Richmond's Alisha Lau Starts Off Bullish On The Bear In BC Junior Girls Championship
Alisha Lau Is Your First Round Leader In The 2017 BC Junior Girls Championship After Carding A Ladies' Course Record 67 On The Bear Course At Okanagan GC - Image Credit Bryan Outram/British Columbia Golf
by Bryan Outram/British Columbia Golf
Richmond’s Alisha Lau fired a Ladies’ course record 67 on The Bear at The Okanagan Golf Club today to take a 3-shot lead over Surrey’s Angel Lin in the opening round of the BC Junior Girls Championship.
The 17-year old Lau, who plays out of Quilchena Golf Club and is a recent graduate of Burnett High School in Richmond, is heading to the University of Colorado in the fall and this will be her final go ‘round in the BC Junior Girls Championship.
Having dealt with various injuries earlier in the year Lau is feeling a little more comfortable on the golf course now. “I’ve been dealing with a few injuries since the start of the year, but was starting to feel better lately and I really wasn’t thinking about that today,” she said.
”I was able to give myself some good opportunities by hitting some nice approach shots. Nothing really, really close - but I gave myself chances and my putting was pretty decent.”
A round punctuated by 6 birdies and only 1 bogey would seem to support that statement. So, did she see this kind of round coming? “I wasn’t expecting to go super-low, so, yes I was a little surprised at my score.”
It’s also the first competitive round she’s played at the course which apparently fits her eye and her game fairly well. “It’s a tree-lined course and it has some difficult spots but I feel very comfortable out here,” said Lau.
The second place Lin, who plays out of Morgan Creek GC where the BC Amateur will be held in two weeks, was the only other player under par on the day as she fired a 2-under 70, signing a very 'exciting' scorecard that featured 5 birdies, an eagle and 5 bogies.
Kelowna's Tiegan Taylor is alone in 3rd spot after fashioning an even par round of 72, carding 4 birdies to go along with an equal number of bogies. Three players are T4 at 1-over 73, Hannah Lee of Surrey, Esther Lee of Maple Ridge and Shania Remandaban from Coquitlam.
It’s often hard to follow-up a great round with another one but but Lau isn’t too worried about that at this point. “I’ll be thinking about it a little bit but I’ll just try to get off to a good start and go with the flow,” she said. “I was able to go about my game today just playing shot—by-shot so that’s how I’ll approach it tomorrow.”
In the Best Ball competition that is held concurrently with the 72-hole event, the team of Lau and Hannah Lee hold a 3-shot advantage over Lin and partner Kasira Muanyam from Nanaimo after combining for an 8-under 64. Nelson's Kelly Hellman teamed with Sandee Park of West Vancouver to shoot a 4-under 68 and sit T3 with Coquitlam's Michelle Zheng and her partner Esther Lee.
Meanwhile, in the Zone Competition, which takes place over the first two rounds, Jessica Wu and Cecile Kwon of Zone 3 (Fraser Valley) are leading Zone 2 (Okanagan) Tiegan Taylor and Emma Sabbagh by one shot with Michelle Liu and Jennifer Gu of Zone 4 (Delta, Greater Vancouver, Squamish and Sunshine Coast) just one shot further back.
There will be a cut to the top 28 players and ties following 54 holes of this 72-hole event.
Round two starts at 7:30am tomorrow with the leader Lau teeing off at 8:00am.
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