TSN tees up new expanded live coverage of Canada’s national golf championship as Graham DeLaet and David Hearn lead the field of Canadians competing at the 106^th RBC Canadian Open. TSN has tripled its live coverage of the first two rounds of the tournament this year and will deliver more than 10 consecutive hours of live coverage beginning Thursday, July 23 at 7:30 a.m. ET on TSN4 and TSN5.

TSN has expanded its coverage of the first and second rounds this year through a partnership with PGA TOUR LIVE, the PGA TOUR’s new digital subscription service. The newly launched PGA TOUR LIVE features exclusive, live, Thursday and Friday morning coverage of two morning featured groups at more than 30 PGA TOUR events per season. PGA TOUR LIVE marks the first time ever that fans have been provided with complete, live coverage of morning marquee groups at these events.

TSN golf analyst Bob Weeks files daily reports for SPORTSCENTRE all week long from Glen Abbey, delivering post-round reaction, one-on-one interviews, and more. Fans can also visit TSN.ca for frequent columns and analysis from Weeks, as well as daily highlights and up-to-the-minute news from the RBC Canadian Open.

The RBC Canadian Open returns to its signature course this year – the famed Glen Abbey Golf Club in Oakville, Ont. DeLaet and Hearn headline the 14 Canadians participating in golf’s third-oldest national championship. They take on a world-class field featuring many of golf’s elite players, including Jason Day, Bubba Watson, Matt Kuchar, Ernie Els, Angel Cabrera, Jim Furyk, Luke Donald, and defending RBC Canadian Open champion Tim Clark.

TSN’s live coverage of the RBC Canadian Open is available for live streaming and on-demand viewing to TSN subscribers through TSN GO. Viewers can also watch French-language coverage on RDS.

OAKVILLE, Ont. – Golfers at the Canadian Open should put away their umbrellas and grab their sunscreen.

After rain and wind delayed the British Open and forced the first Monday finish since 1988, weather is setting up almost perfectly for Canada’s national open at Glen Abbey Golf Club.

Now that the wet, wild and windy time in Scotland is over, the almost 30 golfers turning around to play the RBC Canadian Open are looking forward to some dry weather and a course that provides a stark contrast to St. Andrews.

“You’re expecting hard, tough conditions at the British Open, at The Open Championship. But not unplayable weather and conditions,” said Jason Day, who tied for fourth at the British. “You can attack this golf course a lot more.”

Golf Canada CEO Scott Simmons knocked on the wood table in front of him even discussing the weather. But the forecast is for mostly a clean four rounds of play.

That’s a world of difference from the wind-beaten, rain-soaked British Open that was forced to finish Monday. The Canadian Open, back at Glen Abbey for the 27th time, is a more predictable style of game.

“You can get a lot more unlucky over there,” said Canadian Graham DeLaet, who finished tied for 68th at the British. “Usually when you hit the ball on the fairway, it stays on the fairway here. When you hit a ball and land the ball on the green, you know about how far it’s going to go before it (stops).”

The charm of links golf in Scotland and the challenge that presents in one of golf’s four majors is valuable. But the Canadian Open should be a more enjoyable experience for players and those watching in person and on television.

One element of that is the weather, where temperatures are forecasted to hover just below 30 degrees and three of four days shouldn’t have rain. There’s a 30 per cent chance of rain Saturday afternoon.

“It’s pretty exciting to think of a Canadian Open no rain, isn’t it?” Canadian David Hearn said.

Day, world No. 3 Bubba Watson, No. 7 Jim Furyk, DeLaet and Hearn are among the players who barely dried out before getting on the charter flight back to Toronto for the Canadian Open. The Monday finish gave them a late start to their preparations

But their first look at the course was a favourable one, even if wind might make the greens faster and raise the degree of difficulty.

“It’s in unbelievable shape, the best I’ve ever seen it,” DeLaet said. “It’s firm, quick. There are some balls rolling down the fairway. If you get something downwind, you can hit one hard.”

American Hunter Mahan said driving the ball will be more important at the Canadian Open, unlike the British, where the hilly fairways are so vast.

“You’ve got to hit it well off the tee here, you’ve got to put the ball in play,” Mahan said. “Good aggressive iron play is going to be rewarded.”

The 524-yard par-5 18th will give players plenty of eagle opportunities and the fan excitement the comes with it. But players still consider the Canadian Open demanding.

Hearn, a native of Brantford, Ont., doesn’t want this to be easy and doesn’t mind if Glen Abbey has “a little bit of teeth” this time around.

“It really comes down to how you feel about the tee shots and how you’re going to be able to give yourself birdie chances,” Hearn said. “It still comes down to being able to control your ball off the tee and give yourself chances coming into the greens.”

DeLaet and Hearn headline the group of 16 Canadians in the field. No Canadian has won this tournament since Pat Fletcher in 1954.

Defending champion Tim Clark is back, one of eight previous winners: Furyk, Scott Piercy, Sean O’Hair, Nathan Green, Chez Reavie, Vijah Singh and John Rollins.

Watson, who missed the cut at the British Open, is a two-time Masters winner, but he’s taking special value in the Canadian Open in part because his wife, Angie, is from Pickering, Ont.

“Any trophy is a good one,” Watson said. “Any time you can hold a trophy – major, non-major, doesn’t matter – holding a trophy is what we’re trying to do.”

MARKHAM, Ont. – RBC Canadian Open organizers are adding a lot more red and white to the expanse of green at Glen Abbey Golf Club.

First-year tournament director Brent McLaughlin heard from players that there’s not enough “Canadiana” at the RBC Canadian Open. They’ll get their wish on the course this week with the addition of many Canadian flags, including a 30-by-15-feet one behind the 18th green.

It’s all an effort to make the RBC Canadian Open more Canadian.

“I think we’ve struck a balance of the Canadiana,” McLaughlin said in a phone interview last week. “We’ve lost touch with kind of the stuff that makes us uniquely Canadian: the Mounties and kind of those stereotypes that you always hear.

“I know we don’t like it when it’s talked about about us, but it’s nice when we can sort of say, ‘Yeah, you’re in Canada. It’s a little bit different here.”‘

Sixteen Canadian players are expected to be in the field for Canada’s national open. That group features Graham DeLaet, David Hearn, Adam Hadwin and recent PGA Tour winner Nick Taylor.

No Canadian has won this event since Pat Fletcher in 1954. Mike Weir, the 2003 Masters winner who withdrew for personal reasons to take a leave of absence from golf, came the closest when he was a playoff runner-up to Vijay Singh in 2004.

Golf Canada CEO Scott Simmons said the organization had to close the gates and stop selling tickets at Glen Abbey twice: when Tiger Woods was at his peak and won in 2000 and then when Weir had the Sunday lead in 2004.

“It just shows you what can happen when a homegrown does well on Canadian soil, and I hope we see that (this week), come Sunday we’ve got some Canadian flags at the top of the leaderboard,” Simmons said Sunday after the inaugural Pan Am Games golf tournament.

Of course the event will be a smashing success and keep up the Pan Am nationalism in the Toronto area if a Canadian is close to the lead this weekend. But there’s no safe bet on that, what with a field that includes world No. 3 Bubba Watson, No. 7 Jim Furyk and No. 9 Jason Day, who tied for fourth at the British Open.

Even though Brandt Snedeker pulled out with a hip injury, Simmons considers this one of the deeper fields the RBC Canadian Open has had in a while. That’s certainly a selling point, but McLaughlin also instituted “Red And White Day” on Friday to encourage fans and golfers to show off national spirit and added food trucks serving things like poutine and Beavertails.

“This is a festival,” he said. “It’s just a fun atmosphere to get involved with. More so than just focusing on the talent and the Canadian players and anybody in the field in general, it needs to be an event. People love events.”

People don’t love traffic, a Toronto hallmark that’s worse given that the Pan Am Games are going on throughout the region. With high-occupancy lanes set up for three or more people for the duration of the Games, McLaughlin said the RBC Canadian Open has done everything possible to warn people what to expect.

Golf Canada will offer shuttle service from the Oakville and Bronte GO stations Friday, Saturday and Sunday, and trips home on those days are free with a RBC Canadian Open ticket. Kids under 17 are also free, part of the reason McLaughlin thinks the HOV lanes won’t stunt any crowds.

“Our statistics have shown that most people that attend sporting events and other functions travel in larger groups,” he said. “So I think it actually helps us. It’s almost like a true event feel having the 3-plus. I don’t think it’s going to affect us.”

If anything, the timing of the Pan Am Games, where Canada is enjoying substantial success on home soil, could benefit the RBC Canadian Open. Simmons hopes the 2010 Olympics and “Own the podium” movements stir up more nationalism at Glen Abbey.

“We’ve always known to be a very respectful bunch,” Simmons said. “But it’s time to kind of puff our chests out and be proud of who we are: our country, our players.”

ALBERTON, Ont. – Justin Shin of Pitt Meadow, B.C., David Mathis of Wakeforest, N.C., Roberto Castro of Alpharetta, Ga., and Josh Teater of Lexington, Ky., have earned their way into the field for this week’s RBC Canadian Open at Glen Abbey Golf Club in Oakville, Ont.

Shin led scoring in the Monday Final Qualifier with a 7-under-par round of 64 at Heron Point Golf Links in Alberton, Ont. After opening with a bogey, Shin would go to record six birdies and an eagle to earn low qualifying honours.

“I was pretty pumped for this week and I’m really excited,” said Shin. “It has been my dream to play in the RBC Canadian Open. I’ve wanted to play it ever since I was a junior. I really enjoyed it out there today with my buddy caddying for me.”

Shin is currently ranked fourth on the PGA TOUR China Order of Merit with a win at the 2015 United Investment Real Estate Wuhan Open. He recently finished T6 in the Mackenzie Tour-PGA TOUR Canada’s The Players Cup in Winnipeg, Man.

Finishing with a share of second were Mathis and Castro with rounds of 6-under 65 while Teater secured the final RBC Canadian Open spot in a playoff after carding a 5-under 66. Teater beat out Eric Hawerchuk of Barrie, Ont. in an extra hole to earn the final Qualifier spot.

With the addition of Justin Shin, a total of 16 Canadians are set to compete in the 2015 RBC Canadian Open.

Full results from the 2015 RBC Canadian Open Final Qualifier are available here.

ST. ANDREWS, Scotland – Zach Johnson cradled the silver claret jug in his arms. Jordan Spieth let it slip through his fingers.

Spieth was right where he wanted to be in his spirited bid for the Grand Slam – tied for the lead with two holes to go in the British Open, right after making a 50-foot birdie putt that made it feel as though he were destined to win at St. Andrews for his third straight major.

And he was still there at the very end Monday, but only as a spectator.

The slam gone, Spieth graciously returned to the steps of the Royal & Ancient clubhouse to watch Johnson finish off a sterling performance of his own. Johnson rolled in a 30-foot birdie putt on the 18th hole that got him into a three-man playoff, and he outlasted Louis Oosthuizen and Marc Leishman to win the British Open.

Johnson described himself as a “normal guy” from Cedar Rapids, Iowa, when he won the Masters in 2007.

And now?

“I’m a normal guy from Cedar Rapids … with a green jacket that has something that most guys don’t get to drink out of right now,” Johnson said, smiling as he looked at golf’s oldest trophy with his name etched alongside most of the game’s greatest players.

Spieth was close to having his name on that jug. No one ever came closer to the third leg of the Grand Slam.

He fought back from taking four putts for a double bogey on No. 8 with back-to-back birdies. He rolled in that long birdie putt on the 16th for a share of the lead. After missing an 8-foot par putt on the tough 17th hole, Spieth needed a birdie on the closing hole to join the playoff.

“Up and down for a playoff,” was the last thing Spieth said to caddie Michael Greller from about 90 yards away. It was too far right and quite hard enough, and it rolled to the edge of the Valley of Sin short of the green. His birdie attempt up the slope stayed inches left of the cup, and he tapped in for a 69.

“We gave it a great effort,” Spieth said.

At least he was in elite company. Arnold Palmer, Jack Nicklaus and Tiger Woods – the three biggest names in golf over the last 50 years – were the only other players to capture the Masters and U.S. Open in a bid to sweep the four professional majors in the same year. All came up short in the British Open. Spieth was the only one who had a share of the lead so deep in the final round.

“I’m going to go home and reflect,” Spieth said. “It won’t hurt too bad. It’s not like I really lost it on the last hole, and 17 was brutally challenging. I just didn’t hit a great putt there, and I just picked the wrong wedge out of the bag on 18. I made a lot of the right decisions down the stretch and certainly closed plenty of tournaments out. And this just wasn’t one of those. It’s hard to do that every single time.

“I won’t beat myself up too bad, because I do understand that.”

It took a superlative effort from Johnson, who now has two majors among his 12 PGA Tour victories, an astounding record and a reminder that a good wedge game and a putter can still go a long way in this era of power.

Johnson was in tears when he was interviewed off the green.

“I’m grateful. I’m humbled. I’m honored,” Johnson said. “This is the birthplace of the game, and that jug means so much in sports.”

On a tense afternoon of shadows and showers on the Old Course, Johnson closed with a 6-under 66. He was the first in at 15-under 273.

Leishman, who considered giving up golf in April when his wife nearly died of a rare respiratory illness, fell out of the lead with a bogey on the 16th hole. He had a birdie putt for the win on the 18th that was wide left and gave him a 66. Oosthuizen made a 10-foot par putt on No. 17 to stay one shot behind, and he delivered a clutch moment of his own with a wedge to 5 feet for birdie and a 69 to join the playoff.

Graham DeLaet of Weyburn, Sask. finished as the low Canadian and ended the tournament at 1-under par, tied for 68th.

It was the first British Open playoff since Stewart Cink beat Tom Watson at Turnberry in 2009, and the first involving more than two players since 2002 at Muirfield, the year Woods failed in his bid for the third leg of the slam.

Johnson matched Oosthuizen’s birdie on the first hole and pulled ahead with another birdie on No. 2. Both made bogey on the 17th – Oosthuizen by missing a 5-foot putt to tie Johnson – and the South African had one last chance. Oosthuizen, who won the British Open when it last was at St. Andrews in 2010, had a 12-foot birdie putt to force sudden death. It touched the left side of the cup and kept going, and Johnson was introduced as the “champion golfer of the year.”

Spieth showed guts over the final two hours, and class when his bid was over. He stuck around to hug Johnson before he walked over to get his trophy.

Just two weeks ago, Spieth went to Iowa to take part in a charity event for Johnson before playing – and winning – the John Deere Classic. He was questioned for not coming over to St. Andrews to prepare for a rare occasion of attempting the Grand Slam. Spieth put that to rest with a performance that kept him around the lead all week.

It was the first British Open to end on Monday since 1988 because of a brief rain delay Friday morning and 10 1/2-hour wind delay on Saturday. But what a show. With 14 players separated by three shots, no one seized control the entire day. Eight players had at least a share of the lead at one point. Most of them fell away.

Spieth kept a golfing nation in suspense until the very end. Now, he goes to the PGA Championship with a tiny piece of history left to chase. Woods in 2000 and Ben Hogan in 1953 are the only other players to win three majors in a year, and no one has ever swept the three American majors.

At 21, he can only hope he gets another shot at the slam. Palmer, Nicklaus and Woods never did.

MARKHAM, Ont. – When Graham DeLaet checked his golf clubs with Aer Lingus for his transatlantic flight to the British Open, bewilderment followed.

After a series of Twitter posts from DeLaet, expressing concern that no one knew where they were, the clubs were delivered 54 hours later. When the Weyburn, Sask., native opened up his travel bag, he found dirty clubs that looked like they went through a battle.

“You just can’t make this stuff up,” DeLaet tweeted.

DeLaet went on to play St. Andrews after caddy Julien Trudeau cleaned up the clubs, tweeting a photo with the message, “like new.”

Even though the clubs were no worse for wear, DeLaet won’t have to have to risk the same aggravation on his way back to North America.

DeLaet is one about 30 golfers travelling from Scotland to Toronto on Golf Canada’s charter flight for the RBC Canadian Open. It’s an annual tradition that helps ensure a strong field for Canada’s national open the week after a major championship.

“It’s the single biggest thing that we’ve got going for us,” said Golf Canada chief championship officer Bill Paul, who’s in Scotland organizing the charter. “It’s a necessary perk that we have and a very, very valuable perk that we have.”

It became especially important when weather delays forced the first Monday finish since 1988. Paul had to adjust on the fly.

“That’s why we need someone over there because of things exactly like this,” Golf Canada CEO Scott Simmons said Sunday. “We’ve been working on this for months, but the schedule changes.”

Paul was the Canadian Open tournament director from 1993 until 2014 and has organized the charter since it began in 2007. The 56-year-old called it a huge expense but one that makes a difference in getting the best players to commit.

Of course the US$5.8 million purse and a winner’s share over $1 million aren’t too shabby, either.

Each first-class seat goes for $1,500. Paul typically starts reserving spots three months in advance, but players’ plans are often in flux.

“Once the players start to go to work on the golf course, you’re sort of at the mercy of them when they come off,” Paul said in a phone interview from St. Andrews.

Needing to figure out customs and other logistics along the way, Paul lined up three buses to leave St. Andrews at various times. His original target was for an 8 p.m. local time takeoff Sunday night, though of course the postponement turned it into a Monday night scheduled departure.

Paul is always thinking about what could change.

“If we’ve got the champion there, I’ve got to make a decision: Do we fly without him? Am I going to try to find another way for him back to Toronto?” he said. “There’s a lot of different scenarios.”

There’s certainly no shortage of demand. Start with Canadians DeLaet and David Hearn, add Team RBC golfers like Ernie Els, Luke Donald, Jason Day and Jim Furyk, and it’s not hard to fill up a plane.

It also nice that the flight is a direct trip from Edinburgh Airport to Toronto’s Pearson International, which is situated a short drive from Glen Abbey Golf Club.

“It’s just a convenient way to get there,” Paul said. “It’s not a luxurious thing. When you’re over the pond, you’re that far away, this just provides a hassle-free way of getting from one event to the other event.”

Simmons was at Hoylake last year and got a first-hand look at the charter’s smooth operation and appreciates its value to players.

“When you can make it that easy for them, it just gives them that much more opportunity to say, ‘Yeah, I’m going to come play Canada,”’ Simmons said. “These guys play week after week, after week, after week. At some point they have to take weeks off, so you don’t want to give them any reason to have our week as a week off.”

Inside the ropes of the 1990 PGA TOUR, no one performed better than Wayne Levi.

Sure Greg Norman put a few more dollars in his bank account. The Australian finished first on the money list with $1.17-million to Levi’s $1.02-million. Sure Nick Faldo won both the Masters and British Open in 1990.

But nobody won four times like Levi did in his season to remember. That’s why when the time arrived for his peers to vote they named Levi the the tour’s player of the year.

“It’s just been an incredible year,” said Levi after he was presented with the award. “I’d never thought I’d have this kind of a year. I never thought I’d win as many tournaments as I have, have the success I’ve had.”

The golfer from Little Falls, N.Y., then 38, put an exclamation point on his season when he won the 1990 Canadian Open at Glen Abbey Golf Club in mid-September with a 10-under total for a one-stroke victory over Ian Baker-Finch and Jim Woodward.

Levi jumped out to the 36-hole lead with back-to-back rounds of 68. The second round was more impressive because of the nasty winds and thunderstorms that interrupted play, and Levi joked afterwards that he didn’t want too late of a tee time on Sunday afternoon because he wanted to watch his beloved New York Giants play against the rival Dallas Cowboys.

About the same time the Giants, who would win the Super Bowl a few months later, put the finishing touches on the Cowboys in Dallas for a 28-7 win, Levi holed his title-clinching putt on the 18^th green.

“To win four in a year, that’s the sort of thing you think of Jack Nicklaus or Tom Watson doing back in the 1970s,” said Baker-Finch, who would go on to win the British Open 10 months later.

Despite his outstanding start at Glen Abbey, Levi checked in with a third-round 72 to trail 54-hole leader Buddy Gardner by three shots. But Gardner faded early on the final day with a double-bogey at No. 6. Meanwhile, Levi notched birdies at Nos. 8, 12 and 13 to take the lead for good.

He added a birdie at the par-5 16^th, but bogey No. 17 to make the closing hole tense for his two-putt par.

“I always wondered what it would be like to be a national champion, what it would be like to be a celebrity as the No. 1 golfer in Canada or Poland or Romania. I’ll put this on my resume,” the colourful Levi said afterwards.

The knock on him was Levi simply didn’t practice enough. Rather than practice when he returned to his upstate New York home in between events, he enjoyed spending time with his wife Judy, daughters Michelle, Lauren and Chris as well as son Brian.

What spare time he had left after his family was divided between his hobby as a stock market speculator and his Giants.

“Some guys hunt and fish. I follow the stock market,” said Levi, who visited the Toronto Stock Exchange floor when he returned to the area the following spring to promote the 1991 Canadian Open.

There were no signs that Levi was about to enjoy a breakout year in 1990. He had not contended in any majors throughout his career and hadn’t won since the Atlanta Classic in June 1985.

Prior to his first win in 1990 in May, Levi had missed the cut in 6 of his previous 11 events. So he visited his long-time friend and instructor Rick Christie in Tampa Bay. He changed putters and made an adjustment to his setup.

Poof, Levi piled up wins at Atlanta, the Western Open in Chicago, Hartford and at Glen Abbey in four months.

“It was something I didn’t expect, but I also wasn’t surprised,” Levi said.

The win at Glen Abbey was his final career victory on the PGA Tour. But his impressive play put him on the U.S. Ryder Cup team a year later and on the 1991 U.S. World Cup team with Joey Sindelar.

He did win twice on the Champions Tour in 2003 and 2004. But again, joked that he never planned to play with the 50-and-over set until the stock market tailspin in the late 1990s and he lost “millions.”

“I never wanted to play out here,” Levi said about the Champions Tour. “But I’ve got a family to take care of, so here I am.”

He certainly took care of things at Glen Abbey 25 years ago.

OPELIKA, Ala. — Scott Piercy won the Barbasol Championship on Sunday for his third PGA Tour title, closing with a 6-under 65 for a three-stroke victory.

The 36-year-old Las Vegas player made a 57-foot birdie putt on the second hole en route to his first victory since the 2012 RBC Canadian Open. Tied for the third-round lead with Ricky Barnes, Piercy birdied three of four holes starting on No. 13 and finished at 19 under on Grand National’s Lake Course.

“I struck it beautifully all week and made enough putts to get it done,” Piercy said.

He began the season on a major medical extension after surgery on his right arm early last year, sparking initial fears about how he’d fare upon his return.

“It’s been a long road,” Piercy said. “My whole goal after coming back from surgery was to come back better. The way I played (Sunday) compared to my last two victories was a lot better.

“I struck the ball so well, so I’d say I’m kind of right where I imagined I would be.

He had also finished second at the Sony Open in Hawaii before capturing the inaugural Alabama event for players who didn’t make the British Open field.

Piercy had a bogey and double bogey on the first four holes Thursday after arriving the previous morning and not getting in a practice round. He appeared quite comfortable on the course after that.

Birmingham native Will Wilcox was second after a 67, virtually guaranteeing a PGA Tour card for next season in just 13 starts. It was his second straight top-10 finish.

“That’s something I never thought in a million years I would have done,” he said.

Wilcox closed with two straight birdies, pumping his fists and hollering after sinking a 60-foot birdie putt on the closing hole. The former UAB player had once made dough at a local pizza place during a short time living in neighboring Auburn and estimated he had 50-60 friends and family members on hand.

“Having my family here, you always dream about doing something like that in front of them,” Wilcox said. “Just the good vibes were flowing this week. It just worked out so well. My aunt and uncles, they’d never seen me play. The fact that I could finish solo second in front of them was pretty shocking.”

Barnes, University of Alabama junior Robby Shelton and South Korea’s Whee Kim tied for third at 14 under. Shelton shot 67, Kim 69, and Barnes 70.

Shelton, a two-time All-American, had four straight rounds in the 60s.

“It was amazing,” said Shelton, from Mobile. “I played well, that’s all I could ask for. To do this with a sponsor exemption, it’s great. I mean, I’m speechless right now.”

Barnes was seeking his first PGA Tour victory in 202 starts, but finished with a 70 and bogeyed the final hole. It was his best finish since taking second at the 2009 U.S. Open, the only other time he shared a 54-hole lead.

The round was delayed 1 hour, 20 minutes because of rain and lightning before the leaders teed off.

Canadian Roger Sloan posted an even-par 71 today to finish at 5-under for the competition and T48.

ST. ANDREWS, Scotland – For a place dripping with centuries of history, St. Andrews got more than it could have wanted Sunday.

Jordan Spieth punched his golf bag in frustration after a careless bogey, perhaps sensing the British Open was slipping away. Just like that, and because this is what Spieth does in big moments, he salvaged his bid for a Grand Slam. He made three straight birdies. He took 10 putts on the inward nine. And when he walked off the 18th green, he had a 6-under 66 and was one shot behind with one round left.

“I’m going to play to win,” Spieth said. “I’m not playing for a place. I don’t want to place third tomorrow. I want to win.”

But if there is history in the making at the home of golf, it no longer has to come from just Spieth.

Fans who filled the two-story grandstand and watched from the tops of buildings on Golf Place witnessed a moment not seen at St. Andrews in 88 years – an amateur in the lead going into the final round of the British Open.

Paul Dunne, the 22-year-old from Ireland, rolled in putts like this was the prestigious St. Andrews Links Trophy for amateurs instead of the oldest championship in golf. He played bogey-free for a 66 and shared the lead with former Open champion Louis Oosthuizen and Jason Day.

Bobby Jones is the last amateur to win the British Open in 1930 when he came from one shot behind in the final round. He was the last amateur to lead after 54 holes three years earlier at St. Andrews, and he won the claret jug that year, too.

Can it happen again?

“It’s surreal I’m leading the Open, but I can easily believe that I shot the three scores that I shot,” Dunne said. “If we were playing an amateur event here, I wouldn’t be too surprised by the scores I shot. It’s just lucky that it happens to be in the biggest event in the world.

“Hopefully, I can do it again tomorrow,” he said. “But whether I do or not, I’ll survive either way.”

The way the weather-delayed Open ended on Sunday, expect just about anything.

Oosthuizen, the last player to lift the claret jug at St. Andrews in 2010 and a runner-up at the U.S. Open last month, birdied three of his last five holes for a 67. Day is just as big of a threat. He shot 67 and shared the lead for the second straight major, and he has challenged in four of them since 2011.

They were at 12-under 214, one shot ahead of Spieth with plenty of others that cannot be dismissed Fourteen players were separated by three shots. Half of them were major champions, and there was yet another amateur among them – 21-year-old Jordan Niebrugge of Oklahoma State.

Such an opportunity might not come around again for Spieth. Only three other players won the first two legs of the Grand Slam since the modern version began in 1960. Arnold Palmer, Jack Nicklaus and Tiger Woods only got one shot at it, and none ever started the final round of the British Open so close to the lead.

And so it was Spieth, a 21-year-old Texan with an uncanny sense of occasion, who brought the gray, old town to life in a mixture of sunshine and rain. He rolled in birdie putts on the 10th, 11th and 12th holes to share the lead. He saved par from the high grass on the 13th, stuffed his approach to 4 feet for birdie on the 15th and made another tough par save on the Road Hole at the 17th.

A victory would send him to the PGA Championship with a shot at the Grand Slam, and at worse put him in elite company. Ben Hogan in 1953 is the only other player to capture the Masters, U.S. Open and British Open in the same year.

“Only one person has ever done it before. That opportunity very rarely comes around,” Spieth said. “And I’d like to have a chance to do something nobody has ever done. … To be able to go into the last major and accomplish something that’s never been done in our sport is something that only comes around to a couple people ever. And I’d like to be one of those people to have that happen.”

Rarely has the Old Course been as easy as it was Sunday.

One day after raging wind off the Eden Estuary caused a 10-hour delay and forced a Monday finish, the flags were soaked from passing showers and limp from no wind. The leaderboards were loaded with birdies, and seven players had at least a share of the lead at some point in the third round.

That’s what made Dustin Johnson’s collapse so shocking. With a one-shot lead after powering his way around St. Andrews for 36 holes, he was the last player in the field to make a birdie Sunday, and that wasn’t until the 15th hole. He followed with three straight bogeys for a 75 to fall five shots behind.

Spieth, the youngest professional in the field, seemed calm despite the historic moment in front of him.

His goal at the start of the week was to treat the British Open like any other tournament he was trying to win. Even during the long delay on Saturday, he said he hasn’t thought much about the slam. There is no escaping it now, and Spieth doesn’t see that as a problem.

“If I have a chance coming down the stretch, if it creeps in, I’ll embrace it,” he said. “I’ll embrace the opportunity that presents itself. As far as handling it, I don’t look at it as a negative thing. I look at it almost as an advantage. Why should it add more pressure in a negative way?”

The final four players joining the 2015 RBC Canadian Open field will be determined Monday following the conclusion of final qualifying play at Heron Point Golf Links in Alberton, Ont.

Sixty-three players, many of whom have earned their way via the three regional qualifying events across Canada, will battle over 18 holes of stroke-play in hopes of competing in the 2015 RBC Canadian Open being held July 20-26 at Glen Abbey Golf Club in Oakville, Ont.

A total of 38 Canadians will take to Heron Point on Monday, including Team Canada Young Pro Squad members Albin Choi of Toronto and Mackenzie Hughes of Dundas, Ont. Also looking to join the 14 Canadians already confirmed as part of the RBC Canadian Open field are Team Canada Development Squad member Étienne Papineau of St-Jean-Sur-Richelieu, Que., and Danny King of Milton, Ont., who recently captured the PGA of Canada and PGA of Ontario Championships.

Click here for pairings, start times and results for RBC Canadian Open Final Qualifying on Monday, July 20. Live scoring will not be available and results will be available as players complete their rounds.