Many of this province's best young players will be at the Puslinch Golf Club on Tuesday and Wednesday for the annual Golf Association of Ontario bantam championships.
The popular tourney wraps up on Wednesday afternoon.
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Waterloo's Ginny Marshall of Westmount is the only local player in the field for the GAO's senior women's championship that is currently being staged at the Twenty Valley Golf and Country Club in St. Catharines.
Victor Ciesielski’s return to the Canadian Open will take place Thursday at 2:10 p.m. at the Hamilton Golf and Country Club.
The Cambridge golfer, who made a memorable Canadian Open debut in Hamilton in 2006, will start on the 10th tee in a group with Hunter Hamrick and Scott Brown. It's the last group of the day.
The same three will tee off on the first hole on Friday at 9:10 a.m.
The Golf Association of Ontario’s bantam boys championship will begin with a one-day qualifying tournament on Monday at the Puslinch Golf Course.
A large local contingent will tee it up in hopes of advancing to the two-day, 60-player main event on Tuesday and Wednesday at the Cambridge-area course.
The qualifying field features Joshua Campbell (Cambridge, Whistle Bear), Parker Casey (Waterloo, Grey Silo), Ben Davies (Cambridge, Puslinch), Jordy Denomme (Waterloo, Whistle Bear), Jet Greaves (Cambridge, Whistle Bear), Dylan Henderson (Waterloo, Whistle Bear), Nicholas Kyriakou (Waterloo, Rebel Creek), Mackenzie Raines (Kitchener, Whistle Bear), Noah Romeo (Cambridge, Whistle Bear), and Yusuf Susiwala (Cambridge, Whistle Bear).
The two-day girls championship will also be held on Tuesday and Wednesday, but only 16 players are in the field. Jenna Banz (Cambridge, Whistle Bear) is the only local player participating.
Three Whistle Bear players are in the field for next week’s Canadian junior boys championship at the Osprey Ridge Golf Club in Bridgewater, N.S. Matt Chiasson (Cambridge), Keaton Jones (Kitchener) and Luke Moser (Waterloo) will compete in the four-day tournament that starts on Tuesday.
Cambridge Golf Club member Stephanie Bothwell and Sarah Dunning (Kitchener, Galt) will compete in the Canadian junior girls championship at Calgary’s River Sprint Golf Club starting Tuesday. Dunning is currently competing in the Royale Cup Canadian women’s amateur championship at the Lethbridge Country Club in Alberta.
The Whistle Bear Junior Performance Team has qualified four players for the Canadian Optimist championship -- Jeremy Bitten and Matt McKenzie in the boys 16-18 division, Devin Bartlett in the boys 14-15 division and Elanna Lachaine-Demarchi in the girls division. Mackenzie Raines of Whistle Bear made it in the boys 12-13 division. The tournament will be held at London’s Fanshawe Golf Club in mid-August
MARKHAM – Keaton Jones was unable to close the deal at the Ontario junior boys golf championship.
The Kitchener resident and Whistle Bear golfer struggled to an 8-over par 79 on Friday and finished 10 strokes behind champion Gajan Sivabalasingham, a Ballantrae resident who attends the University of Waterloo. Sivabalasingham closed with a 3-under 68 at the Mandarin Golf and Country Club for a four-day total of 2-under 282.
Jones had started the day in a three-way tie for second, just one shot out of the lead, but fell out of contention early with two double-bogeys and two bogeys in his first seven holes. He wound up in a tie for 17th.
Waterloo’s Luke Moser shot a final round 74 to finish in a tie for ninth, while Waterloo’s Trevor Ranton shot a 76 to finish in a tie for 40th. Moser and Ranton both play out of Whistle Bear.
MARKHAM – Kitchener’s Keaton Jones fired a 3-under 68 on Thursday at The Mandarin Golf and Country Club to move within one shot of the lead going into the final round of the Ontario junior boys golf championship.
The Whistle Bear golfer trails Toronto’s Michael Nedoszytko by one stroke, while two other golfers are tied with Jones. Waterloo’s Luke Moser shot a 74 and is in a tie for 22nd, eight shots behind Nedoszytko.
Waterloo’s Trevor Ranton is five behind Moser.
Nedoszytko shot a 68 on Thursday and is 1-under for the tournament.
WOODSTOCK – Josh Williams was a runaway winner at this week’s Canadian amputee national open championship.
The Kitchener resident finished with a three-day total of 1-under 212 (70-72-70) at the Craigowan Golf Club to finish 16 shots ahead of second-place finisher Bob MacDermott. It was Williams’ second straight national title, having won the previous year in Montreal.
Williams, a 27-year-old Canada Post employee, will play in the U.S. national amputee championship next month and also play in an American mid-amateur qualifying tournament.
Brooke Henderson is the Ontario junior girls golf champion.
The Smiths Falls resident, who is only 14, shot a 1-under 71 on Friday at the Shelburne Golf and Country Club to easily capture the Golf Association of Ontario title with a four-day total of 9-under 279. Jenna Hague of Burlington was the only other player to finish under par and wound up five shots behind Henderson.
Kitchener’s Sarah Dunning finished in a tie for 15th at 310, while Stephanie Bothwell of Cambridge wound up in a tie for 26th at 316.
Toronto’s Albin Choi is a wire-to-wire winner at the Ontario men’s amateur golf championship at the Summit Golf and Country Club in Richmond Hill.
Choi defeated defending champion McKenzie Hughes in a playoff Friday to claim the crown after closing with an even-par 71 for a four-day score of 8-under 276. Hughes shot a 67 in his final round to give himself a shot at winning.
Listowel’s Corey Conners finished in third at 278, while Cambridge’s Brendan Leonard and Waterloo’s Josh Bamberger ended up in a tie for 13th at 289. Kitchener’s Chris Hemmerich was another shot back.
The Golf Association of Ontario men's amateur championship starts on Wednesday at The Summit Golf and Country Club in Richmond Hill.
The locals in the field are: Josh Bamberger (Whistle Bear), Robert Barger (public player), David Bigelow (Grey Silo), Charlie Burke (New Hamburg), Corey Conners (Listowel), Rob Cowan (Westmount), Chris Hemmerich (Westmount), Keaton Jones (Whistle Bear), Brendan Leonard (Galt), Brett Maue (Westmount) and Derek McGrath (Galt).
Three local golfers are still in the hunt for a spot in the July 26-29 RBC Canadian Open at the Hamilton Golf and Country Club.
Victor Ciesielski and Mark Wilson of Cambridge, along with Waterloo’s Ben Moser, have advanced to the event’s Monday qualifier that will be staged on July 23 at Heron Point Golf Links in Ancaster.
They were among 26 golfers that survived the cut on Monday at a regional qualifier at Kings Forest Golf Course in Hamilton. A total of 143 golfers competed, with Greg Doherty of Mississauga taking top spot with a 4-under 68 and earning an exemption in the RBC Canadian Open. Ciesielski shot 71, Moser was at 72 and Wilson shot 74 to move on.
A two-stage qualifying procedure for Canada’s national championship features three regional qualifying competitions (in Alberta, Ontario and Quebec), followed by the Heron Point qualifier.
