Her round started in steady but unspectacular fashion. Burnaby’s Zhehui Yu made a routine par on each of the first three holes at Gorge Vale Golf Club in Victoria in the opening round of the B.C. Junior Girls Championship.
Then things got interesting. The 17-year-old’s approach shots started heading straight at the pins and her putts began rolling in...
“To be honest, going into this round the biggest worry I had were the greens,” Yu said.
“They were faster than I expected compared to the practice round. But I got into the rhythm of it. Then all of a sudden I started sinking them. One after the other, they kind of rolled in.”
She birdied the fourth, fifth and sixth holes to quickly get to three-under. “I was like, three in a row, that’s nice,” she said. “I didn’t think much of it at the time and I kept playing and no bogeys came and more birdies kept rolling in. I just felt better as the round went on.”
When she tapped in her final birdie of the day on the 18th green, Yu had fired a nine-under 64. Yes, it was the round of her life. “I think this is my legacy round right here,” she said. “My previous personal best was a 67 at Chilliwack Golf Club.”
Yu is heading into Grade 12 at Burnaby North Secondary and plays out of Pitt Meadows Golf Club. She hopes to pursue a career in medicine and would also like to play collegiate golf, but hasn’t received any offers. If she fires any more rounds like this one, those offers will come.
“I am big into biology and I believe in helping people,” she said. “It would be wonderful if I could play collegiate golf, of course.”
For the first time in her life, Yu hit all 18 greens in regulation at Gorge Vale. She did not make a bogey. “No chips were made today,” she said.
“I feel like my ball-striking today was quite proficient. But I wouldn’t say it was my best ball-striking, it was more about my putting. Everything just rolled in, they just went in.”
None of the nine birdie putts she made were of the crazy-long variety. “My longest putt was just outside 20 feet, maybe 22 feet.”
Yu said her mom missed her round as she was out exploring Victoria-area beaches with her little brother.
She will take a seven-shot lead into the second round of the 72-hole event. Vancouver’s Jenny Kwon had the only other sub-par round of the day, a two-under 71.
Asked what she plans to do for an encore, Yu laughed and said, “Hopefully play well again. Tomorrow is a new day, so I will approach tomorrow like I did today. Hole-by-hole and stroke-by-stroke.”
Click HERE for complete first round scoring.