Celeste Dao’s Latest Travels Find Her At Top Of Canadian Junior Girls Championship Leaderboard
Quebec Native Celeste Dao Has A One-Shot Lead Heading Into The Final Round Of The Canadian Junior Girls Championship At Beach Grove Golf Club In Tsawwassen - Image Credit Bryan Outram/BC Golf
By Brad Ziemer, British Columbia Golf
Play golf, see the world. That kind of describes what has been a whirlwind 2018 for Celeste Dao. The 17-year-old from Notre-Dame Ile Perrot, Que., who has the lead heading into Friday’s final round of the Canadian Junior Girls Championship at Beach Grove Golf Club in Tsawwassen, has used her passport almost as much as her pitching wedge in what has been a busy year.
So far this year, she has visited Argentina, where she finished tied for eighth in the South American Amateur Championship, Mexico, where she won the Mexican Junior Girls Championship, and Japan, where she finished fifth at the Toyota Junior World Cup.
Dao, a member of Canada’s Development Squad, also qualified to play in the U.S. Women’s Open in Alabama earlier this summer. “With Golf Canada they send us all over the world,” Dao said after Thursday’s third round at Beach Grove. “And in two weeks we are going to Ireland (for the British Junior Girls), so I am pretty excited about that. It has been a busy year, but I am pretty happy so far.”
She will be even happier if she can close out the tournament Friday. Dao carries a one-shot lead over 14-year-old Emily Zhu of Richmond Hill, Ont., into the final round. It was a roller-coaster round of sorts Thursday for Dao, who began the day with a three-shot lead and stretched that cushion to seven shots through the first five holes. But Zhu birdied three of her final four holes on the front side and had cut the margin to two shots at the turn.
Dao missed short putts for par on the 10th and 11th holes and suddenly they were even heading to the 12th tee. “My putter wasn’t good today,” Dao said. “My wedges were good but my putter wasn’t good. I will try to get it better for tomorrow.”
Dao ended up shooting a one-over 73 and stands at two-under par through 54 holes. Zhu shot a two-under 70 to get to one-under. “It went really well,” Zhu, who is heading into Grade 9, said of her round. “I wanted to shoot under par and I did.”
Her shot of the day came at the par 5 15th hole, where she chipped in for eagle. That eagle followed a bogey on the 14th hole, another par 5 where Zhu hit her approach shot into a hazard. “I just wanted to make a birdie, just to come back from that bogey,” she said. “It was roughly 14 yards and because the fringe was so thick I could treat it as the green. So I just decided to land it there. I just needed it to roll to the hole.”
Zhu leads the Juvenile division for players 16 and under by seven shots over Sarah Beqaj of Toronto. Dao and Zhu will be joined in the final group Friday by Vancouver’s Tiffany Kong, who is third at five-over par. Kong, who bogeyed her last two holes to shoot 74 Thursday, knows she will have to go low to have a chance of catching Dao and Zhu. “I will definitely have to go for it and make some of the shots that I have missed the last three days,” said Kong, who was the low Canadian at last week’s Canadian Women’s Amateur Championship at Marine Drive Golf Club.
Surrey’s Hannah Lee is tied for fourth at six-over par after shooting an even-par 72 Thursday. Victoria Liu of Vancouver is sixth at seven-over, while B.C. Junior Girls Champion Phoebe Yue of West Vancouver is tied for seventh at eight-over with Chaewon Beck of Langley and Angela Zhang of Vancouver.
Click HERE for complete scoring from the Canadian Junior Girls Championship.
CHIP SHOTS: Ellie Szeryk, a National Development Team member from London, Ont., was disqualified after the second round for signing an incorrect scorecard. The playing partner marking her score had incorrectly recorded an eagle on a hole Szeryk birdied and Szeryk failed to notice the error. . . The leaders will tee off at 11:43 a.m. Friday at Beach Grove.