RENO, Nev. – J.J. Henry birdied the final hole to take a one-point lead Saturday in the Barracuda Championship, the PGA Tour’s only modified Stableford event.

Henry had a 41-point total at Montreux Golf and Country Club, scoring 17 points in the third round with nine birdies and a bogey. Players receive eight points for double eagle, five for eagle, two for birdie, zero for par, minus-one for bogey and minus-three for double bogey or worse.

The 40-year-old Henry won the 2012 event for the last of his two PGA Tour titles. He’s 150th in the FedEx Cup standings, with only top 125 advancing the first event in the playoffs.

David Toms and Sweden’s Jonas Blixt were tied for second. The 48-year-old Toms had 10 birdies and two bogeys in an 18-point round. Blixt had a 16-point day.

Robert Garrigus had 37 points after a 16-point round.

Former Stanford player Patrick Rodgers was fifth at 35 points after a 14-point day.

The 23-year-old Rodgers has earned enough money through sponsor exemptions to become a special temporary member of the PGA Tour. With just over $800,000, most of that from a runner-up finish in the Wells Fargo Championship in May, he is virtually assured of a PGA Tour card for next season. Rodgers won the Web.com Tour’s Colombia Championship in February.

Canadian Roger Sloan shot up the leaderboard and is tied for 23rd going into the final round. The Calgary native shot eight birdies to score 13 points and now has 24 overall.

CALGARY, Alta. – Miguel Angel Jimenez eagled the par-5 18th hole Saturday to match the course record of 9-under 61 and tie Colin Montgomerie for the second-round lead in the Shaw Charity Classic.

With wife Susanne working her first tournament at his caddie, Jimenez matched Fred Couples’ course record set last year.

“My caddie needed 19 working days to get a visa to come here and that’s the reason he’s not here,” Jimenez said. “My wife is a good player, a single handicap, too, and she knows about golf. She said from the beginning, `If he’s not coming, I would love to caddie for you.’ `OK, fine. No problem.'”

The 51-year-old Spanish player made seven birdies in a nine-hole stretch in the middle of the round. He set up his closing eagle with a 7-wood to 9 feet.

“I played very well,” Jimenez said. “I hit very solid from green to tee and, in the beginning, the ball not like to drop in the hole. But then I start to make birdies. … It’s going to be a very tight finish tomorrow, that’s for sure.”

Montgomerie, the first-round leader after a 62, birdied the 18th for a 66 to join Jimenez at 12-under 128 at Canyon Meadows. The Scot had an eagle, five birdies and three bogeys.

“Disappointing the way I finished,” Montgomerie said. “I missed three putts in a row there at 16, 17 and 18. I three-putted the 16th for a bogey and I missed a very makeable putt at 17 for a birdie and I missed a very makeable eagle putt at the last. So, very disappointing finish, to be honest.”

Jimenez won the season-opening Mitsubishi Electric Championship in Hawaii in January. He also won the Greater Gwinnett Championship last year in his first start on the Champions Tour.

“Obviously, Miguel had a great day as I did yesterday,” Montgomerie said. “It’s set up for a very exciting finish.”

Jimenez and Montgomerie are travelling together to the PGA Championship after the tour tournament.

“Yeah, we’re sharing a plane tomorrow as well to Milwaukee to get there in time,” Montgomerie said. “I know him very well. Obviously, played on many Ryder Cup teams with him and he’s a great competitor.”

Montgomerie successfully defended his title in the Senior PGA Championship in May for his third major victory on the 50-and-over tour.

Jeff Maggert, the Regions Tradition and U.S. Senior Open winner, was 10 under after a 63. He played alongside Jimenez and Couples.

“Sometimes when the guys in your group are making a lot of birdies, we all kind of feed off each other,” Maggert said. “I made birdies early. Then Miguel made three or four birdies out of five holes, so we just kind of kept each other going.”

Defending champion Couples was tied for fourth at 8 under after a 65. Last year, Couples chipped in for eagle for a 61 in the final round, then beat Billy Andrade with a tap-in birdie on the first playoff hole.

“I’m in the same spot I was last year,” Couples said. “I’ve just got to go out and freewheel it and try and shoot a good score. Last year was a crazy score like Miguel’s today. Am I out of it? No, but I don’t think Miguel’s going to struggle at all.”

Woody Austin also was 8 under after a 64.

Mark O’Meara, Tom Byrum, Michael Allen and Canadian Stephen Ames were 7 under. Byrum had a 66, and O’Meara shot 67, and Allen and Ames 68.

YORKTON, Sask. Michelle Kim carded a final-round even-par to win the 2015 Canadian Junior Girls Championship at Deer Park Golf Course in Yorkton, Sask.

The 18-year-old Team Canada Development Squad member’s third-round 69 propelled her ahead of the competition with a 4-stroke lead through 54-holes; she went on to finish the championship at 6-under par 286.

“This is probably the biggest achievement that I’ve ever made. I mean I still can’t believe it; it feels amazing especially because it is my last junior tournament and I’ve worked really hard,” said the native of Surrey, B.C.

Kim managed four rounds at even-par or better through high winds and rainy conditions to capture the championship by two strokes.

“I’ve played this tournament for many years and I’ve gotten close, but I was never really that close to winning. To win this just really gives me a big confidence boost going into the University of Idaho and competing in NCAA tournaments,” said Kim.

Fellow Surrey, B.C., native and provincial teammate Hannah Lee finished her final round at 2-under par to claim solo-second at 4-under for the championship. Lee’s round was highlighted by four birdies and an eagle on the par-5 second hole.

“I was close to winning it, but I’m really happy for Michelle. I’ve seen her golf ever since I started playing tournaments, so congrats to her,” said the 15-year-old who claimed the Juvenile Division title. “It’s an honour to win the Juvenile part of Nationals,” said Lee who didn’t think she would play as well as she did in this championship.

“I will take my experience from this tournament, I’m going to think about the memories I had here and remember to use them for my next tournaments so I can be more successful,” said Lee, who opened the competition with a competitive course record of 66.

Rounding out the top-three in the overall standings was Team Canada Development Squad member Naomi Ko. The 17-year-old from Victoria shot a final round of 72 to finish at 3-under 289 for the national championship.

Kathrine Chan finished in second in the Juvenile Division, 3-shots back of the winner. The 15-year-old began the championship in fast fashion with a 4-under 69 and played steady golf to earn runner-up honours.  The Richmond, B.C., product shot an even-par final round with four birdies to finish 1-under for the tournament.

Three shots back at 2-over par 294 and wrapping up the top-three in the Juvenile Division was 12-year-old Euna Han. The Coquitlam, B.C., native tallied a hole-in-one on No. 8 and added two birdies to her round of 4-over 77.

An Inter-Provincial competition coincided with the first two rounds and saw Team British Columbia comprised of the Junior and Juvenile champions, alongside Victoria native Akari Hayashi, capture the team championship by 20 strokes at 7-under par.

Céleste Dao (Notre-Dame-de-l’Île-Perrot, Que.), Sarah-Eve Rheaume (Québec City, Que.) and Annie Lacombe (Laval, Que.) of Team Québec finished as runners-up with a two-day total of 305. Two shots back in third place was Mississauga, Ont., product Chloe Currie, Alexandra Naumovski of Hornby, Ont., and Richmond Hill, Ont., native Kristen Wong of Team Ontario.

With the victory in the 2015 Canadian Junior Girls Championship, Michelle Kim has earned a spot in the 2016 Canadian Women’s Amateur Championship hosted at Ken-Wo Golf Club in New Minas, N.S., and has earned exemptions into the 2016 season’s three Canadian Women’s Tour events.

For full results and information regarding the 2015 Canadian Junior Girls Championship, click here.

TORONTO – Francesco Ruffino shot a 6-under 66 at Weston Golf & Country Club in Toronto, Ont., to claim medalist honours at the final qualifying event for the 2015 edition of the Canadian Men’s Amateur Championship. Michael Boss, Jake McNulty, Charles Corner and Addison Coll captured the remaining four spots available through the qualifier to complete the field for the 111^th playing of the world’s third-oldest amateur championship.

“I’m excited. I’m really looking forward to playing in it,” said Ruffino when asked about the opportunity to join the full field of 264 players in the national amateur competition. Ruffino carded an eagle and five birdies to lead the field of 119 competitors vying for a spot in the championship. With today’s victory, the Bloomfield Hills, Mich., native gained valuable experience and confidence for the tournament ahead.

“I think there are actually a couple of holes that I can play better, but I felt pretty well out there.  I didn’t play great, but I was able to be pretty smart with a lot of my shots,” said the 20-year-old. “I really tried to give myself a lot of birdie looks – a few of them dropped, a few of them didn’t. You can always ask for more, but I’m satisfied with a 66.”

The sophomore at the University of South Florida beamed about the course conditions and welcomes the chance to play them again next week.

“The fairways are pristine, they’re perfect,” said Ruffino. “The greens are great, they roll true. If you hit a good putt, you know it’s going to go in. The rough is long and if you don’t hit it in the right spot, you’re going to get penalized out here. It will be really exciting to see how the rest of the field does in the tournament.”

Michael Boss of Lewiston, N.Y., carded a bogey-free 67 to finish runner-up. Port Perry, Ont., product Jake McNulty notched six birdies en route to a round of 3-under 69. The trio of Charles Corner (Cayuga, Ont.), Addison Coll (Arlington, Va.) and Sam McNulty (Port Perry, Ont.) finished T4 after rounds of 70 and required an extra hole to decide the final two spots in the championship. Corner chipped-in for birdie on the par-4 No. 18 to secure his place while Coll made par to advance.

The 2015 Canadian Men’s Amateur Championship will be co-hosted by two storied Toronto clubs – Weston Golf & Country Club and The Lambton Golf & Country Club. The first two rounds will take place on August 10 and 11 across both host courses. Following the championship’s first 36 holes, the field of 264 representing eight countries will be reduced to 70 players and ties. The two final rounds will be contested at Weston Golf & Country Club where one competitor will claim the coveted Earl Grey Trophy as the Canadian Men’s Amateur Champion.

The winner will earn exemptions into the 2016 RBC Canadian Open at Glen Abbey Golf Club in Oakville, Ont., as well as, the 2015 U.S. Amateur Championship at Olympia Fields Country Club in Olympia Fields, Ill. The champion will also be eligible to receive an exemption into the U.S. Junior Amateur, the U.S. Mid-Amateur or the U.S. Senior Amateur, if applicable.

An inter-provincial championship will take place in conjunction with the first two rounds of the tournament with three-member teams competing for the Willingdon Cup. Additional information regarding the 2015 Canadian Men’s Amateur Championship is available here.

Full scorecards and additional details from the final qualifier can be found here.

AKRON, Ohio – Jim Furyk is two rounds away from erasing a couple of bad memories at Firestone.

Even with a bogey on his last hole for the second straight day, Furyk did plenty right Friday morning in the Bridgestone Invitational for another 4-under 66 that gave him a four-shot lead midway in the second round.

Furyk ran off three birdies in a four-hole stretch late in his round to reach 8-under 132.

It’s a familiar position for Furyk at Firestone, where he has done everything right except leave with the trophy. In a seven-hole playoff against Tiger Woods in 2001, Furyk missed three putts inside 12 feet for the win, and Woods finally closed him out with a birdie.

More painful was three years ago, when Furyk led wire-to-wire and was in the 18th fairway on Sunday when one bad swing led to a double bogey and he lost by one.

Furyk doesn’t see this as a shot at redemption.

“I would say that I’m disappointed I’ve never won here,” he said. “It’s one of my favorite courses we play. But to have like a chip on my shoulder? No. It’s another year and opportunity, and we’re only halfway. I’m going to try to do the same things this weekend and not really look at the leaderboard that much and go try to shoot under par.”

Shane Lowry of Ireland had a 66 and was at 4-under 136 as the second round was finishing. Of the early starters on a day filled with sun, Furyk was five shots clear of Graeme McDowell (71), Danny Lee (72) and Henrik Stenson (69).

Masters and U.S. Open champion Jordan Spieth got within two shots of the lead when he chipped in for birdie on the third hole (his 12th of the round). He followed with back-to-back bogeys to drop back about the time Furyk was starting to pull away.

The good news for Spieth? In his sixth round at Firestone, he finally broke par with a 68 that left him six shots behind. Spieth would have to win this World Golf Championship to replace Rory McIlroy at No. 1 in the world.

“It goes with the bigger goal of trying to give myself a chance to win this championship,” Spieth said. “It wasn’t going to happen shooting even.”

Even with 17 wins on the PGA Tour, Furyk knows disappointment as well as anyone. During his four-year victory drought he ended this year at Hilton Head, Furyk had seven runner-up finishes that included two majors.

But he recently read a story that mentioned the amount of scars that golfers suffer from losing and how much it affects them.

“Everyone’s got them out here,” he said. “There isn’t anyone that doesn’t have scars and doesn’t have a memory when they step up on a tee where the last two times they hit it left in the water and then you’ve got to step up on the tee and rip one down the middle. So it’s happened to all of us. It’s how you handle those situations that end up making or breaking you and your career.”

Furyk’s win at Hilton Head put him in the conversation for the World Golf Hall of Fame – 17 wins, a major, and 20 years of so much consistency that he has amassed more than $60 million in earnings.

For now, he’ll settle for another Hall of Fame.

Furyk, whose grew up in Pennsylvania and whose parents are from Pittsburgh, struck up a relationship with Jerome Bettis years ago. The Bus has been supporting Furyk’s golf tournament and foundation over the years, and Furyk received an invitation to the NFL Hall of Fame on Saturday night in Canton.

“I’m sure I was one of a thousand people to receive an invite, but I was honored to get one,” Furyk said. “I figured it would be a great, great thing to do to take the kids to see, and they’re up here with me. We’re going to go see the game on Sunday as well. I kind of regret not going to see maybe like Dick LeBeau get in and some of the Steelers while I was here. I watched that one on television, but being so close, it seemed like just something fun to do.

“He supported us and our foundation a bunch, it would be nice to go see him get in.”

Furyk would love to have a trophy with him when he goes to the Hall of Fame exhibition against the Vikings. But there’s still plenty of work to do.

RENO, Nev. – Andres Gonzales had 11 birdies and a bogey in a 21-point round Friday for a share of the lead with Brendan Steele in the Barracuda Championship.

Steele matched Gonzales at 26 points after two rounds in the PGA Tour’s only modified Stableford event, scoring 18 points with an eagle, seven birdies and a bogey at Montreux Golf and Country Club.

Players receive eight points for double eagle, five for eagle, two for birdie, zero for par, minus-one for bogey and minus-three for double bogey or worse.

“Ball kind of went into the hole today,” Steele said. “The course is in great shape. A lot of the time I see it a little more brown, a little firmer, and so it’s playing a little bit different. Ball doesn’t go quite as far because you’re not running out as much.”

Steele holed out from a greenside bunker for the eagle on the par-5 second hole. He won the 2011 Texas Open for his lone tour title.

“It’s golf so you never know what’s going to happen, but I feel like my game is in a really good spot,” Steele said. “I was happy with how I played last week until Sunday. Basically, just didn’t hole anything on Sunday last week. But the game has been really good for a while.”

Winless on the tour, Gonzales has two top-10 finishes in 25 events this season.

“Today was a lot of fun,” Gonzales said. “I wouldn’t have been able to do it without my caddie, Brandon DeStefano. He did a lot of number figuring here. Playing at altitude here in Reno, early in the morning it can play a little bit less and then get to the afternoon and it can play a little bit more. I went off what he said and hit a lot of good putts today.”

J.J. Henry, the 2012 winner, was two points back along with Sweden’s Jonas Blixt. Henry had an 11-point round, and Blixt scored 12 points.

“It’s nice to get off early with fresh greens and little wind,” Henry said. “Kind of tricky with some rain and stuff, but the golf course was pretty soft and receptive, so if I kept the ball in play, gave myself a lot good chances.

“I love coming here. For whatever reason the golf course kind of suits my eye and I just enjoy being out here kind of up through the trees and the mountains. Just a beautiful place to be this time of year.”

Kyle Reifers was at 23 after a 14-point round.

Geoff Ogilvy, the winner last year, had six points to miss the cut. Last season, he finished with a tournament-record 49 points for a five-point victory.

Canadian Roger Sloan sits T52, while Adam Hadwin will not play the weekend.

CALGARY, Alberta – Colin Montgomerie birdied three of the final four holes for an 8-under 62 and the first-round lead Friday in the Champions Tour’s Shaw Charity Classic.

Playing alongside defending champion Fred Couples and Miguel Angel Jimenez, Montgomerie had nine birdies and a bogey at Canyon Meadows.

“I knew that if I kept up with them or kept around them I was doing OK, Montgomerie said about his playing partners. “All in all, I got the most out of the round. I’m not one of these guys who’s going to say it should have been 59. For God’s sake, I got the most out of it.”

The Scot successfully defended his title in the Senior PGA Championship in May for his third major victory on the 50-and-over tour.

“Week in and week out you’ve got to play your best, there’s no question,” Montgomerie said. “If you don’t play your best, you will not win, as simple as that.”

Australia’s Peter Senior was a stroke back.

“I holed a couple of big putts in the first four holes, so it got me going and I played a little bit better,” Senior said. “Played pretty good on the back side, missed a couple of short ones on the last two. … But all in all, I haven’t played well for a long time, so it’s just nice to actually put a score on the board.”

Corey Pavin was tied for third at 65 with Scott McCarron, Tommy Armour III, Michael Allen, Skip Kendall and Canada’s Stephen Ames.

Couples and Jimenez each shot 67. Last year, Couples chipped in for eagle for a course-record 61, then beat Billy Andrade with a tap-in birdie on the first hole of a playoff.

“I played OK,” Couples said. “I watched a great round.”

The players were allowed to lift, clean and place their golf balls in the fairways because of wet conditions.

“Tomorrow, just got to shoot really low,” Couples said. “I don’t know if we’re going to play the ball up or down, but hopefully we don’t touch it. It’s not like Monty misses fairways or anything, but it just makes the scoring a little harder to not clean it. I need to shoot 66 or 65.

“If they tee them up, I think a lot of people will shoot the same score. But the course was perfect today. It was a little wet, but Monty played phenomenal golf.”

Louise Suggs, an LPGA founder and among the best women to ever play with 61 wins and 11 majors, died Friday. She was 91.

The LPGA Tour said she died in a hospice in Sarasota, Florida, of natural causes.

Suggs was perhaps the most influential player in LPGA history. Along with being one of the 13 founders in 1950, she served as LPGA president three times and was inducted into the World Golf Hall of Fame and the LPGA Teach and Professional Hall of Fame.

“I feel like the LPGA lost a parent,” Commissioner Mike Whan said. “But I’m extremely confident that her vision, her competitiveness, and most importantly her spirit, will be with this organization forever.”

The LPGA Tour rookie of the year award is named after Suggs. She won every season of her professional career and was the first player to capture the career Grand Slam at the 1957 LPGA Championship.

She finished her career with $190,251 in earnings.

A steady presence at LPGA’s biggest events, her support of women’s golf never wavered and Suggs never lost her sharp tongue. She was at the LPGA awards dinner in 2007 where Angela Park won the Louise Suggs Rookie of the Year award by earning $983,922.

“I wish like hell I could have played for this kind of money,” Suggs said. “But if not for me, they wouldn’t be playing for it, either.”

Her efficient, powerful swing marked her for greatness as a teenager in Georgia. She began to get national acclaim when she won the 1947 U.S. Women’s Amateur, the 1948 Women’s British Amateur and the 1949 U.S. Women’s Open, beating fierce rival Babe Zaharias by 14 shots.

Ben Hogan once said after watching Suggs swing that her swing “combines all the desirable elements of efficiency, timing and co-ordination.”

“It appears to be completely effortless,” Hogan said. “Yet despite her slight build, she is consistently as long off the tee and through the fairway as any of her feminine contemporaries in competitive golf.”

Bob Hope once nicknamed her “Miss Sluggs” for how far she could hit the ball.

“Like a parent, she cared deeply for her LPGA family and took great pride in their successes,” Whan said. “She always made time to hear my problems and challenges. Her personal guidance was priceless. Like a parent, I think she was even more proud of the LPGA players of today than she was of her own playing results”.

Born in Atlanta on Sept. 7, 1923, she began playing golf on the Lithia Springs golf course that her father managed. She won the Georgia Women’s Amateur twice, the North and South three times and the Women’s Western Amateur twice.

She was a contemporary of the great Bobby Jones, her idol in Georgia. And long before Annika Sorenstam made headlines for playing on the PGA Tour, Suggs had her own famous competition against the men.

She took part in a 72-hole exhibition on what she once described as an executive course in West Palm Beach, Florida, in 1961. It was called the Royal Poinciana Invitational, featuring the likes of Suggs and Patty Berg, Sam Snead and Dow Finsterwald.

Playing 36 holes a day, and lacing her beloved 3-wood onto the greens, Suggs wound up winning. Recounting that event in a 2003 interview with The Associated Press, Suggs said Snead was irritated that he had finished behind a woman and was needling her.

“I finally said, ‘I don’t know what the hell you’re bitching about. You weren’t even second,”’ Suggs said.

She said Snead stormed off to the parking lot and peeled out of the parking lot.

“It was the most perfect squelch I ever heard. He burned a quarter-inch of rubber,” Suggs said.

That story captured the essence of Suggs. She had a drive to succeed and told it how she saw it. The title on her autobiography she published last year: “And That’s That!”

The founders of the LPGA paved the way for today’s game, often going to cities and doing promotions to attract attention. They had to set up the golf courses by themselves and cope with complaints and challenges.

Suggs retired in 1962 from competition, but not from the LPGA Tour.

“Golf is very much like a love affair,” Suggs once said. “If you don’t take it seriously, it’s not fun. But if you do, it breaks your heart. Don’t break your heart, but flirt with the possibility.”

Suggs was the first women elected to the Georgia Athletic Hall of Fame in 1966, paving the way for women to become future inductees. The USGA honoured her with its prestigious Bob Jones Award in 2007. And earlier this year, Suggs was selected to join the Royal & Ancient Golf Club when it finally invited women.

CALGARY – With a sore back that has limited him to playing just five Champions Tour events this season, Fred Couples knows that defending his Shaw Charity Classic title this weekend won’t be an easy task.

Fortunately for him, he’s been known to tear it up at Canyon Meadows Golf and Country Club.

Couples won last year’s event at the Calgary course in thrilling fashion by chipping in for eagle on the par-5, 18th hole to shoot a course record 9-under 61 before beating Billy Andrade in a one-hole playoff.

“To be honest, when I chipped it in, I didn’t know I shot 61, I just knew I had a really good round,” said Couples, 55, who has won 11 times in six seasons on the Champions Tour. “I haven’t shot many 61s in my life and it was a good one here.”

In order to win back-to-back titles, Couples will have to fend off challenges from the likes of Charles Schwab Cup points race leader Colin Montgomerie and Jeff Maggert, who has already won a pair of majors – the Regions Tradition in May and the U.S. Senior Open Championship in June – this season.

“The main thing is I like the course,” said Couples. “I feel like I should play well here and I want to play here every year and hopefully in the next few years win it again before I get too old.

“I grew up in Seattle and we don’t play a ton of courses that remind me of Jefferson Park where I grew up playing. I like the greens, I like the shape of the holes and I seem to play well here.”

This will be Montgomerie’s first time competing in Calgary, while Maggert is looking to improve upon his performance from last year when he finished in a tie for 27th place at 6 under.

“I had a great start obviously, winning a couple majors, and I’m in position to make a run for the Charles Schwab Cup,” said Maggert, who sits third in the standings behind Montgomerie and Bernhard Langer, the latter of whom isn’t competing in Calgary this weekend. “My game’s in good shape, so looking forward to a good week here. Last year was my first time here. I thought the golf course was fabulous, so I’m looking forward to getting back.”

Other golfers in the top 10 in the points race who are competing in Calgary include Kevin Sutherland (fifth), Joe Durant (sixth), Lee Janzen (seventh), Esteban Toledo (eighth), Andrade (ninth) and Woody Austin (10th).

Couples will start the first round on Friday morning in a group with Montgomerie and Miguel Angel Jimenez, who ranks 15th in the Charles Schwab Cup points standings despite playing in only five Champions Tour events so far this season.

“I have the game to win any week,” said Jimenez, who won the opening event of the season, the Mitsubishi Electric Championship at Hualalai on Jan. 25 in Hawaii. “You have to respect the rest of the guys. They’re very good players, competitors, and anyone can win the tournament. My game is there – just keep passionate, keep playing golf and let things happen.”

Meanwhile, Maggert will play in a group on Friday with Mark O’Meara and Calgary’s Stephen Ames, who finished well back of the field last year at 4-over par through three rounds of play.

“It’s nice to come home and see a lot of familiar faces walking around, which is beautiful,” said Ames, who grew up in Trinidad and Tobago before becoming a Canadian citizen in 2003.

The field also features four other Canadians in Rod Spittle of Niagara Falls, Ont., Calgary’s Darryl James as well as Jim Rutledge and Rick Gibson, both from Victoria.

AKRON, Ohio – Graeme McDowell and Jordan Spieth were in good spirits Thursday at the Bridgestone Invitational, which was good news for only one of them.

McDowell has been in such a rut that he has fallen out of the top 50 for the first time in five years and hasn’t finished in the top 10 in America since playing this World Golf Championship a year ago. So he happily went along at Firestone South making five birdies in 10 holes on his way to a 4-under 66.

That left him one shot behind Danny Lee, who got his mistakes out of the way early and played a flawless front nine to lead the first round with a 65.

“I like this version of me today,” McDowell said. “It’s been a rough year, no doubt about it. Definitely been some time for reflection and some questions being asked of myself. It’s how you answer the questions and how you come out the other side, really.

“I feel like I’ll know what to do when I get back there, but it’s all about the process of getting there now,” he said. “So days like today will certainly help in that direction. I’ve got to keep doing it.”

Spieth was playing for the first time since he missed the British Open playoff by one shot, ending his bid at the Grand Slam. He expected a little rust. What concerned him was a sloppy start that was missing some of his fire. Walking up the fourth fairway, he said he told his caddie, “I need to get a little bit inspired right now.”

He made a bogey on par-5 second hole, the easiest at Firestone. His shot from the rough on No. 3 clipped some branches, and for a minute Spieth thought it might go in the water and lead to double bogey. It barely made the green and he got par.

“I’m staring at 3 over through three, trying to bounce back on a course that could host a major championship,” Spieth said. “I played these first three holes and it didn’t bother me. And that should normally bother me the way I played them.”

He made birdie on the next hole, a birdie on the final hole and shot 70. So did his playing partner, British Open champion Zach Johnson, in a pairing of the major champions this year. Johnson started birdie-birdie, only to come undone with a double bogey from the trees and rough on No. 9.

Spieth noted that he still hasn’t broken par at Firestone, though this was only his fifth round. And even par wasn’t a bad start.

The South Course featured fast fairways and firm greens, along with lush grass in the rough. Only 21 players in the 77-man field managed to break par. Phil Mickelson wasn’t among them. Spieth walked off the third green relieved that he cleared the water and made par. Mickelson was behind him and not so lucky. He clipped branches and went in the middle of the pond for a triple bogey. He shot 76.

Jim Furyk might get another chance to win a tournament he should have three years ago, when he went wire-to-wire until making a double bogey from the middle of the 18th fairway in the final round and lost by one. Furyk opened with a 66 to join McDowell one shot out of the lead.

Rickie Fowler and Justin Rose were at 67, while the large group at 68 included Henrik Stenson, Ian Poulter and Lee Westwood.

McDowell has three straight rounds of 66 at Firestone, though two of them were last year in softer conditions. This was a tricky test with the extra bounce on fairways and greens, and it was a big step for McDowell. It required getting the ball in play, some good wedge work around the greens and making putts. That’s been his hallmark, and he relief on those parts of the game to carry him in the opening round.

The slump is mainly due to change at home. His first child was born last September, and McDowell has found it harder to leave home. His motivation waned, followed by his game and inevitably some confidence.

He is at No. 159 in the FedEx Cup and in danger of missing the playoffs. But he found one answer even before he got to Firestone.

“Probably the hardest question was, `Do I still want to grind and be out here? Do I still want this?’ It was an easy answer. Yeah, I do want it,” McDowell said. “If this all went away, I’d miss it very badly. So when you answer that question positively, then you’ve got to start kind of answering all the other questions. How do I get myself back to where I need to be? And it starts with technique, and it starts with hard work and motivation and kind of all the things that I’ve done in the past.”