Last week was a huge week for Oakville golfers Nicole Gal and Katie Cranston. The teenagers both qualified to compete in major all ages tournaments and showed they are ready to play with the best.
Nicole Gal, 16, followed up her victory in the Canadian Junior Girls’ Championship (where she also won the Juvenile category), with a tremendous second-place showing in the Canadian Women’s Amateur Championship in Edmonton. She very nearly won the tournament, moving up five places on the last day…talk about performance under pressure.
CHCH TV did a feature on Nicole, showing her form and enthusiasm at the Oakville Golf Club, her (and Katie’s) home course.
Meanwhile, Katie Cranston, 17, qualified for the US Women’s Amateur Championship at Westchester Golf Club in Rye, NY. This is a gruelling test, with an elimination stroke play tournament followed by a match play elimination tournament which only 64 golfers reach. Katie was on fire, not only making it to the round of 64, but through to the round of 16, beating older, more experienced and higher-seeded golfers to do it. For experienced golfers, this was a 6500-yard course with a 153 slope rating from the tees she was playing: for those who don't understand the technicalities, suffice it to say this would be a serious test for a golfer playing on the PGA Tour.
There is much ahead for these two young ladies, both with golf scholarships in their futures, Katie at Auburn University and Nicole at Ole Miss (University of Mississippi).
In the short term, they are playing as a team in an all-ages four-ball tournament in Florida next week, which should really be fun to follow as the long-time friends combine against some formidable opposition.