“Some of them, a good portion of them have or will play collegiate golf in Canada, the United States, South America, or wherever it may be. It’s a good test of golf to set them up for their later years in the amateur game,” said Daniel Suppa, Tournament Director.
The leader after Round One was Ottawa’s James Newton, who matched a club record 9-under to sit three strokes clear of the field and his Team Canada teammate Cooper Humphreys (-6), from Predator Ridge near Vernon, who entered Round Two in second place. Humphreys saw a solid, bogey-free round with an eagle on his 13th hole on Sunday.
“It’s awesome to see. It’s so cool to see teammates well. Makes you feel good. Makes us want to beat him the next day, too. Hopefully, I can do that today,” said Humphreys.
Humphreys won the juvenile boys division last year during the 2021 Canadian Junior Boys Championship and has recently committed to Oregon State University. As for tracking down Newton, he doesn’t have a number in his head.
“Don’t really have a number in mind. I’m just going to try not to play scared, just hit shots and hope it turns out well,” added Humphreys.
Another Team Canada teammate from Quebec was 1-under through the opening round as he and many around him looked to track down the leaders.
“It’s fun, it’s scoreable, all the guys I played with seemed to enjoy it. You can make lots of birdies and you see the low scores. It’s fun to watch for the fans I guess,” said Malik Dao (-1).
“I think they are setting it up as hard as they can, but it is very scoreable. As long as you keep in play off the tee, stay out of the fescue, you’ll do okay,” commented Brett Jones (+1), from Calgary.
Kamloops is being represented proudly by a single entrant in this year’s event, Ty Turner (+16). The Tournament Capital native struggled around is opening 18 to sit back of the pack.
While the majority of the young golfers have college on their minds, a few notable winners of the event, Adam Svensson in 2012 and Nick Taylor in 2006 have advanced to the PGA Tour.
“The welcome sign has those three notable past winners and we like to provide that to the kids to motivate them and maybe that could be me some day,” said Suppa.
The tournament continues with the final two rounds on Tuesday and Wednesday as the field will be cut down in the chase for the silver cup.