RIDGEDALE, Mo. – Kenny Perry and Russ Cochran teamed to birdie the final three holes for a share of the lead with Jeff Sluman and Fred Funk on Friday in the Champions Tour’s Legends of Golf.

The leaders were at 10-under 61 after their better-ball rounds on the Buffalo Ridge course.

“For the most part we hung in there, got the ball in the fairway and had a couple chances most of the time,” Cochran said. “Kenny had the eye and when a guy’s got that, you want to get out of his way.”

In Savannah, Georgia, last year, Sluman teamed with Brad Faxon to win the Champions Division. Sluman turned to Funk after Faxon was unable to play because of previous commitment.

“We’re just really comfortable together, No. 1, but we got off to a really good start and that helped,” Funk said. “We made some really good putts.”

Other players opened at Top of the Rock, the first par-3 course used in a PGA Tour-sanctioned event. The teams of Tom Watson-Andy North, Nick Faldo Eduardo Romero and Craig Stadler-Kirk Triplett had the best rounds there, finishing at 5-under 49 after nine holes of alternate shot and nine of better ball.

In the Legends Division for players 65 and older, Bruce Fleisher and Larry Nelson took the lead with a 62 at Buffalo Ridge. The teams of Jack Nicklaus-Gary Player, Lee Trevino-Mike Hill and Graham Marsh-John Bland shot 1-over 55 on the par-3 course, the site of the final rounds in each division.

“We never seemed to get the right club in our hand,” said Nicklaus, who designed the par-3 course. “All day

long we’re struggling with a club, even on the second nine. … We made two bogeys on the alternate shot because we didn’t have the right clubs.”

Play was delayed twice because of rain and lightning and players were allowed to lift, clean and place their golf balls on the Buffalo Ridge course.

Perry and Cochran birdied four of the first five holes and eagled the par-5 eighth – Perry hit a hybrid to 6 feet – in a 6-under 29 on the front nine. The Kentucky duo also birdied No. 10 and closed with three more.

“Kenny came in there and really got things started,” Cochran said. “He just had a terrific front side, especially, and really the whole day. … He made many birdies and an eagle. Never really missed a shot. So as far as I was concerned, I was trying to fill in.”

Funk and Sluman played the first nine in 7-under 28 and added three birdies on the back nine.

“We both played really honestly solid golf all day,” Sluman said. “I think after 12 holes we each contributed like on six holes each, so we were just playing solid golf, hitting it down the middle and giving ourselves two birdie chances every hole.”

Sluman capped the round with a 20-foot birdie putt on the par-5 18th, their fifth birdie putt of 20 feet for longer. Sluman and Funk each holed 40- and 30-foot birdie putts.

The teams of Jay Haas-Peter Jacobsen and Billy Andrade-Tommy Armour III shot 62 at Buffalo Ridge, and Tom Lehman-Bernhard Langer and Corey Pavin-Duffy Waldorf followed at 63.

Jim Colbert and Jim Thorpe were second in the Legends Division at 66. Butch Baird-Al Geiberger and Hubert Green-Allen Doyle shot 67.

CALGARY—Bernhard Langer, the Charles Schwab Cup points leader on the PGA Tour’s Champions Tour, has confirmed he will tee-it-up at Calgary’s Canyon Meadows Golf and Country Club for the 2014 Shaw Charity Classic, August 27-31, 2014.

One of the most successful players in the history of the senior circuit, Langer is currently ranked first in the quest for the Arnold Palmer Award as the Champions Tour’s leading money winner. Langer has finished first on the Champions Tour Money List five times since turning 50 seven years ago. The smooth-swinging German has placed in the top-10 in each of his nine starts in 2014, including two victories and three runner-up finishes. His victory last month in Houston was his 20th career Champions Tour title, making him the 10th player in Tour history, and first since 2001 to hit the milestone.

“There was lots of buzz on Tour about how successful last year’s Shaw Charity Classic was, and I am excited to have the opportunity to make my first trip to Calgary in August,” said Langer, who should fall in love with Alberta being an outdoors enthusiast and self-described “scratch” skier.

“I’m very blessed to have won 20 times out here. It’s been a great and wonderful achievement. I feel like I’m playing some of my best golf in my career so I hope to keep that going throughout the summer.”

The former No. 1 player in the world on the Official World Golf Ranking in 1986 has rattled off 19 straight top-10 finishes dating back to last year. He has also carded 28 of 29 rounds in 2014 under par.

Langer has won three times on the PGA Tour including the 1993 and 1985 Masters Tournament. He also won two senior majors in 2010: Senior Open Championship, and the U.S. Senior Open.

“Bernhard Langer’s name is synonymous with the greatest names in the game so we are thrilled to have him join us in Calgary,” said Sean Van Kesteren, tournament director, Shaw Charity Classic. “When Rocco Mediate hoisted the trophy last August, he was convinced that with the success of our inaugural event – from the condition of the golf course to the thousands of fans that lined the fairways – that all of the guys would be here this summer. It exciting to begin seeing this statement from our Champion hold true.”

Langer is now the third big name on the Champions Tour who has confirmed to make their first appearance at the Calgary event. Earlier this spring, Shaw Charity Classic officials launched its marketing and sales efforts by announcing that last year’s Charles Schwab Cup winner, Kenny Perry, along with 1989 British Open winner, Mark Calcavecchia will headline what promises to be a star-studded field for the second annual event. Perry recently fired into the winner’s circle for the first time in 2014 after winning his third consecutive Champions Tour major by taking the Regions Tradition title.

The 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.

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.

RIDGEDALE, Mo. – Thirty-six years ago, the first Legends of Golf was such a hit that it sparked interest that led to the creation of the senior tour. The Champions Tour event is still breaking ground.

For the first time in a PGA Tour-sanctioned tournament, a par-3 course is being used. The Jack Nicklaus-designed Top of the Rock at Big Cedar Lodge Resort is no ordinary par-3 layout.

“This whole event is going to be spectacular on TV,” said Andy North, paired with Tom Watson. “I think that’s what’s going to be so interesting. Any direction the camera goes is going to be spectacular and we don’t find that very often.”

The Champions division will play 18 holes on the par-3 course Sunday, the first nine under foursomes and the second at fourball. The Legends division for players 65 and older will play nine holes of fourball.

The opening 36 holes for both divisions will consist of a fourball round on the regulation Buffalo Ridge course and two nine-hole rounds (foursomes and fourball) on the par-3 course.

Watson noted the foursomes – or alternate-shot portion – of the format.

“Plus, we’ve got the other thing, the alternate shot,” the Ryder Cup captain said. “That’s never been played officially in any PGA Tour tournament. It is in the Ryder Cup and Presidents Cup, but for official money for the Champions Tour, no, it’s never happened before.”

Nicklaus is teaming with Gary Player in The Legends division.

“I’m kind of interested in the format, really,” Nicklaus said. “I think the format using a par-3 golf course is different, something unique.”

Last year, Jeff Sluman and Brad Faxon teamed to win in Savannah, Georgia, edging Fred Funk-Mike Goodes and Kenny Perry-Gene Sauers by a stroke in fourball play. Sluman is playing alongside Funk this year, with Faxon unable to play because of a prior commitment.

“It will be interesting how this all unfolds,” Funk said. “I think marketing-wise it’s probably a great idea because you’re trying to get the concept where people can come out and play a par-3 golf course, and this is not your normal par-3 golf course.”

Mark Calcavecchia noted that the bags will lighter.

“You leave your woods in the car,” Calcavecchia said. “You just bring your 4-iron through sand wedge and it’s just a different feel. It’s going to be fun, but it’s weird not being able to take your frustration out and bash a driver as hard as you can. It’s like, `Oh, God, another 8-iron or wedge or something.'”

RIDGEDALE, Mo. – Thirty-six years ago, the first Legends of Golf was such a hit that it sparked interest that led to the creation of the senior tour. The Champions Tour event is still breaking ground.

For the first time in a PGA Tour-sanctioned tournament, a par-3 course is being used. The Jack Nicklaus-designed Top of the Rock at Big Cedar Lodge Resort is no ordinary par-3 layout.

“This whole event is going to be spectacular on TV,” said Andy North, paired with Tom Watson. “I think that’s what’s going to be so interesting. Any direction the camera goes is going to be spectacular and we don’t find that very often.”

The Champions division will play 18 holes on the par-3 course Sunday, the first nine under foursomes and the second at fourball. The Legends division for players 65 and older will play nine holes of fourball.

The opening 36 holes for both divisions will consist of a fourball round on the regulation Buffalo Ridge course and two nine-hole rounds (foursomes and fourball) on the par-3 course.

Watson noted the foursomes – or alternate-shot portion – of the format.

“Plus, we’ve got the other thing, the alternate shot,” the Ryder Cup captain said. “That’s never been played officially in any PGA Tour tournament. It is in the Ryder Cup and Presidents Cup, but for official money for the Champions Tour, no, it’s never happened before.”

Nicklaus is teaming with Gary Player in The Legends division.

“I’m kind of interested in the format, really,” Nicklaus said. “I think the format using a par-3 golf course is different, something unique.”

Last year, Jeff Sluman and Brad Faxon teamed to win in Savannah, Georgia, edging Fred Funk-Mike Goodes and Kenny Perry-Gene Sauers by a stroke in fourball play. Sluman is playing alongside Funk this year, with Faxon unable to play because of a prior commitment.

“It will be interesting how this all unfolds,” Funk said. “I think marketing-wise it’s probably a great idea because you’re trying to get the concept where people can come out and play a par-3 golf course, and this is not your normal par-3 golf course.”

Mark Calcavecchia noted that the bags will lighter.

“You leave your woods in the car,” Calcavecchia said. “You just bring your 4-iron through sand wedge and it’s just a different feel. It’s going to be fun, but it’s weird not being able to take your frustration out and bash a driver as hard as you can. It’s like, `Oh, God, another 8-iron or wedge or something.'”

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — For the second time in less than a year, Tom Pernice Jr. hit a crucial shot on the 17th hole on his way to a victory.

This time, Pernice needed one more big shot to secure the win.

Pernice birdied the second hole of a sudden-death playoff with Doug Garwood on Sunday to win the Champions Tour’s Principal Charity Classic.

“I was calm all day. I played it with the right edge and I stroked it and it went right in the hole,” Pernice said.

Pernice won for the third time on the 50-and-over tour, closing with a 3-under 69 to match Garwood at 12-under 204 at Wakonda Club.

Garwood, making only his fourth start of the season, birdied the final two holes of regulation for a 71.

They played the par-4 18th hole twice in the playoff. Pernice won with a putt from roughly 8 feet after they opened the playoff with matching pars.

Pernice’s performance was reminiscent of the 3M Championship last August in Minnesota, when he made a 45-foot putt on No. 17 to win.

He chipped in from roughly 30 feet out to take the lead on Sunday, though Garwood matched that birdie and later forced a playoff.

“I really hit the ball good all week and really kept the ball in play in the fairway when I needed to and holed some key shots at key times,” Pernice said.

Bill Glasson, Jay Haas, Mark Calcavecchia and Michael Allen finished a shot back. Glasson shot 64, Haas 67, Calcavecchia 70, and Allen 71.

Garwood opened the final round with a one-shot lead but needing to win to earn a full Champions Tour card for the next 12 months. A birdie putt from the fringe on the first hole seemed to portend well for his prospects.

But Garwood bogeyed three consecutive holes – after going par or better on the first 41 holes of the tournament – and went into the back nine tied for first.

Garwood’s fourth bogey of the round, on the par-5 13th hole, appeared to ruin his shot for a career-defining win. But Garwood rallied with clutch birdies on the last two holes to stay alive.

Those shots helped Garwood redeem himself for three-putting the final hole of a qualifying tournament with a full exemption at stake in the offseason.

“I gave it away at Q-school. Straight gave it away. Here I didn’t feel like I gave it away because I earned it with the birdies on 17 and 18,” Garwood said.

Garwood’s troubles made for a crowded leaderboard for much of the day.

Glasson began Sunday eight shots off the lead. But he jumped atop the leaderboard with the best round of the tournament and sat around for over two hours waiting to see if he’d end up in a playoff.

Haas, a three-time winner of the event, joined him in the clubhouse at 11 under with a birdie on No. 18. Allen also nearly qualified for the playoff before missing a birdie putt on No. 18.

Garwood then sent his approach on the final hole over the green, while Pernice stuck his close enough for a relatively easy winner.

“This is a great course. I love it. It’s an old classic course,” Pernice said. “I liked it from the get-go and I’m very happy with how it turned out.”

Jim Rutledge shot 72 in all three rounds to end the tournament among the group tied for 50th.

DES MOINES, Iowa – Doug Garwood shot a 7-under 65 on Saturday to take a one-shot lead after the second round of the Champions Tour’s Principal Charity Classic.

Garwood had an 11-under 133 total at Wakonda Club.

Michael Allen, the Allianz Championship winner in February, was second after a 66. Mark Calcavecchia and Tom Pernice Jr. were 9 under. Calcavecchia had a 69, and Pernice shot 67.

Garwood is a conditionally exempt player making only his fourth start of the year. His best finish was a tie for 25th in the Allianz.

DES MOINES, Iowa – Mark Calcavecchia appeared to be off to yet another slow start after only two strokes.

He managed to save par, and went on to put together his best opening round of the year.

Calcavecchia and Wes Short Jr. shot 6-under 66 on Friday at Wakonda Club to share the lead in the Champions Tour’s Principal Charity Classic. Bobby Clampett, Peter Senior and Shane Lowery were a stroke back.

Calcavecchia, who lived in nearby Laurel, Nebraska until he was 13, said the rolling hills of the Wakonda Club reminded him of the course he learned to play on. He finished third in Iowa last season, and four straight birdies on the back nine helped put him atop the leaderboard.

“I’m comfortable on the course,” Calcavecchia said. “It’s still tough, and you still have to execute under pressure and handle your nerves and stuff. But the course does suit me.”

It didn’t look that way on the first hole.

Calcavecchia sent his approach flying over the green. But he put his next shot within 10 feet and made the par putt for his first and perhaps best save of the day.

Calcavecchia entered Friday ranked 63rd in opening-round scoring average, but fifth for final rounds.

“It was looking like I was going to bogey the first hole right off the hop,” Calcavecchia said.

Short followed an eagle on the 15th hole with a bogey. But Short, who has been up and down since opening the season with 10th- and 11th-place finishes, made a birdie putt on No. 18 to tie Calcavecchia.

Short’s 66 snapped a stretch of six straight rounds of 70 or higher.

“It’s been a long road for me. I was hurt for a number of years,” said Short, who has long battled back issues. “I put a lot of work into it and it’s starting to pay off.”

Clampett, whose best finish was a tie for 29th in March, got stuck in the bunker on the par-4 12th and mishit his approach en route to a bogey. But when faced with a similar shot on the next hole, Clampett holed out from 40 feet for eagle.

It was an encouraging start for Clampett, who shot his low round of the year.

Jay Haas began his attempt to become just the third player to win the same tournament four times with a 69. But history isn’t on Haas’s side, as no one has rallied from more than two strokes down to win in the 14-year history of the Iowa tournament.

Defending champion Russ Cochran had the day’s worst round, shooting a 6-over 78.

DES MOINES, Iowa – Jay Haas is winless on the Champions Tour this season. He’s at the right place to change that this weekend.

The 60-year-old Haas has won the Principal Charity Classic three times and is the highest-ranked player in the field in the event that begins Friday at the Wakonda Club. Haas won the event at Glen Oaks in 2007, 2008 and 2012.

If Haas follows through with a victory, he’ll join Jack Nicklaus and Hale Irwin as the only players to win the same Champions Tour event four times. Nicklaus did it in the Tradition and Irwin in the Senior PGA Championship). Irwin also won the Kaanapali Classic/Turtle Bay Championship a record six times.

“I’ve been playing a lot of good golf, and that’s given me confidence, certainly,” said Haas, coming off a third-place finish last week in the Senior PGA Championship in Michigan. “But coming in here, I don’t necessarily think of it like a tennis tournament where you’re the No. 1 seed and you’re supposed to get to the finals and all that stuff. I don’t think of it in those terms because I know that, I watched these guys play and they’re all good and can kick my butt at any time.”

That might be true. But after a brief dip in 2013, Haas is again among the circuit’s top golfers.

Haas has finished in the top 10 eight times in nine events this season and has already made more money than he did in 21 tournaments in 2013. Bernhard Langer and Senior PGA winner Colin Montgomerie, who are first and second on the money list, are skipping this weekend’s event.

Ironically, Haas will be paired with Irwin in the first round on Friday.

“I can’t really put a finger on it other than I’ve done everything a little bit better,” Haas said about his resurgence. “I don’t have a weakness in my bag right now in the sense of, I like all my clubs.”

Tour rookie Joe Durant matched the low round of last week’s major with a final-round 64. Durant has notched back-to-back top 10s and should be among the handful of players poised to push Haas.

Michael Allen tied for seventh in Iowa last season and is sixth on the money list. Russ Cochran won last year after Jay Don Blake three-putted the 17th hole during the final round, but Cochran has finished in the top 10 just once in nine starts this season.

The event drew the biggest crowd in its 14-year history last year when nearly 34,000 showed up for the final round.

“The most intense fans in the country are in the Midwest. You just draw a line from Iowa, up around Minnesota over to Ohio, that’s where the intensity is. So having good tournaments, well-run tournaments in this part of the country is really important to us,” PGA Tour Commissioner Tim Finchem said after touring the course Thursday.

BENTON HARBOR, Mich. – Colin Montgomerie won the Senior PGA Championship on Sunday, finishing with a 6-under 65 for a four-stroke victory over 64-year-old Tom Watson.

It marked Montgomerie’s first victory as senior, his first win in seven years and his first in an official event in the United States. He also claimed a senior major in his fifth attempt, something he didn’t accomplish in 71 majors in his regular tour days.

The 51-year-old Scot finished at 13-under 261 at Harbor Shores. The victory was his first since he took the 2007 European Open for his 31st European Tour title.

Watson also closed with a 65.

Jay Haas and Bernhard Langer tied for third at 7 under. Haas had a 67, and Langer shot 70.

Montgomerie offered some comic relief on the final hole when he pulled his final approach some 20 yards only to get a bounce off the grandstand. The ball rolled to the middle of the green to set up a tap-in par.

Watson put a charge in the tournament when he made birdies on the second and fifth holes and started the back nine with consecutive birdies to pull within one shot of the lead. He missed a 4-foot birdie putt at the short par-5 15th hole that would have put him within one shot again.

Montgomerie made a charge of his own. He birdied Nos. 8, 9 and 10 and, with precise iron shots and clutch putting, also made birdies at 12, 14 and 15 to pull away.

He will head home to Scotland for a few weeks with a first-place check of $378,000 and his name will go on the Alfred S. Bourne Trophy. The win also netted him a lifetime exemption to the Senior PGA Championship, and 2014 exemptions for the PGA Championship, Senior British Open and U.S. Senior Open.

Watson, who made a bid to be the oldest player to win a senior event of any kind, had five consecutive pars to end his round while missing several birdie chances.

Stephen Ames carded 71 on the final day to claim 15th place.

BENTON HARBOR, Mich. –

Colin Montgomerie said he looked forward to the fun when he joined the Champions Tour.

He was clearly enjoying himself Saturday in the Senior PGA Championship when he made a winding, 30-foot birdie putt on the final hole for a 3-under 68 and a one-stroke lead.

“Bloody great,” he said about the birdie putt that took the sting out of a bogey at the 17th hole.

“It was going a bit quick. Thank God the hole got in the way. It was downhill, down grain, but it held its line and went in. It was a joyous occasion in the Montgomerie camp.”

Trying to win his first senior major after failing to capture one of golf’s four biggest events on the regular tours, the 51-year-old Scot took a 7-under 206 total into the final round at Harbor Shores.

Bernhard Langer, the 56-year-old German star who has won twice this season on the Champions Tour, was a stroke back after a 69 that included a double bogey from a buried lie in a huge sand bunker on the seventh. He will play alongside Montgomerie for the fourth consecutive round Sunday.

Marco Dawson, Bart Bryant and Kiyoshi Murota were tied for third at 5 under. Dawson had a 64, the best round of the tournament. Bryant and Murota shot 70.

Montgomerie, who said he has nothing to prove to anybody or himself in golf, is trying to win an official event for the first time on U.S. soil. He does have victories in the country in the 1998 Andersen Consulting World Championship and 2000 Skins Game.

“So I came here to enjoy one’s self,” he said. “I would like to win wherever that might be. It would be great to try and win in America. I always felt to win in America is a very difficult thing to do, on an away patch, on golf courses that are usually suited to the American style of play.”

Langer, a two-time Masters champion, has 20 victories on the 50-and-over – including majors at the 2010 U.S. Senior Open and Senior British Open. He’s looking forward to playing with Montgomerie again, and has a plan.

“I still need to play very aggressive, smart aggressive as I call it, and take my chances because Colin is playing very solid golf and there’s a whole bunch of other guys,” he said. “If any of them post a 6 or 7 under in front of us, then we have our work cut out to just stay in touch.”

Tom Watson, among the six-way tie for first through 36 holes, had a 72 to drop four shots behind.

Dawson made the biggest move of the day with nine birdies. He said the bounces went his way on the tricky Jack Nicklaus-designed greens.

“You’re going to get some luck and you’re going to get some bad luck,” he said. “You just have to be patient on the greens.”

John Cook, who last week in the Regions Tradition lost the lead on a double-hit confirmed later by video, birdied three of the final four holes for a 68 to join Watson, Jay Haas (70), David Frost (69) and Gary Hallberg (70) at 3 under.

Cook said another good round will be needed to make up ground on Montgomerie and Langer.

“Those guys have won a lot of tournaments, so it’s not like somebody’s up there that shouldn’t be there,” he said. “You’ve got to keep them in sight and kind of pick your spots.”

Kenny Perry, who won the Regions Tradition for his third Champions Tour major title in less than a year, was five strokes back at 2 under after a 66. Two years ago at Harbor Shores in the 2012 Senior PGA, he set a championship and course record with a final-round 62.

“I think what I’m going to need to do is shoot another 62,” Perry said. “At least I’ve got a shot. At least I shot a number today to put me in some kind of position. If I shoot one of those miracle rounds tomorrow, I can do it.”

Stephen Ames carded a 72 in the 3rd round to place him in a tie for 11th.