~Tight race forming as players via for place in Match Play brackets~

HAMILTON, ONTARIO – JULY 2, 2019 – The first round of the 2019 PING Canadian Junior Match-Play Championship commenced at Kings Forest Golf Club early Tuesday morning. Katie Cranston from the Junior Girls division got the tournament underway at 7:30am as the next 94 players continued to tee off until 9:40am. The players battled some light rain as they competed in the first half of the 36-hole stroke play competition with a goal of qualifying for the match play portion, which will be held Wednesday and Thursday, to ultimately determine the champions of each division.

Isaiah Ellis of the Bantam Boys division put himself in a strong position heading into day two, after shooting a division-best 72, putting him at even par after the first round. Closely behind him was Punn Chittaratlert who had a strong back nine putting him at one over, to keep the pressure on Isaiah heading into day two of stroke play. Cameron Colbran, a dark horse for round two, plans on trying to “Play his game tomorrow, not get carried away, and not worry about how the other people are playing” as he looks to secure his spot in the top twelve after a strong first round.

Over in the Bantam Girls division, Mia Wong and Lauren Gervais finished day one in pole position to qualify for the match-play potion of the tournament tied at the top of the leaderboard with a score of 74. Wong credited her mental strength saying tomorrow her goal is to “Stay focused, take it one step at a time and not get too far ahead of herself.” The Bantam Girls division will be a battle to the end, with eighteen players fighting to be in the top twelve.

The Junior Boys division was a tightly contested battle all day long, with a tie for first between Mathieu Lafontaine and Noah Campbell, who both shot 72 to put them at even par going into day two. Lafontaine and Campbell hold the advantage mid-way through, however with four golfers within just two shots of them, there is still everything to play for tomorrow.

Finally, in the Junior Girls division it was a successful first day for Raesa Sheikh who’s score of 75 puts her at the top of the standings. Sheikh credited her birdie on hole eighteen for helping to power her to the top, saying “Eighteen was a tough, tough hole, especially playing in to the wind…so it really helped!”

The first day of the tournament was exciting, with some tremendous golf on display in all four divisions. The highlight of the day was on the fifth hole, when Matthew McRae hit a hole-in-one. “It felt pretty good.” McRae said, “I thought, you know I’ll hit a little punch 5 iron, and then I got pretty good contact, one good bounce, and it trickled over to the hole and disappeared!” He and the rest of the golfers will be looking to be at their best tomorrow morning for the second round of stroke play to secure their spot in the match-play portion of the tournament.

Round two gets underway tomorrow morning at 7:30 am

For complete results from round one or to view tee times for round 2 – Click Here

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