RENO, Nev. – Zack Sucher took the first-round lead in the Barracuda Championship, scoring 18 points Thursday in the PGA Tour’s only modified Stableford event.

Sucher had nine birdies in his bogey-free round at Montreux Golf and Country Club for three-point lead over Patrick Rodgers. Under the modified Stableford format, players receive 8 points for double eagle, 5 for eagle, 2 for birdie, 0 for par, minus-1 for bogey and minus-3 for double bogey or worse.

Sucher has made only four cuts in 16 starts in his first season on the PGA Tour. The 28-year-old former Alabama-Birmingham player won the Web.com Tour’s Midwest Classic last year.

Rodgers had eight birdies and a bogey.

Ricky Barnes was third with 14 points, and David Toms and J.J. Henry followed at 13.

Canada’s Roger Sloan opened with 7 points and is tied for 41st, while compatriot Adam Hadwin had a single point and was tied for 95th.

YORKTON, Sask. – Team Canada’s Michelle Kim shot 4-under par to take the lead at the Canadian Junior Girls Championship at Deer Park Golf Course in Yorkton, Sask.

The National Team Development Squad member from Surrey, B.C., carded five birdies to move up the leaderboard by two spots and sit four-strokes clear of her nearest competitor heading into the final round of play.

“I was very consistent off the tee which gave me the advantage. My iron shots were very good and I was just rolling those putts in for birdies and I went low today,” said the 18-year old whose round was highlighted by back-to-back birdies on holes 16 and 17.

“I won the B.C. Women’s Amateur Championship which is definitely a confidence booster for tomorrow’s round,” said Kim, whose 2015 season has also included the B.C. Junior Girls Championship, the CJGA Western Canadian Junior Championship and a sixth-place finish in the 2014 Canadian Junior Girls Championship.

When asked about the final round, Kim maintained her resolve and focus. “Same plan as today, my goal is to shoot under par, I’m just going to play my own game and not care what others shoot.”

A quartet of players sits four shots behind the leader, including Kim’s Development Squad teammate Naomi Ko. The 17-year-old fired a 1-under par 72 to move up two spots in the standings. The product of Victoria carded an eagle on the par-5 second hole and added four more birdies on the day.

Thirty-six-hole leader Jessica Ip of Richmond Hill, Ont., struggled on Thursday with a 5-over par. The 18-year-old finished the round with a birdie and was able to hang on to a share of second.

Twelve-year-old Euna Han of Coquitlam, B.C., fired a bogey-free 2-under par round to move into a share of second. Han earned her way into the Canadian Junior Girls Championship after finishing in third-place at the CN Future Links Pacific Championship.

Hannah Lee, 15, shot 3-over par and remained in the second slot on the leaderboard at 2-under par 217. The Surrey, B.C., native fired two birdies through her last four holes to remain under par for the tournament.

Han and Lee sit tied atop the Juvenile Division and are one-shot ahead of Richmond, B.C., native Kathrine Chan. The 15-year-old finished her third round at even-par and is 1-over through 54 holes; she sits in solo sixth in the overall competition.

The final round of the 2015 Canadian Junior Girls Championship begins Friday at 7 a.m. CST with the final group set to tee off at 11:02 a.m.

Tee times and full results are available here.

VAUDREUIL-DORION, Que. – Charles-Éric Bélanger claimed victory on the first playoff hole to win the 77^th playing of the Canadian Junior Boys Championship at Summerlea Golf & Country Club in Vaudreuil-Dorion, Que.

“I feel I played really well. I hit some pretty good shots and made some great saves for par, as well as, some birdies,” reflected the 16-year-old. “My game plan was just to stay focused on the process and play one shot at a time. With the wind this week and the challenging greens, par was a good score.”

He is the national championship’s first winner from Quebec since André Nols in 1976. The tournament’s Juvenile Division was introduced in 1970; Bélanger is the seventh champion to capture both the Junior and Juvenile titles in the same year. Amongst that group, he is the third to do so in his home province.

“It feels really special,” said Bélanger when asked about returning the championship to Quebec. “It has been 39 years since the last winner was from Quebec, so it just feels great. I am so happy. I’ve worked very hard during the past two years to be able to perform at this level.”

Bélanger carded three birdies and an eagle on the day to equal his 1-under 71 performances in the first and third rounds. Despite his consistent play, the Québec City, Que., native needed an extra hole to secure the victory. Maxwell Sear of Unionville, Ont., made a furious charge to force the playoff, tallying four birdies across the back nine with the last coming on the final hole to match Bélanger at even-par for the tournament.

Raphaël Lapierre-Messier of St-Jean-Sur-Richelieu, Que., and Henry Lee of Coquitlam, B.C., finished tied for third place. Lapierre-Messier, who entered the final round in a three-way tie for second, shot 2-over 74 to complete the competition at 3-over 291. The 17-year-old Lee recorded two eagles on holes 11 and 14 to move up from seventh place.

Placing second in the Juvenile Division and fifth overall was A.J. Ewart. The product of Coquitlam, B.C., shot a final-round 74 and finished four strokes shy of the winner. Fellow British Columbian Tristan Mandur of Mill Bay, B.C., rounded out the Juvenile Division’s top-3 at a combined score of 296.

Played concurrently with the first 36 holes of the competition was an inter-provincial team competition. Team Quebec consisting of Lapierre-Messier, Team Canada Development Squad member Étienne Papineau (St-Jean-Sur-Richelieu, Que.) and Félix Normand (Beloeil, Que.) claimed the title with a combined even-par 288. Claiming second place was Team Ontario at 296 while 2014 winners Team Alberta finished third with a total of 302.

With the victory, Charles-Éric Bélanger has secured a place in the 2015 Canadian Men’s Amateur Championship. While excited for the opportunity, he plans to maintain a calm demeanor. “I’m just going to have the same plan as this week:  focus on hitting fairways and greens and then I will see the result at the end of the week. I’m not putting any added pressure on myself because I won this week. I need to stay focused on the process.”

Bélanger joins 265 competitors vying for the historic Earl Grey Trophy at the 2015 Canadian Men’s Amateur Championship. The event in Toronto will be co-hosted by Weston Golf & Country Club and The Lambton Golf & Country Club from August 8-13. Details regarding the 111^th playing of the world’s third-oldest national amateur championship can be found here.

Additional information and full scorecards from the 2015 Canadian Junior Boys Championship are available here.

RANCHO MIRAGE, Calif. – National Amateur Squad members Brittany Marchand of Orangeville, Ont., Elizabeth Tong of Thornhill, Ont., and Jennifer Ha of Calgary will join 17 other Canucks in Thursday’s opening round of LPGA Qualifying School at the Mission Hills Country Club.

Stage I, commencing from Aug. 6–9, will feature 288 players competing in the 72-hole stroke-play event for one of the top-60 scores that earn a pass through to Stage II of qualifying.

The full list of Canadian players is listed below:

Jessica MacPhee

Sabrina Sapone

Melissa Mabanta

Leilanie Kim

Krista Fenniak

Megan Osland (a)

Robyn Doig

Jennifer Ha (a)

Anna Young (a)

Kyla Inaba

Maya Parsons

Laura DeMarco

Alexa Kim

Brittany Marchand (a)

Aram Choi

Christina Foster

Anna Kim (a)

Joo Youn Seo (a)

Vivian Tsui

Elizabeth Tong (a)

—

Stage II of the LPGA Qualifying Tournament will be held from Oct. 22–25 at the Plantation Golf and Country Club in Venice, Fla.

Final Stage of LPGA Qualifying School will feature the top-80 scorers from Stage II and will run from Dec. 2–6 at LPGA International in Daytona Beach, Fla.

Click here for scoring

YORKTON, Sask. – Team British Columbia emerged as the Inter-Provincial Junior Girls team champions while Jessica Ip claimed the lead following second-round play at the Canadian Junior Girls Championship at Deer Park Golf Course in Yorkton, Sask.

Ip bested her opening-round score by one shot with a 4-under 69 performance despite tough rainy conditions. The Richmond Hill, Ont., native sits at 7-under par for the tournament and holds a two-stroke advantage going into the third round.

“I was a little more external today; I was thinking not really about my swing, but just about hitting the greens since there’s not much I can do about the weather. I guess I just hit a lot of greens and made a few putts, more than yesterday,” explained the 18-year-old.

Ip, who is heading into her second year playing for the University of Iowa Hawkeyes, partially credits the experience of playing NCAA golf for her early success in the tournament.

“I feel like my mentality coming back from school has changed this summer. I think I’ve been a little more aggressive and ambitious about how I’m shooting and how I should be playing. I think that has really helped me,” said Ip who carded five birdies on the day.

Two shots back is Hannah Lee who opened with the lead after 18 holes. The 15-year-old battled tough conditions early in the morning, but re-focused to card a 2-over par round. The product of Surrey, B.C., is 5-under for the tournament and leads the Juvenile Division.

In third place is Team Canada Development squad member Michelle Kim, also of Surrey, B.C., who carded an even-par second round and is 2-under through 36 holes.

The two Team British Columbia members led their home province to victory in the Inter-Provincial team competition played concurrently with the first two rounds of play. The pair, along with 12-year-old Akari Hayashi of Victoria, posted a two-day total of 7-under par 285 to capture the team championship by 20 strokes.

“It’s nice playing as a team because we usually play as individuals. We don’t really get to cheer on each other, we usually try to bite off each other’s heads,” joked Lee, whose 7-under par competitive course record in her first round gave the trio an early advantage in the team contest. “Canada has a strong field of girls and being able to win nationals was one of my goals for sure.”

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 and finishing in third place was Team Ontario, comprised of Mississauga, Ont., product Chloe Currie, Alexandra Naumovski of Hornby, Ont., and Richmond Hill, Ont., native Kristen Wong.

Four shots back of Hannah Lee in the Juvenile Division is Kathrine Chan. The Richmond, B.C., native shot 3-over 76 and is two strokes clear of fellow British Columbian Euna Han of Coquitlam. The 12-year-old tallied four birdies on the day; at even-par 146, she also sits seventh in the overall competition.

Seventy players who shot 22-over par or better through the opening two rounds have advanced to the third round of play, which begins Thursday at 7 a.m. CST.

Tee times and full results for the 2015 Canadian Junior Girls Championship are available here.

VAUDREUIL-DORION, Que. – Maxwell Sear holds the 54-hole lead at the Canadian Junior Boys Championship hosted by Summerlea Golf & Country Club in Vaudreuil-Dorion, Que.

Maxwell Sear shared the 36-hole lead of the national championship heading into today’s third-round. The Unionville, Ont., native was able to finish the day with an even-par 72.

Sear had a rough start this morning with three bogeys in the first five holes. “I started off a little slow but I settled down with a birdie on 9 and then another on 12 which was a good birdie because it was playing into the wind so it was a tough hole,” said Sear of this third-round.

Sear was able to keep his round in control and stay at even-par for the tournament at 216. Sear’s impressive 2015 season includes a win at the Ontario Junior Boys Spring Classic, a runner-up finish at the CN Future Links Ontario Championship and a tie for third at the Ontario Men’s Amateur.

“Whenever you give yourself a chance to win it’s always nice. It’s going to be exciting going into the back-nine tomorrow,” said Sear when asked about playing in the final group Thursday.

Sear will be challenged by the three individuals tied for second-place at 217. Quebec products Charles-Éric Bélanger of Québec City, Brandon Lacasse of Châteauguay and Raphaël Lapierre-Messier of St-Jean-sur-Richelieu are only one stroke off the lead, each hoping to become the first Canadian Junior Boys Champion from Quebec since André Nols won in 1976.

Opening-round co-leader Bélanger also continues to lead in the Juvenile division after a round of 1-under 71 today. Bélanger was able to reach 4-under par until making a bogey on hole 13. He made four pars before a disappointing double bogey on 18 to post one of only two under-par scores on Wednesday.

Lacasse moved up the leaderboard to finish in second-place with a third-round of even-par that was highlighted by an eagle on the par 5 hole 14. Lapierre-Messier fell back from his 36-hole share of the lead to join the trio at 1-over 217 after a third round 2-over 74. He made three straight birdies from holes 8 to 10.

The tight leaderboard has an additional two players, A.J. Ewart of Coquitlam, B.C., and Kevin Gordon of Whitby, Ont., at 2-over 218 tied for fifth place. In the Juvenile division, A.J. Ewart is only one behind Bélanger’s lead.

In a tie for third place in the Juvenile division are Tristan Mandur from Mill Bay, B.C., and Jack Simpson  from Aurora, Ont., at 7-over 223.

Team Canada’s Development Squad member Patrick Murphy of Crossfield, Atla., signed for a round of 2-over 74 to sit T14 heading into tomorrow’s final round.

The winner of the 2015 Canadian Junior Boys Championship will earn an exemption into the 2015 Canadian Men’s Amateur Championship co-hosted by Weston Golf & Country Club and The Lambton Golf & Country Club from August 8 – 13.

The final round of the 2015 Canadian Junior Boys Championship will begin tomorrow at 7:30 a.m. EST with the leaders teeing off at 9:42a.m.

For more information on the 2015 Canadian Junior Boys Championship, including final-round pairings and full scorecards, please click here.

Not even halfway through your round and you’re hot. Man, are you hot.

Sure, the thermometer is in the upper 20s, but it’s not the summer heat that’s frying you.

It’s the waiting on every shot. Every shot!

“Why is that group in front of us so @%#%-ing slow?!”

Cool down. It just might not be their fault. Or the fault of the groups in front of them.

At this year’s Golf Canada annual meeting, attendees were enlightened about the USGA’s research into pace of play by Director of Strategic Projects Hunki Yun and Technical Director Matthew Pringle. You can view their presentation below.

Enlightened, to say the least, because the data indicate that while pace of play is a shared responsibility, much of the blame for slow play may be laid at the feet of course operators.

Pringle says “one of the biggest misconceptions is that slow play is the fault of the group in front of you. That may be the case at times but it is more likely that the golf course is set up to fail. It can’t flow properly, so you will end up waiting at some point. The operator has to balance flow onto and through the course. There are structural reasons why delays occur.”

Yun cites a hypothetical situation where an easy par-4 is followed by a difficult par-3. Golfers finish the par-4 too fast and a bottleneck occurs on the par-3 tee. If the course operator intentionally slowed play on that par-4, perhaps by lengthening it or growing in more rough, the overall round would be more enjoyable for everyone.

“We have been preaching to operators to look critically at their golf course and setting tee time intervals that are realistic,” Pringle says. “The player experience will be better and there will be an economic benefit, too.”

Much of the USGA data reinforce what Bill Yates, founder of Pace Manager Systems, has been preaching for about 20 years. A couple of years ago, he started working with the USGA in their effort to try to understand the root causes of slow play.

Using his training as a process engineer, Yates looked at a round of golf from the perspective of an efficiency expert. “My previous job was to improve efficiencies in how companies produced their product, whatever that might be. In most cases, 90 per cent of the responsibility was on management to improve how they did business. And make no mistake about it. Golf produces a product: It’s the player’s experience when they are at a course.

“Players are not the biggest reason for slow play on our courses, any more than slow drivers, for example, are the reason that gridlocked freeways are slow.”

In other words, if there are too many cars pouring onto a highway with too few lanes, traffic jams are inevitable. The problem isn’t really slow play; it is that golfers hate to have to wait on every shot. (Yun calls it, “Slow versus flow.”) Stop and go. Hurry up and wait. Bottlenecks.

“By understanding the flow of your course and the cycle times of each hole, you are not only getting the same amount of golfers or maybe more around the course, but they will finish in less time and have a much better experience,” says Yun.

But before you go pointing fingers at the operator of the course you are playing, make sure you have done your part: Playing from the correct tees for your ability, playing ready golf, continuous putting, and so on.

Pace of play is everyone’s responsibility.

To understand more about the USGA’s pace of play initiative, click here.

National Amateur Squad members Austin Connelly – a dual-citizen of Canada and the U.S. – and Blair Hamilton of Burlington, Ont., take some time to share their excitement after sharing Gary Cowan medals (low amateur honours) following their first RBC Canadian Open experience at the Glen Abbey Golf Club in late July.

Team Canada Men’s Head Coach, Derek Ingram, also chimed in on another memorable experience at Canada’s national open:

Click here to learn more about Team Canada.

TORONTO – The 111^th playing of the Canadian Men’s Amateur Championship will re-visit the roots of Canadian golf in 2015. Lambton Golf & Country Club – the home of the tournament’s most decorated champion, George S. Lyon – will co-host the competition alongside Weston Golf & Country Club, which is celebrating its 100^th year, from August 8-13.

“This year’s co-hosting venues have a long history with the Canadian Men’s Amateur Championship and Canadian golf,” explained Tournament Director Adam Helmer. “George S. Lyon, an eight-time winner of this tournament, honed his game at Lambton. Weston saw a young Arnold Palmer win his first Tour victory and has since played a significant part in growing Canadian golf over the past century. Both courses are among Canada’s best and we look forward to seeing our impressive field challenge them.”

The Canadian Men’s Amateur Qualifier is set to take place at Weston Golf & Country Club on August 7. Two days of practice rounds are slated for August 8 and 9 before competitors from eight countries take to both courses on August 10 and 11 for the championship’s first 36 holes. The field will be reduced to 70 players and ties for the two final rounds at Weston as competitors try to claim the historic Earl Grey Trophy. James Beale of New Zealand won the trophy in 2014 after a thrilling three-hole playoff.

The field of 264 competitors will be competing for exemptions into the 2016 RBC Canadian Open to be played 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.

Team Canada’s Austin Connelly of Irving, Texas and Blair Hamilton of Burlington, Ont., will be among the Canadian contingent vying for the championship. Connelly is Canada’s highest-ranked amateur at No. 16 on the World Amateur Golf Ranking. The two national team members are coming identical 1-under performances at the 2015 RBC Canadian Open which saw them recognized as co-recipients of the Gary Cowan Medal for low amateur honours.

Reigning Canadian Men’s Mid-Amateur champion and 2015 Ontario Mid-Amateur champion Garrett Rank will continue a busy summer. The Elmira, Ont., native represented Canada at the Toronto 2015 Pan-Am games alongside Connelly and also competed in Canada’s National Open Championship.

All six members of Team Canada’s Development Squad will round out the national team contingent in the competition. Étienne Papineau of St-Jean-sur-Richelieu, Que., is looking to build upon a successful summer that has seen the 19-year-old capture the Alexander of Tunis trophy and the Quebec Men’s Amateur Championship – two legs of Golf Quebec’s prestigious Triple Crown. Teammate Trevor Ranton is hoping to carry forward momentum after claiming the 2015 CN Future Links Pacific Championship and winning the Golf Association of Ontario’s Investors Group Junior Boys’ Championship.

Rico Hoey of Rancho Cucamonga, Calif., returns to the Canadian Men’s Amateur Championship looking to improve upon a T6 finish in last year’s event. The No. 74-ranked amateur finished runner-up at the 2015 Saguaro Men’s Amateur Championship. Fellow Californian Eli Cole of Beverly Hills hopes to become a two-time winner of this event to go with his 2013 title.

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. Team Ontario claimed the competition in 2014 with Chris Hemmerich (Kitchener, Ont.), Corey Conners (Listowel, Ont.) and Taylor Pendrith (Richmond Hill, Ont.) combining to shoot 9-under 275, eight strokes clear of Team Alberta.

A minimum of five spots into the 2015 Canadian Men’s Amateur Championship will be awarded through the championship’s qualifier on Friday, August 7 at Weston Golf & Country Club. Pairings and start times can be found here.

Admission to the 2015 Canadian Men’s Amateur Championship at Weston Golf & Country Club and Lambton Golf & Country Club is free during tournament week. Additional information regarding the championship is available here.

LONDON, Ont.  – Freedom 55 Financial has announced the signing of rising Canadian golf star and Symetra Tour winner Augusta James to its roster of brand ambassadors.

James joins current Freedom 55 Financial ambassadors Albin Choi, Matt Hill, Mackenzie Hughes, Taylor Pendrith, Adam Svensson, Damian Warner and Jen Cotten on Team Freedom, a group of young Canadian athletes striving to achieve their athletic dreams.

Hailing from Bath, Ont., James was a standout amateur and longtime member of Golf Canada’s national amateur team. The 2012 ACC Freshman of the Year and 2014 Canadian Women’s Amateur champion left North Carolina State University and turned professional in February 2015. James captured her first victory as a professional on the Symetra Tour just five starts into her career. James will look to carry this momentum into other events on this year’s Symetra Tour.

“I have followed Augusta’s career and have seen the unbelievable potential she displays both on and off the golf course,” said Mike Cunneen, Senior Vice-President for Freedom 55 Financial. “Team Freedom is about providing a supportive presence as these athletes pursue their aspirations. It’s an honour to be a part of her journey as she follows her dreams in women’s golf. She will be a great addition to Team Freedom.”

The addition of James to Team Freedom further solidifies Freedom 55 Financial’s support of and commitment to golf in Canada, from grassroots to professional levels. Freedom 55 Financial supports grassroots development initiatives as national sponsor of the Canadian Junior Golf Association’s Clinics for Kids program, for which Team Freedom golfers will serve as ambassadors. The company is also the title sponsor of the Freedom 55 Financial Championship in London, Ont., Mackenzie Tour – PGA TOUR Canada’s flagship event, which sees five players graduate to the Web.com Tour each season.

“I am honoured to join Team Freedom,” said James. “It is amazing to have a great Canadian company supporting young Canadian athletes, and it is an honour to be a part of such a talented group working to achieve their dreams.”

To follow these young professionals on their journey, use the Twitter hashtag “#TeamFreedom”.