BLACK BUTTE RANCH — George Mack Jr. has not played much competitive golf lately. But you wouldn’t have known by the way the 48-year-old golf pro played during the 2010 Fall Tour.

Mack, the director of instruction at Black Butte Ranch, shot a 2-under-par 70 Thursday at BBR’s Big Meadow course to enter into a three-way tie for first place during the final two days of the four-day Fall Tour. He finished tied with Brandon Kearney of Bend Golf and Country Club and Brian Nosler of Vanco Driving Range in Vancouver, Wash.

All three pros were awarded $450 for their finishes.

For Mack, it was the second time during this year’s Fall Tour that he shared the two-day win, and he accumulated more than $2,000 in the four days, more than any of the other 56 professionals playing in this year’s tournament.

“It wasn’t perfect, but I hit a lot of great shots,” said Mack, adding that he had not logged a competitive round since he played in the Oregon Open at Juniper Golf Course in Redmond in June. “I was only out of (the fairway) one time in four days. That helps.”

The Fall Tour, an annual event in the PGA of America’s Oregon chapter, is hosted by four different Central Oregon golf courses.

The tournament is split into a pair of two-round events and includes club professionals and amateurs. Cash prizes are awarded for the lowest rounds each day, lowest two-day totals, team competitions and other contests.

Mack credited his solid play to a teaching program to which he bought the rights earlier this year. He said he has spent the summer revamping the program and it got him thinking about the fundamentals of golf again.

And it has paid dividends, he said.

“As I have been going through this process, my golf game has just elevated,” Mack said. “I just took myself through the process again, and I just have tunnel vision going on right now.”

Kearney, who has played well throughout the summer, played another strong tournament this week.

He shot a 71 Thursday, a day after posing a 4-under-par 68 at Eagle Crest Resort’s Ridge Course in Redmond.

Kearney decided to play in the Fall Tour to help him prepare for the PGA Tour’s National Qualifying School later this month, and to play in a friendly environment.

“I’m just trying to keep my game in shape,” Kearney said after Thursday’s round. “That’s really it. And I get to play with a lot of my friends in town.

“There were some good things and bad things, and I know kind of what I have to work on. But it gives me a good barometer of where I am at.”

Bruce Stewart, a pro from Arrowhead Golf Club in Molalla, shot the low round of the day, a 5-under-par 67.

Though Stewart did not figure into the two-day competition, his Thursday score tied the low score shot by any pro at any Fall Tour course this week.

“I just made the putts,” Stewart said. “I only missed one green.”

Then he joked: “And all I can remember is that I missed two three-footers. … Typical golfer.”

George Carlson of Rose City Golf Course in Portland shot the low amateur round Thursday, a 4-under-par 68.

If there was anything that every golfer in the field wanted to talk about, it was the weather. All four days of the tournament were played in warm weather under sunny skies.

That has not always been the case at the Fall Tour, which was first played in 1980. And it was a welcome change for the golfers in the field.

“This was the nicest four days,” said Mack, who first started playing the Fall Tour in the 1990s. “This is the first time I’ve walked out of the first tee at Awbrey Glen (Golf Club in Bend, site of the Fall Tour’s first round) and didn’t have ice on my cleats.”