A pair of juniors from the Quilchena Golf and Country Club are among six players from across the country selected to play for host Canada at the World Junior Girls Championship — September 20-25 at The Marshes Golf Club in Ottawa.
Alisha Lau will play in tournament for a second time. Earlier this year, the national junior development team member emerged victorious at the 2015 CN Future Links Prairie Championship at Cooke Municipal Golf Course in Prince Albert. The 15-year-old also finished tied for third at the B.C. Women’s Amateur Championship. Lau has battled injuries throughout the summer and even a bout of food poisoning that forced her to withdraw from the Canadian Junior Girls Championship.
She did help Team B.C. win gold at the Western Canada Summer Games last month and also captured bronze in individual stroke play.
Lau will be joined by another 15-year-old — Kathrine Chan.
She has demonstrated a great deal of consistency with an 11th place standing at the B.C. Junior Girls Championship being her lowest result this season. Chan was second in the juvenile division of the Canadian Junior Girls Championship and fourth overall.
Rounding out Team Canada Two is Euna Han of Coquitlam. The 13-year-old notched four top-five finishes this summer, including a runner-up result at the MJT Odlum Brown Classic-PGA of BC Junior Championship and a third-place finish in the juvenile division of the Canadian Junior Girls Championship.
Team Canada One features Ontario’s Grace St. Germain and two more B.C. golfers — Surrey’s Hannah Lee and Vancouver’s Tiffany Kong.
“These six athletes have demonstrated some fantastic results throughout the season,” said Jeff Thompson, Golf Canada’s Chief Sport Officer. “The performances of Canada’s junior female athletes as a whole have been very strong this year, which made this selection process far from simple. That difficulty speaks to the wealth of golfing talent that Canada possesses. We look forward to seeing this group learn and grow in international competition.”
Conducted by Golf Canada in partnership with the Golf Association of Ontario and supported by the International Golf Federation, the 2015 edition of the World Junior Girls Championship will take place in Ontario for a second consecutive year. The inaugural tournament in 2014 was held at Angus Glen Golf Club in Markham, where Team USA claimed team honours and Beverly Hills, Calif., native Mika Liu finished atop the leaderboard in individual competition.
“The Marshes Golf Club is in great shape and we are excited to once again bring the world’s talented players to Canada,” said Tournament Director Mary Beth McKenna. “It is a true honour to be selected to represent your country and we know that all the athletes from across the globe will want to perform their best in this event.”
St-Germain returns to the competition looking to improve upon Team Canada’s third-place result in 2014. The national team Development Squad member has had a banner year in 2015.
St-Germain opened Golf Canada’s championship season with a victory at the CN Future Links Pacific Championship. The 17-year-old collected five top-10 finishes before closing the campaign with victories at the Canadian Junior Golf Association (CJGA) Mizuno National Junior Golf Championship and the Graham Cooke Junior Invitational. It was her third consecutive victory at the tournament named after one of Canada’s most celebrated course designers.
