It was an impressive wire-to-wire victory for Mayfair Lakes junior Mary Parsons at Golf Canada’s 2016 CN Future Links Pacific Championship in Kamloops.
Parsons opened the 54-hole event with a superb 6-under 66 at the Dunes Golf Club and never looked back — cruising to a four shot victory over Ontario’s Chole Currie. She also fired a 69 in round two and closed out the championship with a 1-under 71.
When asked about her play throughout the tournament, the 16-year-old credited her preparedness for the victory.
“I felt I played pretty well. I stuck to my game plan and didn’t try to change anything out on the course,” she said.
“I really wanted to start the (Golf Canada) season off strong because I’ve had a bunch of top-five finishes in the season openers. I really wanted to make this one count because I want to make Team Canada this year. I just played my game and I just wanted to have a good showing this week.”
Entering the final round, Parsons held a six-shot advantage over Currie, a member of the Team Canada Development Squad. She finished with four birdies on the day to hold off Currie, who was unable to catch the leader despite a seven-birdie 3-under 69. Fellow national team member and Ontario native Grace St-Germain surged up the leaderboard with a bogey-free 5-under performance to finish tied for third alongside Sumie Francois of Burnaby and Amanda Minni of Delta.
All competitors within the top six have earned exemptions into the 2016 Canadian Junior Girls Championship — slated for August 2-5 at The Links at Penn Hills in Shubenacadie, N.S. Joining Parsons in playing their way into the national amateur championship were Currie, St-Germain, Francois, Minni and Courtenay’s Abigail Rigsby.
Quilchena’ Alisha Lau finished tied for eighth after rounds of 75-72-73. Clubmate and Team Canada Development Squad member Kathrine Chan was 17th (77-74-78). Rounding out the local entries was Karen Zhang in 28th (83-78-75).
Ontario’s Tony Gil dominated the junior boys field with rounds of 66-68-66 to win by 10 shots over Calgary’s Conaire Kehoe.
Michael Crisologo, the younger brother of SFU standout Chris Crisologo, finished tied for 27th with rounds of 70-76-75. Bryce Ko (78-74-79) and Nicolas Miu (78-76-78) were 62nd and 63rd respectively. Top Lau (84-75-76) was tied for 68th and Ali Ladak (84-80-76) was 76th.
