Alberta Golf (Stony Plain) – By Dunc Mills

Now THIS is what junior golf should look like!

A wonderfully conditioned golf course in Stony Plain.  Over 90 eager junior golfers from as far away as Wainwright, Fox Creek and Calgary.  Many fresh young faces getting their first taste of junior golf competition. Thousands of dollars in great prizes for all age groups.  And to top off the day, a very exciting sudden-victory playoff that emptied the clubhouse of all the other competitors to watch and cheer on their friends.

Kye Fisher, 16, of Leduc and Kanon Murdoch, also 16, of the host club were tied for the lead after 18 holes with fine scores of 1-under par 71.  Stony Plain GC is notorious for its superb course conditioning and very slick greens, and even with the tees set at about 6,000 yards for the  kids, the course proved more than enough challenge for everyone. Fisher and Murdoch matched birdie 4s on the par-5 first hole to open the playoff, with Murdoch electrifying the crowd with a 25-footer to force Fisher to make a slick downhill three-footer to match.  Moving over to the 9th hole, a short par-4, for the 2nd playoff hole, Fisher poured in 20-footer for his 2nd consecutive playoff birdie to take down his third McLennan Ross Junior Tour title of the summer.

Kye Fisher

Ethan Howes of Broadmoor narrowly missed joining the playoff party when his 9-foot birdie effort on his 18th hole just slid by the cup.  His even-par 72 was good for solo third. Saahir Sharma of the Edmonton CC was another stroke back in solo fourth on 73.  With the Tour now well into the second half of the 2021 season, many competitors at every event have already previously qualified for the Tour Championship coming up in three weeks at Wolf Creek Golf Resort.  New qualifiers today included:

Boys U13 – Chase Lassman (75), Stony Plain

Boys U15 – Cole Serdachny (76), Windermere

Boys U17 – Ethan Howes (72), Broadmoor

Boys U19 – Azeem Manzour (74), Trafalgar GC, Toronto, ON

Boys U15 (Wild Card), Kobee Seto (78), Royal Mayfair

Boys U17 (Wild Card), Ryan Keith (78) Stony Plain

Girls U13 – Jazmine Lazzari (93) Inglewood GCC, Calgary

Girls U15 – Leah Schmidt (93), Belvedere

Girls U17 – Kalee Seto (72) , Royal Mayfair

Kalee Seto, Jeff Cuthertson (Executive Professional), Kye Fisher

FULL SCORES OF ALL DIVISIONS HERE

We had an excellent turnout of 14 junior girls on hand today, and the pre-tournament favorite had to be Kalee Seto of the Royal Mayfair, who finished 15th at last month’s Alberta Golf U19 Championship, backed up by a Top Thirty performance in the Alberta Ladies Amateur at Broadmoor GC in Sherwood Park.  Seto toured the Stony Plain layout in an even-par 72 to earn her way into the field at the Tour Championship in the process. Ellen Tam of the River Valley Juniors club was runner-up with an 86.

Next event on Tour is Tuesday, August 10th at Desert Blume Golf Resort in Medicine Hat, followed by two tournaments this Thursday:  one at the  Taber GC for players in southern Alberta, and the always-popular Edmonton Petroleum GCC tournament.  The Pete Club is in fantastic condition from all reports, as it just finished hosting the Golf Canada Canadian Ladies Amateur Championship.