KIMBERLEY — All Austin Krahn needed to win the 123rd playing of the B.C. Amateur Championship was a routine par on the 18th hole at Bootleg Gap. He got that par, but it was anything but routine. It was more like a miracle.
It came after the 17-year-old Christina Lake resident hit one of the best shots of his young life. Given the circumstance, it’s tough to imagine there have been many better ones struck in the long history of this championship.
After a clutch birdie on the par 3 17th hole that gave him a one-shot lead, Krahn’s drive on the demanding 505-yard par 4 18th hole at Bootleg Gap trickled into a left fairway bunker.
He drew a sketchy lie and with more than 200 yards and a large pond to carry in front of the green, Krahn did the wise thing and laid up. But he chunked his lay up out of the sand and his ball remained in the rough.
“Not the best layup, to be honest,” he said with a chuckle. “I had 175 yards out of the rough, hit an eight-iron and tried to land it short and roll it up there. It was just like a perfect shot, in there to about three feet.”
He rolled in the par putt to avoid a playoff with Chilliwack’s Maxim McKenzie, who had made a late-round charge. “I don’t know if I have hit a clutch shot better than that one,” Krahn said. “I have had a few good ones in my life, but that one has got to be up there. To be in that position when I have to get up and down from 175 yards to win the B.C. Am and then do it is just a phenomenal feeling.”
It’s been quite the two weeks for Krahn. He went wire-to-wire to win his second straight B.C. Junior Boys Championship last week at Quilchena Golf & Country Club in Richmond. All he did at Bootleg Gap was do it again. Krahn has now played eight straight rounds with the lead or a share of it.
“It’s tough mentally just to come out knowing you have the lead,” Krahn said. “When you are chasing, you just come out guns ablazing and go for it. When you are leading it’s a lot more stressful and you feel like you are expected to win and you have to make sure you are still committing to shots and not trying to guide them and just sticking to your game plan. But it’s fun.”
Especially when you win.
“I have played in this tournament for like the last four years and seeing people at the top of the leaderboard, like Cooper (Humphreys) the last two years, you just kind of dream you could be there one day. And now I’m here, it’s so special.”
The final round was something of a roller-coaster ride for Krahn. He had trouble getting birdie putts to drop, but made a number of clutch five- to 10-foot putts for up-and-down pars.
“It was a wild one out there, we kind of explored a lot of the golf course today,” said Krahn, who is a member of Golf Canada’s NextGen team. “We were all over the place. I struggled making some of my birdie putts, but made some big par saves of seven and eight feet just to keep in it. I knew it wouldn’t come easy. You have to shoot low out here to win. Those par saves can sometimes give you more momentum than birdies.”
Bootleg Gap was pretty much stretched to its maximum yardage of 7,100 yards for the final round. Krahn closed with a two-under 69 to finish at 11-under par. He shot four rounds in the 60s.
MacKenzie, like Krahn just 17 years old, made things interesting when he chipped in for eagle on the par 5 15th hole and then birdied the 16th and 17 holes. “It was not easy,” Krahn said. “I was checking the leaderboard and thinking I should be in a decent spot and I looked at it and Max was eagle, birdie, birdie coming in and 10-under and I was like holy, I’m 10-under, so I have to make something happen.”
McKenzie closed with a brilliant six-under 65. He had 13 birdies and an eagle in his final two rounds at Bootleg Gap. “It was a pretty good run,” McKenzie said. “I missed that birdie putt on 18 to at least get into a playoff.”
McKenzie, who was playing two groups ahead of Krahn, came close to holing his 215-yard approach shot on 18. He just missed his eight-foot birdie putt.
“I thought it was in, but just hit it a little too hard,” McKenzie said. “I really didn’t think Austin was going to hit it to four feet on 18, but that’s good for him.”
Delta’s Dustin Franko finished third at eight-under par after closing with a two-under 69. Franko was in the thick of it until he three-putted the 17th green for a bogey. “The week was a great, can’t ask for much more,” said Franko, who played his collegiate golf at the University of Hawaii-Hilo. “This is more than likely my last year as an amateur, so I couldn’t be happier.”
Krahn, McKenzie and Franko 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.
“It’s a good team, it should be fun,” Krahn said. “B.C. won it last year, so we’ll see if we can follow in the footsteps and get it done.”
A two-man better-ball competition was also contested this week. The team of Hudson LaFayette of North Vancouver and Mackenzie Bickell of Richmond won with a score of 28-under. That was one shot better than the duo of Krahn and partner Manpreet Lahl of Nanaimo.
Krahn has another title to defend at next week’s B.C. Indigenous Championship, which is being played just down the road at the St. Eugene Golf Resort. Krahn will be attempting to win his third straight Indigenous title. He won the first two championships played in 2023 at Nk’Mip Canyon Desert Golf Course in Oliver and last year at University Golf Course in Vancouver.
Click HERE to see complete final scoring from the B.C. Amateur.
CHIP SHOT: The 2026 B.C. Amateur Championship is scheduled to be held at Riverway Golf Course in Burnaby.