Sherbrooke, Qué. (Golf Canada) – Mary Ann Hayward of Aurora, Ont. held onto her opening round lead in the second round of play on Wednesday at the Canadian Women’s Senior Championship, hosted by Club de golf Milby in Sherbrooke, Qué. 

Her second round score of 2-under 71 puts her seven strokes ahead of Pincourt, Qué.’s Helene Chartrand, who sits at even-par for the tournament.

“I felt good going into today’s round,” said Hayward. “It’s a very demanding course so you can’t take much for granted out there. I just wanted to have another good ball-striking day.”

The three-time champion is looking for her fourth win, which would earn her an exemption into the 2014 U.S. Women’s Senior. Hayward was a semifinalist in the international event in 2010. She will enter Thursday’s third and final round with a combined score of 5-under 141 for the tournament. 

“My game plan is the same for tomorrow,” Hayward said. “The key to this course is just keeping it on the right side of the hole.”

In the Inter-Provincial Team Competition, which is contested over the first 36 holes of the competition, the Team Ontario contingent of Hayward, Judith Allan-Kyrinis of Thornhill, Ont., and Ivy Steinberg of Stouffville, Ont. claimed the 2014 title with a total combined score of even-par 294. Team Québec’s squad of Marie-Therese Torti of Candiac, Qué., Marlene Desbiens of Clermont, Qué., and Susan Pearl of Ottawa, grabbed the runner-up spot with a final score of 6-over 310. 

Nova Scotia’s Ruth Maxwell of Dartmouth claimed the Super Senior (60+) title, also contested over the first 36 holes of the tournament. Maxwell grabbed first place in the division by one stroke with a combined score of 8-over 154, Teri deLuis of Brockville, Ont. and Holly Horwood of Vancouver shared second place in the division at 9-over for the championship. 

Starting times, post-round results, full field list, and live scoring are available here.

LONDON, Ont. – Winter was not kind to the London Hunt and Country Club, and Stacy Lewis heard stories about the poor condition the course was in.

But when the No. 1-ranked golfer on the LPGA Tour arrived for this week’s Canadian Pacific Women’s Open, she didn’t notice the effects of the snow and cold weather.

“The fairways are probably some of the best fairways we’ve had to hit off all year,” Lewis said. “You really can’t tell.”

Sixteen of 18 greens were unplayable, and course superintendent Jayson Griffiths said four or five were “over 90 per cent injured,” including the 18th hole. Of the four acres of greens, three of them were gone.

Players who walked the course in recent weeks could tell there had been damage, and they raved about the improvement.

“Coming into this week I was pleasantly surprised of how well (the greens) were rolling,” Canadian amateur Brooke Henderson said Wednesday. “I can’t imagine the amount of work they must have put in to get this course in such immaculate condition.”

Griffiths said it took “countless hours.” Those were spent preparing, seeding, watering, maintaining and waiting.

The result was something he is proud of going into this tournament, which features nine of the top 10 players in the world.

“It’s just a humbling experience, it really is, and it’s just a lot of hard work,” Griffiths said Tuesday. “I don’t think there was a weekend where both Brent McDougall and Deb (Dale), my assistant, left this golf course. We were watering from morning till night if need be. It was 24/7, 14 weeks to get here. It was just a lot of extraordinary efforts.”

Griffiths began to realize in November how bad a winter this could be, and over time he saw the “worst-case scenario” develop. With the ground frozen “well below four feet” and no irrigation system as a result, he and his staff had a three-day window in April to get the greens back up to par.

A crew of about 18 people seeded, germinated, watered the greens through 10,000-square-foot covers and waited. For a while, the course had just two greens to play on and 16 temporary ones, and members only got to play all of them beginning June 27.

“We keep calling it the fifth season: patience,” Griffiths said “We know that foot traffic on new seedlings, it just would not work. We would not be where we had if we had traffic.”

By the time players saw the course this week, it was tournament-calibre again. That’s essential with a field that features Lewis, LPGA Championship winner Inbee Park, two-time defending champion Lydia Ko and Suzann Pettersen, the top four players in the world.

Tournament director Brent McLaughlin of Golf Canada said the field is “second to none,” as usual.

“We obviously want the best,” he said on a conference call last week. “We are so lucky to have a long laundry list of such great players.”

Among the top-10 women’s golfers, only 2010 champion Michelle Wie is not here. Wie withdrew last week because of a hand injury.

Wie’s absence makes it a bit easier of a tournament on the other top players, but Ko – who won this event the past two years, in Edmonton and Vancouver – would like to beat the best.

“We would never say that, ‘Oh it’s good that she’s out,”’ Ko said on a conference call. “It’s really unfortunate that she has a fracture. She’s such an awesome player, and it would’ve been great to have Michelle there.”

Eight former champions will tee off Thursday: Ko, LPGA Championship runner-up Brittany Lincicome, Pettersen, Katherine Hull-Kirk, Cristie Kerr, Meena Lee, Karrie Webb and Laura Davies. Kerr won this tournament in 2006, the last time it was at London Hunt and Country Club.

How the course plays out the rest of the week, Griffiths said, will depend on how much it rains. Storms moved through the area Wednesday, and there were more in the forecast for Friday.

Ko, a 17-year-old from New Zealand who seems to bring her best golf to Canada, said no matter the weather it’s important to play the course’s giant greens as if they’re in sections.

“If the pin is on the left side you kind of want to think that the green is only that left half,” she said Wednesday. “But it’s going to be tough especially when you miss a couple shots, because even around the greens it’s not like there is fairway and then rough. It’s just rough straight on.”

It’s a difficult course because of that, but Canadian Jennifer Kirby expects a low-scoring tournament.

“The rough is thick, but it’s not too, too bad,” Kirby said. “I think that the scores will be pretty low, but the greens are massive, so I guess it all depends on where they put the pins.”

PARAMUS, N.J. – Rory McIlroy isn’t just biding his time for the next seven months until the Masters and his chance to complete the career Grand Slam.

Next up is the FedEx Cup and its $10 million bonus.

“It’s my next goal,” McIlroy said. “So I’m going to put everything into that.”

The FedEx Cup playoffs get underway Thursday at Ridgewood Country Club with The Barclays, the first of four tournaments in which the field size will be reduced each week until 30 players reach the finale at East Lake for the Tour Championship.

McIlroy has won his last three tournaments – two of them majors – and at No. 1 is starting to get some separation from the rest of golf.

He is the top seed at Ridgewood, but given these playoff events are worth five times the value of a regular PGA Tour event, that could be gone in one week. Because this is a Ryder Cup year, and the matches are overseas, the PGA Tour agreed to stage these playoff events in successive weeks.

The top 100 players in the FedEx Cup advance to the second week outside Boston; the top 70 advance to the third week in Denver; the top 30 go to Atlanta.

Here are five things to look for at the start of the FedEx Cup playoffs:

MCILROY’S MISSION: McIlroy went wire-to-wire to capture the British Open and he won a tense back-nine battle at the PGA Championship to become the third-youngest player (25) with four majors. Take a bow, Boy Wonder.

Now get back to work.

“I could just say, `Look, I’ve had a great year, it’s been an awesome summer. I’m going to just see what happens for the next few weeks and not really work hard,'” McIlroy said. “But I want to finish the season well. I want to be up there in contention week in and week out. I feel like the season I had deserves a finish like that.”

TOUGHEST FIELD: The Barclays could make a case as the strongest and deepest field all year on the PGA Tour.

The strongest goes to the PGA Championship, which invited the top 100 in the world ranking. But it also has 20 club pros. The strongest and deepest probably is The Players Championship because all 150 players have a chance to win. But The Players includes winners from the previous year who are not in good form.

The Barclays features the top 125 players from the current year on the world’s strongest tour. Everyone is in good form and prepared for a big stretch.

RIDGEWOOD: Ridgewood Country Club figures to be a stronger test than the final major of the year. The rough is 3 inches and looks even longer and deeper in spots. Some of amateurs struggled to get shots back to the fairway. Jimmy Walker could only advance one shot with a 9-iron.

“Unless you happen to get a good lie or the rough gets matted down, it’s going to be tough to play out of the rough,” Rickie Fowler said.

MICKELSON AND MAHAN: Phil Mickelson and Hunter Mahan are the only players who can extend their streak of reaching the Tour Championship every year since the FedEx Cup began in 2007. Steve Stricker was on that list, but at No. 103, he withdrew with a hip injury and thus his season is over.

Mickelson moved up to No. 45 thanks to his runner-up finish at the PGA Championship. The top 30 make it to East Lake for the Tour Championship. Mahan is at No. 62, and his immediate goal is to stay in the top 70 after the first two events to advance to the third one. Mahan is the only player to have never missed a FedEx Cup playoff event.

FOWLER: Rickie Fowler is having one of his best seasons, considering he hasn’t won. He was runner-up in the U.S. Open and British Open. He had the lead on the back nine (briefly) at the PGA Championship. He had to settle for being the first player in history to finish in the top five at all four majors without winning one.

The byproduct of all this? He qualified for the Ryder Cup team for the first time (he was a captain’s pick in 2010), and he starts the FedEx Cup playoffs at No. 15. That’s important, because as popular as Fowler has become, he has never made it to the Tour Championship. This is his best chance yet.

NANJING, China – Canadians Tony Gil and Maddie Szeryk failed to make much ground on Wednesday’s second round at Zhongshan International Golf Club – both athletes are tied for 13^th heading into Thursday’s final stroke play round.

Gil, a 16-year-old Vaughan, Ont. native, posted a 3-over 75, dropping eight spots down the leaderboard. The Team Canada Development Squad member was in good shape early on, sitting at 1-under through eight holes until double-bogeying the par-4 9^th.

Gil was unable to bounce back after that, posting four bogeys on the back nine to sit at even par overall for the tournament. He will look to bring more flashes from his opening round (which featured a hole-in-one) into Thursday’s final. He currently sits eight strokes back of the leader, Viktor Hovland of Norway.

On the girls side, 18-year-old Maddie Szeryk matched her opening round score of 74, leaving her at 4-over par.

The 2013 Canadian Junior Girls Champion caught fire on the back nine, opening with three consecutive birdies. The run didn’t last, however, as Szeryk double-bogeyed the 14^th and 15^th.

Szeryk now sits 11 strokes back of the leader, Korea’s Soyoung Lee.

The third and final stroke play round resumes tomorrow. Szeryk will lead off the girls in the opening group at 8:30 am (CST). Tony Gil will tee-off at 9:30 am (CST).

Click here for boys results

Click here for girls results

LONDON, Ont. – Canadian Pacific (CP) and Golf Canada have announced a significant extension of CP’s golf sponsorship program that will help fund and enhance high performance golf in Canada.

Already the title sponsor for Canada’s National Women’s Open Golf Championship – the Canadian Pacific Women’s Open which is being held this week at the London Hunt and Country Club in London, Ont. – CP has also partnered with Golf Canada in support of the National Amateur Team program – Team Canada – as well as Canada’s National Amateur Championships.

“We are proud to support Golf Canada’s vision to drive excellence in competitive amateur golf,” said Mark Wallace, CP’s Vice President, Corporate Affairs. “CP is committed, through our role as title sponsor of the Canadian Pacific Women’s Open, to extending our investment in the rising talents of Team Canada as natural extension of our commitment to Canadian golfing excellence.”

As part of its investment, CP has also aligned its brand with the Golf Canada Foundation in becoming a Founding Partner of the Team Canada Young Pro program which launched in May. 

The Young Pro program, developed in partnership with the PGA of Canada, is intended to extend the success of Team Canada’s amateur program to help the top young professional players bridge the gap between successful amateur and professional performance on the international golfing stage. The program provides coaching, sports science support, mental and physical training, season planning, and financial support for golf expenses.

In all, five athletes – three female and two male – have been selected to the inaugural Team Canada Young Pro squad. The squad is comprised of  LPGA Tour players Rebecca Lee-Bentham of Toronto, Jennifer Kirby of Paris, Ont. and Sue Kim of Langley, B.C. on the women’s side as well as Web.com Tour players Mackenzie Hughes of Dundas, Ont. and Albin Choi of Toronto.

“We applaud CP for their vision in supporting an environment that will build competitive golf excellence across Canada,” said Golf Canada CEO Scott Simmons. “From high performance amateur golf to CP’s support of emerging professional talents and the Golf Canada Foundation, we are thrilled with this extended investment to help Canada’s most promising golfers develop their competitive potential.” 

In addition to CP as a Founding Partner, the Golf Canada Foundation also welcomed Citi Canada as a Supporting Partner of the Team Canada Young Pro Program through donations to the Foundation. 

“We are pleased to support Golf Canada’s young pro program in its inaugural year, and it’s five impressive members,” said Citi Canada Chairman and CEO John Hastings. “Citi aspires to enable the progress of these young athletes from ambition to achievement, just as we do for our clients around the world.”

On Monday, August 18th, during tournament week at the 2014 Canadian Pacific Women’s Open, a Pro-Am was held in support of the Golf Canada Foundation with proceeds directed to the Team Canada Young Pro program.

LONDON, Ont. – At the age of 16, Brooke Henderson gets it.

The amateur from Smiths Falls, Ont., is well aware of the high expectations that come from finishing in the top 10 at a major tournament and emerging as the best young Canadian women’s golfers.

“I see the pressure and I hear it,” Henderson said. “I hear that I’m the face of Canadian golf, but I’m just trying to improve and trying to get better.”

Henderson doesn’t seem to be buying into the hype that she has created for herself. With Lorie Kane about to turn 50, she’s considered the future of the sport in Canada, even with Alena Sharp, Sue Kim, Jennifer Kirby and Rebecca Lee-Bentham already established on the LPGA Tour.

She goes into this week’s Canadian Pacific Women’s Open at London Hunt and Country Club with all that perspective to go with her experience. Henderson missed the cut the past two years in Edmonton and Vancouver and understands what it’s all about this time, playing about a seven-hour drive from where she grew up.

“Definitely there is pressure,” Henderson said. “But I’m excited to be able to play for my family and friends and show them what I can do. They’re out there cheering for me, and I know every shot they’re going to be happy either way.”

Henderson set her expectation at making the cut and then “hopefully climb up the leader board a little bit.” That’s a realistic goal two weeks after she finished second to Kristen Gillman at the U.S. Women’s Amateur.

But this is a different animal for Henderson as the home-country girl who’s blossoming into a star. On her way from the putting green to the driving range on Wednesday, several fans stopped her for autographs, photos and or just to chat.

When she tees off just before 8:30 a.m. for Thursday’s first round, Henderson will get to focus in on just golf. Her caddy, longtime family friend Bunk Lee, will do his part to keep Henderson focused.

“I think Brooke is very good at relaxing herself,” Lee said. “She’s been exposed to this enough, and she takes care of most of it. I’m just there for reassurance and making sure I’m doing my job as the caddy and trying to provide the best environment for her to perform in and it all takes care of itself.”

Kane recalled being overwhelmed at times during her first appearances at the Canadian Women’s Open – then called the du Maurier Classic – worried that she couldn’t live up to external expectations.

The four-time champion on the LPGA Tour said she has no doubt Henderson is prepared for the atmosphere she’s about to face and the future she’s embarking on.

“Brooke, she’s hard-working, very dedicated to what she does,” Kane said in a phone interview last week. “Brooke’s career can be what Brooke wants it to be. The sky’s the limit. She’s got a great head on her shoulders, she’s a very level-headed kid.”

That came across Wednesday in her pre-tournament news conference during which she fielded a handful of questions about her place in history and the hefty weight on her young shoulders. In the short-term – the next few days – Henderson expects to feel more comfortable now that she has gotten to know more professional colleagues and what to expect.

In the long term, Henderson doesn’t consider herself standing alone as Canada’s only hope in women’s golf.

“Definitely I think the game in Canada is growing, and there are some young pros coming up like Sue Kim, and Jennifer Kirby and Rebecca Lee-Bentham that are great players and have full status on the tour this year,” she said. “Maybe they haven’t played as well as they would have liked, but I think the future is bright for them.”

It could be even brighter for Henderson if she continues down her developmental path. Golf Canada’s Brent McLaughlin said just like with men’s golfer Mike Weir, Canadian fans “need to rally around heroes” and considers Henderson one of those.

“We’re so proud of Brooke. … Any time you see young talents just excel, you’re proud of them,” McLaughlin said on a conference call last week. “(Fans) need to have a reason to watch. … It makes kids want to be like them. We need that in our sport. We’ve very fortunate, very lucky and very proud.”

Henderson is one of 15 Canadians in the field this week, along with pros Kane, Sharp, Lee-Bentham, Kirby, Kim, Maude-Aimee LeBlanc, Sara-Maude Juneau, Samantha Richdale, Nicole Vandermade, Natalie Gleadall, Erica Rivard, Jessica Wallace and fellow amateurs Jennifer Ha and Elizabeth Tong.

No Canadian woman has won this tournament since Jocelyne Bourassa captured the title at the inaugural edition in 1973. For 22 years from 1979 through 2000 it was a major, and it still carries that importance to Henderson.

“It used to be a major back in the day, and to me it still is one,” she said. “It’s very close to home. It’s our national championship.”

New Zealand’s Lydia Ko, at 17 a two-time defending champion at Canada’s national championship, knows from experience that Henderson has had to repeatedly answer the question about when she’s turning pro. Henderson said Wednesday it’s still her plan to attend the University of Florida with the hope of having an LPGA Tour career in the future.

That means for now Henderson – a Team Canada member – is one of the faces of amateur women’s golf, something she has accepted.

“Of course there is a little bit of pressure, but I enjoy it,” Henderson said. “I love a challenge.”

Sherbrooke, Qué. (Golf Canada) – Mary Ann Hayward of Aurora, Ont. is in the hunt for her fourth Women’s Senior Champion title after firing an opening round 3-under 70 at Club de golf Milby in Sherbrooke, Qué. on Tuesday.

The Canadian Golf Hall of Famer leads the competition by four strokes after a first round that consisted of five total birdies – two on the front nine and three on the back.

“I played very well,” Hayward said. “It was tough to know how the course was going to play since the greens were so wet from the rain in yesterday’s practice round. I hit the ball very well on a couple holes – the back nine was very good with only a couple hiccups on the front. Overall, I’m really happy.”

The defending champion also claimed the Canadian Women’s Senior title in both 2010 and 2011. She is looking for another win this year to earn an exemption into the 2014 U.S. Women’s Senior.

“I’d really like to get to the U.S. Senior, and since I missed the qualifier for it, this is sort of my second chance,” she said. “But it’s a good field, lots of strong players, and a good golf course. I’m quite happy with a good start, but there’s a lot of golf left to play so we will see how it goes.”

Following Hayward in second is Teri deLuis of Brockville, Ont. Her first round score of 1-over 74 puts her in the lead of the Super Senior division, which is open to players who have reached their 60th birthday by the first day of the competition.

In the Inter-Provincial Team competition – contested over the first 36 holes of the tournament – the Team Ontario contingent of Hayward, Judith Allan-Kyrinis of Thornhill, Ont. and Ivy Steinberg of Stouffville, Ont. lead with a combined score of 2-over 148. Team British Columbia, which includes Jackie Little of Port Alberni, B.C., Holly Horwood of Vancouver and Penny Baziuk, of North Saanich, B.C., follow in second at 11-over.

Starting times, post-round results, full field list, and live scoring are available here.

PARAMUS, N.J. – Chalk this up to one of the more bizarre injuries in golf. Matt Kuchar missed the final major of the year when his back locked up on him from having to sit too long in traffic.

Adding to this forgettable tale: He was shopping for a slip-and-slide.

Kuchar was considered among the favorites at the PGA Championship and felt his game was rounding into form after two days of practice at Valhalla. There was a party planned at the house he was staying in Louisville, and Kuchar went looking for a slip-and-slide for the kids. He tried two stores and couldn’t find one.

“Sat in the car for about an hour fighting traffic and when I got back, I thought, `Boy, my back doesn’t feel very good right now,'” Kuchar said Tuesday.

He figured it would loosen up on Wednesday after some treatment – no such luck.

“I took Wednesday off, and figured by the time Thursday comes around it will have loosened up,” he said. “Got treatment, tried to hit balls. Figured I could warm up into it and just couldn’t warm up into it. I guess I basically had gotten a little out of alignment.”

Kuchar was among four Americans with Ryder Cup chances who were injured during the PGA, leading U.S. captain Tom Watson to say they were “falling like flies.” Jason Dufner withdrew with a neck injury and failed to qualify. Tiger Woods had another back injury and subsequently took himself out of consideration as a pick. Dustin Johnson is on “voluntary leave” to seek professional help for “personal challenges.”

Kuchar, though, appears to be fine.

“The muscles kind of locked up and with the help of chiropractor, massage therapist, physical therapist, got it straight again and feel good,” Kuchar said. “They have given me a handful of little exercises to try to help strengthen the area and help prevent this from happening again.”

The “Ice Bucket Challenge” has made it’s return to golf thanks to the sport’s two biggest superstars.

Tiger Woods and Rory McIlroy took time Monday between filming “The Tonight Show With Jimmy Fallon” and taking part in a Nike Vapor Irons launch event to dump ice cold water on each other.

Ice Bucket Challenge from Rory McIlroy on Vimeo.

Woods and McIlroy were called out by Mark Parker, President and CEO of Nike.

Woods and McIlroy are far from the first golfers to take part in the latest social media craze. In fact golfers have been doing it far before ALS assumed ownership of the campaign.

Here are a few others…

The “Ice Bucket Challenge” has made it’s return to golf thanks to the sport’s two biggest superstars.

Tiger Woods and Rory McIlroy took time Monday between filming “The Tonight Show With Jimmy Fallon” and taking part in a Nike Vapor Irons launch event to dump ice cold water on each other.

Ice Bucket Challenge from Rory McIlroy on Vimeo.

Woods and McIlroy were called out by Mark Parker, President and CEO of Nike.

Woods and McIlroy are far from the first golfers to take part in the latest social media craze. In fact golfers have been doing it far before ALS assumed ownership of the campaign.

Here are a few others…