Alberta Golf (Canmore) – By Dunc Mills

After more than 27 years of working with junior golfers on the McLennan Ross Alberta Junior Tour, when it seems like you’ve seen it all, every once in a while a performance comes around that is truly a show-stopper.  Today was such a day at the Canmore Junior Open at the immaculately groomed Canmore Golf and Curling Club. We had a sold out field of over 100 juniors on hand from as far away as Fox Creek, Edmonton and Vancouver.  One of the Vancouver competitors was Lucy Lin, who plays out of Brights Grove GC in Vancouver and who was holidaying in the mountains with her parents and older brother after a successful tournament last week at the Canadian Junior Girls Championship held at the Leduc GCC.

At the national championship, Lin finished T12 overall and T7 in the Juvenile Girls division. What a treat for the other 21 junior girls on hand today for them to see how their own games stacked up against one of the rising junior stars in Canadian junior golf.  Lin fired a spectacular 4-under par 68 to easily capture the girls division today, with two lone bogies offset by six birdies and numerous close misses that could have really taken her low. Lin’s round tied the girls all-time scoring record for the McLennan Ross Alberta Junior Tour, joining players such as Jennifer Ha and Jacklyn Lee, who is now plying her trade on the LPGA Tour.

What is truly startling about Lin’s performance today and last week for that matter, is that this young girl has been playing golf for only TWO years, and she is all of ELEVEN years old!  Boys and girls, men and women, what were you shooting at age 11?  Brynne Davies of Earl Grey and PInebrook’s Edie Nicholson each had fine rounds of 78 to finish T2 as all three players punched their tickets to the season-ending Tour Championship at Wolf Creek Golf Resort on August 30th.

Eleven.  Think about it.

The boys played today, too.  Josiah Tong of Heritage Pointe navigated the tight Canmore fairways the best today, with a scorecard littered with an eagle, several birdies and some ‘others’. Tong also nearly jarred a wedge at the par-3 2nd hole for a kick-in birdie that was only inches from an ace. Jack Seeger of the host club and Charles Greaves tied for 2nd with 75s, although it should be noted that Greaves’ fine score was achieved in the boys U13 flight, and those younger players competed from the shorter set of red tees.  It was an excellent score nonetheless for this 12-year-old.

Josiah Tong (L), Lucy Lin (R). Canmore Junior Open Champions

New qualifiers for the Tour Championship today included:

Hunter Burgeson (85)   Boys U19

Jack Seeger (75)  Boys U17

Patrick McLarty (79)  Boys U15

Charles Greaves (75)  Boys U13

Bradin Stahl (77)  Wild Card  (U17)

MacGregor Andrekson (77)  Wild Card (U17)

FULL LIST OF TOUR CHAMPIONSHIP QUALIFIERS

FULL LEADERBOARD FROM CANMORE JUNIOR OPEN

A busy week on the Tour continues Tuesday morning at Collicutt Siding GC in Crossfield with another sold out field of 54 juniors in an 8:30 am shotgun start.