Levesque, Bussieres tied at VGC

Day one of the PGA Championship of Canada sponsored by Mr. Lube and presented by TaylorMade-adidas Golf played like it was supposed to—firm, fast and windy.

With sustained winds of nearly 40 km/h and gusts almost reaching 60 km/h, players had their hands full with the 1893 A.V. Macan-designed seaside links masterpiece.

“The golf course played exactly how you would expect it to with wind whipping around and the greens being as firm as they are,” said Dave Levesque after his opening-round 1-over-par 71. “You really had to pay attention on and around the greens today with all that wind and firmness, and luckily for me I stayed pretty focused.”

Levesque, who won the 2014 PGA Championship of Canada is tied for the lead at one-over with his close friend Marc-Etienne Bussieres.

“This entire golf course is really firm,” Bussieres lamented. “Obviously you needed a lot of skill out there to get around, but you also needed some luck with all the bounces the ball could take on the fairways and around the greens.”

Designed by AV Macan, Victoria was ranked No. 14 on SCOREGolf’s 2014 Top 100 Golf Courses in Canada list.

Walter Keating Jr., Andrew Smeeth and James Harper sit just one shot off the lead at 2-over. Ian Doig, Brian McCann, Douglas Morgan and Matthew Mah were all 73 on Monday, while Lindsay Bernakevitch, Billy Walsh, Kevin Black, Nick Kenney, Jim Rutledge, Phil Jonas, Dustin Risdon and Mark Strong are T10 at 4-over.

For the complete leaderboard and second round tee times, CLICK HERE.

Re-launched in 2011, the PGA Championship of Canada was contested strictly as a match play event thru 2014 with players from the four brackets—Stan Leonard, George Knudson, Al Balding and Moe Norman—looking to advance through the six rounds to capture the historic P.D. Ross trophy. However, this year’s championship at Victoria Golf Club sees the 64 top-ranked players from the PGA of Canada Player Rankings presented by RBC playing two rounds of stroke play. The top-16 players from the 36-hole stroke play portion of the event fill out the four match play brackets with the eventual champion winning four match play rounds.

“With the format, it’s kind of like you’re playing two tournaments this week,” Levesque said. “But, that’s a good thing because the best player will definitely be identified by Thursday evening.”

The player who sits atop the PGA of Canada Player Rankings presented by RBC at the conclusion of this week earns an exemption into this year's RBC Canadian Open at Glen Abbey Golf Club in Oakville, Ont.

Currently, Walsh sits No. 1 on the player rankings with 286 points, ahead Levesque and ‘13 winner Bryn Parry.

Attendance to the PGA Championship of Canada sponsored by Mr. Lube and presented by TaylorMade-adidas Golf is free and spectators are encouraged to attend during tournament play.