Mast Heads Montreal Championship; Ken Green Four Back


On a windy day that yielded few low scores, Dick Mast carded a 3-under 69 to take the opening-round lead in the Montreal Championship. The $1.6 million, 54-hole Champions Tour event began Friday at Vallee du Richelieu Rouville in Sainte-Julie, Quebec.

Mast, a 62-year-old from Ohio whose biggest career wins came on the Web.com Tour a couple of decades ago, carded five birdies and a pair of bogeys for a one-stroke lead over Kenny Perry. Another stroke back are Americans Mark Brooks, Mike Reid and Tom Pernice Jr., Germany's Bernhard Langer, and South African David Frost.

For Mast, it's his only outright lead in 165 starts on the over-50 circuit.

"I played pretty solid," Mast said of his round. "I'm usually a pretty good wind player. It's hard. You've got to control your ball in the wind. You've got to have a good short game. I made some key putts here and there to keep the momentum going."

Perry, the season-long points' Charles Schwab Cup leader thanks to two wins - both majors, has been trying to replace a driver that was irreparably damaged in transit a few weeks ago as he was en route to the Boeing Classic in Seattle.

The long-hitting Kentuckian hopes he's finally found a club that feels like his previous trusty bludgeon. " I went to Dallas for three weeks last week to the Adams factory and probably hit 50 different drivers with different shafts, trying to find one with the same spin conditions, carry, and everything that my old driver was producing for me," Perry said after his round. "This one was pretty good."

Eight players started with even-par 72s, including Canada's Rod Spittle. Defending champion Mark Calcavecchia opened with a 74, while the winner in last week's inaugural Shaw Charity Classic at Canyon Meadows Golf & Country Club in Calgary, Rocco Mediate, carded a 75.

Ken Green, playing in his first individual tour event of the year, had an impressive 73. The 55-year-old - a five-time winner on the PGA Tour who wears a prosthetic device on his lower right leg - got off to a rocky start with a bogey on the first hole.

But Green, who's undergone several surgeries since the tragic RV accident in 2009 that took the life of his brother William and girlfriend Jeanne Hodgin, that resulted in the amputation of his leg, rebounded nicely with a birdie on the ninth to make the turn in even-par 36.

On the latter half Green, whose last win came in the 1989 Kmart Greater Greensboro Open, came home with a pair of bogeys and a birdie for a 37.

For all the scores in Montreal, visit http://www.pgatour.com/champions/tournaments/montreal-championship/leaderboard.html.