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.

BENTON HARBOR, Mich. – Tom Watson shot a 3-under 68 on Friday for a share of the lead in the Senior PGA Championship with fellow Hall of Famer Bernhard Langer and Colin Montgomerie and three other players.

The 64-year-old Watson, playing alongside Langer and Montgomerie, had five birdies and a double bogey – on the par-4 12th – to reach 4-under 138 after two rounds at Harbor Shores.

Langer also had a 68, and Montgomerie shot 69 to join Watson, Bart Bryant, Steen Tinning and Kiyoshi Murota atop the leaderboard. Bryant shot 67, Tinning 66, and Murota 65.

Murota, from Japan, had the best round of the day, chipping in for eagles on the par-5 fifth and ninth.

Bryant bogeyed the 18th hole to drop into the tie for the lead.

Tinning, from Denmark, birdied No. 17 in his bogey-free round.

Steve Pate (67) was a stroke back along with Stephen Ames (68), Russ Cochran (69), Mark Brooks (71) and Dan Forsman (73). The group at 2 under included first-round leader Joe Durant (75), Jay Haas (71), Scott Simpson (69) and Duffy Waldorf (70).

Watson, Langer and Montgomerie created buzz early in the day with their names atop the leaderboard.

Watson had a 3-under 33 on the front nine, but double-bogeyed the 12th with a stubbed chip and three putts. Trying to win for the first time since the 2011 Senior PGA, he’s coming off a sixth-place tie last week in the Regions Tradition in Alabama.

Langer, a two-time winner this season and the leading money winner on the Champions Tour five of the last six years, birdied the first two holes.

Montgomerie, playing in his first Senior PGA and seeking his first Champions Tour victory, took advantage of a friendly forward tee position and made an eagle on the par-5 15th. He hit his 8-iron approach from 173 yards to 10 feet.

BENTON HARBOR, Mich. – Joe Durant birdied his final hole Thursday for a 6-under 65 and a one-stroke lead after the first round of the Senior PGA Championship.

Making his third Champions Tour start after turning 50 in April 7, the four-time PGA Tour winner had seven birdies and a bogey at Harbor Shores.

Dan Forsman, fighting an arthritic left hip, opened with a 66, and Brad Faxon had a 67. Mark Brooks and P.H. Horgan III shot 68, and two-time Senior PGA winner Jay Haas and Colin Montgomerie were in the group at 69.

Kenny Perry, the Regions Tradition winner last week in Alabama, topped the group at 70 along with Bernhard Langer, Tom Lehman, John Cook and Tom Watson.

Durant, coming off a ninth-place tie Sunday at Shoal Creek in the first major of the year, missed only one fairway and birdied all the par 5s. He and also birdied the par-4 seventh hole that plays up a sand dune and usually into the wind off Lake Michigan.

Forsman, a three-time winner on the Champions Tour after winning five times on the PGA Tour, had four birdies and a bogey – on the seventh – in his final nine holes.

Faxon made two 35-foot birdie putts early in his round. He has only one top-40 finish in eight tournaments this year and missed the cuts in his two previous Senior PGA appearances.

Perry is trying to win his fourth consecutive Champions Tour major. He won the Senior Players Championship and U.S. Senior Open in consecutive tour starts last year, then skipped the Senior British Open.

Lee Rinker, who played the PGA Tour fulltime from 1984 to 1999, was the top club pro with a 69. He’s the director of golf at Emerald Dunes Golf Club in West Palm Beach, Florida

Roger Chapman, the 2012 winner at Harbor Shores, opened with a 71.

Japan’s Kohki Idoki, the winner last year at Bellerive in St. Louis, had a 76.

Stephen Ames, a rookie on the Champions tour, shot 71 on the first day to tie him for 31st.

BENTON HARBOR, Mich. – Colin Montgomerie had a one-liner ready to go when asked his winless first year on the Champions Tour.

“I haven’t won yet and I would love to win, obviously, a senior event somewhere, whether it be in this decade or not,” Montgomerie said Wednesday at Harbor Shores on the eve of the Senior PGA Championship.

Montgomerie, who will be 51 on June 23, is in the marquee group Thursday with Ryder Cup Captain Tom Watson and Bernhard Langer, a two-time winner this year and the money champion five of the last six years.

Watson said Montgomerie’s ability to hit high fade shots fits the design of Harbor Shores, the Jack Nicklaus-designed resort layout that opened in 2010. England’s Roger Chapman won the 2012 Senior PGA at Harbor Shores and the course also will be the tournament site in 2016 and 2018.

“Monty’s starting to play well out here,” Watson said. “Jack likes to build his greens where cut shots are the iron shots of choice, so that will be an advantage for (Montgomerie).”

Montgomerie admitted iron play has always been his strength, and called the course unique.

“I look forward to trying to attack certain pins and not the others you have to be very careful with,” said Montgomerie, who has six top-10 finishes and a tie for 16th so far this year on the Champions Tour. “You have to be very careful here and use the head an awful lot of the time. I see what the designer was trying to do. There are pockets in the greens where you have to hit (the ball). What you must not do is miss those pockets.”

The Scot said he has enjoyed playing on the Champions Tour more than he was anticipating.

“The competition is very high, extremely high,” he said. “I wish it was lower, but it’s not. And it’s good that it is that good. That means that when you do well it’s actually meaningful.”

Last year, Japan’s Kohki Idoki rallied to win at Bellerive in St. Louis. Jay Haas and Kenny Perry tied for second, two strokes back. Last week, Perry won his third straight Champions Tour major, beating Mark Calcavecchia by a stroke in the Regions Tradition at Shoal Creek in Alabama. Perry won the Senior Players Championship and U.S. Senior Open in consecutive tour starts last year.

Perry’s last round at Harbor Shores was a Senior PGA record 9-under 62 in the final round of the 2012 Senior PGA. He couldn’t catch winner Roger Chapman, but he remembers his round and feels he knows the secret to the sometimes dramatic undulating greens.

“I had great control of the ball with my irons,” he said. “I drove it beautifully that day, and I was able to keep the ball in the right plateau to give myself realistic birdie putts on these greens.”

Perry, who splits time between the PGA Tour and the Champions Tour, covets a spot in the PGA Championship later this summer in his home state at Valhalla in Louisville. The winner Sunday earns an exemption.

“I’ve given 30 years of my life to the PGA Tour and it would be a great way to kind of end my chapter on the PGA Tour out there,” he said.

Fred Couples is skipping the tournament because of back troubles.

Canada’s Stephen Ames will make his Champions Tour debut this week. He’ll be joined by fellow Canadians Rod Spittle and Jim Rutledge.