This afternoon’s Carstairs Junior Open was the final regular season event of the 2022 McLennan Ross Alberta Junior Tour schedule.  All that remains now is the 27th annual Tour Championship coming up next Monday at Wolf Creek Golf Resort as another very successful Tour season is almost in the books.  The afternoon started out under a light drizzle and threatening skies, but after about an hour, the rains let up and 55 juniors from as far away as Lethbridge were able to complete play under ideal scoring conditions.

In the junior boys’ division, we ended up with co-medalists today as Jeremy Hart of Sirocco GC from the U19 flight and Canmore’s Colton Stadnyk from the U17 age group matched 1-over par 73s. Each player’s score was tops in their respective age division.  Hart got out of the gate quickly, going 2-under par on the front 9  thanks largely to an eagle-3 on the par-5 3rd hole, while Stadnyk closed with a rush, firing a 3-under par 33 on the back 9 highlighted by his own eagle-3 on the par-5 11th hole and back-to-back birdies on #17 and #18.

Aidan Fong of Country Hills and his clubmate Kole Keenas finished T3 overall another shot back at 74. Tyler Hennessey of Earl Grey won the U15 flight today on the strength of a 3-over par 75, which was also good for 5th overall.  Three players were T2 in the U15 flight with 78s.  In the U13 division, Jaxon Apedoe of Serenity GC took home first place money with an 88.

We also had 2 competitors today in a U10 flight, as 9-year-old Judah Hornstein of the Public Player Club and 8-year-old Colton Chalmers of the host Carstairs GC both got their first taste of tournament competition. Judging from the smiles on the kids’ faces at the conclusion of their rounds, I’m sure we will be seeing more of these two youngsters next year!

Nine junior girls were on hand today, and Inglewood’s Jasmine Lazzari captured both the girls’ U13 age group and low gross overall honours with an 86.  The U15 flight went to Annella Brown of Blue Devil GC (98) with Addison Rohmann of Silver Springs GCC best in the girls’ U17 flight with a 105.  Taryn Sanderson of Vulcan GC earned top place in the U19 division with her score of an even 100.

Emails will go out Wednesday morning to the top players in each age division for both boys and girls who have earned the right to compete on Monday at Wolf Creek Golf Resort in the Tour Championship.  With the season finale only a few days away, the players who get that ‘Golden Ticket’ email will have to enter as quickly as possible after receiving their confirmation so that Alberta Golf organizers can make final arrangements for the Tour Championship. We expect the biggest and strongest field of the 2022 season on Monday at The Wolf.