2021 Junior Golf Victoria Callaway Junior Tour Opener
71 Vancouver Island Junior Golfers battled rain and cold yesterday at Bear Mountain’s Valley Course in the season opener of the 2021 Junior Golf Victoria (JGV) Callaway Junior Tour.
Little Vikes grad and current Team Canada member Willie Bishop hit the opening tee shot and led the Junior division with a +1 73 followed closely by Pheasant Glen’s Mack Sanderson’s 74. Lucas Kulai, Preston Lightle and astonishingly, Shu Yamamoto were 2 back at 75.
Among the Bantams, supposed 14 year old Manny Lalh’s 78 was followed by 80’s by Matthew Milkowski and Hunter Auramenko. Nanaimo’s Matthew Wilson was 83 followed by Little Vikes Grad (and provincial badminton champion) Jason Yang’s 84.
Royal Colwood’s Ewan Baldwin led the Peewee Boys with a +2 37 followed by Luke Bernakevitch with a 39. Owen Beaulac was 42 and Bentley Hoogerdyk 43.
Which brings us to the true stars of the day’s competition. In case you didn’t know this, “girls are awesome”. Long time JGV member and sudden short game magician Lana Rummel and Team Canada member Angela Arora fired stellar +1 72’s to lead the entire field. In case you didn’t get that – they beat everyone! They were followed closely by another Team Canada member Jennifer Gu who shot 73. 12 year old Veronica Mann shot an impressive 75 (the same score as Shu Yamamoto, Lucas Kulai, and Preston Lightle) and Little Vikes Grad Chelsea Truong was 77.
Among the Peewee Girls Angela Zou shot her best ever 9 hole score of 39 followed by Ms. Sarah Kim and Anna Wu who were both 44. Anna will not be able to play in our next event (April 4) as she will be at this place you may have heard of, the Augusta National Golf Club, where she will be competing in the Drive, Chip and Putt Finals. We’ll all be cheering for you Anna. Remember to have fun.
Added yesterday was a new division for Alumni. Many recent Juniors have trouble finding a place to play once they age out. We created opportunities for them when they were 7, why wouldn’t we when they no longer are. The Alumni Division is open all former Junior Golf Victoria members and we hope to see it grow in the coming years. Yesterday’s field was led by Manny’s little brother Kirit Lalh. We won’t mention what Spencer Gamble and Woo Park shot but you can see their scores along with everyone else’s at our website.
A special thank you goes out to Callaway Golf for making this year’s season possible, Golf for Kids who have supported us through the years and Bear Mountain for making their facility available so young people could have chance to get together with their friends and make new ones during these challenging times. Photos from yesterday’s event have been posted at Instagram @juniorgolfvictoria.
Stay safe everyone and hope to see you April 4 back at Bear Mountain.