South Surrey golfer Jamie Oleksiew may have stumbled ever-so-slightly down the stretch at B.C. Junior Girls Golf Championships last week, but still did enough to hold off a hard-charging Alix Kong for the title.
Oleksiew, an 18-year-old Southridge School grad who just wrapped her first season golfing at the University of Colorado, shot a three-over-par 74 at Langley’s Belmont Golf Course Friday, but still beat Wong for the championship by two strokes; she had an eight-stroke lead heading into the final round, but triple-bogeyed the 18th hole.
In Thursday’s penultimate round, she fired a career-best 66 to put some distance between herself and her challengers.
“The last hole, I mean I hit a good tee shot but the wind caught it and it didn’t end up in a very good spot. I had to punch out, flew the green and ended up getting into trouble,” said Oleksiew, a former ski-racer who quit the winter sport a few years ago to focus on golf.
“I am pretty happy overall because this is the first tournament that I have finished under par and the first time I have won anything with BC Golf. I am pretty proud of myself and I shot a course record (in yesterday’s third round) which I have never done before.”
Kong – playing in the same final group as Oleksiew and Team Canada development team member Naomi Kim – put pressure on the South Surrey leader by shooting a three-under par 68 Friday.
“Alix played a great round today, she made plenty of birdies and a lot of par saves,” Oleksiew said. “I knew that I had to keep to my own game strategy and not get distracted with how they were playing.”
Oleksiew, who finished third at Golf Canada’s Future Links tournament at Courtenay’s Crown Isle Golf Course earlier this summer, now heads to Alberta, where she will play the CN Future Links Western Championships at Wolf Creek Resort in Ponoka, Alta.
