Mahan leads after eagle binge

Hunter Mahan had to rely on the crowd to tell him where his approach shot ended up on the ninth green Thursday in the Canadian Open in Markham, Ontario.

The roar made it easy to figure out that he holed the 81-yard shot for his third eagle of the round -- and second on a par-four hole.

“I was like, ‘Wow! That’s crazy,’ ” Mahan said. “That doesn’t happen.”

Playing in perfect scoring conditions on Angus Glen’s North Course, Mahan also holed out from 189 yards on No. 18 -- the ninth hole of his morning round -- and made a more routine eagle with a 10-foot putt on the par-five 11th. He finished with a nine-under 62 to match the tournament record and take a two-stroke lead.

“Golf’s a funny game,” Mahan said. “Sometimes you have it and sometimes you don’t. Sometimes you do everything you’re supposed to do and it doesn’t work out. You have to be patient and you’ve just got to keep working.”

Three other players have shot 62s in the Canadian Open, all at Glen Abbey. Leonard Thompson set the mark in 1981 and Andy Bean matched it in 1983, both when Glen Abbey played to a par of 71. Greg Norman did it in 1986, when par was 72.

“That is pretty special,” said Mahan, the only one to do it in the first round. “Especially a tournament like this that’s been around forever.”

The 25-year-old former Oklahoma State player won the Travelers Championship last month in Connecticut for his first PGA Tour title, then tied for eighth in the AT&T; National and had a sixth-place tie Sunday in the British Open. In the Travelers, he also opened with a 62 and went on to beat Jay Williamson in a playoff.

Australia’s Steve Allan was second after a 64, and Canadian David Hearn was another stroke back, along with Tripp Isenhour. Mark Calcavecchia, the 2005 champion at Shaughnessy in Vancouver, shot a 67 in the breezy afternoon session. Jim Furyk, the winner last year at Hamilton Golf and Country Club, had a 69, also in the afternoon.

Mike Weir shot an even-par 71, putting him well back in his bid to become the first Canadian winner since Pat Fletcher in 1954. Vijay Singh, paired with Weir, opened with a 68. Singh beat Weir in a playoff in 2004 at Glen Abbey.

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Nick Faldo recaptured enough of his famous competitive edge to shoot a three-under 68 for a share of the lead in his senior tour debut at Gullane, Scotland.

The six-time major champion made six birdies in the first round of the Senior British Open at Muirfield, where he won two of his three Opens, in 1987 and ’92.

Joining Faldo at three under were 65-year-old Dave Stockton, a regular on the Champions Tour, Nick Job and Gordon Brand.

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Pat Hurst and Brittany Lincicome of the United States and Eun-hee Ji of South Korea shot six-under 66s to share the lead after the first round of the Evian Masters at Evian-Les-Bains, France.

The leaders were one shot ahead of Christina Kim of the U.S. and Kyeong Bae and Jin Joo Hong of South Korea.

Michelle Wie shot a 73 and has not broken par since finishing tied for second at this event last year.