Fore!
Itís heads up, as the junior golf season launches this weekend and under-19 area golfers hit the fairways for the West Kootenay tour.
The Zone 1 West junior boysí golf season tees off this weekend at the Balfour Golf Course.
The 10-event season includes trips to golf courses in Christina Lake, Nakusp, Nelson, Castlegar, and Creston as well as three Greater Trail courses.
ìThe goal of the circuit is to get as many kids as we can participating and get the top players ready to participate in the BC Juniors being held this summer at Birchbank,î said zone president Rob McKay.
The top six juniors from the provincial qualifying matches at Redstone and Rossland Trail Country Club at the end of May, will go to the provincial championships hosted by the Rossland-Trail club this July.
The host also gets an extra spot but other spots are available through qualifying tournaments around B.C.
McKay is confident and excited about this yearís crop of up and coming ball strikers.
ìThis season we will have a whole bunch of local juniors participating. We have some very strong players coming back.î
Locals to watch for include RTCCís Brenan Moroney and Tyler McKay, who have already teed off in tournaments this year, and joined up with Alex Rugg and Garrett Underwood from Champion Lakes and Braden McKay (RTCC), at the B.C. development camp in Kelowna last weekend.
Moroney showed his power on the GolfBC testing with a swing speed of 110 miles per hour.
ìThe camp is part of the selection process for kids to make the B.C. Team and other teams,î said McKay.
Tyler McKay was also selected to participate in the CN Future Links Pacific Championship in Victoria at Arbutus Ridge May 13 to 15.
Other kids who could make a really strong push for the Top-20 include Ryan Page (RTCC), James Booth (Champion Lakes), Ryan Fullerton (RTCC), Steven Simister (RTCC) and Pablo Doskoch (RTCC), says Mckay.
The season ending Top-20 event features the best players from the Kootenay tour meeting for the championship. Zoneofficials are negotiating with the Maple Leaf Tour for entries into the Junior PGAs in July.