South Surrey golfer Adam Svensson fired a final-round 64 to hold off defending champion Kevin Kwon and capture the 2012 Canadian Junior Boys Golf Championship Friday in Nova Scotia.
Svensson, a past Canadian juvenile, B.C. junior and Callaway Junior World champion, finished with a four-round score of 283, good for one-under par. He had to overcome a tough opening round, in which he shot a four-over par 74 at the 6,601-yard, par-71 Osprey Ridge Golf Club in Bridgewater, N.S., which put him in a tie for 47th place.
The first-round leaders – Pitt Meadows' Kwon and Ontario golfers Truman Tai and Daniel Luftspring – were one-under par after the first round Tuesday, leaving Svensson, a Earl Marriott Secondary grad, significant ground to make up over the final three rounds.
Svensson shot a two-under par 69 in Wednesday's second round – which includes three birdies and just one bogey – before struggling again in Round 3, with a round of 75 that included four bogeys on the front nine.
Heading into Friday's final round, Svensson and Kwon were tied for the lead, but the South Surrey golfer played a bogey-free round – and made seven birdies – to win by two strokes.
Other Surrey golfers in the Canadian Junior Championship field included Donald Qui, who tied for 30th, and Coltan Dorian and Jaesung Choi, both of whom missed the cut.
Svensson was third in last year's championship, 12 strokes behind Kwon, who won the tournament handily, 11 shots better than the second-place finisher.
The victory is the first for Svensson this summer, who earlier in the season tied for ninth at the B.C. Amateur Championships, and helped pace Canada to a second-place showing in the team competition at the 2012 Toyota Junior Golf World Cup.