Home-course advantage
Current Twenty Valley member and former member top their flights at junior tour stop
High marks in geography and history earned two golfers low numbers on the scorecard when the Niagara District Junior Golf Tour stopped at Twenty Valley Golf and Country Club.
Rein Zenka, currently a member of the par-72 course in Vineland, and Taylor Simoneau, who used to play out of Twenty Valley, used knowledge of the course to their advantage Tuesday on the way to their second victories on this summer’s tour.
Zenka, 18, of Caistor Centre shot par, on nines of 33 and 39; for a one-stroke victory over Ethan Bennett, 32-41=73; while Simoneau, 17, of St. Catharines also won by two strokes. She finished the day four over, 38-38=76; and earned top honours over Kayla Burke, 4236=78.
Zenka, who is in his fourth and final summer on the junior tour, topped the leaderboard for the first time since winning the second tour stop of the season at Rolling Meadows in Niagara Falls. He placed third and 10th at the other events.
Zenka said knowing the lay of the land at Twenty Valley definitely helped him at the first stop on this year’s tour.
The South Lincoln High School graduate who is going on to study sports management at Niagara College said he wasn’t feeling any added pressure playing on his home course.
“Not really, I just came out and played like I usually play here,” Zenka said. “I know which shot clubs to hit on each hole, so it was kind of automatic for me.”
He conceded he had an advantage, though only a “tiny bit” of one.
“I knew there was a lot of competition,” he said. “A couple of my buddies (on the tour) are members here and they shoot low, too.”
Zenka approaches each round the same way, regardless of where it’s played.
“Don’t lose any golf balls, keep it in the fairways and hit all the greens,” he said. “That’s all I focus on.”
Putting contributed to Zenka’s onestroke victory on his home course.
“I was making some good one-putts today.”
Zenka, who first picked up a club when he was about five, has been playing golf as long as he’s been going to school.
“My father built a one-hole golf course in the backyard,” he said. “I’ve just been practising there, ever since I was a kid.”
It was the second tour win in a row for Simoneau who did not compete at last Friday’s stop at Willodell.
Like Zenka, she used knowledge of the course to her advantage.
“I’ve had a lot of experience on this golf course,” she said. “Knowing where to position the ball really helped today.
“I knew most of the greens, I knew breaks and I could read them well, and I knew where to put the ball and where I could miss it.”
Simoneau’s driver was working “especially well.”
“I was able to put it in good spots off the tee and then on the longer holes, the par-5’s, I was able to hit some to make birdies,” she said. “That made up for some of the mistakes I made on other holes.”
Simoneau attributed her ongoing winning streak to “a lot of hard work, a lot of practice.”
“I’ve been working really hard on my game for a while when I’m at a golf course, probably every day.”
Last week’s win at Grand Niagara, which was her first in four-plus seasons on the tour, was a big confidence booster. “When you win once, you know you can do it again, and you want it more.”
With each of her tour wins achieved on a Monday, the Governor Simcoe Secondary School graduate quipped she now has a new way to start the week.
“Most people don’t like them (Mondays) but I’m starting to like them a lot,” the St. Catharines Golf and Country Club member said with a laugh.
Simoneau will be going to Lake Superior State University in Sault Ste. Marie, Mich., where she will be studying psychology and sports marketing.
Next stop on the junior tour is Tuesday, Aug. 8, at Legends, with action shifting to Sawmill a day later.