, the top-ranked South Korean player at No. 3, was 3 under after a 69.

Top-ranked Lydia Ko was 1 over after a 73. She has four victories this year, one behind second-ranked Ariya Jutanugarn for the tour lead. Jutanugarn had a 69 to get to 1 under.

Fourth-ranked Brooke Henderson had her worst round of the season, shooting a 78 alongside Ko to drop to 5 over. The Canadian teen plans to play all six week in Asia.

Fellow Canadian Alena Sharp of Hamilton, Ont., had a 71 to sit tied for 32nd at 1-under.

Australia’s Su Oh had a hole-in-one with an 8-iron on the 144-yard 17th. She was 1 under after a 67.

NAPA, Calif. – Scott Piercy keeps finding ways to score even when he’s not making a lot of putts.

Piercy pitched in from 40 yards for eagle on the par-5 ninth hole Friday, helping him keep a two-shot cushion at the rain-delayed Safeway Open until it became too dark to continue.

A steady rain that fell on Silverado for most of the bleak day halted the second round for 2 hours, 36 minutes as water began to pool on the tee boxes and the corners of the greens. The delay meant the second round could not be completed until Saturday morning.

Bill Haas had a 2-under 70 in the morning and finished 36 holes in 8-under 136.

Piercy, who opened with a course-record 62, made only one of his four birdie chances until his eagle at No. 9, and he followed with a 10-foot birdie on the next hole to reach 14-under par.

He missed a 5-foot birdie on the 12th hole, his last of the day.

Johnson Wagner was at 12 under and had a 15-foot birdie putt on the par-3 15th hole when he decided to wait until morning. Paul Casey, who opened with a 64, recovered from two bogeys late on his front nine with three birdies over his next four holes. He was 11 under through 12 holes, ending his day with a 35-foot birdie putt.

“In my mind, I wanted to shoot 3 under on the front,” Piercy said. “And luckily, I was able to do that.”

Piercy converted only one of four reasonable birdie chances, making a 7-foot putt on the par-5 fifth hole. The next par 5 was into the wind, though he was mildly surprised that a 3-wood came up so short of the green in the first cut.

“I had a good angle, though, kind of shooting straight up the green,” he said. “When you make it from 40 yards, it’s luck. I hit a good shot. I landed it pretty much where I wanted to and it reacted good. Whenever it goes in, that’s a bonus.”

No one from the afternoon starters finished the second round, which was to resume at 7:45 a.m. PDT. The third round was to be played in threesomes off both tees, though more rain was in the forecast for the weekend.

Haas was hopeful of at least staying close to the leaders. That depended on Piercy, Wagner and Casey, and perhaps a few others.

Haas was one of the “replacements” for Tiger Woods, in this case taking the spot that had been set aside for Woods in the early-round groups. Haas doesn’t know why he was chosen. He just considered it a treat to be able to watch the exploits of Phil Mickelson and the rhythmic swing of defending Emiliano Grillo.

And they were able to watch Haas post the lowest score from the group.

Haas made it through the tough conditions brought on by rain Friday morning at least got him into the mix going into the weekend of the PGA Tour season opener at Silverado.

Haas was at 8-under 136, the low score among those who finished 36 holes. Mickelson had another 69 and was at 6-under 138. Grillo played bogey-free after the delay for a 70 and was at 5-under 139.

Woods had planned to play at Silverado and even entered the tournament on Friday. The PGA Tour decided to arrange the groups so that Woods played with Mickelson and Grillo. Woods, however, withdrew on Monday saying that his game was “vulnerable” and not where it needed to be.

Haas took that spot in the group, and all three have put on a good show.

Grillo had a 35-foot birdie putt that he left 10 feet short on the 11th hole, his second of the round, when the rain was at its worse. He made it through the back nine without any more mistakes, and then ran off three straight birdies on the front nine .

Mickelson returned from the rain delay in much worse shape. The driver slipped out of his hands on his first shot at the par-4 13th and led to a snap-hook out-of-bounds. He managed to make a 10-foot putt to escape with bogey .

Lefty made another bogey on the par-3 seventh when he pushed his tee shot left of the green, left of the gallery and next to a beer concession. From rain-soaked pine bark, he hit a flop to 12 feet and narrowly missed the putt. There were plenty of good shots, too, however, and Mickelson had control of his irons, which was key.

The greens were so soft from rain that it was critical not to spin the ball back too much around the hole.

“To be able to get the distance control right, the trajectory, the spin right on spongy greens and give myself as many birdies as I hit, I think this is some of the best iron play that I’ve had,” Mickelson said. “And then I hit a few wild ones, too, so I guess it’s kind of my normal game.”

Mickelson shared 10th with a slew of players including Canadian PGA TOUR rookie Mackenzie Hughes. The Dundas, Ont., native was 6-under after a second consecutive 69 Friday.

CARY, N.C. – Doug Garwood birdied seven of the final 11 holes for a 7-under 65 and the first-round lead Friday in the PGA Tour Champions’ SAS Championship.

Winless on the 50-and-over tour, the 53-year-old Garwood began the run with birdies on Nos. 9 and 10 and played the back nine at Prestonwood in 5-under 31 in the final regular-season event of the year.

“The thing I remember is I had four lip-outs, so felt like it should have been lower,” Garwood said. “But it was fun. … Obviously, when you shoot 7 under, everything’s working. I drove it well, hit the irons pretty good and I started making putts. Putter was probably the best part, made a lot of putts even with the lip-outs.”

He birdied only one of the four par 5s – the ninth.

“I tried to hit 3-wood second shot and I hit it up in the rough, which is a mistake, but I gouged it out about 30 feet and rolled that one right in the heart,” Garwood said.

Brad Faxon was a stroke back at 66, and Bernhard Langer and Larry Mize shot 67.

The top 72 players on the money list after the tournament – and one player in the top 10 in the event but outside the top 72 for the season – will get spots in the Charles Schwab Cup Playoffs opener – the PowerShares QQQ Championship at Sherwood in Thousand Oaks, California, on Oct. 28-30. Brian Henninger, 72nd with 172,853, shot a 72. Garwood is 37th with $483,745.

Faxon had seven birdies and one bogey.

“I think the key to my round, I missed the fairway on one and then left it pretty far short of the green and I had a really tough little pitch shot that I zipped up the fringe and got it to like an inch,” Faxon said. “Then I made a long putt for birdie on two and a really long putt for birdie on three and it was just kind of the whole day was setting the tone by the first three holes.”

The 59-year-old Langer leads the tour with four victories and earnings of $2,512,659. He won the 2012 event and tied for third the last two years.

“It was a great day, especially the putter was hot,” Langer said. “Putted extremely well today. Made a lot of par saves and some really good birdie putts as well. Never hit one stiff, a gimme birdie, didn’t have one of those, so all my birdies were putts.”

Senior British Open winner Paul Broadhurst was at 68 along with Michael Bradley, Brandt Jobe and Billy Mayfair.

Jay Haas shot a 74, five days after winning in Newport Beach, California, at 62 years, 10 months, 7 days to become the second-oldest winner in tour history.

Defending champion Tom Lehman opened with a 72.

Rod Spittle is tied for 46th at 1-over 73, while Stephen Ames was 63rd after a 3-over 75.