It came down to a playoff for White Rock golfer Clara Ding, 12, at the Maple Leaf Junior TaylorMade Championship (West) tournament at Morgan Creek Golf Club over the weekend (April 8 and 9).
Unfortunately for Ding, Elaine Liu, 15, of Vancouver, defeated her in the playoff to win the MJT Girls 15-19 TaylorMade Championship (West) title, with Ding in second place; both had total scores of 157 (75-82 for Liu; 77-80 for Ding).
Burnaby’s Charlotte Tam, 12, outlasted her competition and was crowned MJT Girls U15 TaylorMade Champion (West), according to a release.
“Although I didn’t finish the tournament with my best performance, I feel really good about winning my first-ever MJT trophy,” said Tam.
The tournament, a highly sought-after major event on the Maple Leaf Junior Golf Tour, hosted a full field of 112 golfers over the Masters weekend, although the difficult weather made scoring extremely tough.
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Matthew Wilson, 16, of Nanaimo, was crowned Low Overall and MJT TaylorMade Junior Boys Champion (West) after two amazing rounds 70-71 (141), with Surrey’s Justin Bjornson, 17, golfing 75-80 (155), placing third behind Wilson.
Tiger Yuanjun Liu, 12, also from Surrey, finished third in the Peewee Boys category with 82-77 (159), behind golfers from Burnaby and Vancouver.
Langley’s Ryan LePrieur, 14, finished third in the Bantam Boys category, golfing 78-79 (157).
Low qualifiers in relation to rating – including Ding – were short-listed for the IMG Junior World Golf Championship in San Diego, California, this July, while Wilson also qualified directly for the MJT Future Stars presented by ATB at Northern Bear Golf Club in Sherwood Park, Alberta, on June 23-24.
The next stop on Canada’s number one-played Junior Golf Tour is the wait-listed MJT G&G Brands Classic at GreenTee Country Club in Langley, April 22-23.
For more information, visit www.maplejt.com
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