Victoria’s Chelsea Truong Leads By One After First Round Of B.C. Women’s Amateur Championship
Victoria's Chelsea Truong Leads The BC Women's Amateur - Image Credit Chuck Russell/Golf Canada
By Brad Ziemer, British Columbia Golf
COBBLE HILL — There were a lot more bogeys than birdies in the first round of the 118th B.C. Women’s Amateur Championship on a challenging Arbutus Ridge Golf Club layout.
Chelsea Truong made three of each en route to her even-par 72 that gave the Victoria teenager a one-stroke lead. For that, she thanked her putter. “My putting was pretty good, but my ball-striking wasn’t the best,” said the 17-year-old Truong, who is just completing Grade 11 at Oak Bay Secondary. “But I kept it in the fairway.”
That really is the key to scoring at Arbutus Ridge, where there is lots of trouble lurking off many of the tees.
That doesn’t bother West Vancouver’s Jennifer Gu, who shot a one-over 73 and is alone in second place. “I really like the course for my game,” said Gu, a former B.C. Junior Girls champion who has just finished her second year at Kent State University in Ohio.
“It is really demanding off the tee and that is a strong suit for me. I just hope to make a bunch more putts the next three days.”
Not surprisingly, the leaderboard is full of collegiate players and soon-to-be collegiate players. Truong has verbally committed to the University of New Mexico and two Simon Fraser University players, Natasha Kozlowski of Vernon and Meera Minhas of Burnaby, share third after both shooting 74s.
Minhas had the shot of the day when she holed out for eagle on the par 4 15th hole. It came after she bombed her drive and had only 33 yards left to the green. “That is my first hole-out eagle during a tournament,” she said. “So that was pretty cool and it was nice to have my whole family there to see it.”
Although it was a short pitch, it required a delicate touch as the 15th green slopes dramatically from right to left. “I had to play it 10 yards above the pin and let it kind of trickle down to the hole,” she said. “Otherwise, I had no chance.”
Kozlowski, who will be heading into her final year at Simon Fraser this fall, called Arbutus Ridge, “Tricky.”
“It definitely has its quirks to it, but it is really nice,” she said. “The fairways are pretty tight, so as long as you keep your tee shot in play everything is all right. And some of the greens have lots of slope. You don’t want to be on the wrong side of the hole.”
Four players — Ha Young Chang of Surrey, Else Wu of Maple Ridge, Cadence Ko of Richmond and Rebecca Kim of Surrey — are tied for fifth place at four-over par. Nanoose Bay’s Shelley Stouffer, who won this year’s Mid-Amateur, Mid-Master and Senior titles, had a tough day. She opened with an 86. “I could not sink a putt,” she said.
As a Victoria resident, Truong knows Arbutus Ridge a little better than most of the field. But she hadn’t played it in a while until this week and noticed a big change. Not in the course, but in how she plays it. “The last time I played here was probably three or four years ago,” she said. “So it just felt completely different because I hit it a lot further now. The course plays a little easier.”
Truong may have one other advantage on the field. “I get to sleep in my own bed,” she said.
The 39-player field will be cut to the top 20 and ties following Wednesday’s second round.
Click HERE for complete first round scoring.