(VICTORIA, B.C.) - Zhehui Yu’s expectations were not exactly sky-high as she came to Victoria’s Gorge Vale Golf Club for the B.C. Junior Girls Championship.
“I am a bit of a pessimistic person when it comes to my golf, so I think I came here with pretty low expectations of myself,” the 17-year-old Burnaby resident said. “I didn’t really know what to think.”
Needless to say, Yu has blown those low expectations out of the water...
Following a one-over 74 in the third round, the Burnaby North Secondary student will enter Friday’s final round with a 13-shot lead. “It feels pretty good, it feels pretty free, I don’t know how to describe it,” she said of her big lead.
Yu, who is heading into Grade 12, doesn’t expect to feel any extra pressure as she tries to earn what would be the biggest win of her young golfing life. “It's kind of funny because I feel less and less pressure as I play, surprisingly,” she said.
“It just feels great to play with the best of the best and it is a great feeling to compete and I am grateful that I brought myself here and I am just going to play without any regrets and just try to play the best I can.”
Yu stands at 10-under par through 54 holes, thanks in large part to a nine-under par 64 in the first-round. Her third-round 74 featured back-to-back birdies on the sixth and seventh holes. “I found the pin positions significantly more difficult today, with some of them backing onto tiers and making putting a little harder and approach shots a little more demanding.
"And with the wind picking up a bit toward the end of the round, it was a little more difficult. I don’t feel like my round today was that bad. I just feel like I didn’t make as many putts.”
Port Moody’s Lillian Zhao sits second, 13 shots back of Yu at three-over par. Zhao fired a one-under 72 in the third round. Victoria’s Emma Kral is third at four-over after her third-round 75.
Grace Aoting Yao of West Vancouver had the day’s best round, a two-under 71 that left her tied for seventh at 11-over par.
The top three players after the final round will represent British Columbia in the inter-provincial team competition at the Canadian Junior Girls Championship, which goes Aug. 13-16 in Sainte Marie, Que.
A 36-hole Zone competition was won by the Zone 5 (Victoria) team of Emma Kral and Vienna Scheffer with a score of 11-over par. The Zone 2 team of Ellie Johnson of Vernon and Tierra Elchuk of Kelowna were second at 30-over.
A two-person team better-ball competition is also being held at Gorge Vale. The team of Kraal and Scheffer carry a three-shot lead into the final round with a score of 12-under.
Click HERE for complete third round scoring.