HOYLAKE, England – A man was arrested Wednesday on suspicion of assault after he took a golf cart from the course staging the British Open and drove it into a security guard, the second police intervention involving a wayward cart in consecutive majors.

The incident occurred at Royal Liverpool Golf Club about 7.30 p.m. local time (1830 GMT) at the end of the final practice day before the tournament begins Thursday.

Merseyside police said in a statement emailed to The Associated Press that a 45-year-old man from the local area took the golf cart from the course and collided with the guard, who sustained a slight leg injury.

Police said the man then steered the cart into a barrier near an entrance to the course in Hoylake.

“We can confirm that a man has been arrested following an incident at The Open golf practice day in Hoylake at about 7:30 p.m. this evening,” police said. “One man was arrested on suspicion of assault … Just before colliding with the barrier the buggy caught a security guard causing a slight injury to his leg.”

At the U.S. Open in June, a man who drove NBC Sports analyst Roger Maltbie’s golf cart during the third round at Pinehurst, North Carolina, was charged with assaulting a state trooper on the course.

A police report said Tommy Lineberry was charged with felony assault on a law enforcement officer, felony hit and run, driving while impaired, and resisting, obstructing and delaying a law enforcement officer.

CALGARY—One of the game’s greatest names, Fred Couples, has confirmed he will be returning to Calgary to compete in the second annual Shaw Charity Classic at Canyon Meadows Golf and Country Club, August 27-31, 2014.

A World Golf Hall of Fame member, the 54-year-old Couples is one of the feature attractions on the Champions Tour that showcases an assembly of golf’s legends. A winner of 15 PGA Tour events, the smooth swinging Couples won his lone major championship at the 1992 Masters Tournament.

“Freddie definitely played a huge role in drawing thousands of golf fans out to our inaugural Tournament one year ago and we are thrilled to have him join us again this year in Calgary,” said Sean Van Kesteren, tournament director, Shaw Charity Classic. “The patron group, our title sponsor Shaw Communications, and the Canyon Meadows Golf and Country Club have made a commitment to build on the event’s successful foundation year to raise more money for children’s charities. Adding Freddie’s name to the list of high-profiled players making their first trip to Calgary like Bernhard Langer, Kenny Perry and Mark Calcavecchia definitely helps us achieve our goal!”

Couples has also racked up 10 Champions Tour victories since joining the senior circuit in 2010. After finishing second in his first start, he went on to win his next three events, becoming the first player ever to win three of his first four events. He also has two major championship victories on the Champions Tour: 2011 Senior Players Championship, and The Senior Open Championship in 2012.

“I really enjoyed playing up in Calgary last year, so I’m looking forward to getting back to the Shaw Charity Classic this summer,” said Couples. “This was one of the top events on Tour last year. The crowds were huge, the golf course was in great shape and we were able to raise some significant money for the wonderful youth charities in the area. I hope the community comes out to support the tournament this year and I know the players will put on another great show!”

Couples will be among 81 Champions Tour professionals that will play in Calgary including Steve Elkington, Fred Funk, David Frost, and defending champion Rocco Mediate.

Continuing this trend of bringing big names to Calgary for this year’s tournament, Shaw also announced today that rock icons Randy Bachman and Fred Turner will be joined by acclaimed Canadian band The Sheepdogs to celebrate the Shaw Charity Classic with a free concert 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 will be will be made available for free beginning Thursday, July 17 at 10am MT by visiting shaw.ca/concert.

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.he inaugural Shaw Charity Classic, which was recognized with an Outstanding Achievement Award for a first year event by the PGA Tour, and a Tourism Calgary White Hat Award for best event/festival/attraction in 2013, made a record-setting charitable donation of $2,276,251 for a Champions Tour event.  The legends of the game will play for a purse of $2.25 million, an increase of $250,000 from last year, when they return to Calgary’s Canyon Meadows Golf and Country Club August 27-31, 2014.

PGA Tour Canada will make its sixth stop of the 12-event 2014 season this week in Thunder Bay with the inaugural Staal Foundation Open presented by Tbaytel, marking the halfway point of the year.

Including this week in Winnipeg, PGA Tour Canada will play seven of the next nine weeks to conclude its second season.

PGA Tour Canada returns to Thunder Bay for the first time since 2001 for this weeks inaugural Staal Foundation Open presented by Tbaytel. The Staal Family Foundation, the charitable foundation of NHL brothers Eric, Jordan, Marc and Jared Staal, plays host to week-long schedule of events including a star-studded celebrity pro-am, culminating with PGA Tour Canada’s sixth event of the 2014 season.

In addition to the Staal brothers and their parents Henry and Linda, other celebrities teeing it up included Olympic Gold Medalist Brad Jacobs, former Our Lady Peace drummer Jeremy Taggart, NHL players and alumni Robert Bortuzzo, Ryan Johnson, Stew Gavin, Carter Hutton, Trevor Letowski, Tom Pyatt, Taylor Pyatt, Matt Cullen, Brett Bellemore, Scott Walker, Ric Nattress, Lonny Bohonos, Rick Adduono, Ray Adduono, John Adams, Danny Gruen, Jeff Heerema and curlers Al Hackner and Rick Lang.

The top three players on the Order of Merit through this week will earn a spot in next week’s RBC Canadian Open on the PGA Tour, taking place next week at The Royal Montreal Golf Club in Montreal.

Order of Merit leader Joel Dahmen and last week’s The Players Cup champion Tim Madigan are mathematically guaranteed to finish in the top three, making for an exciting showdown for the final spot this week. SIGA Dakota Dunes Open presented by SaskTel champion Matt Harmon is currently on the bubble, holding the third spot with $36,688. Bayview Place Island Savings Open presented by Times Colonist champion Josh Persons could pass Harmon with a solo 14th place finish or better, while No. 5 Ricky McDonald would need a solo fourth-place finish or better to reach third. Robert S. Karlsson, Eugene Wong, Brock Mackenzie, William Kropp, Matt Hill, Brad Clapp, Michael Buttacavoli, Ryan Yip, Olin Browne, Jr. and John Catlin could all reach No. 3 with a win.

PGA Tour Canada members Beon-Yeong Lee and Michael Gligic have already secured a spot in the field thanks to victories at regional qualifying.

Little Rapids, N.L.  – The final CN Future Links event of the 2014 season wrapped up at Humber Valley Resort today, with champions being crowned after 36-holes of play due to the cancellation of the third round because of inclement weather.  Myles Creighton, 18, of Digby, N.S. and Rachel Cormier, 18, of Rothesay, N.B. earned the 2014 CN Future Links Atlantic champion titles in their respective divisions.

Creighton grabbed the lead in the Junior Boys division in Tuesday’s second round, shooting a 1-over 73 to lead by one stroke over the first round leader, 18-year-old Ian Lewis of Fall River, N.S.

“The toughest part for me was hitting it onto the green, because as soon as I’d swing the wind would grab the ball and really affect it,” said Creighton at the Wednesday afternoon award ceremony. “I would have liked to play all three days, but it’s a good feeling to win.”

Creighton finished the tournament with a final score of 4-over 148. Lewis and Tyler Erb, 17, of Toronto finished in a tie for second at 5-over 149 after two rounds of play. Blair Bursey of Gander, N.L. and Andrew Brown of Calgary, Alta., both 17, shot 6-over 150 to follow in a tie for fourth.

Cormier led the Junior Girls division since Monday’s opening round, shooting rounds of 79-80 to finish the championship with a total score of 15-over 159.

“The wind, the bunkers, and the narrow fairways were all challenging this week,” Cormier said of the challenging Humber Valley River Course. “I didn’t pull out the driver a lot; I took irons off the tee sometimes just to keep the ball in play. I just wanted to play it safe instead of trying to go for it and ending up in trouble.”

Following Cormier in second was 15-year-old Laura Jones, of Berry Mills, N.B. Jones finished the championship with 172 for the championship, followed by Claire Konning, 16, of Indian Mountain, N.B. in third.

The top six competitors in the Junior Boys division of each CN Future Links Championship will earn exemptions into the 2014 Canadian Junior Boys Championship, which will be contested July 28 – August 1 on the Legends on the Niagara’s Battlefield course in Niagara Falls, Ont. The Junior Girls champion from each CN Future Links Championship will earn an exemption into the 2014 Canadian Junior Girls Championship which runs July 28 – August 1 at the Thornhill Golf and Country Club in Thornhill, Ont.

HOYLAKE, England – Old Tom Morris would barely recognize the British Open these days.

It’s one thing for golf to evolve from gutta percha to polyurethane, from niblicks to hybrids, from hickory to graphite. Now the British Open is all about LED screens, apps and routers. Yes, there are wireless routers affixed to every grandstand at Royal Liverpool.

Leave it to the Royal & Ancient to be on the cutting edge of digital technology among major championships.

The British Open is believed to be the first major golf event to offer wireless in every grandstand, allowing spectators with mobile phone and tablets to watch the BBC coverage, track their favorite player through GPS, and get details through up-to-the minute scoring updates.

“The experience for our spectators will, I believe, be the best they have ever received,” said Peter Unsworth, chairman of the R&A’s championship committee. “Using their own smartphones and tablets, and our groundbreaking Wi-Fi network which is available in every grandstand, they will be able to enjoy live BBC television and radio coverage, live scoring and get news and updates without leaving their seat.

“The information available to our spectators has never been so readily available.”

And to think this major only three years ago banned cellphones from the golf course. Now they’re telling spectators they’re missing out if they don’t have them.

The R&A last year installed wireless signals as an experiment, with the source of streaming capabilities coming from London. It was so pleased with the result that it now has installed its own fiber optic network at most of the links courses where it holds The Open, starting with Hoylake.

Malcolm Booth, the R&A’s communications director, said the signal is strong enough for as many as 20,000 fans to stream video at the same time.

A popular theme at the R&A over the last two decades has been finding a balance between tradition and technology. R&A chief executive Peter Dawson always thought that would involve only equipment. Now he is trying to grasp a world of live streaming and second-screen channels.

“What it will be 10 years from now I can scarcely imagine,” Dawson said.

Traditions die hard at the oldest golf championship in the world, which dates to 1860. Tom Watson, a five-time champion who played his first British Open before Tiger Woods was even born, couldn’t help notice some of the changes during a practice round Monday.

“What happened to the yellow scoreboards?” he said.

For starters, the scoreboards changed from yellow to green years ago, but point taken. For the longest time, there was a manual scoreboard behind each green that showed the cumulative score of the players on that hole, and the scores of the group next to play.

Those are gone, replaced by LED screens that now give scores, news updates on the championship, and even a rules quiz during the practice rounds.

“They’re in the modern age,” Watson said.

Dawson said former championship committee chairman Jim McArthur was a strong advocate for getting up to speed with digital technology, and it then was turned over to Booth and the communications department.

Booth said it wasn’t a hard sell to the Royal & Ancient, though “there was a lot of explaining to do.”

“There was a need to explain how this could impact on the experience for spectators,” he said. “Having a radio at the Open is not new. People have been doing it for decades. Having a television picture on a hand-held device has been pretty common at big events like the PGA Championship and Ryder Cup. They were aware of these devices. What they weren’t sure about was how easy it was to take that technology and have it on each person’s phones.”

Oddly enough, it was at Royal Liverpool in 2006 when spectators took so many pictures with their phones that mobile devices were banned the following year. The R&A finally relented on that strict policy in 2012 at Royal Lytham & St. Annes.

Now it has Wi-Fi networks, routers, live streaming, geofencing. Is there anything still ancient about the Royal & Ancient?

“Me,” Dawson said with a smile.

He retires next year after 16 years as chief executive, the last few years filled with technology changes he never imagined. He still likes the balance between old and new. The Open still is played on the same turf where Old Tom Morris and Willie Park Sr. vied for championships. The claret jug has been passed around for 86 years.

“But I think in the modern era,” Dawson said, “the way that people now embrace this technology is something that golf also has to embrace.”

CN Future Links, Canada’s national junior golf program, is set to host the second of three national stops at the 2014 RBC Canadian Open in Montreal from July 21-27 as part of the interactive, safety-inspired Community Tour.

Together, CN and Golf Canada host the Community Tour events to provide the opportunity for juniors to engage in friendly putting, chipping and driving activities while continuing to practice a safety-first mentality.

The first stop on the Tour took place last month at the Sarnia Kids Fun Fest, in Sarnia, Ont. Attendees included Mike Bradley (mayor of Sarnia), CN and Golf Canada staff, as well as hundreds of local juniors and parents. Among the juniors were students from 15 local schools which CN recently adopted into the Golf in Schools program to coincide with the Community Tour launch.

“The success of the first Community Tour event goes a long way in showing CN’s support and commitment to getting golf into communities and exposed to Canada’s youth,” said Jeff Thompson, Chief Sport Officer at Golf Canada. “We are looking forward to extending our shared values once more at next week’s Community Tour stop.”

The CN Future Links Community Tour is also open to adults to test out their skills and earn a chance to win unique prizing courtesy of CN.

Claude Mongeau, President and CEO of CN, is thankful for the opportunities CN Future Links and junior golf have provided.

“Youth golf has provided us a valuable platform to make a significant impact in the communities in which we operate,” he said. “We are pleased to take an active role in helping Golf Canada and the PGA of Canada grow junior golf across the country.”

The third and final stop on tour this season will take place at the Saskatoon Exhibition from Aug 5-10.

Click here to learn more about CN Future Links Community Tour.

HOYLAKE, England – Brendan Steele played in the final group at a major three years ago. Brendon de Jonge played in the Presidents Cup last year. They will be among 36 players making their debuts Thursday in golf’s oldest championship.

Is it too much to ask for them to go home with the claret jug?

Royal Liverpool is the least known of the links courses on the rotation – this is only its second time to host the Open since 1967 – though all links golf can be a mystery. Winning for the first time is not as unusual as it would be at Augusta National, where a first-timer has not won since 1979.

Even so, examples are rare.

Willie Park Sr. was the first to win on his debut, but only because 1860 was the first championship. Ben Curtis was the most recent in 2003 at Royal St. George’s. Among the candidates might be Patrick Reed, who at No. 30 is the highest-ranked player in the British Open for the first time.

Here are the five best debuts in Open history:

5. SAM SNEAD

Sam Snead was one of only three Americans who journeyed across the Atlantic in 1946 when the British Open was staged for the first time after World War II. Back then, Americans lost money playing the Open because first place paid only 150 pounds.

It’s safe to say the Slammer wasn’t terribly impressed when the train pulled in the home of golf.

“Say, what abandoned course is this?” he said to the man next to him.

That would be the Old Course at St. Andrews, and Snead quickly learned to respect the ancient ground. He opened with rounds of 71-70, pulled into a share of the lead with Johnny Bulla and Dai Reis with a 74, and then closed with a 75 to win by four shots over Bulla, a fellow American.

He did not return the next year.

4. TONY LEMA

Arnold Palmer gets credit for invigorating the Open when he came across in 1960 as part of his quest to win the Grand Slam. Since then, more Americans began playing golf’s oldest championship. His influence was a little more direct on Tony Lema.

The Bay Area native known as “Champagne” Tony wasn’t sure he wanted to play at St. Andrews in the 1964 British Open. Palmer talked him into it, though Lema asked if he could borrow Palmer’s putter and his caddie, Tip Anderson.

It was a winning combination.

Lema shot a 68 in the second round to take the lead, shot another 68 to stretch the lead and won by five shots over Jack Nicklaus. It was his fourth victory in a six-week span. Two years later, the rising American star died in a plane crash.

3. TOM WATSON

Tom Watson wasn’t a complete stranger to major championships when he showed up at Carnoustie in 1975, but he didn’t know much about links golf. A year earlier, Watson was 24 when he took the 54-hole lead at Winged Foot in the 1974 U.S. Open, only to close with a 79 and tie for fifth. A month earlier, Watson was the 36-hole leader at Medinah in the U.S. Open until a 78-77 weekend.

That changed in Scotland. Watson overcame a three-shot deficit to Bobby Cole in the final round and made a 25-foot birdie putt on the final hole for a 72 to tie Jack Newton, one shot ahead of Jack Nicklaus and Johnny Miller. In the playoff, Watson shot 71 for a one-shot victory over Newton.

That made him the third American to win the Open on his first try.

2. BEN CURTIS

Ben Curtis remains the longest of the long shots to win the British Open, accomplishing the feat in 2003. He was a 26-year-old rookie from Ohio who tied for 13th at the Western Open in Chicago. Back then, that was a primary avenue for Americans to qualify for the British Open.

No one really paid any attention to him all week, even though Curtis was never far from the lead. He was three behind going into the weekend, and two shots back of Thomas Bjorn going into the last round. Against an All-Star leaderboard that featured Tiger Woods, Vijay Singh, Davis Love III and Sergio Garcia, Curtis closed with a 69 by making an 8-foot par putt on the last hole.

Then, he waited. The Open appeared to belong to Thomas Bjorn until he took three shots to get out of a bunker on the 16th hole. Curtis won by one shot, becoming the first player since Francis Ouimet in the 1913 U.S. Open to win a major on his first try.

1. BEN HOGAN

Ben Curtis was the long shot. For Ben Hogan, this was his only shot.

Hogan played a limited schedule since nearly losing his life in a car accident in 1949. But he was on top of his game in 1953, winning the Masters by five shots and the U.S. Open at Oakmont by six shots over Sam Snead.

Everyone had to qualify for the British Open in 1953, and Hogan was no exception.

He opened with rounds of 73-71 at Carnoustie, and then pulled into a tie for the lead with Robert de Vicenzo after a 70 in the third round. Completing a perfect year in the majors, Hogan closed with a 68 for a four-shot victory. He played in only three majors that year and won them all. Hogan could not play the PGA Championship because his battered legs would not allow him 36-hole matches; besides, British Open qualifying was the same time as the PGA that year.

In his one shot at the Claret Jug, Hogan won to complete the Grand Slam. It was the last major championship he won.

Little Rapids, N.L. – CN Future Links Atlantic continued today at Humber Valley Resort in Little Rapids, N.L., and competition remained tough in the second round.

Myles Creighton, 18, of Digby, N.S. grabbed the first place spot from yesterday’s leader, 18-year-old Ian Lewis of Fall River, NS. Creighton shot a 1-over-par 73 today to lead Lewis by one stroke, sitting at a total score of 4-over 148. Lewis now shares second place with Tyler Erb, 17, of Toronto – the pair has shot 5-over-149 over two rounds of play.

18-year-old Rachel Cormier of Rothesay, N.B. continued yesterday’s strong play to retain her lead in the Junior Girls division. Cormier shot an 8-over-par 80 on Tuesday to lead by 13 strokes over Laura Jones, 15, of Berry Mills, N.B. Jones has shot 28-over-172 over two rounds and is followed by 16-year-old Claire Konning of Indian Mountain, N.B. in third with a total score of 30-over-par 174.

The Junior Boys champions of 2014 CN Future Links events earn exemptions into the 2014 Canadian Junior Boys Championship to be contested July 28 – August 1 at the Legends on the Niagara’s Battlefield Course in Niagara Falls, Ont.

The Junior Girls champion from each 2014 CN Future Links Championship earns an exemption into the 2014 Canadian Junior Girls Championship, which runs July 28 – August 1 at Thornhill Golf and Country Club in Thornhill, Ont.

The final round of CN Future Links Atlantic begins tomorrow at 7:30 a.m. UTC. For complete scoring and information, click here.

Talk about a double-double.

Canada’s David Hearn was added to the British Open field Tuesday after former champion Mark Calcavecchia withdrew. No official reason was given. However, Calcavecchia, who is also a past RBC Canadian Open champion, has been battling back problems for some time. He won the 1989 Open at Royal Troon, his only major.

Hearn, who was a first alternate and would almost certainly secure a spot in the field, headed to England after a tie for 45th at last week’s John Deere Classic.

About to board the charter to The Open as 1st alternate. Could be a long trip to drink some beers w/royalty! Wish me luck. #RBCHearn

— David Hearn (@HearnDavid) July 13, 2014

Making his first appearance at the British Open, the Brantford, Ont. native will join fellow Canadian Graham DeLaet at Royal Liverpool.

Hearn has made two previous appearances at golf’s majors. He finished tied for 21st at the 2013 U.S. Open and tied for 47th at last year’s PGA Championship.

Hearn will tee off at 10:10 am local time and play the first two rounds with three-time champion Nick Faldo and American Todd Hamilton, who won at Royal Troon in 2004.

DeLaet has a 12:54 pm local tee time and will tip-it-up with reigning RBC Canadian Open champion Brandt Snedeker and former number one ranked amateur Cheng-tsung Pan.

CARLSBAD, Calif. – Earlier this year TaylorMade Golf Company introduced the SLDR Mini Driver, a club designed for use off the tee that is designed to be more accurate and longer off the tee than a 3-wood. Now, the they are introducing a club designed to deliver incredible distance on tee shots and performance never before seen in a long iron. Meet the Tour Preferred UDI (Ultimate Driving Iron).

“We designed the Tour Preferred UDI for players seeking a versatile club that delivers incredible distance off the tee and a high-performance alternative from the fairway,” said TaylorMade’s Director of Iron Creation, Tomo Bystedt. “The clean, traditional look at address inspires confidence and the Speed Pocket technology provides amazing distance and consistency.”

TaylorMade Tour Staff Professional Justin Rose has played the UDI in his two recent wins (Quicken Loans National at Congressional and the Aberdeen Asset Management Scottish Open) and is among the favourites this week in Hoylake.

Like Rose, TaylorMade Tour Staff Professionals expressed a specific desire for a club that combines distance and playability with accuracy and shot shaping capabilities. Enter UDI: The hollow construction allowed engineers to move weight lower and more forward, resulting in faster ball speeds and a higher launch angle than traditional driving irons. By increasing the launch angle, TaylorMade engineers have effectively made driving irons more playable than past models – making it easier to hit high towering shots with low lofted irons.

A 455 Carpenter Steel material, which generates more ball speed, along with milled score lines across the face also gives golfers tremendous control with the UDI – allowing them to flight shots lower and manipulate trajectory if they choose to. The lightweight KBS C-Taper Lite shaft comes stock in the UDI. The shaft promotes a mid to high trajectory and controlled spin.

Available in 1-iron (16°), 2-iron (18°) and 3-iron (20°) options, the UDI features TaylorMade’s renowned Speed Pocket Technology. This tour-proven technology allows the face to flex more efficiently for better distance and greater consistency. In addition, this key design element is instrumental to creating the high launch conditions golfers experience with UDI. Other features include an advanced sound dampening system for a soft feel and a crisp sound that appeals to low handicappers.

UDI was first introduced on the PGA Tour during the Quicken Loans National at Congressional Country Club in Bethesda, Maryland, where eventual champion Justin Rose elected to put the UDI in the bag. Firm and fast course conditions, which rivaled those of the 2010 U.S. Open at Congressional, made UDI a popular choice off the tee for Rose. TaylorMade is anticipating more golfers to put the UDI in play this week at the Open Championship at Royal Liverpool.

With a manufacturer’s suggested retail price of $229.99 CDN, the UDI will be available at retail in Canada starting August 1, 2014.