OAKVILLE, Ont. – Jared du Toit didn’t know what to do with himself after signing his scorecard.

The amateur golfer from Kimberley, B.C., eagled the par-4 17th hole at Glen Abbey Golf Club then birdied 18 to tie for third in the first round of the RBC Canadian Open on Thursday. Americans Chesson Hadley and Kelly Kraft were also at 5-under 67, a shot behind co-leaders Luke List and Dustin Johnson.

Du Toit came down the steps of the scorekeepers trailer to calls from fans asking for his signature. Then a media relations person from the PGA Tour directed him to a waiting circle of reporters with microphones and cameras, all to the surprise of the Arizona State University player.

“It’s the first time I’ve had to sign autographs after a round, so that was awesome,” said a smiling du Toit. “It’s definitely in the top-three rounds I’ve played in my career, feeling wise.”

Du Toit, who was born in Calgary but moved to British Columbia as a child, hadn’t played at Glen Abbey before practice rounds on Monday and Tuesday. He relied on the advice of his caddie, a local golf teacher. The 21-year-old member of Golf Canada’s amateur team is just going to keep things simple heading into Friday’s second round.

“I don’t tee off until 2:30 tomorrow, so I shouldn’t have no sleep as an excuse,” said du Toit. “Just come out here, keep doing what I’m doing.”

Amateur Garret Rank (69) of Elmira, Ont., who is a professional hockey referee, was the second lowest Canadian behind du Toit. Rank, who was paired with du Toit, made an eagle putt from the rough edge of the green on 18 to finish at 3 under.

“I was a little uptight at the beginning, but Jared was playing well and just kind of told myself, ‘hey, played a lot of golf with him and there’s birdies to be made,”’ said Rank. “Just stayed really patient and closed strong and was 4-under on the last four.”

Adam Hadwin of Abbotsford, B.C., shot a 72 to finish the first round at par, while David Hearn of Brantford, Ont., was 2-over 74. Adam Cornelson of Langley, B.C., Corey Conners of Listowel, Ont., and Nick Taylor of Abbotsford are tied at 3 over.

Olympian Graham DeLaet of Weyburn, Sask., amateur Blair Hamilton of Burlington, Ont., and Ottawa’s Brad Fritsch all tied at 5-over 77, and Mike Weir of Brights Grove, Ont., and Branson Ferrier of Barrie, Ont., were grouped together at 6-over 78. Amateur Hugo Bernard of Mont-Saint-Hilaire, Que., was 9-over 81 and Montreal’s Dave Levesque was 13-over 85.

#TeamCanada amateur Jared du Toit sits T3 at the @RBCCanadianOpen after opening with a 5-under 67. #RBCCOhttps://t.co/TTVLwvrEEj

— Golf Canada (@TheGolfCanada) July 22, 2016

OAKVILLE, Ont. – Dustin Johnson and Luke List may be co-leaders, but it’s the weather that’s dominating play at the RBC Canadian Open.

Johnson made an eagle putt on the par-5 18th hole at Glen Abbey Golf Club to tie clubhouse leader List at 6-under 66 on Thursday. Johnson seemed well back after a double bogey on 14, but then recovered with a birdie on 16 to set up the climactic shot.

Most players struggled with the fast greens and fairways, making it tricky to play off the browned rough and not roll through the harder grass as a drought continues to dry out southern Ontario. High winds had flags ripping wildly and played havoc with high shots, making it difficult to play an accurate long game.

“It’s firm and fast,” said world No. 2 Johnson moments after stepping off the course. “It’s definitely tough to get the ball close to the hole. You’ve really got to land the ball on your numbers.

“With it being as windy as it was today, it was tough to do that.”

List had a birdie on No. 10, his first hole of the round, then followed it up with a birdie on Nos. 13, 15, 16 and 18 to take an early lead. He stayed steady through the front nine to finish ahead on a hot, sunny day. He pointed to his early start time _ 7:20 am _ as helping with his quick start.

“I was very fortunate that the first five holes there wasn’t much wind at all and then it kind of picked up,” said List, who was allowed him to miss the worst of the unforgiving weather.

Strong winds especially affected play on the back nine of Glen Abbey, which are mainly in a valley. High shots would get grabbed by the wind when the ball lofted above the valley’s walls, creating strange shots.

The seventh hole also frustrated several players, with a water hazard and several bunkers surrounding the green, forcing golfers to loft the ball above a tree line and then get victimized by the wind.

“If you miss the fairway, you’re pretty much done, there’s no chance of keeping it on the green,” said world No. 1 Jason Day, the reigning Canadian Open champion. “My mentality is just trying to get it up there as far as I can. As long I can just keep driving it straight, try to get up there somewhere around the green, if I miss it then I’ve got a wedge in my hand and hopefully I can hit it high and get it stuck on the green.”

Amateur Jared du Toit of Kimberley, B.C., eagled the par-4 17th hole at Glen Abbey Golf Club, then birdied 18 to enter the clubhouse in a tie for third at 5-under 67. Americans Chesson Hadley and Kelly Kraft were also at 5-under. Day was 3-under 69.

Du Toit compared playing at Glen Abbey on Thursday to playing in the desert.

“Going to Arizona State, I’ve played in a lot of dry conditions, so I think the conditions today were kind of in my favour,” said the 21-year old NCAA player, who added that “some of the drives are just running out outrageously.”

Amateur Garret Rank (69) of Elmira, Ont., who is a professional hockey referee, was the second lowest Canadian behind du Toit. Rank made an eagle putt from the rough edge of the green on 18 to finish at 3 under.

Adam Hadwin of Abbotsford, B.C., shot a 72 to finish the first round at par, while David Hearn of Brantford, Ont., was 2-over 74. Adam Cornelson of Langley, B.C., Corey Conners of Listowel, Ont., and Nick Taylor of Abbotsford are tied at 3 over.

Olympian Graham DeLaet of Weyburn, Sask., amateur Blair Hamilton of Burlington, Ont., and Ottawa’s Brad Fritsch all tied at 5-over 77, and Mike Weir of Brights Grove, Ont., and Branson Ferrier of Barrie, Ont., were grouped together at 6-over 78. Amateur Hugo Bernard of Mont-Saint-Hilaire, Que., was 9-over 81 and Montreal’s Dave Levesque was 13-over 85.

Today was the first time @Jareddutoit has had to sign autographs after a round. He’s T2 & sits as the top Canadian.https://t.co/WxdbjRCDJM

— Golf Canada (@TheGolfCanada) July 21, 2016

GURNEE, Ill. – For the United States and Taiwan, the first session of the UL International Crown was a repeat of the first day of the inaugural event two years ago.

Each country is hoping for a better weekend.

The U.S. lost both of its four-ball matches to England, and Yani Tseng helped Taiwan sweep Australia on Thursday in the rare team event on the LPGA Tour.

Lexi Thompson and Cristie Kerr lost 2 and 1 to Holly Clyburn and Jodi Ewart Shadoff, and Stacy Lewis and Gerina Piller fell to Charley Hull and Melissa Reid by the same score. Thompson, Kerr and Lewis also were on the American team that was swept on the first day of the first International Crown in 2014 and finished sixth.

“That’s what this format is. You play good golf and you’re going to lose matches, and that’s the way it goes,” Lewis said. “We’re going to go out there and play good golf again, and hopefully we get on the good side of it. We’re still in this thing, and we’ve just got to take care of business tomorrow.”

Next up is two more days of four-ball matches at the sprawling Merit Club about 40 miles northwest of Chicago. The top two teams in each pool and the winner of wild-card playoff between the third-place teams will advance to the singles matches Sunday, with each player from the winning country taking home $100,000 apiece.

With the course set up for low scores, world No. 6 Ariya Jutanugarn made seven birdies while playing with Porani Chutichai for Thailand, but they only managed a halve against Japan’s Ai Suzuki and Ayaka Watanabe. Jutanugarn’s sister, Moriya, teamed with Pornanong Phatum for a 2-and-1 win over Haru Nomura and Mika Miyazato.

Top-seeded South Korea, with each of its four players ranked in the top 12, split its two matches against No. 8 China. Amy Yang and In Gee Chun won 2 up over Shanshan Feng and Xi Yu Lin, but Jing Yan and Simin Feng got two points for China with a 1-up victory over Sei Young Kim and So Yeon Ryu.

“The Chinese girls just played really, really great,” Ryu said. “They made an eagle, they made a bunker shot. I think their teamwork was really nice.”

Tseng and Teresa Lu went off in the first match and cruised to a 3-and-2 victory over Karrie Webb and Su Oh. Tseng and Lu then watched as Candie Kung and Ssu-Chia Cheng posted a 2-up win over Rebecca Artis and Minjee Lee.

Taiwan also won its first two matches at Caves Valley Golf Club in Maryland in 2014, but didn’t score another point all weekend.

“We changed a little bit about the strategy about how we’re going to play this year because we both won on the first day, like four points, but we lose them on Friday and Saturday,” Tseng said. “We kind of changed it a little bit, the teammates and the strategy on the golf course. We tried to make as much birdies as we can instead of one play aggressive and one play more smart and safe.”

Thompson and Kerr never led in their match. Clyburn closed it out with a birdie on the par-4 17th.

“We played really well on the front, and on the back we didn’t play well enough to win,” Kerr said. “A couple more putts go in, a couple better shots. I left Lexi a couple times as a partner, and you can’t do that in four-ball if you want to win.”

China and England did not make the field for the inaugural event, which is determined by the cumulative rankings of the country’s top four players on a given date. They replaced champion Spain and runner-up Sweden.

“We were saying along the way, we’re all pretty big football fans, and obviously we had the Euros recently and we made more points in one day than England did in the whole tournament, so can I just point that out,” a smiling Reid said. “So we’re pretty proud of that, so we’re already on a winner.”

Hull and Reid won three straight holes to go from 1 down to 1 up heading to the back nine. The 20-year-old Hull had three straight birdies and Reid eagled No. 8, a 468-yard par 5.

After Lewis birdied No. 15 to square the match, Hull posted an eagle and a birdie to close it out for England.

“I just love playing in this kind of environment, especially when you are a bit of an underdog,” said Hull, who is headed to the Olympics next month. “I just like proving people wrong, and it just makes you go out there, gives you a little bit more of a buzz.”

CARNOUSTIE, Scotland – Woody Austin made four birdies in a six-hole stretch on the back nine and finished with a 4-under 68 to take the first-round lead in the Senior British Open.

The 52-year-old Austin rebounded from bogeys on Nos. 9 and 10 with birdies on 11, 12, 14 and 16. He has struggled after winning three times in four events this year on the PGA Tour Champions.

“It seems, I forgot how to play after that,” Austin said. “It’s been really bad since. It’s been unfortunately a long stretch of really ugliness.”

Mark O’Meara was a stroke back along with Carlos Franco, Esteban Toledo, Joe Durant, Tom Byrum, Scott McCarron and Peter Fowler. Franco, from Paraguay, qualified Monday.

The wind was 10-15 mph at Carnoustie Golf Links with a mix of sun and clouds and a high in the 60s.

“I think the rain yesterday softened the course a little bit,” O’Meara said. “We were pretty fortunate. The wind laid down just a little bit in the middle of our round out there, so it was a little bit more playable. But Carnoustie is a very demanding golf course. You have to drive the ball well. You have to be accurate with your iron shots, and then you’ve got to putt well.”

Austin won the last of his four PGA Tour titles in the 2013 Sanderson Farms Championship.

“I’m not into grinding,” Austin said. “I’m not into beating a bunch of balls anymore. I did that for my 40 years. I’m done. So, I go home, I play with my kids, I play with my family. I own a golf course. I help run the golf course. I try to do the things I need to do there. You’ll find me sometimes weeding, jumping on a mower and mowing. I hit balls usually maybe Saturday and Sunday the week before I go back out. That’s it. That’s my preparation. The only time I work on is when I get to the golf course.”

Bernhard Langer, the winner in 2010 at Carnoustie, had a 71.

Calgary’s Stephen Ames and defending champion Marco Dawson opened with 72s. Dawson won last year at Sunningdale.

Michael Bradley had a 74 in his senior debut. He won four times on the PGA Tour.

ABILENE, Tex. – Development Squad member Kathrine Chan delivered a convincing nine-stroke victory on Thursday at the Bob Estes Junior. The Richmond, B.C., product carded a final-round 72 (E) to finish at 2-under-par at the Abilene Country Club en route to recording her first American Junior Golf Association win.

The 16-year-old Chan distanced herself from the field with a second-round, tournament-low 69 (-3), highlighted by seven birdies. The Team Canada rookie ended the 54-hole event with a cumulative score of 214 (73-69-72).

With the win, Chan hopes to improve on her current No. 17 standing in the CN Future Links Junior Order of Merit. She is slated to tee-it-up at the Canadian Junior Girls Championship from Aug. 2-5 at The Links at Penn Hills in Shubenacadie, N.S.

Click here for full scoring.

Andrew Gyba knew that taking the superintendent’s position at Glen Abbey Golf Club in Oakville, Ont., came with a series of unique challenges. First of all, Glen Abbey, a Jack Nicklaus design that opened 40 years ago, was partly built on a flat plain, with the most interesting holes plunging into a river valley where air circulation and light have been a challenge since the course’s inception. But more than that, Gyba had no experience preparing a golf course for a PGA Tour event, and, as practically anyone who follows golf in this country knows, Glen Abbey was created for the RBC Canadian Open, and has hosted the tournament regularly throughout its history.

“You hear the horror stories about how difficult the tour will be to deal with,” Gyba says. “And they knew I was coming in with zero experience at a PGA Tour event. But they offered a lot of help. They just want to put the best product out there for the week the tournament is here.”

This year Gyba faces interesting challenges. A spring with little rain has turned into a summer with nearly no precipitation. And water use is always a delicate balancing act for the Canadian Open.

“There was a time, I think, when the science of using water wasn’t really understood,” Gyba says. “What we’ve learned is that water can kill a course if you don’t know what you’re doing.”

How to create a playing surface—greens and fairways—that measure up to the consistency of what the PGA Tour’s best expect, while also allowing the course to be played in corporate events leading up to the tournament is a challenge. And how and when water is used is a key.

Bill Paul has seen it all when it comes to the Canadian Open. The long-time tournament director, who now works trying to locate or create venues for future tournaments, has attended or been part of every Canadian Open held at Glen Abbey since its first in 1977. Paul says the course’s conditions have always been a challenge, but they’ve improved as the years have passed.

“I think in the early days the guys were experts in their time,” says Paul. “But now the superintendents are better educated. The tour guys are better. And there’s more of a science to maintaining the course. They’ve certainly taken a really thoughtful approach to how water is used.”

Water has long been an issue for Glen Abbey, which is set in a residential community, with Sixteen-Mile Creek running through the valley holes. The course has a mix of holes that have poa greens, and others where newer bentgrass was used following the ice damage of 2014. It makes for an interesting mix and raises the question of how Gyba gets consistency out of two different types of grasses.

“How do you get a new bentgrass green to react the same as a 40-year old poa green?” he asks. “Speed comes from firmness. So everything is done by hand. We rarely water the greens—especially the low spots—by hand so we don’t overwater them.”

He says proper water management throughout the course is key.

“There’s a time when the science wasn’t understood—it was water all the time,” he says. “But what we’ve learned is that water can harm a course and we’ve got more appreciation for consistency. If you’re just turning the sprinkler heads on mindlessly, no golf course will hold it and the water distribution of your sprinklers will make the low points wet. You’re watering now for your wettest spot on a hole. You want just enough so a player won’t stand on it and find it squishy.”

Instead Gyba wants to water for the driest parts of the course. That means instead of watering at night, he irrigates at a minimum in the dark hours, with significant hand watering during the day. Then he uses he carefully monitors any watering in the morning. “I light up only the areas that are dry and get them to match up,” he says.

Paul says there were opportunities for the RCGA, which owned Glen Abbey until 1998, to redo the course’s greens with a newer bentgrass. For some reason they never pulled the trigger, and now Gyba deals with the mix of turf. Adding to the challenge is the microclimate created in the river valley where holes 11 through 15 run. Air circulation has long been a problem in the area, though Gyba says he manages the troublesome greens—namely the par 4 11^th and par 3 12^th—by using the alternate greens built for both holes.

One of the key issues facing Gyba is how he balances the demands on the course for the tournament with that of the regular members and corporate outings that dominate Glen Abbey for most of the year. How do you grow rough without turning a company outing into a six-hour blood bath where no one is happy? How do you keep the greens in the shape you need and be able to push them to speeds of more than 12 on the stimpmeter?

Gyba has most of this down. To deal with pitch marks on greens he keeps the putting surfaces relatively firm. He grows the rough to three inches for Monday of tournament week and allows it to naturally lengthen from that point.

“We are dialing the moisture percentages down and there’s a point where the green plays firm and fast, still has an adequate amount of water for the plant, and are resistant to ball marks,” he explains.

On the actual tournament week Gyba has a staff of 80, including other ClubLink employees and additional superintendents, to assist with his efforts. The PGA Tour sends Harry Schuemann, one of its agronomists for competitions, to the Abbey regularly. While many pundits and outside observers feel the PGA Tour has mishandled club courses by forcing them to grow the rough too high—only to cut it down tournament week, Gyba hasn’t any issue. He says the tour spent more time with him when he was new to the Abbey, but that they’ve helped him put forward the best course available.

“They want the best possible product they can put out there, and they are incredibly understanding,” he says. “They look at the means you have, and say what they’d like. But then they work within those parameters.”

What does Gyba want? He wants the course to be a little brown, with the fairways turning colour as the week goes on.

“You want to have some aesthetic appeal,” he says. “But in a perfect world on Monday you’d be green tee to green. And then we turn the water off and as the day goes, some of the humps and mounds start to turn. That’s not the end of the world. We’re never going to be Chambers Bay at the U.S. Open. I think the players appreciate how we keep the golf course.”

Sure he hears criticism when Bubba Watson or Jason Day smash a drive 350 yards on 17 or 18, but Gyba says that’s balanced out by the firmness of other areas of the course.

“I’ll have people say ‘Are you kidding me, Bubba hit it 380 on 18?’ But that makes no difference,” he explains. “If you make him respect the approach shot and worry about the downhill putt, then you’re making the course work the way it should.”

In the end, Gyba says running the tournament at Glen Abbey remains a thrill, even if tournament week is tiring. Paul, who has seen numerous superintendents work the tournament, says the experience is invaluable, and benefits both the course and the golfers who play it.

“One thing is clear,” Paul says, “when the Canadian Open leaves a tournament, the super will be better at his job and his members will have a better golf course.”

This article appears courtesy of the Ontario Golf Superintendents Association and initially appeared in the organization’s magazine, On Course. www.ogsa.ca.

Blind Bay, B.C. – Harry Ferguson of Invermere, B.C., won his first British Columbia Senior Men’s title at Shuswap Lake Estates Golf & Country Club in a playoff over 4-time winner Gudmund Lindbjerg of Port Moody on the first extra hole.

Ferguson & Lindbjerg tied at even par over 54 holes and Ferguson’s two-putt par when they replayed the 18th was enough to overcome Lindbjerg who nevertheless still took home the Super-Senior Title.

B.C. golf legend Doug Roxburgh finished alone in third spot to take the final spot on the B.C. Team that will compete at the Canadian Senior Men’s Championship, which goes Sept. 6-9 in Niagara Falls, Ont.

Dream Becomes A Reality For Ferguson

Harry Ferguson had a dream about Thursday’s final round of the B.C. Men’s Senior-Super Senior Championship. Trouble was, he woke up early Thursday morning before finding out how it ended.

It turns out there was no nightmarish ending, just a happy one for the 59-year-old oilfield worker from Invermere.

Ferguson beat Gudmund Lindbjerg of Pitt Meadows on the first hole of a sudden-death playoff to win his first provincial championship.

Ferguson and Lindbjerg both finished the 54-hole event at even-par on a Shuswap Lake Estates Golf & Country Club track that played tough.

“It’s funny, I had a dream last night,” said Ferguson, who closed with a one-over 72. “I told Shelley I thought it was going to come down to the 18th hole, but I never found what the ending was. Now I know.”

Shelley is his caddie and partner, Shelley Thomsen, who happens to be a club pro at Eagle Ranch Golf Course in Invermere. And it did end on the 18th hole, which happened to be the first playoff hole.

Ferguson said Thomsen helped keep him calm when things didn’t go their way. An example of that came on the very first hole when Ferguson put his first shot of the day into water. They scrambled to make a bogey after the worst possible start to the round.

“You know you are going to make bogeys out there somewhere,” Ferguson said. “It just happened to be on the first hole. You just don’t want to make a double. That is all we were playing for after that.

“I hit some bad shots out there, but Shelley just settled me down. She’d say, ‘let’s go find it, get it in play and try and get it up and down.'”

Lindbjerg, a 67-year-old who won this event four straight years starting in 2008, started the day with a two-shot lead on Ferguson. But he struggled with his ball-striking all day.

“I didn’t hit the ball very good today,” said Lindbjerg. “On that par 5 (his 10th hole of the day) I had a 7-iron in and ended up with a par. I hit three inches behind the ball. That is the story. It was not there today.”

Lindbjerg did not make a birdie all day and ended up shooting a three-over 74. “That never happens,” he said. “I can’t recall any time I don’t make at least one birdie. That is the way the green rubs sometime. It’s his time, I guess.”

Ferguson drew even on the par 3 16th hole (the leaders started on the back nine Thursday) when he drained a 15-footer for birdie. “I said to Shelley, we have to make something and get the pressure on him, otherwise he is just going to waltz in and run us out of holes,” Ferguson said.

“It just happened to go in and it was kind of a momentum shift there. I was pumped when I made that one.”

The playoff ended when Ferguson two-putted for par from the left fringe and Lindbjerg missed a 10-foot putt for par after putting his tee shot in the front bunker.

Ferguson called the win the biggest of his life. He did place third in a previous Canadian Mid-Amateur Championship. “Well, I do have a bronze medal in Canada, but to win a B.C. championship is special,” he said. “I am going to be driving home and I am just going to be pumped. It’s good to have my name on that trophy. It’s something I will always cherish.”

Ferguson will lead B.C.’s three-man team to the Canadian Senior Men’s Championship, which goes Sept. 6-9 in Niagara Falls, Ont. Joining Ferguson and Lindbjerg on that team will be Hall of Famer Doug Roxburgh, who finished alone in third place at four-over par after shooting a two-over 73 on Thursday.

“I played better today, I just didn’t make any putts,” Roxburgh said. “And I made kind of a sloppy bogey on the last hole.”

Roxburgh and other competitors had high praise for Shuswap Lakes, a course many of them had not seen until this week. “It’s a great course,” Roxburgh. “It is a good test of golf. Even-par won and that’s always a sign of a good course. They had 75 volunteers come out to help, everyone was so friendly and the staff were great. It’s a really nice spot.”

Lindbjerg had to settle for his second straight Super-Senior title, which goes to the top player aged 65 and over. He beat second-place finisher John Gallacher of Burnaby by 11 shots.

For complete scoring CLICK HERE.

NEW MINAS, N.S. – Ken-Wo Golf Club will host the world’s premier female amateur golfers from July 26-29 for the 103rd playing of the Canadian Women’s Amateur Championship.

Thirteen of the Top-100 players on the World Amateur Golf Ranking will take part in the championship’s return to Ken-Wo, which previously hosted the tournament in 2002. World No. 17 Hye-Jin Choi of Paju-si, Korea will compete alongside No. 40 Andrea Lee of Hermosa Beach, Calif., No. 45 Hannah Green from Perth, Australia and No. 60 Maria Fassi of Pachuca, Mexico. Choi, Green and Fassi represented their countries at the 2015 World Junior Girls Championship at The Marshes Golf Club in Ottawa with Choi collecting medallist honours in leading Korea to the team title.

Established in 1921, Ken-Wo is one of the oldest clubs in Nova Scotia. Its challenging layout developed by course designers Robbie Robinson, Geoffrey Cornish and Bill Robinson boasts a rich golfing history which includes four previous national championships.

“We are thrilled to have the Canadian Women’s Amateur Championship return to Ken-Wo and the province of Nova Scotia,” said Host Club Tournament Chair Rene MacKay. “The challenge and beauty of our course will bring out the best in this impressive field. We look forward to welcoming these players with all the care and hospitality of Ken-Wo and the East Coast.”

Montreal’s Lisa Meldrum won the second of her three consecutive Canadian Women’s Amateur titles 14 years ago at Ken-Wo. A new generation of Canadian and international amateurs will now look to continue their legacies by pursuing the Duchess of Connaught trophy.

“This tournament has proven to be a stepping stone for many amateurs working towards joining the professional ranks,” said Tournament Director Mary Beth McKenna. “Eight of our past nine winners, including 2013 champion Brooke Henderson, have gone on to find success as professionals. We are very excited to write the next chapter of the Canadian Women’s Amateur Championship at Ken-Wo.”

The complete contingent of Team Canada’s National Amateur Squad will be in attendance. World No. 37 and top-ranked Canadian amateur Maddie Szeryk of London, Ont., will be joined by teammates Josée Doyon (St-Georges-de-Beauce, Que.), Naomi Ko (Victoria), Michelle Kim (Surrey, B.C.) and Jaclyn Lee (Calgary).

A final-round 4-under earned Szeryk a T6 result in last year’s competition at Riverside Country Club in Saskatoon. The 20-year-old – who claimed her first-career NCAA victory this year at the Florida State Match-Up – and Ko have qualified for the 2016 U.S. Women’s Amateur Championship from August 1-7 at Rolling Green Golf Club in Springfield, Pa.

Doyon is hoping to build upon a season in which she has already claimed victory at the 2016 Women’s Porter Cup and successfully defended her title at the 2016 NIVO Quebec Women’s Amateur Championship. Lee earned a wire-to-wire nine-stroke win at the Sun Life Financial Alberta Ladies Amateur Championship. Kim, a University of Idaho Vandal, posted five Top-10 results in nine tournaments to garner Freshman of the Year honours and a first-team all-Big Sky Conference selection.

Grace St-Germain of Orleans, Ont. – the newly crowned Ontario Women’s Amateur champion – and Chloe Currie from Mississauga, Ont., who is coming off a successful title defence at the Ontario Junior Girls Championship will compete in the competition. The pair will be joined by Hannah Lee (Surrey, B.C.), Tiffany Kong (Vancouver) and Kathrine Chan (Richmond, B.C.) to represent the entirety of Team Canada’s Development Squad.

Returning from last year’s Top-5 are Sarah Burnham of Maple Grove, Minn., and Peru’s Lucia Gutierrez; the pair will attempt to improve upon the T3 results they claimed in 2015.

A practice round will be conducted on July 25 prior to the championship’s opening round. Following the first two rounds of play, the field will be reduced to the low-70 and ties. An inter-provincial team championship will take place in conjunction with the first two rounds of play. Team Alberta comprised of Calgarians Jennifer Ha, Jaclyn Lee and Sabrine Garrison claimed the team title in 2015.

In addition to the 2016 Canadian Women’s Amateur title, the individual champion will earn exemptions into the 2016 U.S. Women’s Amateur Championship and two LPGA events: the Canadian Pacific Women’s Open at Priddis Greens Golf & Country Club in Calgary from August 22-28 and the Manulife LPGA Classic at Whistle Bear Golf Club in Cambridge, Ont., from September 1-4.

For more Information on the 2016 Canadian Women’s Amateur Championship including the full field, starting times and live scoring, click here.

OAKVILLE, Ont. – The 107th playing of Canada’s National Men’s Open Championship gets underway Thursday with 155 of the world’s best golfers, including 14 Canadians, set to challenge defending champion Jason Day for the 2016 RBC Canadian Open.

Day’s victory in 2015 began an incredible stretch that saw him win six tournaments and climb to No. 1 in the world. He returns to Glen Abbey Golf Club introspective of how his victory in Canada 12 months ago kicked off the best run of golf in his career.

“Coming into this event last year, I felt confident about my game, but knowing that this event would spring board me to six wins, a major championship, getting to No. 1 in the world, I’d be very surprised by that,” said Day. “It’s amazing how important this event was to me to really get my career going and get it off in the right direction that I’ve always thought it was going to go.”

“You know, it’s been a pretty crazy last eight months or so, and yeah, it’s exciting,” added Day. “Sometimes I don’t have enough time just to sit down and realize what I’ve accomplished and it’s great and everything, but I know that I can’t get too far ahead of myself, because there are a lot of great golfers behind me that are willing to put in the effort and take that No. 1 spot away from me, and then obviously beat me at tournaments like the RBC Canadian Open.”

The opening round of the 2016 RBC Canadian Open gets underway at 7:10 a.m. off the 1st and 10th tees.

Pairings for the opening two rounds of the 107th playing of Canada’s National Open Championship on Thursday, July 21 and Friday, July 22 are available online here.

OAKVILLE, Ont. – David Hearn said yes with a smile every time.

Hearn signed every hat, tee flag and ticket handed to him. He took off his sunglasses and put them behind his cap for every photo and asked the name of every young fan as he made his way off the 18th green at Glen Abbey Golf Club on Wednesday at the pro-am tournament ahead of the RBC Canadian Open.

The PGA regular from nearby Brantford, Ont., takes the time because he remembers what it was like to be on the other side of the rope.

“As a young kid I used to come to Canadian Opens and I remember waiting for a lot of golfers I admired,” said Hearn, who looked up to Fred Couples, among others. “I would’ve been so disappointed if none of them stopped to speak to me.”

Hearn finished third at last year’s RBC Canadian Open, two strokes back of eventual winner Jason Day of Australia and a shot behind American Bubba Watson. The Canadian caught fans’ attention with a 64 in the second round and had a two-shot lead after shooting a 68 in the third.

A 72 and the solid play of Day and Watson in last year’s fourth round put the PGA Tour win just beyond Hearn’s reach. Still, he remembers the ovation he got from Canadian fans as he approached the 18th tee after Day’s three consecutive birdies had won the event.

He hopes moments like that can help grow the game in Canada.

“At the time I was just in the moment,” Hearn said. “But looking back, I hope I inspired some young golfers, some junior players across the country.”

Hearn believes that memorable moments like his near win last year at Glen Abbey or the upcoming Rio Olympics – where he, Graham DeLaet, Brooke Henderson and Alena Sharp will represent Canada – are an opportunity to create new fans.

Mike Weir of Brights Grove, Ont., is also playing in the RBC Canadian Open this week and has seen the impact his Canadian Golf Hall of Fame career has already had on younger players.

“I know Graham DeLaet has talked about it, that I was somewhat of an inspiration for him,” said Weir, who has eight career PGA Tour wins including the 2003 Masters. “I guess when you’re going along you just don’t think about those kind of things but at the same time, hopefully, some of the younger guys can draw inspiration and know that you can be from a winter country a lot of the year and still make it.”

Hearn, Weir and DeLaet are the three biggest Canadian names playing at the tournament, but they’ll be joined by players from across the country: Adam Hadwin, Nick Taylor, Adam Cornelson, Corey Conners, Brad Fritsch, Dave Levesque, Branson Ferrier and amateurs Blair Hamilton, Hugo Bernanrd, Garrett Rank and Jared du Toit.

A Canadian hasn’t won the tournament since Pat Fletcher in 1954, with Hearn and Weir (2004, runner-up in a playoff) coming the closest.

This year’s field also includes world Nos. 1 and 2, Dustin Johnson and Day as well as former champions Brandt Snedeker (2013), Jim Furyk (2006, 2007), Sean O’Hair (2011), Carl Pettersson (2010), Chez Reavie (2008), and Vijay Singh (2004).

Also on Wednesday, the PGA Tour, Golf Canada and the Heritage Classic Foundation jointly announced that RBC has signed six-year extensions as title sponsor of both the RBC Canadian Open and RBC Heritage, held annually in Hilton Head, S.C. The new agreements take effect in 2018 and run through 2023.

The 2016 RBC Canadian Open runs at Glen Abbey Golf Club from Thursday to Sunday.