LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Barely able to tie his shoes three days ago, Tiger Woods is ready to tee it up in the PGA Championship.

Woods caused the biggest sensation of the week Wednesday afternoon simply by driving his silver SUV into the parking lot at Valhalla. He has never arrived so late for a major championship and had so little time to prepare – just nine holes at Valhalla, which he had not seen since winning the PGA Championship in 2000.

But at least he’s playing.

That much was in doubt Sunday when he withdrew from the final round of the Bridgestone Invitational because of back pain that made it a chore to switch out of his golf shoes. Woods said he suffered a pinched nerve, but that it was not at all related to back surgery he had March 31 that kept him out of golf for three months.

He said his trainer adjusted the area above the sacrum.

“Once he put it back in, the spasms went away,” he said. “And from there, I started getting some range of motion.”

The latest injury occurred when Woods tried to play a shot from just above a deep bunker on the second hole at Firestone, and his momentum caused him to land hard in the sand. He kept playing, and hit some horrific shots before deciding to withdraw after a tee shot on the ninth hole.

That was only his third tournament since his return from surgery, leading to concern that he might be done for the year.

“It was a different pain than what I had been experiencing,” Woods said. “So I knew it wasn’t the site of the surgery. It was different and obviously it just the sacrum.”

His arrival put some life into what had been an ordinary week. Dozens of cameras captured Woods putting on his shoes with ease at his car. He got a big cheer just walking onto the practice range and the crowd was six-deep down the first hole, about like it was for the Ryder Cup at Valhalla six years ago.

In the nine holes he played with Steve Stricker, Davis Love III and Harris English, Woods looked the same as he did last week.

He drilled his driver down the first fairway. He badly pulled his tee shot on the third hole. It was a mixture of good and bad, about what can be expected from someone who has played only nine tournament rounds in the last five months.

“Nothing great,” Woods said. “It’s only Wednesday.”

Woods tees off Thursday alongside Phil Mickelson and Padraig Harrington. He simply said, “Yes,” when asked if he expected to win, which seemed to be a tall order considering his return from surgery. Woods missed the cut by four shots at the Quicken Loans National, had his worst 72-hole finish in a major at the British Open and was in the middle of the pack at Firestone when he withdrew.

Barring a victory, this likely will be his last tournament for at least six weeks.

Woods is not eligible for the FedEx Cup playoffs, and he hasn’t given U.S. captain Tom Watson much reason to pick him for the Ryder Cup. Woods said he would have to “play well” to give reason for Watson to take him.

“That’s the only thing I can control,” Woods said. “Try to go out there and win this event. That’s all I’m focused on.”

Watson has said he wanted Woods on the team if he was healthy and playing well. About the time Woods arrived at the course, Watson was successfully dodging questions about his chances of making the team.

“It’s speculation what’s going to happen,” Watson said. “I can’t tell you what’s going to happen with Tiger.”

The excitement over his arrival was sure to be tempered by the reality of the task ahead. Not only has Woods gone more than a year without winning – and six years since he last won a major – Rory McIlroy has replaced him as the overwhelming favorite. McIlroy went wire-to-wire at the British Open, then rallied from a three-shot deficit to win the World Golf Championship at Firestone.

Sergio Garcia was a runner-up both times. Garcia, who went 0-3 playing in the final group with Woods at three majors, was asked about similarities between the two.

“When they are both at their best, to me it seems like Rory is less afraid of hitting driver,” he said. “And when he’s hitting it as well as he’s hitting it now, he’s hitting it very far and quite straight. So it’s a little bit of an advantage at that point.”

Woods might have lost his advantage from being a past champion at Valhalla. He missed the Ryder Cup in 2008 while recovering from knee surgery, and course architect Jack Nicklaus has made plenty of changes, particularly on some of the greens. Woods spent much of his time chipping from collection areas that weren’t around 14 years ago.

“It’s a totally different golf course than what I played in 2000,” he said. “The greens are all different. I have my book from 2000 – it’s useless. There’s some new things that we have to learn out there.”

With that, he headed to the back nine to walk the remainder of the course with his putter. He had 15 hours before teeing off in the final major of the year.

Winnipeg – Corey Conners sits in the driver’s seat one-stroke in front of the field heading into the final round of the 110^th Canadian Men’s Amateur Championship.

The Listowel, Ont. native opened his third round by firing a 3-under 32 front-nine, but closed with four bogeys over his final six holes to finish with a 2-under 68. His 8-under 204 total leaves him one-stroke clear of New Mexico’s Sam Saunders.

“I’m happy with my score, just kind of disappointed with all the bogeys,” Conners said. “I’ll try to smooth things out a little bit, I don’t know I just kind of got out of my rhythm towards the end, got a little antsy or excited.”

Now leading the way, the Team Canada member will face a familiar challenge on Thursday over the final 18 holes at Elmhurst Golf and Country Club. The 22-year-old has finished no worse than third in his last three attempts at the national amateur championship title.

“I came here with the mindset that it’s my time to win and I’m just trying to do my thing out here and see what happens,” he continued. “It would definitely be nice, still another round to be played but I’ll give it my best.”

Playing alongside Conners, Saunders carded a 1-over 71 Wednesday. The Albuquerque, New Mexico native finished at 7-under 205 and cut Conners’ lead to a single stroke after his birdie putt found the bottom of the cup on the par-4 18^th hole.

“That was really big. On the tee I knew I needed to play that hole well and not make a bogey because I had just bogeyed the previous two holes,” Saunders said. “It was really important for me to play a good hole and I got lucky, I sort of hit in there as close as I think you can on that one and made a great putt.”

Brian Bullington of Frankfort, Ill. finished with a 1-under 69 to grab solo third at 6-under 206. Bullington currently sits one stroke ahead of Team Canada’s Adam Svensson of Surrey, B.C. and New Zealand’s James Beale who share fourth spot at 5-under.

Complete scoring, results and pairings can be found online here.

You may use a lucky coin as your ball marker.  Jarrett Stoll has you 1-up… He uses the Stanley Cup.

Stoll, a two-time Stanley Cup champion, won hockey’s most coveted championship in 2012 and 2014 as a member of the L.A. Kings.

This past weekend the Melville, Sask. native brought Lord Stanley’s Cup to a local Saskatchewan golf course, where he used it as a tee and ball marker. Enjoy! I bet he did.

Jarrett Stoll getting ready for a round of Golf with #stanleycup @HockeyHallFame @NHL @lakingspr # HNIC pic.twitter.com/ptK7NmyhE5

— Philip Pritchard (@keeperofthecup) August 4, 2014

Earlier this summer, Stoll and the L.A. Kings celebrated their latest cup win with a trip to an Los Angeles beach. Stoll brought his girlfriend, TV celebrity and sportscaster Erin Andrews, to the celebration.

#stanleycupchampions Jarratt Stoll and girlfriend Erin Andrews @KellyHockeyHall @HockeyHallFame @LAKings @NHL pic.twitter.com/MHXAbyEU37 — Philip Pritchard (@keeperofthecup) June 18, 2014

Tricksots with PGA TOUR Canada

PGA TOUR Canada players Drew Evans, Darren Wallace, Justin Peters, Micah Burke, Ben Silverman and Will Strickler show off their best trick shots for the Web.com Tour’s Trickshot Challenge. Take a look.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. – After a bit of confusion, Tiger Woods finally arrived at Valhalla on Wednesday.

Now, to determine if he’s fit enough to compete in the PGA Championship.

For three days, there has been speculation about whether Woods’ ailing back would allow him to play in the final major of the year.

He was at least going to give it a shot, after some miscommunication with the PGA of America.

The organization sent out a release about noon saying Woods was at the course. Then, officials said they weren’t sure he had actually arrived. About 1:15 p.m. EDT, Woods pulled into his reserved parking spot.

He didn’t seem be in any pain as he got out of the car and changed shoes.

Sporting sunglasses and a goatee, Woods headed straight to the driving range with caddie Joe LaCava. Hundreds of fans crowded around a staircase as he crossed over above them, snapping photos of the 14-time major champion with their phones. He pulled out a wedge and started his session with some easy half-swings.

Woods planned to play a practice round in the afternoon to see if his back is fit enough to tee off Thursday. He has never missed three majors in one year since he played his first one as a 19-year-old amateur in 1995.

Woods had back surgery on March 31 and was out for three months, skipping the Masters and the U.S. Open. He returned in late June for the Quicken Loans National at Congressional, where he missed the cut by four shots. He finished 69th at the British Open.

At the Bridgestone Invitational on Sunday, Woods injured his lower back on the second hole of the final round after hitting an awkward shot from above a bunker and landing hard when he jumped back into the sand.

He was driven off the course after his tee shot on the ninth hole and headed home to Florida for treatment.

This was the latest Woods has ever arrived for a major. He has not seen Valhalla since he won the PGA Championship in 2000 in a playoff over Bob May. Woods was recovering from reconstructive knee surgery in 2008 when the Ryder Cup was played on the Jack Nicklaus design.

Woods’ absence led to endless photos of his vacant parking spot.

Now, that spot is filled.

“He still has a huge impact, especially on the media side,” Rickie Fowler said. “You can see all the attention with last week WD’ing and this week not registering, not sure if he’s playing yet. I want to see Tiger around, but I want to see him healthy and at his best.”

Woods must win the PGA Championship to qualify for the FedEx Cup playoffs.

More realistically, he wants to show U.S. Ryder Cup captain Tom Watson that he is healthy enough to be one of three wild-card picks for the September competition in Scotland.

“I can’t answer that yet,” Watson said Wednesday, speaking right about the time Woods arrived. “A lot can happen between now and then.”

Watson said he would take Woods’ at his word on the condition of his back.

“He’s always been straight up with me,” Watson said.

CALGARY—Three of golf’s legends who have combined to win six PGA Tour major championship titles – Tom Lehman, Mark O’Meara and Hale Irwin – have added additional depth to an already stellar field that will compete in Calgary for the second annual Shaw Charity Classic, August 27-31, 2014.

Lehman, who hosted the Claret Jug in 1996, will be joined by the 1998 Masters and British Open winner O’Meara, along with three-time U.S. Open winner, Irwin, in Calgary. The trio brings a combined 41 PGA TOUR titles and 55 victories on the Champions Tour with them to Canada’s Stampede City.

“The Shaw Charity Classic has worked very hard to bring the biggest names on the Champions Tour to Calgary, and these three players certainly support that mission,” said Sean Van Kesteren, tournament director, Shaw Charity Classic. “Not only are Mark, Tom and Hale some of the most successful players on Tour, they are also among the most respected. They can still play at a very high level and we are thrilled to host them in Calgary again this summer.”

The only player to win Player-of-the-Year on all three PGA Tours: Web.com; PGA Tour; and Champions Tour, Lehman won five times on the PGA Tour. The highlight of his career came in 1996 when he followed up his British Open victory with a win at the TOUR Championship. Ranked number one on the official World Golf Rankings for a brief stint in 1997, Lehman has won eight times on the senior circuit including his three majors coming in 2010 at the Senior Players Championship, and 2011 and 2012 Regions Tradition.

“I am thrilled to be heading back to Calgary this year. I have a lot of friends in Scottsdale who are from Calgary and it will be fun to come back and spend more time in their city,” said Lehman. “The crowds last year were very enthusiastic and impressive, and so was the golf course. It may have been a first year tournament, but it was one of the best of the year. I’m sure it will be even stronger this year.”

One of the most popular figures in international golf, O’Meara is a winner of 16 victories on the PGA Tour including five times at the AT&T Pebble Beach National Pro-Am and the 1995 Canadian Open. The two-time major winner has won twice since joining the Champions Tour in 2007, including one major in 2010 – the SENIOR PLAYERS Championship.

Rounding out the newest trio to return to Calgary will be World Golf Hall of Fame member, Hale Irwin. Inducted into the Hall in 1992, Irwin racked up 20 career titles on the PGA Tour, and became the oldest U.S. Open winner in 1990 (45 years old) when he captured his third national title just prior to joining the senior circuit. Since turning 50, Irwin is the Champions Tour career leader in wins and earnings with 45 victories and more than $26 million. The 69 year old, who has gone on to win seven major titles on the Champions Tour, became the first man since Gary Player in 2009 to shoot three rounds better than his age in a tournament last week at the 3M Championship (68-66-68).

Tickets and corporate packages for the Shaw Charity Classic are available online at www.shawcharityclassic.com. Youth 17 and under are admitted free with a ticketed adult. Shaw Communications Inc. will also celebrate tournament week with Calgarians by hosting a FREEconcert featuring rock icons, Randy Bachman and Fred Turner, along with acclaimed Canadian band, The Sheepdogs, at Shaw Millennium Park on Thursday, August 28. Presented by Rdio, the country’s leading digital streaming music service, tickets to the all-ages concert are available by visiting shaw.ca/concert.

Winnipeg – Jonathan Garrick and Sam Saunders sit tied for the lead at the halfway point of the 110th Canadian Men’s Amateur Championship at Elmhurst Golf and Country Club and Southwood Golf and Country Club.

The American duo played opposite courses Tuesday and share top spot on the leaderboard at 8-under 134 thru 36 holes of play.

New Mexico’s Saunders carded the low round of the day at Southwood, firing a 5-under 67 during the afternoon flight. The Albuquerque native’s scorecard was highlighted by an opening 3-under 33 front-nine and a closing birdie on the par-5 18th hole.

“I just sort of played steady all day, I made two bogeys on the back nine on both the par-3’s and I actually birdied the next hole both times so that was good to keep my momentum going,” Saunders said. “I didn’t ever get into a lull in my round where it was too slow, so I just kept steadily making birdies all day and ended up 5-under.”

Playing at Elmhurst, Garrick of Atherton, Calif. continued his solid play from the first round carding a 2-under 68. The only blemish on the UCLA Bruins’ scorecard was a double-bogey on the par-4 16th hole before closing with a 2-under 33 back-nine.

“Today I got off to a good start, I eagled I think the fourth or fifth hole and then made a double after that and turned at even-par,” said Garrick “ On the back I gave myself some opportunities and made a couple more birdies coming in.”

A trio of players lead the way for the Canadian contingent in a tie for third including Team Canada’s Corey Conners of Listowel, Ont. who carded a second round 2-under 68. Conners hopes to continue his strong play heading into the final 36 holes after a runner-up finish at this championship last season.

“I was pretty disappointed last year, so I want to make sure I don’t do anything silly and and jeopardize winning the tournament,” Conners said. “Basically the plan is to stick to my game plan and just stay relaxed, take it one shot at a time and do my own thing.”

Blair Hamilton of Burlington, Ont. and Winnipeg’s Bret Thompson share third place alongside Conners at 6-under par. Hamilton and Thompson both posted 4-under 68’s at Southwood to soar up the leaderboard on Tuesday.

In the Willingdon Cup team competition, Team Ontario’s squad of Conners, Taylor Pendrith of Richmond Hill, Ont. and Chris Hemmerich of Kitchener, Ont. captured the title by eight strokes. The Team Canada trio carded a 2-under 138 second round team total to finish the championship at 9-under 275 ahead of Alberta’s A.J. Armstrong of St. Albert, Banff’s Jack Wood and Tyler Saunders of Sturgeon Country.

For a full field list as well as starting times, live scoring and post-round results for the 110th playing of the Canadian Men’s Amateur Championship, click here.

GLEN COVE, N.Y. -Five Canadians are headed to match play at the 2014 U.S. Women’s Amateur Championship.

Brooke Mackenzie Henderson was the leading Canadian. The 16-year-old Smiths Falls, Ont. native who was the low amateur in the U.S. Women’s Open, had a 71 to tie for 12th at 2 over.

Brittany Marchand of Orangeville, Ont. was 4 over and tied for 21st; while Anne-Catherine Tanguay of Quebec City, Elizabeth Tong of Thornhill, Ont. and Augusta James all tied for 46th at 6 over.

Bethany Wu shot a 2-under 68 on Tuesday to top the 64 match-play qualifiers.

Wu, the 17-year-old Diamond Bar, California, player who has committed to play at UCLA, finished stroke play at 3-under 137 at Nassau Country Club.

“Going to the back nine, I was thinking, `Don’t make any mistakes,'” said Wu, the runner-up last week in the Junior PGA Championship and a quarterfinalist two weeks ago in the U.S. Girls’ Junior. “(Earning medalist honors is) good for me because I’ve beat really top players here through stroke play.”

Australia’s Su-Hyun Oh, the first-round leader, was a shot back along with Andrea Lee of Hermosa Beach, California. Oh had a 72, and Lee shot 69.

Princess Mary Superal, the 17-year-old Filipino player who won the U.S. Girls’ Junior, was another stroke back after a 73.

Defending champion Emma Talley, the 20-year-old University of Alabama player from Princeton, Kentucky, tied for 46th at 6 over. She followed her opening 76 with a 70.

“I knew that today was a big day,” said Talley, who made the winning putt for United States in June in the Curtis Cup. “I got 1 over at one point, and I knew I just needed to stick with my game.”

A tour of the Canadian Golf Hall of Fame and Museum located in Golf Canada’s Golf House at Glen Abbey Golf Club in Oakville, Ont. can be a fun experience for anyone who plays the game.

The displays of old clubs and equipment leaves you wondering what it must have been like to play the game in days of yore.

One of the museum’s greatest collections, however, is virtually never seen by the public. In the basement of Golf house, down the hall past boxes of golf artifacts is one of the largest collection of golf books and magazines in the world.

The Canadian Golf  Hall of Fame and Museum’s library is so extensive that they regularly donate extra copies of some of their books to the World Golf Hall of Fame and the United States Golf Association Museum.

“We recently sent out a list of our extra books and the World Golf Hall of Fame emailed right back and asked us if they could have 50 of them,” said Meggan Gardner, curator of the Canadian Golf Hall of Fame and Museum.

Jim Fraser, the retired former executive director of the Golf Canada Foundation, is currently re-cataloging and digitizing the entire library.

“Right now, we have 5,795 books by 1,991 authors in our collection,” added Fraser.

The golf books are stored on shelves and filed by categories that include, but aren’t limited to: architecture, art, associations, auto biographies, biographies, championships, equipment and collections, general, geography, golf clubs (courses), health and fitness, history, instruction, psychology, literature (including humour and poetry), management, quotations, reference, rules, tournaments and turf.

The collection of instruction books, which includes a number that are in french, is the largest in the library. They have 973 of them. If you read them all it would probably mess up your game to the point that you’d never play again.

The Museum buys the odd book and they have some rare ones in their collection. Mostly though, they’re donated.

Noted Canadian golf journalist and author Lorne Rubenstein recently donated about 600 books and close to 2,000 magazines.

Fraser says they aren’t getting as many books donated as they used to and they want to encourage anyone with golf books to consider donating them to the museum. You’ll even receive a tax receipt.

“It’s a shame more people don’t know about the library and it would be nice if we could have it in a building where people could see it,” says Fraser. “I think more people would donate books if they knew we were here.”

Gardner says the library has almost become the forgotten part of the museum’s collection and digitizing the collection will help bring it back into the light.

“There’s some great things happening with digitization projects and making these things available on-line,” says Gardner.

Fraser says their magazine collection probably numbers around 10,000. That includes a priceless collection of Ralph Reville’s Canadian Golfer Magazine, which offers a complete history of golf in this country from 1915 to 1933.

While very few people have ever seen Golf Canada’s Library, the collection is not completely closed to the public. “

We don’t let people borrow books and take them out, but we do allow access to the collection, especially if someone is doing research,” says Gardner. “They can make an appointment and we’ll find a place for them here to read whatever book they want.”

Gardner says there are all kinds of reasons someone might want to access the library as reference material. For example, a golf course designed by any of the great golf course architects might be coming up on a special anniversary. Chances are pretty good the Golf Canada library would have books written by or about that architect.

If you want to see a list of the books in the library, click here.  You can also contact Meggan Gardner at cghf@golfcanada.ca if you’re doing research and would like to access the museum library.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. -Golf stories about Rory McIlroy are a lot more flattering than those a year ago. And if he reads too much into them, they can be a lot more dangerous.

McIlroy went wire to wire at Hoylake to win the British Open. Then, he overpowered Firestone on the weekend to win his first World Golf Championship. Now he is the overwhelming favorite at the PGA Championship. He is looked on in some corners as a sure thing, a label once reserved only for Tiger Woods.

Boy Wonder is not so sure about that.

“Sometimes I feel that people are too quick to jump to conclusions,” McIlroy said Tuesday before heading out for his first look at Valhalla. “I’ve had a great run of golf and I’ve played well over the past few months. Look, I said at the start of the year that golf was looking for someone to put their hand up and sort of become one of the dominant players in the game. I felt like I had the ability to do that. And it’s just nice to be able to win a few tournaments and get back to where I feel I should be.”

He is No. 1 in the world again. He has three wins in his last seven starts. And with three legs of the career Grand Slam – only Woods and Jack Nicklaus were younger than the 25-year-old McIlroy when they achieved that – there was even talk about the start of a new era.

McIlroy wasn’t buying.

“I’m just really happy with where my golf game is at the minute, and I just want to try and continue that for as long as possible,” he said. “And people can say what they want to say. That’s fine. But I can’t read too much into it. … Because if you read everything that was being written, I’d turn up at the first tee on Thursday thinking I’d already won the tournament.”

The question lingered Tuesday whether Woods was going to make it to the first tee at all.

Woods injured his back Sunday – just four months after back surgery – and canceled his news conference Tuesday. There was no word on his prospects, presumably because he wanted to give himself as much time as possible to see if he could play.

Even if he did, that wouldn’t take the focus from McIlroy.

McIlroy appears to be in full flight, just as he was in his record victory at Congressional in the 2011 U.S. Open, and just as he was when he won the PGA Championship by a record eight shots in 2012, and then added three more wins the rest of the year against strong fields.

Valhalla, where Woods won 14 years ago, would appear to be suited for him. Then again, just about any course is for a guy who hits it long and straight.

McIlroy said his work in gym has added about 7 pounds of muscle in recent months, and he is now the heaviest he has been. He also has shortened his swing, which would make him more accurate off the tee.

“He’s such a great driver of the golf ball,” Phil Mickelson said as he looked back on McIlroy’s win at Firestone. “Even though the golf course was fairly tight and hitting fairways is important, he kept hitting drivers and he kept putting the ball in play and he kept playing the course aggressively and making birdies. And he plays to his strength. He’s just a very good talent. We’ve been waiting a year, year and a half now for it to turn. And it’s really turned for him. And he’s tough to beat.”

McIlroy was foundering at this time a year, missing the cut in three out of six tournaments, not even sniffing contention as he worked through equipment changes. The final touch was an alignment issue he solved after the Masters, and he is soaring now.

Of the 13 players to win a major and a World Golf Championship, McIlroy and Woods are the only ones to win them in consecutive starts. In the last 20 years, Woods, Padraig Harrington and Nick Price are the only players to win the final two majors of the year.

McIlroy ended Adam Scott’s 11-week run at No. 1, and his intent is to stay there.

“I think the right guy is at No. 1 at the moment,” Scott said. “I hope that I could go ahead and win this week and maybe go back to No. 1. But there’s no doubt Rory has played the best golf over the last few months.

“It’s only motivating to see Rory play so well,” he said. “I’ve said a lot that I feel this is my time, so I’ve got to beat whatever Rory is throwing out there.”

McIlroy considers this his best major, and the results bear that out. In five starts, he has finished out of the top 10 only one time. That was in 2011 in Atlanta, where he played the last three rounds with an arm injury after trying to hit a shot through a tree root.

Golf courses typically are softer in August because of the heat. Nicklaus courses tend to have generous fairways, not that McIlroy needs any help these days. The only change now is the perception.

“Expectations are higher. Hype is a little higher,” McIlroy said. “So it’s a little bit different this year.”

Through the years the PGA Championship has been won by many great champions. Check out the 10 best players who never hoisted the Wanamaker Trophy.

A look at Dufner and Bradley’s unique pre-shot routines

Fellow PGA Championship winners and close friends Jason Dufner and Keegan Bradley comment each other’s unique pre shot routines in this humorous video from the PGA TOUR.