Junior golfers mark year of successes
This week is about the seniors on PGA Tour Champions, but this season has been all about juniors on the local golf scene.
Two of them have made verbal commitments to NCAA Div. I Pac12 schools. Tristan Mandur will head to the University of Utah and Keaton Gudz will be off to Oregon State University for the 2017-18 seasons.
“Ultimately, that’s what the goal is, although we also have to give credit to all the local kids on the Camosun and University of Victoria programs as well,” said Rick Gudz, the B.C. Golf Zone 5 Junior chairman who will recognize all juniors on awards night on Sept. 27 at Olympic View.
Nolan Thoroughgood, who at 15 won the B.C. Men’s Amateur (the youngest to ever take that title) and the B.C. Summer Games gold and Akari Hayashi (provincial bantam champion, runner-up at Juveniles and also Summer Games victor) will be recognized as the boy’s and girl’s players of the year.
Mandur was the B.C. junior boy’s champion and also led Team B.C. with a tied for 17th finish at the Canadian Junior. Keaton Gudz tied for sixth provincially and, although not on the B.C. team, did finish tied for seventh at Canadians.
Callum Davison won the CN Future Links Quebec event, tied for 24th provincially and was a solid third (tied) at nationals.
Jeevan Sihota won the U.S. Kids World Junior 12-andunder category and was second at B.C. Juveniles.
And that’s not even counting Naomi Ko, who won the Canadian Junior Girls, but more notably played in three professional LPGA events, including the U.S. Women’s Open.
The 18-year-old, who is in her second year at North Carolina State, also recently placed sixth overall individually at the World Amateur Team Championships in Mexico. Ko was the top Canadian at the event with a 6-under 282 total.
“We have to remember that these are all kids within the area,” said Gudz. “It’s special to watch them grow from little kids into the players that they are.”
His son, Keaton, also just finished fourth at the Canadian International Junior Challenge at the Wildfire Golf Club in Ontario.
Ultimately, it was a fantastic year for Zone 5.
“We really have to thank the local clubs for the access and for making it fun for all these juniors,” Rick Gudz said.