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 He said he would’ve withdrawn had the tournament not been this one.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.

GLENVIEW, Ill. – Jerry Smith shot a 2-under 70 on Sunday to win the Encompass Championship for his first title on the Champions Tour.

Smith had a three-stroke lead heading into the final round of the 54-hole tournament, but the margin was down to one over David Frost when he reached the 579-yard, par-5 16th hole. The 51-year-old Iowa native hit his second shot left into a greenside bunker, but holed out for a crucial eagle with two holes to play.

“Bunker play’s not my forte, but I’ve worked a lot on it and I did like what I saw when I walked up to it,” Smith said. “I didn’t think it was a real difficult shot, so I felt like I could make four. Making three was obviously a bonus and probably helped me to get to the house the last two holes.”

Smith finished at 16-under 200 at North Shore Country Club, setting a tournament record. Frost had a 68 in the final round and was three strokes back in second.

“It’s always a journey,” Smith said. “I’ve always said that.”

Smith’s only tour victory had been the 1998 Guam Open on the Asian circuit. He lost his PGA Tour card after the 2007 season and had taken two club pro jobs before turning 50 and earning his Champions Tour card. He played in Europe last year and took third last week in the Swiss Seniors Open.

“Well, obviously in your career you don’t really think about winning and so forth – at least a guy like myself, who’s kind of been a so-called journeyman player all these years,” Smith said, and then called the victory, “surreal.”

Frost made five birdies and had three putts on the closing holes get to the edge of the cup without falling.

“But it was a good day,” Frost said. “I’m happy for Jerry. He’s quite a journeyman, so there’s room for everybody out here.”

Wes Short fired a final-round 68 to take third at 204. Bart Bryant and Woody Austin tied at 11-under 205.

Smith started the day with bogeys on the first two holes.

“I hit two perfect drives on 1 and 2, so those butterflies were kind of taken away,” Smith said. “But I just hit two very poor iron shots and, who knows, maybe it was a good thing in hindsight but it wasn’t the start I was looking for.”

Smith said he never looked at the scoreboard at 16 before teeing off.

“And obviously, maybe had I looked at the leaderboard on 16, who knows, maybe I don’t go for it in two, maybe I don’t make eagle,” he said.

GLENVIEW, Ill. – Jerry Smith matched a tournament record with an 8-under-par 64 Saturday to take a three-shot lead after the second round of the Encompass Championship.
Smith is at 14-under 130 as he seeks his first professional title of any kind. Mark Goodes was second, while Bart Bryant, Fred Funk and David Frost are among the group five strokes back.

Smith, who tied for third last week at the Seniors Swiss Open, was six under par for his first seven holes Saturday at North Shore Country Club, sinking an 11-foot eagle putt at the 579-yard, par-5 16th. He started on the back nine and shot 30.

He tied the tournament’s 18-hole record set by Russ Cochran last year in this Champions Tour event.

Smith, 51, played in Europe last year and has played in 14 Champions Tour events. The only other time Smith has led in a pro tournament was in the 2005 Virginia Beach Open on the Web.com Tour.

Goodes followed nine straight pars with four birdies in five holes to shoot 32 on the back nine and take the lead until Smith played in the afternoon.

Goodes didn’t turn pro until age 50 in 2007, and his only Champions Tour victory came in the 2009 Allianz Championship.

Lee Janzen, Funk and Frost followed up first-round 65s in which they were tied for the lead by shooting 70 and are tied with Bryant and Woody Austin for third at 135.

GLENVIEW, Ill. – Lee Janzen likes what he’s seen from his golf game lately even if it means not seeing much of his home.

Janzen birdied three straight holes Friday to close his front nine and went on to shoot a 7-under 65 at North Shore Country Club to share the first-round lead in the Encompass Championship with Fred Funk, David Frost and Brad Bryant.

Janzen qualified in New York on June 8 for the U.S. Open, then followed up his two rounds at Chambers Bay near Seattle with a sixth-place finish at the Constellation Senior Players Championship outside Boston. He played the next week in the U.S. Senior Open in Sacramento and flew to Washington, and now he’s in the Chicago area for another Champions Tour event.

“Fortunately, I feel like I’ve got a decent idea about what I’m doing with my golf swing, so I don’t have this urgency to go to the golf course and hit a lot of balls,” Janzen said.

Janzen started on the back nine Friday and birdied the 15th and 16th holes to get to 3 under. He missed the green on No. 17 but then chipped in for a birdie.

“I probably would have had a 6- to 8-footer for par coming back had it not gone in,” Janzen said. “I came out of that hole smelling a lot better than it looked.”

Janzen is still smarting from his failure to make the cut in the U.S. Open, which he blamed on two shots that led to a double and triple bogey.

“If I had just paid attention a little better on two irons shots and made a few putts, I feel like I would have had a chance to at least finish in the top 10,” he said.

Funk began the season bothered by a sore elbow and sat at home for three months before returning.

“I’m trying to hit the ball better and I’m able to play,” Funk said. “But I can’t swing the way I want to swing.

“The doctors told me I’ve got a bunch of tendons hanging on by threads, they say, on both sides – inside and outside. They said eventually it will just go away on its own … maybe.”

Both Funk and Bryant had stretches of four birdies in five holes on their back nine.

Funk’s bogey-free round was his best to start a tournament since the Champion Tour’s opening round of the 2014 season. He holed out from a greenside bunker at No. 5, his 14th hole.

“I played really solid today overall,” Funk said. “I gave myself some chances, but I actually had a couple little breaks, too.”

Bryant’s score was his best in any Champions Tour event since 2012.

“I did not expect too much warming up today,” he said. “I figured something out at the end of my warmup session, and on the golf course I hit it great. It came out of nowhere.

“It sort of felt like the old Brad today.”

Jerry Smith, Mike Goodes, Craig Stadler and Rod Spittle are a shot behind the leaders.