White Rock’s Clara Ding Seals NextGen Win With Record-Setting Round
Clara Ding Accepts Her NextGen Winner's Plaque From Golf Canada's Daniel Suppa - Image Credit Brad Ziemer/British Columbia Golf
By Brad Ziemer, British Columbia Golf
White Rock’s Clara Ding won going away, while Tate Bruggeman of Edmonton had to work a little overtime to secure his victory at the NextGen Fall Series West Championship.
Ding, all of 12 years old, played the back nine of her final round in five-under par en route to a five-under 67 that set a women’s competitive record at The Hills at Portal Golf Club in Surrey. She finished the 54-hole event at even-par and won by five shots over Rose Zhiyan Chen of Langley.
“I think I was pretty lucky today,” said Ding, who plays out of Morgan Creek Golf Club. “I came here wanting to play the best I could play. Everything was going in on the back nine. This is the lowest round that I have shot. I shot a 68 earlier this year, so this is a nice way to end the season.”
While Ding had a stress-free finish to the tournament, the 17-year-old Bruggeman felt like he was riding a roller-coaster for the last few holes of his final round.
A double-bogey on the par 4 15th hole cut his lead over Port Coquitlam’s Louis Chun to one shot. And after spraying his drive right on the short par 4 17th hole, it looked like Bruggeman would lose his lead. But after chunking his approach shot from a difficult-sidehill lie, he holed a wedge from 72 yards for a birdie.
Chun also birdied No. 17 and added a birdie on the par 5 18th to force a playoff. That playoff ended on the second hole when Chun could not get up and down for par. “I have had a lot of good finishes, but I had never won anything this significant, so I would say this would be my best win and caps off a solid season,” said Bruggeman, who plays out of The Derrick Golf & Winter Club in Edmonton.
“I knew I just had to keep getting myself on the green and giving myself birdie putts,” Bruggeman said of the playoff. “Thankfully, he had a bit of a blemish. I didn’t play a spectacular two holes by any means. I just grinded my way into pars.
Bruggeman closed with a two-under 69 — The Hills was set up as a par 71 for the boys — to finish the tournament at four-under par. Chun matched the low round of the tournament with a final-round 67.
The field — 66 boys and 26 girls — featured many of the top junior golfers from across Western Canada and The Hills at Portal (formerly Peace Portal) presented a stiff test. Bruggeman and Chun were the only boys to finish under par. Ding’s 67 and a three-under 69 the final day by Coquitlam’s June Hsiao were the only sub-par rounds by the girls.
Ding also won the Bantam Championship for players 14 and under. (Jim) Chengze Zhu of Vancouver won the Bantam Boys Championship by six shots with a 54-hole score of one-over par.
Click HERE for complete final scoring from the NextGen Fall Series West Championship