A dominating second round helped Ben Whiton cruise to victory.
The 18-year-old from Langley shot rounds of 72, 66 and 69 to win the junior boys division by a staggering 14 strokes at the Maple Leaf Junior Golf Tour Odlum Brown Classic-PGA of BC Junior Championship.
It was held Aug. 8 to 10 at Surrey’s Northview Golf Course.
“I was playing well before the tournament so I thought I would have a good chance,” Whiton said. “It was nice to see three solid rounds of golf.”
Par was 72 for the course.
His second round was especially impressive.
“It was probably the easiest round of golf I have ever played,” Whiton said. “All the birdies I had were knocked in close, so that was nice.”
“After shooting 66, I wanted to back it up with another great round, and that’s what I did,” he added.
“The key was my iron play — I hit 16 greens the last day so it was nice to have stress-free pars.”
Whiton — who has golfed since he was a toddler and competitively since age 10 — said this was a good confidence boost as he gets set for his first year as a member of the UFV golf team.
The 2017 Walnut Grove Secondary graduate joins the Cascades golf program while he studies computer information systems.
This past year with the Gators, Whiton helped Walnut Grove capture the B.C. AAA provincial title.
In addition to Whiton’s victory, three other local golfers also finished atop their respective categories as Langley golfers finished first in four of the eight divisions.
Emma Yang, 14, came from two strokes back to shoot a final round 68 to win the U15 division.
Yang had shot a pair of 74’s to open the tournament and finished with an even-par 216, winning by four strokes.
An opening round 68 helped 16-year-old Mian Nishimoto capture the girls 15-18 division with a three-round score of 215.
Nishimoto shot 71 and 76 over the final two days but still won by seven strokes.
Another Langley golfer, 17-year-old Jessica Wu, was third with a 224.
And Fort Langley’s Jackson Jacob shot 69 in both rounds one and three — plus a 72 — to win the juvenile boys (15 and 16) division by two strokes.
