Calcavecchia ties course record to win Montreal Championship by two

SAINTE-JULIE, Quebec -- Mark Calcavecchia won the Montreal Championship on Sunday for his second Champions Tour title, matching the course record with an 8-under 64 for a four-stroke victory.

The 52-year-old Calcavecchia had six birdies and chipped in for eagle on the par-5 16th hole on Richelieu Valley's Vercheres Course. He finished at 16-under 200.

"I made some nice 4-footers for pars, which were nice," Calcavecchia said. "I get a little shaky on those on occasion and for some reason today I just felt good on them, and then that 16th happened and I figured that even if I bogeyed the last two holes, I'd be fine, which I was.

"Actually, at 17 I hit a bad iron into the green and then I had a Tiger Woods thought. I didn't want to make any bogeys. It would have been easy to just kind of go ahead and miss that putt, make a bogey and who knows what on the last hole, but I really wanted to keep the round clean. I only made two bogeys all week so I thought that playing this golf course all weekend without a bogey was pretty good."

The 1989 British Open champion, Calcavecchia won for the third time in Canada, following victories in the PGA Tour's 1997 Greater Vancouver Open and 2005 Canadian Open. He also set a PGA Tour record with nine straight birdies in the 2009 Canadian Open.

"I've always liked Canada, even in the early years when we played Glen Abbey every year," Calcavecchia said. "I had some good tournaments there in my early days. One of my fondest memories my first few years on the tour, I made the cut in the Canadian Open and I played the third round with Tom Weiskopf and Jack Nicklaus, so I thought that was pretty cool. I'll never forget that."

Brad Bryant shot a 65 to finish second.

"Calc is such a great front-runner that you kind of know, he gets his momentum going and he's really hard to catch," Bryant said. "I made nine birdies today and I'll bet he made more than I did, so it's hard to know. He's amazing that way."

Second-round leader Bob Tway and first-round leader Russ Cochran tied for third at 11 under. Cochran closed with a 68, and Tway had a 70.