{"id":24523,"date":"2019-08-21T18:42:39","date_gmt":"2019-08-21T22:42:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/?p=24523"},"modified":"2019-08-29T16:56:32","modified_gmt":"2019-08-29T20:56:32","slug":"junior-links-champions-hosted-at-magna-golf-club","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/junior-links-champions-hosted-at-magna-golf-club\/","title":{"rendered":"Junior links champions hosted at Magna Golf Club"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

By Jake Courtepatte<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Before the best in the world at the\nsenior level arrived to tee off at the Magna Golf Club this week, the top\nCanadian young guns were on hand at the course last weekend for the Future\nLinks Junior Skills Challenge.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Thirty-one of the best golfers across\nfour age groups took part in a driving, chipping, and putting competition to\ntake home the annual prize, which included a champions package from sponsor\nTitleist.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe Future Links, driven by Acura Junior Skills experience is a\ncelebration of skill development facilitated by coaches at over 140 facilities\nacross Canada,\u201d said Adam Hunter, senior manager of junior programs at Golf\nCanada. \u201cWe are extremely happy with another excellent National Event and want\nto thank our sponsors for helping make this dream a reality.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Notable among the eight winners were\nLiam McLaren of Georgina, who won the boys eight and under division, and Alissa\nXu from Richmond Hill, who took home the girls 12 \u2013 14 prize.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s a busy few weeks for the Magna\nclub, who this weekend host the CP Canadian Women\u2019s Open, one of the flagship\ntournaments of the LPGA. Reigning champion Brooke Henderson, from Smith\u2019s\nFalls, ON, is set to make a splash and draw large crowds of fans.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

TSN golf analyst Bob Weeks, who will be\nin the Aurora area all week to cover the event, expects big things from one of\nthe game\u2019s fastest rising stars.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a friendly golf course, and it\nshould benefit her,\u201d said Weeks from the course. \u201cEspecially off the tee.\nThere\u2019s a lot of room to hit the golf ball\u2026there\u2019s supposed to be some rain\nthis week, but once the tournament starts the temperatures are going to be\nfairly nice. The conditions should be fairly calm.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Weeks called the field of competitors\n\u201cworld-class\u201d, citing names like Jin Young Ko, Lexi Thompson, and of course\nHenderson, who will be followed by what has become known as the \u201cBrooke\nBrigade.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI\u2019ve got to think scores will be low,\u201d\nsaid Weeks. \u201cWhen you\u2019ve got a golf course in perfect condition, that\u2019s been\nwatered to death, with mild, sunny temperatures, and generous fairways, I\u2019ve\ngot to think these scores are going to be low at this year\u2019s national\nchampionship. I can\u2019t see it not being a shootout, and hopefully Brooke\u2019s a\npart of it.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

She won by four strokes in the 2018\niteration of the tournament in Regina, Saskatchewan, taking home over $330,000\nfor her efforts and the hearts of those Canadians she had not already stole.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cShe proved last year that she could\nhandle the pressure,\u201d said Weeks. \u201cShe\u2019s the face of golf in the country, and\nnow the face of the tournament. \u201cWho knows, maybe she can defend, or at least\nget herself in the mix and give herself a chance to defend.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Already the most successful Canadian\ngolfer ever with nine career victories at the age of 21, all eyes will be on\nHenderson when she takes to Magna this week.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cTo be that young, and that good, is\ntough,\u201d said Weeks. \u201c\u2026but she\u2019s so evolved in terms of maturity.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Henderson is one of fifteen Canadians to\ntake part in the tournament, including Lorie Kane, who is making her\nrecord-setting 29th appearance.<\/p>\n\r\n\"Facebook\"<\/a>\"twitter\"<\/a>\"mail\"<\/a>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Young golfers tee off ahead of this week\u2019s CP Women\u2019s Open<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":24516,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[24,9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-24523","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news-sports","category-sports"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/2019-08-22-03.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3D2k4-6nx","publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-05-10 07:29:40","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24523","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=24523"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24523\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/24516"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24523"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24523"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24523"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}