Canada's #1 Junior Golf Tour

August 25-26, 2016
Tsawwassen, BC

10-year-old shoots 68-66 in MJT Mini Tour National Championship; four Champions crowned

Tsawwassen, BC – (August 27, 2016) – Some incredible talent was displayed during the inaugural National Championship presented by Ford for players aged 12 and under on the Maple Leaf Junior Golf Tour’s (MJT) Mini Tour, which saw boys and girls vying for national titles in Atom and Peewee age divisions at Tsawwassen Springs Golf Course in Tsawwassen, British Columbia, August 25 and 26.

Brilliantly executed drives and course strategy from several in the field resulted in some amazing scores, including a six-under par off the gold tees from Atom Boys MJT National Champion, Justin Bjornson, 10, of Surrey, BC. Bjornson blazed around the 70-par layout with scores of 68, 66 (134) and credited his ball striking on a course he rated a ’10 out of 10.’ “I am happy about winning my national championship and I enjoyed playing the event,” he said. Second and third place went to two players who fired outstanding final round scores of 69 and 68 respectively - namely Daniel Xu, 10, of Richmond, BC, (71, 69=140) and Ryan Vest, 10, of Vernon, BC (74, 68=142).

Phenomenal scores of 71-70 (141) off the blue tees awarded the MJT Peewee Boys Mini Tour National Champion’s trophy to Freddy Sun, 12, of Richmond, who said afterwards, “I worked very hard after I got back from the World Championships. The MJT is a great tour and it has great contestants – I feel pretty good about my win today.”  Runner-up was Ethan Posthumus, 11, of Coquitlam, BC (75, 74=149) and third went to Cooper Humphreys, 11, of Lions Bay, BC         (74, 78=152).

Nine-year-old Michelle Liu of Vancouver, BC, also carded rock-solid rounds of 70, 71 (141) off the gold tees to be crowned MJT Atom Girls MJT National Champion. “My chipping was great,” she said. “It feels nice to win!” Vanessa Ziyue Zhang, 9, also of Vancouver, came in second (73, 71=144) and Chelsea Truong, 10, of Victoria, BC, was third (     81, 73=154).

And finally in the Peewee Girls division, Lauren Kim, 11, of Surrey, BC, shot 77, 84 (161) from the white tees to claim the Peewee Girls MJT Mini Tour National Champion’s trophy by four strokes over Tina Jiang, 11, of Richmond, (83, 82=165). “I rate this course 10 and a half stars out of 10,” Kim said afterwards. “I feel very happy for all the hard work that I put in. I had fun and made new friends.” Angela Arora, 12, of Surrey, posted scores of 89, 83 (172) to finish third.         

The MJT ‘Chip and Putt’ Competition winners were Chelsea Truong, June Hsiao (Coquitlam), Tina Jiang and Angela Aurora for the Girls divisions, and Justin Bjornson, Clayton Candy (Mission, BC), Xander Bankes (Rossland, BC) and Mehar Bajwa (Surrey) for the Boys.

A junior golf clinic sponsored by Cam Clark Ford Richmond ran concurrently with the tournament on Thursday August 25, introducing golf to over 50 kids in the community for free.

The MJT Mini Tour will start up again next spring with tournaments across Canada. For more information, please visit www.maplejt.com or call 1-877-859-4653.

About the MJT: The non-profit Maple Leaf Junior Golf Tour presented by Boston Pizza is Canada’s number-one played Junior Golf Tour as well as the only national junior tour run exclusively by PGA of Canada Professionals and the ‘Road to College Golf’ in Canada. The organization is generously supported by Boston Pizza and Premier Partners Ford of Canada, TuGo, Cleveland Golf, Srixon and Aquafina, in addition to valued Tournament and Product Partners. The MJT hosts more than 60 events across Canada, including free Ford Go Golf Junior Clinics, the MJT Mini Tour for 7-12 year olds, and multi-day events for competitive players which also qualify juniors for international competitions. The program offers annual awards, scholarships, and frequent player incentives to help reward player's performance and participation throughout each season. MJT alumni include many Professional Tour players and PGA of Canada Professionals, as well as Canadian Amateur, National and Provincial Junior Champions. The MJT aims to develop champions, in golf and in life, promoting the game from grassroots through to provincial, national, university and professional level.

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 MEDIA CONTACT: Maple Leaf Junior Golf Tour - Elaine Denton, Director of Marketing and Administration edenton@maplejt.com 1-877-859-GOLF