While her high school golf playing chums were busy at the Island championship back home in Victoria, Naomi Ko had bigger fish to fry on Tuesday.
The 16-year-old Grade 11 student at Claremont is tied for 15th after the opening round of the 2014 Canadian Women’s Tour stop at Morningstar Golf Club in Parksville on Tuesday.
Competing among a field of top pros and amateurs from Canada and abroad, Ko started on the back nine with a birdie on the 10th hole and turned in a 1-under 35 before suffering a pair of hiccups. A bogey on No. 5 (her 14th hole) and a double-bogey on her final hole left her at 2-over 74.
“That was a little bit of a struggle, but that’s OK,” Ko said of the last hole. “My tee shots were pretty solid today. Off the fairway I was OK. I had a couple of good misses. The putting was OK, too, and the strategy worked out fine.”
If it wasn’t for her 18th hole she would have placed top 10 in the field of 79.
“I hit a perfect tee shot down the fairway, laid up nicely and had about 135 yards to the green. I hit my 8-iron and it should have been perfect, but the greens were so firm, it kicked off about 15 yards,” said Ko, whose chip then fell short. She putted off the fringe and two-putted from there for a seven on the par-5.
“That happens. I felt pretty good about my round, it was just the last hole, but that’s OK,” said Ko, who just finished third at the CN Future Links Pacific Championship at Bear Mountain Resort’s Valley Course over the weekend after finishing atop the city high school field comprised of all boys last week.
In Parksville, Ko is four shots back of co-leaders Samantha Richdale and Anne-Catherine Tanguay of Canada at 2-under 70 with one round to go today.
Ko, playing as an amateur, is also tied for eighth among Canadians. She’s in a cluster at 74 with well known Brooke Henderson of Smith Falls, Ont., a Canadian development squad teammate of Ko’s and the world No. 3 ranked amateur.
Henderson, also 16, captured the South Atlantic Amateur Championship and finished tied for 26th earlier this year at the LPGA’s Kraft Nabisco Championship.
Other results for Island residents include: Helene Delisle of Nanaimo, 77; Abigail Rigsby of Courtenay, 77; Christina Proteau of Port Alberni, 79; Eileen Kelly of Victoria, 80; Shelly Stouffer of Nanoose Bay, 80; and Amanda Baker of Nanaimo, 83.
The Morningstar stop is the first of three Canadian Women’s Tour national tournaments with a $60,000 purse available to the pros over the two-day competition. Five exemptions into the 2014 Canadian Pacific Women’s Open LPGA event — slated for Aug. 18-24 in London, Ont. — will be made available through the national tour and the top five players on the season-ending Order of Merit gain direct entry into LPGA Stage 2 Qualifying.
The next stop on the national women’s tour is June 23-25 at Legends on the Niagara’s Battlefield Course in Niagara Falls, Ont.
“I’m trying not to focus too much on the results,” said Ko. “I’m obviously going to play more aggressive here than I would because you're either first place or you’re not. I’m just playing this one shot at a time.”
Ko played in all three Canadian women’s tour events last year and her top placement was tied for 17th.
As for her Claremont high school mates, Ko said: “I’m checking scores as soon as I get back to the hotel. When we played the Lower Islands [which she won] it was a lot of fun. It was my first high school tournament. Unfortunately [Islands] conflicted, but this is fun as well.”
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