Victoria’s Naomi Ko is still a teenager, but she’s headed to her second LPGA Canadian Pacific Women’s Open.
A final-round surge at the 2017 Canadian Women’s Amateur Championship on Friday helped the 19-year-old Ko, who plays out of Royal Colwood, punch her ticket to next month’s annual LPGA Canadian Open. Ko shot a 3-under 67 on Friday at Cutten Fields Golf Club in Guelph, Ont., to finish tied for third, six shots back of champion Jennifer Kupcho of the U.S.
After opening with rounds of 70, 72 and 70, Ko’s stellar play Friday helped her finish as the top Canadian in the tournament, earning her an automatic berth into the CP Women’s Open, which will be played Aug. 24-27 at the Ottawa Hunt and Golf Club.
Ko, who will head into her junior year of NCAA golf at North Carolina State in September, was also low Canadian at last year’s Canadian women’s amateur, which got her into the 2016 CP Women’s Open where she missed the cut while playing the first two rounds with LPGA veteran Michelle Wie.
Ko, a graduate of the Bayview Place Vikes Junior Tour, will now return home for a brief rest before heading south to take part in the U.S. Women’s Amateur Championship, Aug. 7-13 at San Diego Country Club in Chula Vista, California.
Victoria’s Akari Hayashi, the two-time Zone 5 women’s champ and a Bayview Place Vikes Junior Tour member, was also in Guelph this week, but the 14-year-old missed the cut after shooting rounds of 85 and 77.
Hayashi, who plays out of Uplands, will now turn her attention to the Canadian Junior Girls Championship, which starts Tuesday at the Camelot Golf and Country Club in Cumberland, Ont.
