CALGARY – With a sore back that has limited him to playing just five Champions Tour events this season, Fred Couples knows that defending his Shaw Charity Classic title this weekend won’t be an easy task.

Fortunately for him, he’s been known to tear it up at Canyon Meadows Golf and Country Club.

Couples won last year’s event at the Calgary course in thrilling fashion by chipping in for eagle on the par-5, 18th hole to shoot a course record 9-under 61 before beating Billy Andrade in a one-hole playoff.

“To be honest, when I chipped it in, I didn’t know I shot 61, I just knew I had a really good round,” said Couples, 55, who has won 11 times in six seasons on the Champions Tour. “I haven’t shot many 61s in my life and it was a good one here.”

In order to win back-to-back titles, Couples will have to fend off challenges from the likes of Charles Schwab Cup points race leader Colin Montgomerie and Jeff Maggert, who has already won a pair of majors – the Regions Tradition in May and the U.S. Senior Open Championship in June – this season.

“The main thing is I like the course,” said Couples. “I feel like I should play well here and I want to play here every year and hopefully in the next few years win it again before I get too old.

“I grew up in Seattle and we don’t play a ton of courses that remind me of Jefferson Park where I grew up playing. I like the greens, I like the shape of the holes and I seem to play well here.”

This will be Montgomerie’s first time competing in Calgary, while Maggert is looking to improve upon his performance from last year when he finished in a tie for 27th place at 6 under.

“I had a great start obviously, winning a couple majors, and I’m in position to make a run for the Charles Schwab Cup,” said Maggert, who sits third in the standings behind Montgomerie and Bernhard Langer, the latter of whom isn’t competing in Calgary this weekend. “My game’s in good shape, so looking forward to a good week here. Last year was my first time here. I thought the golf course was fabulous, so I’m looking forward to getting back.”

Other golfers in the top 10 in the points race who are competing in Calgary include Kevin Sutherland (fifth), Joe Durant (sixth), Lee Janzen (seventh), Esteban Toledo (eighth), Andrade (ninth) and Woody Austin (10th).

Couples will start the first round on Friday morning in a group with Montgomerie and Miguel Angel Jimenez, who ranks 15th in the Charles Schwab Cup points standings despite playing in only five Champions Tour events so far this season.

“I have the game to win any week,” said Jimenez, who won the opening event of the season, the Mitsubishi Electric Championship at Hualalai on Jan. 25 in Hawaii. “You have to respect the rest of the guys. They’re very good players, competitors, and anyone can win the tournament. My game is there – just keep passionate, keep playing golf and let things happen.”

Meanwhile, Maggert will play in a group on Friday with Mark O’Meara and Calgary’s Stephen Ames, who finished well back of the field last year at 4-over par through three rounds of play.

“It’s nice to come home and see a lot of familiar faces walking around, which is beautiful,” said Ames, who grew up in Trinidad and Tobago before becoming a Canadian citizen in 2003.

The field also features four other Canadians in Rod Spittle of Niagara Falls, Ont., Calgary’s Darryl James as well as Jim Rutledge and Rick Gibson, both from Victoria.

BLAINE, Minn. – Comfortably in front, Kenny Perry felt uneasy for most of his 18 holes Sunday.

Afterward, he couldn’t have been much happier.

Perry breezed to his second straight victory in the Champions Tour’s 3M Championship, shooting a 4-under 68 for a four-stroke victory over Bernhard Langer, Scott Dunlap and Kevin Sutherland.

After shooting a 61 on Saturday to take a four-stroke lead, Perry had six birdies and two bogeys in the final round to finish at 18-under 198. He became the first player to successfully defend a title in the tournament’s 23-year history, winning for the eighth time on the 50-and-over tour.

Last year, Perry made a 15-foot birdie putt on the final hole to beat Langer by a stroke at TPC Twin Cities.

“I like being the chaser. You’re relaxed, you’re free, you’re going, you’re charging, you’re going after everything,” Perry said. “When you got a four- or five-shot lead, you’re playing safe, you’re playing not to mess up, and that’s a hard way to play golf.”

Langer closed with a 67, and Dunlap and Sutherland each shot 68.

In seven appearances in the event, Langer has won twice (2009 and 2012) and finished second three times.

“The putts didn’t drop. I had a bunch of opportunities and I shot 5-under, but if I putt well it could have been 9 or 10 under,” he said.

Marco Dawson, the Senior British Open winner last week, had a 68 to finish fifth at 13 under. Dealing with a painful back, Minnesota native Tom Lehman, who led after a first-round 64, shot a 69 to finish sixth at 12 under.

The 54-year-old Perry is 46 under for his last seven rounds in the event. In five tournament appearances, he has two wins, a second, third and seventh.

“Kenny Perry is just better on this course,” Langer said. “It’s his length that really suits him here.”

Perry leads the tour in driving distance, averaging just under 300 yards.

“When you can play mid-irons instead of a hybrid or a wood, you’ve got a huge advantage and you can actually stop the ball a little bit,” Perry said.

Perry opened a five-shot lead with a birdie at No. 10. He had a bogey on the par-4 14th, dropping his lead back to four, but responded with a birdie two holes later.

Knowing the tournament was pretty much over with his birdie at 16, Perry still couldn’t relax with water on the par-3 17th – which he double-bogeyed Friday – and the par-5 18th.

“This tournament’s never really over `til it’s over,” he said.

The day didn’t start out well for Perry when his four-shot lead after the second round quickly dropped to two after a first-hole bogey coupled with a birdie by Sutherland.

Each player birdied two of the next four holes, before Perry birdied the par-5 sixth for three-shot cushion. It expanded to four when Sutherland recoded bogey on the par-3 eighth.

“To Kenny’s credit, he played fantastic golf all day, and I slowed down,” Sutherland said. “I didn’t make any birdies until 18,”

Sutherland was a cumulative 13 under on his first five holes during the tournament, 1 under on the others.

“I gave myself a chance, I got off to a really good start, gave myself an opportunity, but, unfortunately, wasn’t able to extend it,” he said.

Canadian Stephen Ames finished T7 with a final round of 4-under 68.

BLAINE, Minn. – Thoughts of a 59 crept into Kenny Perry’s mind early in his record-tying round Saturday in the Champions Tour’s 3M Championship.

The defending champion didn’t get that low, but had a hole-in-one and matched the tournament record with an 11-under 61 to take a four-stroke lead into the final round.

Perry has a 14-under 130 total at the TPC Twin Cities. His last 61 came at the Travelers Championship in June 2009 in the last of his 14 PGA Tour victories.

“I thought I needed a low round to get back in the tournament,” said Perry, who began the day five behind Minnesota native Tom Lehman.

Kevin Sutherland and Scott Dunlap are tied for second. Sutherland had a 65, and Dunlap shot 67.

Lehman followed his opening 64 with a 71 to drop into a tie for fourth at 9 under with Bernhard Langer and Marco Dawson. Langer and Dawson each shot 67. Langer won the event in 2009 and 2012 and has two second-place finishes in his previous six appearances. Dawson won the Senior British Open last week in England.

Perry played the first eight holes in 7 under, making an ace on the 188-yard fourth hole, had two birdies on the back nine and closed with an 18-foot eagle putt on the par-5 18th.

“To start out 5 under through four, I had an idea it might be a special day,” Perry said. “I started thinking, `You know what, what is it like to shoot a 59?'”

Perry, who once shot 59 on a par-70 municipal course in a mini-tour event in Nashville, needed just 23 putts.

“That was kind of the story of the day. I had great touch and feel,” he said.

Perry made a 15-foot birdie putt on final hole to beat Langer by a stroke last year, finishing at 23 under. Since the 3M Championship began in 1993, no player has repeated as champion.

“If I can putt like I did today I’m going to like my chances,” Perry said.

Seeking his first win in 24 career Champions Tour starts, Sutherland birdied the first five holes and shot a front-nine 30, but had just one birdie on the back nine when he couldn’t make key putts, including a three-putt on No. 18.

“I’m a little disappointed at the end of the day,” said Sutherland, who shot the tour’s first 59 last August at the Dick’s Sporting Goods Open. “You know that Kenny is kind of running away from you, so you know you have to make some coming in to close the gap a little bit. I wasn’t able to do that.”

Lehman birdied three straight holes early in his round to maintain a three-stroke lead at 11-under, but he tweaked his back on a bunker shot while bogeying the short par-4 seventh and had a double bogey on the par-3 eighth. He recorded par on nine straight holes, until a birdie on the final hole.

“It’s hard to get any kind of rhythm, hard to hit the ball solid,” Lehman said. “I had a hard time bending over to putt.”

The wind that wreaked havoc Friday was absent Saturday, allowing players to be bold and aim for the pins. Saturday’s average score was 69.11; Friday it was 71.99. The wind is expected to increase just a bit for Sunday’s final round.

Larry Nelson shot a 66, bettering his age by one stroke.

BLAINE, Minn. – The past couple of years have not been happy homecomings for Tom Lehman.

Things are off to a much better start this time.

The local favorite shot an 8-under 64 on Friday to take a three-stroke lead in the Champions Tour’s 3M Championship.

Lehman had two birdies and an eagle in an early three-hole stretch, added a birdie on the par-4 ninth and closed with three more birdies at the TPC Twin Cities, the course he helped Arnold Palmer design.

The 64 was Lehman’s lowest score since November 2012.

“It’s nice to play a round of golf with no bogeys,” he said. “The last month, every round it seemed to get off to a good start or feel pretty good and then I suffer from too many mistakes.”

Lehman finished 29th two years ago while fighting the flu and dropped to 47th last year while battling pneumonia. He said he would’ve withdrawn had the tournament not been this one.

“It’s no fun to come here and play poorly,” he said.

The 56-year-old Lehman is from Alexandria and played at the University of Minnesota. He won the last of his eight Champions Tour titles last year in the Encompass Championship.

Scott Dunlap had seven straight birdies in his 67. Grant Waite and P.H. Horgan III also shot 67.

Marco Dawson, the Senior British Open winner last week, was another stroke back at 68 along with Bernhard Langer, Scott Hoch, Kirk Triplett and Jeff Sluman.

This is the ninth straight year the 3M Championship’s first-round leader has shot at least 7 under. The tournament winning score has been at least 15 under in each of the past eight years, including three winning totals of better than 20 under.

“We know it’s a birdie-fest out there,” Lehman said.

Starting on the back nine, Dunlap began bogey-birdie and remained at even par until a birdie on the par-3 17th hole. After a birdie at No. 18, Dunlap birdied five straight holes on the front side. He bogeyed two of the final four holes.

The tour record for consecutive birdies is eight, accomplished four times.

“It was a nice stretch where I was beating the wind for a while,” Dunlap said.

The wind got stronger as the nearly cloud-free day went along, occasionally gusting upwards of 25 mph.

Waite said there were times when he played two, and sometimes, three clubs more or less than he normally would depending if he was hitting into or with the wind. Lehman said there were a lot of times where it was best not to be aggressive and to simply aim at a safe spot.

Waite, who has one top-10 in 11 previous tour starts this year, birdied four of five holes on the front side, and played the final nine holes in 1 under. He missed a 25-foot birdie putt on the final hole by about an inch.

“If the wind dies down, you’re to have to shoot a 64 sort of thing (to win),” Dunlap said.

Horgan, a Tuesday qualifier, was 2 under through nine, and twice had back-back birdies during his final nine before a bogey at No. 17. He has finished 50th or worse in three of his four tour starts this year, including missing the cut last week in the Senior British Open.

CALGARY—Calgary’s PGA TOUR professional, Stephen Ames, and local professional, Darryl James, will welcome the world to their backyard at the PGA TOUR’s Champions Tour’s 2015 Shaw Charity Classic, August 5-9.

Ames, who has played a mix of Champions Tour and PGA TOUR events since joining the senior circuit last spring, will make his second appearance in the tournament he helped bring to Calgary two years ago. Ames is part of the six-person philanthropic Patron Group who has backed the award-winning tournament that doles out record-setting charitable donations for youth-based charities in Alberta.

“This is the back nine of my career so I am thrilled once again to have the opportunity to play in a Tour event in a city that is very special to me,” said Ames, who also spends time living in Vancouver. “Many of us worked very hard for a long time to bring an event of this caliber to this market. Hopefully I will play well and it would be great to have a Canadian at the top of the leaderboard on Sunday.”

Ames has played 22 seasons on the PGA TOUR where he has racked up nearly $20 million in earnings. The longtime Calgary resident won four times on the PGA TOUR, most memorably The Players Championship victory in 2006. A top-10 finisher 58 times on the elite TOUR, Ames has two European Championship titles to go along with six, top-10 finishes at major championships.

Another local boy, Darryl James, will take advantage of a sponsor’s exemption to tee it up with a star-studded international field that includes the best senior golfers on the planet. James, an instructor with the National Golf Academy in Calgary, was a Tuesday qualifier for last year’s tournament. James made it to the final stage of qualifying school, but came up short in his bid to earn one of five full-time cards for the senior circuit.

“Qualifying last year was an absolute dream come true. It was the biggest day of my life,” said James, who was on-hand at Canyon Meadows Golf and Country Club for the third annual media day horse race competition on Wednesday. “The experience kind of reignited the fire in me to start playing more competitively again, and I hope to build on the knowledge gained last year to put in a strong showing next week. I am grateful to everyone at the Shaw Charity Classic for providing me with this opportunity.”

Joining the Calgary-based Canucks will be Champions Tour veterans Rod Spittle and Jim Rutledge.

Born in St. Catharines, Ont., Spittle is the lone Canadian to win a Champions Tour event since joining the 50-and-over Tour in 2005. A three-time finisher in the top-10, Spittle who is recognized as one of the nicest guys on Tour captured the 2010 AT&T Championship in San Antonio, TX.

Victoria’s Jim Rutledge will round out the Canadian contingent. A regular on the Champions Tour since 2009, Rutledge will look to find some magic on home turf as he continues to search for his first Champions Tour win.

The four Canucks will prowl the fairways of Canyon Meadows Golf and Country Club with 81 of golf’s greats that includes: 10 PGA TOUR major winners (O’Meara, Janzen, Woosnam, Stadler, Tway, Simpson, Sluman, Calcavecchia, Pavin, Brooks); three World Golf Hall of Fame Members (Couples, Montgomerie, O’Meara); Champions Tour rookies Lee Janzen and Scott McCarron; and other newcomers to Calgary – Peter Jacobsen and Carlos Franco.

CALGARY — The most interesting man in golf, Miguel Angel Jimenez, will tee it up in Calgary for the 2015 Shaw Charity Classic.

“Adding Miguel to this year’s field is a huge win for our tournament and Calgary golf fans,” said Sean Van Kesteren, tournament director, Shaw Charity Classic. “I think one of the things that makes Champions Tour events exciting to watch is you have many of the legends of the game on the same Tour with relative newcomers to the Tour who are still competitive on the PGA TOUR. Miguel can obviously still play at a very high level, and I know he is going to put on a great show next week.”

Currently ranked 56th on the Official World Golf Rankings, Jimenez will make his first trip to Calgary just weeks before competing in the PGA Championship. Jimenez is recognized by his trademark ponytail and is often seen smoking a Cuban cigar while firing at flag sticks around the globe. The colourful Spaniard’s game is as flashy as his personality. He brings23 Tour wins around the world with him to the Shaw Charity Classic.

“I love it out here on the Champions Tour. I still feel I am competitive, I still love competing and I have a great life playing on both the Champions Tour and European Tour,” said Jimenez. “This will be my first trip to Canada so I am looking forward to getting to Calgary for the Shaw Charity Classic, playing well and having some fun. It will be a good opportunity for me to prepare for the PGA Championship at Whistling Straits.”

Jimenez has won 21 times on the European Tour. He made a splashy Champions Tour debut last year when he fired a course record 65 in his opening round, and went on to win the Greater Gwinnett Championship. He also won the Mittsubishi Electric Championship in Hualalai earlier this year. Jimenez is a four-time member of the European Ryder Cup Team, and was the vice-captain for Europe at the Miracle of Medinah in 2012 and at Gleneagles in 2014.

Jimenez will share centre stage down the fairways of Canyon Meadows Golf and Country Club with the tournament’s first-two champions, Rocco Mediate and Fred Couples, along with 81 of golf’s greats including: Colin Montgomerie; Mark O’Meara; Fred Funk; Mark Calcavecchia; Corey Pavin; David Frost; Ian Woosnam; Jay Haas; Scott Simpson; Peter Jacobsen; Craig Stadler; and Lee Janzen.

SUNNINGDALE, England – American Marco Dawson held off the twin challenge of super stars Bernhard Langer and Colin Montgomerie over the final nine holes to claim victory in a thrilling climax to the Senior British Open Championship on Sunday.

Dawson finished with a 16-under par total of 264 to claim his second title on the Senior Tour this year after more than 12 years without a victory.

“This is unbelievable,” said Florida-based Dawson, who played over 400 events on the PGA Tour without a win.

“Can’t tell you how many hours I’ve put in on the range. I’ve had two back surgeries to prove it and I know it has come later than most of the guys. But it came true.”

In a see-saw struggle, played out for the main part in intermittent rain and a fresh breeze, Dawson hit the front for the first time when he claimed his second eagle of the round at the long 14th, then sank a birdie putt from 25ft at the final hole to dash Langer’s hopes, the German being half that distance away with a chance to draw level.

The reigning champion holed his birdie putt to match Dawson’s closing 64, but it left him a shot shy of his sixth senior major.

“The three-wood I hit in the mist and rain at the 14th was probably one of the best I have ever hit and set up the eagle,” said Dawson.

“Marco played phenomenally,” said Langer. “Things went for him, he holed a bunker shot and had two eagles and leap-frogged both Monty and I. Then he made an amazing putt on 18 and I couldn’t tie him.”

Leading on ten under after completing the last nine holes of their third round in the morning, Montgomerie and Dawson and Langer, who was a stroke back, teed off in the afternoon for what turned out to be an epic contest.

All three parred the 15th, 16th and 17th, then when Dawson’s drive split the fairway at the final hole and he hit the green with his second and holed the putt, he clinched the title to add to his Tucson Open win back in March.

Among the rewards for Dawson is a place at Royal Troon in the Open Championship next year.

“Isn’t that nice. So I’ll be here for two weeks next year,” said Dawson. “It’s a lot of fun playing golf over here.”

Miguel Angel Jimenez finished alone in fourth place on 11-under 269 after a closing 67, bagging three birdies and an eagle at the long 14th when his second shot hit the pin and stopped just inches away.

SUNNINGDALE, England – Colin Montgomerie shares the clubhouse lead with little-known American Marco Dawson on 10-under par, with nine holes of their third round still to play in the Senior British Open on Saturday.

Poor light suspended play, five hours after the delayed start to the round. The second round, suspended on Friday because of rain, wasn’t completed until Saturday mid-afternoon.

At that stage, Dawson led on 8 under, a shot clear of defending champion Bernhard Langer. Montgomerie was on 6 under alongside Fred Couples, Jeff Sluman, Miguel Angel Jimenez, and Peter Fowler.

The late start to the third round, and with 83 players making the cut, meant play began on the first and 10th tees at Sunningdale Old Course.

Montgomerie showed he meant business right from the start, birdieing the first three holes. Then he missed birdie chance after birdie chance before picking up his fourth at the ninth, when play was halted in the gathering gloom.

“I had a great start, and I’m really looking forward to tomorrow,” said the Scot, who wants to add his home senior major to the three he has won in America so far.

Dawson also birdied the first, then parred all the way to the ninth, where he also picked up a shot.

“This is just a survival test now,” Dawson said. “It was a long day, and it’s going to be long again tomorrow.”

The third member of the last group, Langer, also birdied the first, dropped a stroke at the fourth, and missed a birdie chance from two feet at the ninth to stay in a four-way for fifth on 7 under.

Couples, the champion at Turnberry in 2012, was at 8 under and in a share of third place with Ireland’s Philip Walton.

Walton raced to the turn in 30 with five birdies. He dropped a shot at the 10th but picked up his sixth and seventh birdies to reach 8 under par, having started at 2 under, with one hole to play.

Tom Watson was five off the pace at 5 under after carding 66. With him was Jeff Maggert, bidding for his third senior major of the year. Maggert still had three more holes to play.

More rain was forecast on Sunday.

SUNNINGDALE, England – Torrential rain wiped out most play Friday at the Senior British Open with more than half the field still to start their second round.

Scotland’s Colin Montgomerie is one of eight players who is 5-under at the top of the leaderboard but five of them have yet to play a hole in the second round.

Two strokes behind overnight, Montgomerie birdied three of his first five holes to lead outright on 6 under. With increasing rain, he bogeyed No. 10, birdied the 11th and bogeyed the 12th to return to 5 under overall, and 2-under 45 for the 12 holes he played.

Among the leaders, China’s Lianwei Zhang and Bart Bryant of the United States had started their second rounds when play was suspended for the day at 3 p.m.

Zhang was 1 over for the round after 11. Bryant parred the two holes he played.

Waiting to start their second rounds when play resumes at 8 a.m. Saturday are defending champion Bernhard Langer, Americans Michael Allen, Marco Dawson, Lee Janzen, Jeff Sluman and Bryant, plus Spain’s Miguel Angel Jimenez.

Ian Woosnam made a move up the leaderboard with an eagle at the first and birdies at Nos. 4 and 9 to be out in 31. The Welshman was 5 under overall at the turn, but in the worst of the weather he dropped strokes at the 10th and 12th and was 3 under when play stopped. Woosnam is tied for 12th, including Duffy Waldorf, who had four birdies and just two dropped shots in the 17 holes he played Friday.

“The plan will be to finish round two and start round three tomorrow, when the forecast isn’t too bad,” said David Williams, chairman of the European Senior Tour. “We’ll finish that off on Sunday morning … and finish (the tournament) when we’re meant to.”

SUNNINGDALE, England – Two albatross twos were recorded on the same hole on a memorable opening day at the Senior British Open, where defending champion Bernhard Langer finished in an eight-way tie for the lead at 5-under-par 65 on Thursday.

Langer tops the leaderboard alongside Americans Michael Allen, Bart Bryant, Marco Dawson, Jeff Sluman and Lee Janzen, Spain’s Miguel Angel Jimenez, and China’s Lianwei Zhang, playing in only his third senior tournament after turning 50 in May.

The albatrosses at the opening hole, a first time in senior tour history, were by England’s Barry Lane and American Steve Jones.

Lane holed his 4-iron second from 218 yards on the 492-yard par-5 and, a couple of hours later, Jones did the same with a 6-iron from 179 yards.

Langer birdied the first, dropped a shot at the sixth, but birdied eight and nine to be out in 33, before picking up further birdies at 11, 14 and 16 to be back in 32.

“I didn’t feel totally comfortable with my swing, but my putting was very good and I didn’t make any major mistakes,” said Langer, the winner a year ago by a massive 13 strokes at Royal Porthcawl in south Wales.

Bryant, out in the fourth group at 7:30 a.m., was the first man to post 65, picking up six birdies and dropping just one shot.

“The course was probably in the most scorable condition it will be all week,” Bryant said. “We had no wind through the first 13 or 14 holes, and the greens were soft.”

Sluman was next in with a 65. He started with an eagle and two birdies to go 4 under after three, but had two bogeys before getting to 5 under with three more birdies.

Jimenez, who played with Langer, birdied only once, on the ninth, before the turn, then came back in 31 with birdies at 10, 11, 14 and 16.

Dawson birdied three of the first four holes, then at 12, 13, and 14 to go 6 under. He dropped a shot at the 16th.

Allen got his round going with a first-up eagle, while Janzen, despite sharing the lead, was disappointed with his putting.

“I missed more than half from four to 10 feet,” he said.

Lianwei also eagled the first, and was out in 29. He dropped two strokes at the 12th when he found trouble off the tee, then birdied the 14th, and parred home to be back in 36.

Welshman Mark Mouland led the home charge on 66 alongside American Brian Henninger and Argentine Cesar Monasterio, while Colin Montgomerie was in a group of eight on 67 with playing partner Tom Watson.

Fred Couples, the 2012 champ, was in another large group on 68, while Jeff Maggert, twice a major winner on the U.S. senior tour this year, managed only a 1-one 71.