Ewart loses heartbreaker in all-Canadian playoff at Times Colonist Victoria Open; Season over for Sloan; Junsu Im impresses in SFU season-opener
Vancouver’s Anna Huang didn’t just win as a 16-year-old rookie pro on the Ladies European Tour. She made it look easy.
At the age of 16 years, 10 months and 22 days, all Huang did was go wire to wire to win the La Sella Open in Spain by seven shots.
As if it was needed, Huang put an exclamation mark on her win with a birdie on the 72nd hole. Not even Huang could believe what she had accomplished. “Honestly, I’m really shocked right now,” she said. “I can’t believe I just won. It’s really crazy. At the beginning of the season I didn’t even have a full card, so to win is absolutely insane.”
Huang was honestly just trying to survive her first year as a pro. Playing well enough to keep her status for 2026 was her primary goal. She was confident that in time she could win. She just didn’t think it would happen this fast.
“This is definitely pretty shocking,” she said in a telephone interview. “I never expected this to happen. I didn’t expect to win this year, but I am really glad I was able to pull it off.”
Huang picked a good week to do it. The La Sella Open purse was one million Euros, one of the biggest of the season. She collected 150,000 Euros (about $246,000 Cdn) for the win. She also vaulted 28 spots and now sits 22nd on the LET Order of Merit. Her status is secure for 2026 and she will also draw into some big-money events in Asia later this year.
Huang decided to turn pro after getting through the LET Q school late last year. She had served notice the previous week with a tie-for-seventh finish at the Swiss Ladies Open that her game was rounding into form.
She started her week in Spain with a bogey-free eight-under 64 and never looked back. She followed that up with another bogey-free round, a six-under 66. Huang did not make her first bogey of the tournament until the 15th hole of her third round, which was a three-under 69.
She closed the tournament, played at the La Sella Golf Resort in Alicante, Spain, with another 69. She finished it off in style with that birdie on the par 5th 18th hole to reach 20-under par.
“It was a pretty nice way to finish,” she said. “I hit a nice second shot onto the 18th green to reach it in two.I had a really long putt, but I managed to two-putt it for my birdie.”
The victory was made sweeter by the fact she got to share it with her dad, Alex, who caddies for his daughter. “It was special because he has been caddying for me since I started playing junior golf,” she said. “Having him here with me was really nice. He was so happy.”
Nastasia Nadaud of France finished second at 13-under, while Australia’s Maddison Hinson-Tolchard was third at 12-under.
Huang now heads to France for this week’s Lacoste Ladies Open de France. The tour concludes its season later this fall with events in India, Taiwan and China.
TOUGH FINISH: It was a disappointing ending to a great week for Coquitlam’s A.J. Ewart at the Times Colonist Victoria Open at Uplands Golf Club. Ewart began the final round of the $225,000 PGA Tour Americas event with a four-shot lead, but was caught by Ontario’s Drew Nesbitt. The two Canadians finished 72 holes tied at 20-under par and went to a playoff, which Nesbitt won on the third extra hole when he rolled in a 15-foot putt for birdie.
Ewart, who made headlines when he shot an 11-under 59 in the second round at Uplands, enters this week’s season-ending Fortinet Cup Championship at Morgan Creek Golf Course in Surrey 12th on the points list. The top 10 players after the Morgan Creek tourney receive Korn Ferry Tour cards for 2026, so Ewart has lots to play for. Nesbitt, who closed with a five-under 65, now sits seventh on the Fortinet Cup points list and is in excellent position to claim a Korn Ferry Tour card.
Nesbitt actually briefly had a two-shot lead when he birdied the par 3 17th hole. But he bogeyed the 18th to post 20-under. Ewart birdied the 17th and then made a clutch par on No. 18 to force the playoff. Both players parred the opening playoff hole, then both birdied the second hole. After two cracks at No. 18, the playoff moved to the 202-yard par 3 ninth hole, where Nesbitt ended things with his birdie. The top 120 players on the Fortinet Cup points list are eligible to play in this week’s Fortinet Cup Championship at Morgan Creek.
SEASON OVER: Merritt’s Roger Sloan’s Korn Ferry Tour season came to an end with a tie for 64th-place finish at Nationwide Children’s Hospital Championship in Columbus. Sloan dropped four spots to 131st on the KFT points list and needed to finish inside the top 120 to qualify for the third Finals event, the Compliance Solutions Championship, which goes Oct. 2-5 in Owasso, Ok. Sloan has no status for 2026 and will have to attend qualifying school this fall in an attempt to find a place to play. Vancouver’s Stuart Macdonald missed the cut at the Nationwide tourney and fell four places to 46th on the points list. He is high enough on the points list to get into the final two KFT Finals events and has secured Korn Ferry Tour status for next year.
SO CLOSE: Another nice run at the U.S. Senior Women’s Amateur Championship ended in the semi-finals for Shelly Stouffer. The Nanoose Bay resident lost her match with Dawn Woodard of Greenville, S.C. on the 18th hole. Stouffer, the 2022 champion and a finalist last year, had controlled much of the match and had a 2-up lead through 12 holes. The match was even through 17 holes and Woodard won it when Stouffer bogeyed the par 3 18th hole at The Omni Homestead Resort in Hot Springs, Va. Woodard went on to win the championship, defeating Australian Sue Wooster on the 20th hole of their final match.
IM DANDY: Junsu Im closed with a tournament-best seven-under 65 and helped the Simon Fraser University men’s team to a fourth-place finish at the Chico State Wildcat Classic. Im, a native of South Korea, finished the 54-hole event third overall at 11-under par. That was two shots behind winner Vineet Vallamsetty of Chico State. Freshman Liam Jackes of Vancouver also cracked the top 20 for SFU, finishing in a tie for 18th at four-under par. The Red Leafs finished with a team score of 22-under par, just two shots behind third-place Western Washington. Chico State won with a score of 41-under. The SFU, University of Victoria and UBC-Okanagan women’s teams open their seasons at this week’s Grisham Memorial Shootout at The Home Course in Dupont, Wash. The UBC women’s team is competing at this week’s Canadian Collegiate Invitational at Beacon Hill Golf Club in Aurora, Ont.
CLARA CLOSE: White Rock’s Clara Ding finished second, one shot behind winner Charlotte Naughton of England, at the World Junior Girls Championship in St. Catharines, Ont. Ding finished the event at nine-under par. Langley’s Clairey Lin tied for third at seven-under. South Korea won the team title by seven shots over the Canada 1 team of Lin, Michelle Xing of Richmond Hill, Ont., and Shauna Liu of Maple, Ont. The Canada 2 team of Ding, Eileen Park of Red Deer and Ruiha Kendria Wang of Vancouver finished sixth.
KIM SIXTH: Surrey’s Lauren Kim, a junior at the University of Texas, finished sixth in the individual competition at the Jackson T. Stephens Cup at Shoreacres Golf Club in Lake Bluff, Ill. Kim, who won this event last year, finished the 54-hole tourney at one-under par. That was seven shots behind winner Macy Pate of Wake Forest. Texas advanced to the match play consolation final, where Kim helped the Longhorns beat Oregon 3-2. Kim won her match 2&1 over Oregon’s Shyla Singh.
COLLEGE DEBUT: Burnaby’s Luna Lu made her debut with the Princeton Tigers and the former B.C. Junior Girls champion finished 20th at the Inverness Collegiate in Toldeo, Ohio. That helped Princeton place third in the 12-team field. . .Surrey’s Rebecca Kim, in her second year at Oregon State University, tied for 22nd at the Leadership and Golf Invitational tourney at Chambers Bay in University Place, Wash. . .Nanaimo’s Matthew Wilson, a sophomore at Weber State University in Utah, tied for fourth at the Ram Masters Invitational in Fort Collins, Colo. Wilson finished the 54-hole tourney at three-under par. . .Vancouver’s Vanessa Zhang, in her second year at Harvard University, tied for 24th at the Lady Paladin Invitational in Greenville, S.C.
EPSON ENDING: Vancouver’s Leah John tied for 57th at the Epson Tour’s Murphy USA El Dorado Shootout in Arkansas. John fell one spot and now sits 20th heading into the season-ending Epson Tour Championship, which will be played Oct. 2-5 at Indian Wells Golf Resort in California. Delta’s Mary Parsons tied for 40th in Arkansas and is now 106th on the points list.
TOP 10 IN MONTANA: North Vancouver’s Michael Kennedy finished eighth at the Pacific Northwest Golf Association’s Senior Men’s Amateur Championship at Old Works Golf Club in Anaconda, Mont. Kennedy’s 54-hole total of three-over par left him four shots behind Spokane’s Nate Hair, who won a three-man playoff. Kelowna’s Norm Bradley finished fifth in the Super Senior division.
PLAYOFF WINNER: Delta’s Jace Minni beat Vancouver’s Ilirian Zalli on the first hole of a sudden-death playoff to win the Vancouver Golf Tour’s Boyd Autobody & Glass Tour Championship at Meadow Gardens Golf Course in Pitt Meadows. Minni and Zalli had both finished the Stableford scoring event with 43 points. Minni earned $1,700 for the win.
CHIP SHOTS: Vancouver’s Michelle Liu has left Harvard’s golf team after one year with the Crimson. . .Kimberley’s Jared du Toit caddied for his good friend Aaron Cockerill of Winnipeg in the DP World Tour’s French Open. Cockerill tied for 42nd.