Zhehui Yu did not save her best for last, but it didn’t matter.
The 17-year-old Burnaby resident still won the B.C. Junior Girls Championship at Gorge Vale Golf Club in Victoria by 13 shots.
“I dreamed of this moment, I’m not sure what else to say,” an emotional Yu said. “I never expected it would happen, but it did and that’s wonderful."
Yu, who is heading into Grade 12 at Burnaby North Secondary, finished the 72-hole event at seven-under par and joked about not having her best stuff in the final round. Of course, she began that final round with a 13-shot lead, so she really didn’t need it. She closed with a three-over 76.
“I think toward the end I did fall apart a little bit,” she said. “I double-bogeyed the par 3, No. 16.”
Yu described what was her only double-bogey of the week this way: “I shanked my tee shot, skulled my chip, made a horrible flop coming back and two-putted. But to be honest it was just a relief to finish. I’m tired, but I’m happy.”
The result was something of a foregone conclusion after Yu opened the tournament with the round of her life, a nine-under 64 when she hit all 18 greens in regulation. After that, the race was pretty much for second place.
“I think it’s pretty obvious that I am very happy about my first round of the tournament,” she said. “That was spectacular. That will go down in the history of my lifetime. I am saving the ball from that round.”
Yu was also proud of the way she managed her way around Gorge Vale. “I think I played the golf course well. It was less that the golf course played me and more I played the golf course. And I am really glad my competitors were wonderful and I had a lot of fun. It was a great experience all in all.”
Yu acknowledges that she surprised herself by winning in such convincing fashion. Her previous best result in a British Columbia Golf championship event was a third-place finish at the 2022 B.C. Bantam Girls (U-15) Championship at Shadow Ridge Golf Club in Kelowna.
She aspires to work in medicine, but this result also has her thinking about possibly playing some collegiate golf as she continues her studies. “I want to keep my doors as open as possible, so academically or athletically I hope to make it somewhere in the world. But this will definitely mark a very big moment in my life. I still have some more things to think about when it comes to collegiate golf or college, but this win emotionally will be a very big decider.”
As for that race for second place, Victoria’s Emma Kral prevailed by one shot over Cadence Ko of Richmond. The 15-year-old Kral closed with a two-over 75 to finish at seven-over par, one shot better than Ko.
Kral has made great progress with her game. She missed the cut at last year’s B.C. Junior Girls Championship at Gallagher’s Canyon in Kelowna. One year later, she finishes solo second. “I am pretty happy with how I played,” Kral said.
“It was a big improvement over what I have been doing, so I am really happy with how I showed. I think I have made a lot of progress the last year. I am working a lot harder and focusing more on golf. I am taking time out of my daily life and putting golf first. That has made a huge improvement in my game.”
Kral, who is entering Grade 10 at Brookes Westshore, also benefits from having great golf genes. Her dad, Scott Kral, won the 1995 and 1996 B.C. Junior Boys Championships and played collegiate golf at the University of Washington. Her mom, Alanna Deegan, is director of instruction at Olympic View Golf Course.
Yu, Kral and Ko 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 two-person team better-ball competition was also held at Gorge Vale. The team of Ester Cheon of Langley and Jenny Kwon of Vancouver and the duo of Emma Kral and Vienna Scheffer of Victoria both finished 13-under. Cheon and Kwon were awarded first place on a count-back.
A 36-hole Zone competition was won by the Zone 5 (Victoria) team of Kral and 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.
Click HERE to see complete final scoring.