Young Surrey golfers won four of the six divisions at the 2022 MJT Mini Tour National Championship, an invitational tournament played at Tsawwassen Springs Aug. 24-25.
The two-day event is a major finale in the country for golfers aged 6 to 12, with players qualifying from across Canada based on their performances in their regional MJT Mini Tour circuits.
The four division champs from Surrey were April Zhang (Girls 8U), Kathleen Dunn (Girls 11-12), Jayden H. X. Zhu (Boys 9-10) and Tiger Xie (Boys 11-12).
The two other division champs were West Vancover’s Jenny Guo (Girls 9-10) and Kamloops’ Everett Quewezance (Boys 8U).
Results are posted to maplejt.com.
The pinnacle of another great season is underway with 12U golfers coming across the country to @SunnyTsawwassen
— Maple Leaf Junior Golf Tour (MJT) (@maplejt) August 24, 2022
It’s the MJT Mini Tour National Champion at @TWSLiving #wednesdaythought #tournament #developingchampions pic.twitter.com/bmiA9FSJy8
Great scoring among MJT Boys 11-12 was a highlight, where 12-year-old Tiger Xie won the division title after firing scores of 73 and 69 (142) from the blue tees, a news release explains. “Xie was a runner-up in 2021, so thrilled to break through in 2022 for the win.”
In the Girls 11-12 division, 11-year-old Kathleen Dunn capped off an impressive season by winning the finale with great scores of 78 and 74, holding off Karrisa Zhao, 12, of West Vancouver, by one stroke. “It feels so good to be the Mini Tour National Champion,” commented Dunn. “The best part of the tournament was the up-and-down for the win on hole 18.” Serin Girard, 12, of Richmond, BC, finished in third place with scores of 75 and 81.
The MJT Boys 9-10 champ was 10-year-old Jayden H. X. Zhu, who fired two outstanding rounds of 69 and 73 to win the title by two shots. Runner-up was 10-year-old Keaton Kreklewich, all the way from Melville. In third was Ziping Chen, 8, of Surrey, who played up an age division and fired rounds of 74-73.
The MJT Girls 8U champ, April Zhang, 8, scored rounds of 83-74. “Zhang carried forward her enthusiastic energy seen at Mini Tour events throughout the season into the Championship, and was a top contender in the division from the start,” a news release says. “Runner-up was the highly competitive Luna Zhou, 7, of Vancouver, who fired rounds of 78 and 83 to finish four strokes behind Zhang. Victoria Shen, 8, of Surrey, placed third with rounds of 88 and 86.”
The MJT Booster Juice Bounceback Awards for best improvement in score in round two from round one went to April Zhang (Surrey), Jenny Guo (West Vancouver), Ivy Yao (Surrey), Ethan Sitarz (Winnipeg), Kingston Ji (Coquitlam), and Yujun (Tiger) Du (Delta).
MJT Closest-to-the-Pin awards went to Luna Zhou (Vancouver), Lucy Li (Vancouver) Grace Guan (Vancouver), Jaden Gu (Surrey), Jack Guo (West Vancouver), and Jeevyn Lotay (Burnaby), while the MJT Long Drive winners were Victoria Shen (Surrey), Jenny Guo (West Vancouver), Shylee Kostiuk (Spruce Grove, AB), Matthew Huang (Delta), Jayden Yang (Vancouver), and Jeevyn Lotay (Burnaby).