BUCKEYE, Ariz. — Danny King capped off his 2015 championship season in memorable fashion, capturing the Titleist & FootJoy PGA Club Professional Championship of Canada.

With the win, King becomes the first person in association history to win three PGA of Canada national championships in the same calendar year. He previously won this year’s PGA Championship of Canada at Cabot Links and the PGA Team Championship of Canada (with partner Billy Walsh).

The head teaching professional at The Performance Academy at Magna also becomes just the third player to have won three or more PGA Club Professional Championships.

“I’ve been preparing for this moment for the past 12 months,” King admitted after his final round at Verrado Golf Club. “It was a vision of mine to really improve my ranking points and win this championship for the third time was really important to me.”

King’s three-day total of 11-under-par 205 (70-68-67) was two shots better than James Skrypec of The Academy at Deer Ridge. Craig Hocknull and 2014 PGA Championship of Canada winner Dave Levesque finished T3 at 7 under.

“I’ve been working with Bob Panasik for the past little while on my breathing, on my routine and getting into a whole new rhythm,” King said. “It’s really freed me and help me commit to everything from putting to full swings.”

On the final day, King’s commitment translated into seven birdies and two bogeys. His final round 5-under-par 67 tied low round of the day with Skyrpec and Dan Greenwood of Lookout Point G&CC.

Redwood Meadows’ Kevin Black, who lead after Monday’s first round, finished alone in fifth at 4 under, while Ron Kenesky finished sixth at 2 under.

In addition to competing for the overall championship trophy, players in the PGA Club Professional Championship of Canada earn much-coveted ranking points with hopes of moving up on the PGA of Canada Player Rankings presented by RBC. Players who are ranked inside the top 64 following the PGA Club Professional Championship of Canada earn invites into next year’s PGA Championship of Canada at the Victoria Golf Club.

Currently ranked No. 4, King has aspirations of rising to the top of the PGA of Canada Player Rankings pile and cutting his teeth at next year’s RBC Canadian Open.

“To become No. 1 is a real goal of mine,” King said. “I want to play well at Victoria next June, get that top ranking and earn that exemption into the RBC Canadian Open at Glen Abbey.”

King, who turns 48 on Nov. 19th admitted he has another future goal.

“The five year plan is to give it a whack and try and play out on the Champions Tour,” King said. “I’ve been working really hard towards that goal and it’s starting to pay off, so I’ll continue to work at it and once I turn 50 I’ll be flying.”

The Inter-Zone Team Championship, which is comprised of four players per zone (and three scores per team counting), was handed out Tuesday. Team Ontario—Ian Doig, Ron Kenesky, Matt Peavoy and King—captured the title.

Former champions of the PGA Club Professional Championship of Canada include Danny King, Adam Chamberlain, Roger Beale, Norm Jarvis, Gar Hamilton, Bob Panasik, Yvan Beauchemin, Graham Gunn, Ken Tarling and Brian Hutton.

OAKVILLE, Ont. – Crown Isle Resort and Golf Community will host one of the Mackenzie Tour – PGA TOUR Canada’s Qualifying Tournaments in each of the next five seasons.

Located in Courtenay, B.C., the 7,025 Graham Cooke and Associates layout has hosted qualifying tournaments in each of the past two years, with the 2016 tournament taking place May 2-6. A full schedule of Mackenzie Tour qualifying dates and sites as well as the format for qualifying will be announced in the coming weeks.

“Crown Isle has proven itself to be both a welcoming host facility and a tremendous test for players to earn status on the Mackenzie Tour, wand we’re thrilled to be holding qualifying there for the next five years. We eagerly look forward to seeing the next generation of players get their start at Crown Isle each year,” said Mackenzie Tour President, Jeff Monday.

Players to earn Mackenzie Tour status at Crown Isle over the past two seasons have accounted for nine victories, including J.J. Spaun, C.T. Pan and Tim Madigan, who all finished in The Five and earned status on the Web.com Tour.

“Crown Isle is thrilled to be chosen as the host course for the Mackenzie Tour’s Canadian Qualifier for the next five years. Our associates, members and golf community look forward to this annual event, showcasing our golf facility and our beautiful Comox Valley,” said Rod Prieto, Director of Golf. “We look forward to this long term relationship with the Mackenzie Tour as a unique opportunity for residents and visitors of the Comox Valley to experience golf at one of its highest levels of competition.”

The full 2016 Mackenzie Tour schedule will be announced in early 2016.

NAPLES, Fla. – Without question, it’s a rivalry. Lydia Ko and Inbee Park are just choosing not to make it a heated one.

All they’re playing for this week at the LPGA Tour Championship is the No. 1 spot in the world rankings, the season’s money crown, the yearlong scoring title and the tour’s player of the year award. Oh, a potential payday of $1.5 million might be awaiting them as well. And Park could wrap up her eventual spot in the LPGA Hall of Fame.

It’s not a head-to-head matchup that starts Thursday at Tiburon Golf Club – there are 69 other players in the field – but it sure seems like one, given that the tour’s biggest award races are left for Ko and Park to decide.

“We have everything on the line,” Park said. “What Lydia is doing can affect so many things and what I can achieve. It’s hard, but there’s nothing I can do. I can’t make Lydia play bad or good. I can’t do anything like that. I’ve got to do good and then just see what happens.”

They’ll be paired together Thursday, along with world No. 3 Stacy Lewis. Like Ko and Park, Lewis also controls her destiny when it comes to the $1 million “Race to CME Globe” bonus; with a win, any of them clinch that cash. There’s another six women in the field who also have a chance to win the million, including world No. 4 Lexi Thompson.

If she’s wrapped up in the Ko vs. Park storyline, it isn’t showing.

“I can’t say I really think about that,” Thompson said. “But with golf … it’s kind of selfish, but you kind of have to just worry about yourself and not worry about all the other players.”

Ko won the tournament last year as a 17-year-old, plus went home with the $1 million bonus after getting doused in a greenside celebration with champagne that she can’t legally drink. The money is displayed in a glass cube, flanked by security guards. And the closest Ko came to disappointment last year was finding out that she couldn’t actually get to keep the cash in that box and would be paid through more conventional means.

Ko skipped the last two weeks in Japan and Mexico, saying she needed a little rest for the finale. Apparently, the grind of an LPGA season is even tiring to talented teenagers.

“I mean, it’s great to come back, and the best part was I pulled out my yardage book from last year and I had to kind of rip the pages apart because of the champagne, the pages stuck together,” Ko said. “So that’s not a bad thing to happen.”

There is a clear respect shared by Ko and Park, both seeing the similarities in their games.

Anyone could see the similarities in their numbers.

Both have five wins this year. Ko enters this week with a slight edge in the world ranking, one that could easily be overtaken by Park for No. 1. Park (69.433) leads Ko (69.449) by a sliver in the race for the Vare Trophy, given to the player with the year’s best scoring average on tour. Ko leads the money list in another race that still isn’t decided, and she also carries a three-point edge in the player-of-the-year race into the finale.

This week decides all those races.

“I really think if I win one, I win it all,” Park said. “If Lydia wins one, she’s going to win it all. I don’t think we get to choose one.”

So there will be tournaments within the tournament. The tour championship and its $500,000 first prize is hardly irrelevant. The way the points for the bonus are structured, it was assured that the $1 million would be decided this weekend. To add all the other award elements into the week, it’s easy to see why the weekend is shaping up for drama.

Ko said she’s going to play the same way she always does, with no plans to worry about anything else.

“I don’t even know how those points systems work to be honest,” Ko said. “I heard last week on TV that the winner gets 30 points. I was like, ‘Oh, sweet.’ I didn’t know how it all works. Too many numbers, and I’m not very good at mathematics, either. Adding and minus – as long as we’re going up, that’s a good thing.”

Buckeye, Ariz. — Danny King is on the verge of capturing his third PGA of Canada national championship of 2015.

The soon-to-be 48-year-old from the Performance Academy at Magna leads the Titleist & FootJoy PGA Club Professional Championship of Canada by a shot heading into the final round Wednesday.

King’s 36-hole total of 6-under-par 138 (70-68) at Verrado Golf Club in Buckeye, Ariz., is a shot better than Kevin Black of Redwood Meadows Golf & Country Club in Alberta.

Winner of this year’s PGA Championship of Canada and PGA Team Championship (with partner Billy Walsh), King said he played well Tuesday, even after a sluggish start to his round.

“I played really well today and even though I started out with a bogey on the first and another on the fourth I was able to settle down and turn pretty good,” King said about his 2-under-par 34 front nine. “The five or six holes are really tricky with distance control,” he said, adding, “I’ll work on some distance control stuff with my short irons and wedges and be better come tomorrow.”

Should King be able to hold on for the win, he’d become just the third player to win three or more PGA Club Professional Championship of Canada titles. Furthermore, he’d become the first player in the history of the association to have won three national championships in the same calendar year.

Waiting on the doorstep, however, sits Black who at 35-years-old is looking for his first PGA of Canada national championship. He’ll tee it along with King and Craig Hocknull (who is at 4 under) in Thursday’s final group.

“It’s not so much nerves as it is excitement and the feeling of wanting to play well,” Black said about what he’ll be feeling on the first tee Thursday. “I’m really looking forward to the opportunity,” he said, adding, “I’ve been in this type of situation a few times so I know how to deal with the feelings, staying positive and having a level head.”

Along with Hocknull sits James Skyrpec at 4 under, T3 for the championship. At 3 under and three shots off the lead lurk 2014 PGA Championship of Canada winner Dave Levesque and Victoria Golf Club’s Lindsay Bernakevitch.

Ron Kenesky is at 2 under, alone in seventh with fellow Ontario competitor Gordon Burns at even par, eighth.  Darryl James and Bill Kelly round out the top 10 at 1-over-par 145.

The Inter-Zone Team Championship, which is comprised of four players per zone (and three scores per team counting), was handed out Tuesday. Team Ontario—Ian Doig, Ron Kenesky, Matt Peavoy and King—captured the title.

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates – Rory McIlroy is planning to round off his season as the European number one with a winning performance at the DP World Tour Championship this week.

Top of the standings, McIlroy is in pole position among seven players with a chance of winning the Race to Dubai on Sunday after the last event of the European Tour season at Jumeirah Golf Estates.

McIlroy, who missed last week’s BMW Masters in Shanghai, leads England’s Danny Willett by 1,613 points. He needs to finish ahead of Willett, and inside the top-three in case any of the next five players win the tournament, to secure his third European number one crown.

“I didn’t quite think I’d be in this position, especially after taking the week off last week,” McIlroy said Tuesday. “But a few of the guys didn’t capitalize on that in China thankfully and I find myself in a position where it’s totally in my hands.

“If I go out and win the tournament, I win the overall thing no matter what anybody else does, and that’s a nice position to be in. I just want to win the tournament. I don’t care who finishes second, who finishes third.”

McIlroy’s bid for the European title has been hampered by an ankle injury this year ruled him out of three tournaments that would have counted toward the Race to Dubai – the Scottish Open, British Open and WGC-Bridgestone Invitational.

He has played only 11 events this season and needed special intervention from the European Tour to get into the $8 million DP World Tour Championship.

The event is open only to the top-60 players on the Race to Dubai who have met the minimum requirement of having played at least 12 events.

McIlroy will not be playing any tournaments after this one until the Abu Dhabi HSBC Golf Championship from Jan. 21-24 next year.

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates – The European Tour is reducing the number of tournaments needed for players to maintain their membership from 13, a move designed to help those playing a full season on the U.S. PGA Tour.

European Tour chief executive Keith Pelley said Tuesday the move follows “significant dialogue with all of our players” and that the five tournaments will exclude the four majors and the four World Golf Championships.

The mandatory 13 starts was becoming difficult to achieve for players who had fallen outside the top-50 of the world ranking, thus making them ineligible for some of the majors and WGC events.

Explaining the move, Pelley said: “One of the reasons was simple: it is to help some of the players that have been entrenched in the US… This, I believe, will allow our players to schedule more efficiently, schedule at the beginning of the year, so they know exactly how they are going to maintain their membership.

“We are in the midst of structuring our overall Tour in a more, what I call, players-first philosophy. That will be something that will be absolutely critical for us.”

The new membership regulations will apply for the 2016 Race to Dubai schedule.

Speaking ahead of the season-ending WGC event at Jumeirah Golf Estates, Pelley also said the European Tour needed to match the financial draw of the US PGA, particularly for younger players breaking through on the circuit.

“At this particular time, if you are a young player, and you have done very well in the European Tour, and you want to make the most money, you are going to go play in America,” he said.

“You will ask: ‘How are you actually going to have our people play more often here in Europe’? The answer is very simple. We need to provide a viable alternative to the PGA Tour for our elite, medium and low-ranked players. End of story.”

BUCKEYE, Ariz. — On a day when all anyone wanted to talk about was the cold and breezy conditions at Verrado Golf Club in Buckeye, Ariz., Kevin Black just wanted to chat about how much he loved playing golf.

It probably didn’t hurt he posted an opening round 3-under-par 69 and leads the Titleist & FootJoy PGA Club Professional Championship of Canada.

“I just love to play golf and especially love playing in these big national championships,” said the head PGA professional at Redwood Meadows Golf & Country Club. “I definitely get that nervous feeling out there on the first tee, but I think it’s great too.”

Black’s impressive first round featured five birdies and a double-bogey on the par-5 15th. The 35-year-old said his game is suited for golf courses like Verrado.

“I’m pretty solid on golf courses where most guys have troubles because I’ll hit a lot of greens,” Black said. “The fairways are pretty wide here, so I was getting it in play off the tee and I putted pretty well too.”

Lurking one shot back of Black sits Danny King, a man whose game seems suited for just about every golf course in 2015. The soon-to-be 48-year-old captured this year’s PGA Championship of Canada at the famed Cabot Links and most recently won the PGA Team Championship with his partner Billy Walsh.

King is also a two-time winner of the PGA Club Professional Championship of Canada. The legendary Gar Hamilton (who is in the field this week) and Yvan Beauchemin hold the record for most PGA Club Professional Championship of Canada wins with four.

“It’d be awesome to get my name alongside Gar in the record books,” King said about the possibility of this third PGA Club Professional Championship of Canada win. “Gar’s always been a mentor of mine and I definitely look up to him.”

Dean North, James Skrypec, Gordon Burns and 2014 PGA Championship of Canada winner Dave Levesque are at 1 under, T3.

Situated in the foothills of the White Tank Mountains, crafted by PGA Tour star Tom Lehman and US Amateur Champion John Fought, the Verrado Golf Club is a spectacular course stretching to over 7,200 yards featuring stunning views, snug box canyons, and considerable elevation changes.

In addition to competing for the overall championship trophy, players in the PGA Club Professional Championship of Canada earn much-coveted ranking points with hopes of moving up on the PGA of Canada Player Rankings presented by RBC. Players who are ranked inside the top 64 following the PGA Club Professional Championship of Canada earn invites into next year’s PGA Championship of Canada at the Victoria Golf Club.

The Inter-Zone Team Championship, which is comprised of four players per zone (and three scores per team counting), is also handed out after 36-holes. Team Ontario—Ian Doig, Ron Kenesky, Matt Peavoy and King—hold a four-shot lead over Team Quebec—Levesque, Vincent Cacchione, Phillippe Mongeau and Eric Laporte—heading Tuesday’s second round.

BRUNSWICK, Ga. – Team Canada Young Pro Squad member Adam Svensson of Surrey, B.C., qualified for the PGA TOUR’s RSM Classic on Monday at the Brunswick Country Club.

Svensson became one of four qualifiers after advancing via a five-way playoff at 2-under par. The 21-year-old will head to Sea Island Resort to vie for his share of the $5.7 million purse, with action getting underway Thursday.

The event will serve as a great test for Svensson as he prepares for the final stage of Web.com Qualifying School next month from Dec. 10–13. He punched his ticket to the final stage by finishing inside the top-10 of Mackenzie Tour’s Order of Merit this season thanks in part to four top-10 finishes.

Americans Gavin Coles, Matthew Atkins and Mark Anderson were the three other competitors to advance via the Monday qualifier.

Click here to view Monday qualifying results.

PLAYA DEL CARMEN, Mexico – Going more than two years without a win was enough time for Graeme McDowell to start asking himself the wrong questions.

Was his best golf behind him? Was he even good enough to win again?

He found his answer Monday morning in Mexico. McDowell made an 8-foot par putt on the 18th hole to stay in the game, and then he hit a 5-iron that grazed the edge of the cup and set up a 3-foot birdie to win a three-man playoff in the rain-delayed OHL Classic at Mayakoba.

“I dreamed of this day coming again,” McDowell said. “I thought it would be maybe not quite as soon as this, and I said to myself that I was really going to appreciate it. And I do appreciate it. This feels really nice.”

That par putt on the final hole of El Camaleon Golf Club gave McDowell a 5-under 66 to finish at 18-under 266. Even so, it looked as if that would only be good enough for second place. Russell Knox, coming off a victory last week in the HSBC Champions, had a one-shot lead and was full of confidence.

Knox, however, pulled his tee shot into the bunker in front of a steep lip, couldn’t quite reach the green and missed a 12-foot par putt for a 66. Jason Bohn made tough par putts on four of his last five holes for a 68 to join the playoff.

It didn’t last long.

McDowell, who looked tentative on tee shots and birdie putts over the final few holes, felt a surge of belief in the playoff. He drilled a 3-wood down the middle, and then wisely listened to caddie Ken Comboy, who recommended a 5-iron when McDowell wanted to hammer a 6-iron.

“It’s as good a 5-iron as I’ve hit in a long time,” McDowell said.

Knox missed the green to the left and failed to chip in. Bohn missed an 18-foot birdie putt. That left McDowell to tap in for his first victory since the 2013 French Open. And while it doesn’t compare with his 2010 U.S. Open at Pebble Beach, it was more significant than just a PGA Tour event at the end of the year.

He was in the final year of his PGA Tour exemption, which was creeping into his mind. He had not finished in the top 10 in nine months dating to the Dubai Desert Classic. McDowell, who started the year at No. 15 in the world, plunged to No. 85 while trying to find the balance of golf and spending time with his wife and 1-year-old daughter.

“It’s been a rough year for all the right reasons,” he said. “I’ve been enjoying life off the golf course with my beautiful family. Golf hasn’t been the priority it should be. But the last three or four months I got back to where I want to be.”

McDowell and Knox were tied at 19 under when they returned Monday to complete the final round.

Knox birdied the par-5 13th to pull ahead, only to drop a shot on the tough 14th with a tee shot into the left rough and wind so strong that he couldn’t reach the green.

McDowell was well short on a 12-foot birdie putt for the lead on the par-3 15th, and he looked even more tentative on the next hole when he three-putted from 45 feet, leaving his first putt some 10 feet short. It looked as though he wouldn’t get another chance.

“Russell Knox is free swinging coming off the best week of his life,” McDowell said when he finished his round.

Knox made a tough up-and-down for par on the 17th hole by making a 5-foot putt into the thick, wet grain. But his chip was short on the 18th, the par putt for his second straight victory was left all the day, and that was the opening McDowell needed.

Derek Fathauer, the 54-hole leader, birdied the last hole for a 71 to finish two shots behind.

McDowell wasn’t planning on playing in Mexico except for his poor year. He failed to qualify for the FedEx Cup playoffs, and he chose to skip the final two events on the European Tour because of his mediocre standing in the Race to Dubai. The idea was to put 2015 behind him and get an early start on the new PGA Tour season.

It turned out to be a great decision.

The victory assures McDowell will be in the Masters next year, along with the PGA Championship and The Players Championship. Ranking points from those events will come in handy during qualifying in 2016 for the Ryder Cup and for the Olympics.

ST. SIMONS ISLAND, Ga. – The son of Davis Love III will make his PGA Tour debut next week at the tournament where his father is the host.

Dru Love – his given name is Davis Love IV – has received a sponsor exemption to the RSM Classic at Sea Island, the final PGA Tour event of the year.

Love plays for Alabama and won the Puerto Rico Classic this year. He also won the Georgia State Amateur Championship on the Seaside Course at Sea Island, the main course for the RSM Classic.

The RSM Classic is being held on two courses at Sea Island this year because the tournament wanted to be sure everyone with full tour status got in. At the commitment deadline Friday, Mark Hensby was first alternate.