Langley’s Walnut Grove Gators Repeat As AAA B.C. High School Golf Champs
Walnut Grove Defended Their B.C. AAA High School Golf Championship, Collingwood Took The AA Title, While Aberdeen Hall (Pictured) Claimed The A Crown - Image Courtesy Twitter
By Brad Ziemer, British Columbia Golf
The second one wasn’t quite so easy for Langley’s Walnut Grove Gators, who successfully defended their B.C. AAA High School Golf Championship on Wednesday.
The Gators held off the hosts from Dover Bay Secondary at Nanaimo Golf Club to win the 36-hole championship by five shots. Last year, the Gators won their first title by 42 shots over St. George’s at Ledgeview Golf Club in Abbotsford. “This one was very close,” said Walnut Grove coach Dana Ferguson. “The host team played fantastic golf and gave us a run for our money.”
Ferguson had just two players -- Andy Kim and Andy Jang -- returning from last year’s championship squad. Jackson Jacob, Emma Yang and Rebecca Jiang were newcomers to this year’s team.
“The kids are excited and the three new kids are really thrilled,” said Ferguson, who has coached the team for more than a decade. “They’ve all come through the junior program and are just really excited to play in the provincials first off and to win the title is really special.”
Kim, who is heading to the University of B.C. this fall to play his collegiate golf, finished Wednesday’s final round eagle, birdie, birdie to help the Gators secure the win. “The whole round wasn’t going as I wanted,” said Kim, who shot a one-over 73 on Wednesday. “The last three holes I just wanted to try and make something happen. So on the 16th, a par 5, I had 180 yards in and made a nice putt for eagle. That kind of got me going and I birdied the par 3 17th from about five feet and then on 18 I had about 120 yards in and hit it to five feet again.”
Ferguson knew heading to the provincials that it would be tough to repeat as champions. The Gators finished third in the annual Delta Police Tournament and lost by one shot to South Delta at the Fraser Valley Championships. “I knew there were a couple of teams in the Valley that were strong and I also knew that there are usually a couple of Island teams and at least one Vancouver team that was strong. I knew there were at least a half-dozen teams that had a chance to win.”
Walnut Grove won with a team score of 35-over 611. The top four scores from each five-person team counted as the team score each day. St. George’s was third at 625. Victoria Liu of Lord Byng Secondary in Vancouver won the individual title with a two-over total of 146. That was one shot better than Richard Zhang of Claremont and Dylan Bercan of Vancouver College.
The AA Championship, which was played at the Talking Rock Resort in Chase, was won by Collingwood School of West Vancouver. Paced by individual winner Phoebe Yue, Collingwood finished the 36-hole event with a team score of 621, or 45-over par. That was 25 shots better than runner-up Stanley Humpries of Castlegar. St. Michaels University School of Saanich was third at 655.
Sean Buckles, Sandee Park, Michael Kennedy and Ben Wrixon were the other members of Collingwood’s winning team.
Yue won the individual title after rounds of 75 and 74 for a total of five-over 149. That was two shots better than Sonja Tang of St.Michaels.
Kelowna’s Aberdeen Hall won the Single A team title at Osoyoos Golf Club by 36 strokes over the host team from Osoyoos Secondary. Aberdeen Hall finished with a 36-hole team total of 599. Mount Elizabeth of Kitimat finished third.
Aberdeen Hall’s Cole Wilson won the individual title with a two-day total of four-under par 140. Teammate Brandon Chai was second at two-over 146. Colton Piper, Kristian Isa and Rebecca Reitsma were the other members of the Aberdeen Hall squad.