Vernon’s Ryan Vest won the Boys 10 and 11 division at the 2017 U.S. Drive, Chip and Putt sub-regional qualifier at The Home Course in Dupont, Wa.
Vest, 10, now advances to the regional finals at The Olympia Club in San Francisco Saturday, Sept. 10, to try and advance to the finals, held at Augusta, Ga. prior to The Masters in April.
Vest won the driving and chipping portion in Washington, and finished in a three-way tie for first in putting. He ended up with 148 points, the top overall pointgetter in the division.
Prior to Washington, Vest finished in a tie for 37th in a field of 138 in the Boys 10 division of the U.S. Kids Golf World Championships in Pinehurst, NC.
Vest shot rounds of 76-73-78 to finish at 11-over-par 227.
The division was won by Sihan Sandhu from Ashburn, Va., who won by a whopping 17 strokes over Yoyo Xia of Honolulu.
Sandhu fired rounds of 63-62-68, a staggering 23-under-par.
Top Canadian was Alex Long of Toronto, who finished fifth overall at 4-under. He had rounds of 75-70-67.
Daniel Xu of Richmond cracked the top-10, ending up eighth overall at 2-under (70-69-75).
There were eight Canadians in the field with Vest finishing fourth among his countrymen.
Vernon’s Keith Vandenbrink has made the final of the Interior Professional Golf Association’s Match Play championship for a second straight year.
The reigning champion from Hillview Golf is waiting to see who his opponent will be in the final.
Vandenbrink earned a first-round bye in the field of 32 as defending champ before meeting Jamie Stevens from the Kelowna Golf and Country Club in the round of 16 at the Spallumcheen Golf and Country Club.
Vanndenbrink was a hole away from elimination as he trailed Stevens 2-down with two holes to go.
But Stevens bogeyed #17 and hit into the water on 18 to allow Vandenbrink to square up the match.
After both parred the first playoff hole, Stevens bogeyed #2 to give Vandenbrink the win.
In the quarterfinals, played at Kelowna’s Gallagher’s Canyon, Vandenbrink took on Rob Tadey from Oliver’s Fairview Mountain.
Tadey took a one-up lead on the second hole when he scored an eagle, flying his wedge in the hole from 120 yards out.
Vandenbrink responded with seven birdies in the next 14 holes and won the match 3 and 2.
In the semifinals at Kelowna Golf and Country Club, Vandenbrink got on a role against Finlay Young from The Harvest in Kelowna, going 7-up after nine holes.
Young won the 10th hole, and the pros tied the next three, resulting in handshakes with Vandenbrink winning 6 and 5.