(KIMBERLEY) - It’s the B.C. Amateur, not the B.C. Junior, but nothing has changed. Everyone is still chasing Austin Krahn.
Well, almost everyone. Just days after his impressive win at last week’s B.C. Junior Boys Championship, the 17-year-old Krahn opened the 123rd playing of the B.C. Amateur at Bootleg Gap in Kimberley with a four-under 67 that gave him a share of the lead with 15-year-old Noah Reddicopp of Abbotsford...
Krahn’s round came in the morning wave and he finished it off strong with four birdies on the back nine.
“It was a really good finish and I had a good start, too, I was two-under through five holes,” Krahn said. “I had a bit of a rough stretch when I bogeyed seven and eight, but made a birdie on 10 and then three in a row (on holes 14, 15 and 16) late in the game.”
Reddicopp, last year’s B.C. Bantam Boys champion, also finished his afternoon round off well. He rolled in birdie putts on the 17th and 18th holes to post his 67. “Those were the only putts over 10 feet I made today,” Reddicopp said. “It was good to see two drop in at the end. I’m excited for tomorrow.”
Like Krahn, Reddicopp also played well at last week’s B.C. Junior at Quilchena Golf & Country Club in Richmond, where he finished 10th. “My goal tomorrow is just to hit the first shot in the fairway and then we’ll see what happens from there,” said Reddicopp, whose dad, Dean, and older brother, Isaiah, are also playing this week.
“I like this course. I like how it challenges you off the tee and there is a lot of strategy involved as far as which pins you can go for and which tee shots you can go for.”
Bootleg Gap is most certainly tighter than the Quilchena course Krahn and Reddicopp played last week. “It is all golf, but at Quilchena you could hit it a little left or right,” said Krahn, whose family owns a par-3 course in Christina Lake. “You still might have to punch out, but you wouldn’t lose a ball. Out here, if you hit it into the trees you are losing balls, so you have to be a lot more careful off the tee.
“The greens are pretty similar. They are pretty big with lots of slope so you have to find the right spots on the green. I do like the golf course. It’s close enough to where I am from and is is pretty similar. Kootenay golf, lots of slopes, good mountain views. It’s fun.”
It is a tightly packed leaderboard. Seven players are just one shot back at three-under par, including Hudson LaFayette of North Vancouver, Denby Carswell of Burnaby, Joshua Laverdiere of Kelowna, Liam Jackes of Burnaby, brothers Bailey and Justin Bjornson of Surrey and Ryan Vest of Vernon.
“It was solid today, a very clean card,” Vest said. “Four birdies, one bogey. I struck the ball very well today. I putted well and any time I missed the green I got up and down, which was very helpful. It’s just nice to be in a good spot after day one.”
The first round was played in cool conditions following heavy rain that began late Monday afternoon and continued into the early hours of Tuesday morning. “I just knew coming into today with the rain we got that I could fire at pins and know it wasn’t going to run off,” Vest said. “That’s what I did all day.”
The top three finishers this week will represent British Columbia in the Willingdon Cup inter-provincial team competition at the Canadian Men’s Amateur Championship, which goes July 28-31 at Royal Ottawa Golf Club in Gatineau, Que. British Columbia won last year’s Willingdon Cup for the first time since 2015.
The field will be cut to the low 70 and ties following the second round.
Click HERE for complete first round scoring from the B.C. Amateur.