Coquitlam’s A.J. Ewart Leads BC Junior Boys Championship

British Columbia Golf – Coquitlam’s A.J. Ewart Leads BC Junior Boys Championship

 

Cobble Hill, BC – July 06, 2016 – A.J. Ewart leads the 2016 BC Junior Boys Championship at Arbutus Ridge Golf Club after a sizzling bogey-free 64 on Wednesday moved him to 3-under for the tournament and a 2-shot lead heading into round two.

 

What a difference a day makes. Round two of the BC Junior Boys Championship at Arbutus Ridge Golf Course in Cobble Hill was played under beautiful blue, calm, sunny skies following an overcast, damp, windy and mostly cool opening round.

The change in the weather obviously agreed with many of the young guns in the field for the 71st edition of this championship as evidenced by some of the big turnaround scores posted.

The reversal of fortune was led by 2015 BC Juvenile Boys Champion A.J. Ewart who fashioned a bogey-free round of 6-under 64 to jump into the lead at the halfway point sitting at 3-under (137).

The 6-under 64 score was one shot off the official course record of 63 but more importantly it put some bounce back into the step of the young man who was not quite so upbeat following his first round performance. Ewart improved by 9 shots over a rather pedestrian 3-over 73 on day one that included 5 bogies and two birdies.

He explained it this way, “Yesterday in the afternoon we played in the wind, this morning it wasn’t really windy so scoring conditions were better. And some putts started to fall at the end of the round, when they didn’t at all yesterday, so that was good. I think I just managed myself around the golf course better today.”

Meanwhile first round leader Cameron Bourque slipped back a little shooting a 2-over 72 but still sits in a 3-way tie for second at 1-under (139). Also at 1-under are Sechelt’s Keenan Flemming and Adam Veenstra from Smithers whose 3-under 67 was one of only 6 scores under par on the day. “”I was excited to play today after playing well yesterday but not making any putts. Today I was solid from tee to green, I hit 16 greens. I’m looking forward to tomorrow,” said a smiling Veenstra.

Pitt Meadows’ Isaac Lee was alone in 5th spot after his second consecutive round of even par 70 with ‘hometown’ lad Tristan Mandur in a group of 4 players one shot further back T6 at 1-over that includes Vancouver’s Andrew Spalti, Coquitlam’s Henry Lee and Parksville’s Aiden Goodfellow.

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At the other end of the spectrum, an obviously dejected Michael White went slightly in the other direction after opening with a 1-under 69, his first ever sub-70 round, as he struggled to a 2nd round of 8-over 78 and sits T27 at 7-over (147).

“Seventy-eight is the score I wanted to shoot yesterday…but that doesn’t make it feel any better,” he said, “I just didn’t do things well. I was loose out there, a little tired…” White, a Princeton Secondary student is going into grade 12 next year and is playing in his first provincial championship event.

Meanwhile, perhaps the feel-good story of the day came from Delta’s Dustin Franko who joined in on the “it’s a new dawn, it’s a new day and I’m feeling good” refrain rebounding from an opening round 12-over 82 by knocking 14 shots off that number and posting a 2-under 68 that moved him from the outside looking in, into a T42.

The cut to the low 70 and ties included 74 players who will tee it for the final two rounds beginning tomorrow morning at 7:30am.

In the concurrently run Zone competition, Tristan Mandur, Keaton Gudz, Nolan Thoroughgood and Cameron Bourque of Zone 5 continue to lead, although their advantage has been narrowed with ‘Team Lee’ from Zone 3 – Khan Lee, Henry Lee, Willis Lee and Jaewook Lee (no relation) in pursuit just 5 shots back.

 

 

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