Saanich’s Keaton Gudz turned in a second-place showing at the B.C. Juvenile Boys Golf Championship at the Spallumcheen Golf Course in Vernon.
A.J. Ewart of Coquitlam fired his third consecutive under-par round to outpace Gudz by six strokes. Ewart shot a final round of 69 to finish at 8 under par, while Gudz shot a 73 to wind up at 2 under par.
Gudz, who played in the final group with Ewart, couldn’t get anything going on his front nine, with his two bogeys putting him too far back of Ewart to make a run on the back nine.
“He played unbelievable and he deserved to win because he played the best for all three days,” said Gudz, who began the final day two shots back of Ewart. “He made a lot of putts and he got out in front and we weren’t going to catch him.”
For Ewart, it’s the biggest British Columbia Golf title he’s won since winning the 2012 B.C. Bantam Boys title.
“I’ve been so close so many times so to finally win, I’m pretty happy right now,” said Ewart. “It’s pretty surreal.”
Ewart began the day with a one-shot lead over his closest challenger, Cowichan’s Callum Davison, who finished alone in fifth place at even par.
“I kept on telling myself I had to play safe,” said Ewart. “As we were waiting on the 10th hole, I thought about hitting driver, but I knew the safe play was to hit an iron.”
Ewart teamed up with Khan Lee to win the best ball competition at 22 under par, two strokes better than the second-place team of Gudz and Tristan Mandur.
