Braxton McDonald has started the 2019 Zone 2 Junior Golf Tour red hot in his age category.
McDonald, from the Vernon Golf and Country Club, has two Flight wins in the first four stops.
McDonald fired a 71 Saturday at the Penticton Golf and Country to score an eight-shot win over Cooper Humphreys of the Okanagan Golf Course in Kelowna to take low gross honours in Flight C (Bantam). The weekend before, McDonald won Flight C low gross at Oliver’s Fairview Mountain, shooting a 72 for a six-shot win over Ryan Vest of Predator Ridge.
Will Lockwood of the Vernon Golf and Country Club won Flight C low net at Fairview with a 75.
Vest was one shot behind Humphreys, with a 78, for low gross at the season-opening stop at the Osoyoos Desert Golf Club. He got into the win column at the Summerland Golf and Country Club Saturday, taking the Flight C low gross with a 75
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Tuf Turnbull of Armstrong’s Royal York Golf Course won bantam low net at Penticton with a 66.
In Flight B Juvenile, Max Lockwood of the Vernon Club was second low gross in Summerland after shooting an 80, five shots behind Flight winner Jake Sabbagh of Kelowna Golf and Country Club. Jaiden Severson of Vernon was third low let with a 77.
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Tour stop overall low gross winners this year have included Grayson Lesiuk, Kelowna Golf and Country Club (Osoyoos Desert, 73); Matt Hopley, Gallagher’s Canyon, Kelowna (Fairview Mountain, 72); Cam Davie, Penticton Golf and Country Club (Penticton, 75); and Kyle Mayner, Kelowna Golf and Country Club (Summerland, 69).
“We have 14 tournaments this year, finishing at Gallagher’s Canyon on June 10,” said junior tour commissioner Peter Haines of Vernon. “Last year, we averaged about 75 players per tournament.”
The tour has been a stepping stone for local golfers to further their education. Braeden Cooper and Matthew Kreutz of Vernon were tour regulars and both landed scholarships to U.S. NCAA school Minot State University in North Dakota.
For the first time in recent memory, there are no North Okanagan stops on the tour this year.
roger@vernonmorningstar.com
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