Vancouver’s Jordan Lu needed to put in some extra work to eventually claim the 112th British Columbia Amateur Championship last week at North Vancouver’s Seymour Golf and Country Club.
Lu birdied the final hole of regulation play to move into a tie with Michael Belle at even par 284 before outlasting his opponent through five sudden-death playoff holes. Hole No. 10 was the sight of the fifth playoff hole and Lu knocked in a short par putt for the win after Belle made bogey.
"Before he putt I was thinking 'just make my putt' because I know he's not going to miss, but after he missed it I thought, 'OK, now I really have to get this,'" said Lu in a B.C. Golf press release. "In the fourth playoff I pulled my putt really hard, which was not good. So I was just trying to focus and make sure I made a good stroke. And I did."
Lu, a 17-year-old who is headed to Washington to play NCAA golf this fall, entered the final round four shots back of the leaders but made five birdies on the day to force the playoff. Earlier this year Lu won the B.C. high school championship.
"(Winning these titles) makes me feel that my game has gotten a lot better,” he said. “Last year I came in tied at 22nd in the B.C. Amateur so I'm just going to do the same thing at the Pacific Coast Amateur. Fairways and greens and hope for the birdie." The 48th Pacific Coast Amateur runs July 22-25 in Flagstaff, Arizona.
Belle, 22, was leader or co-leader throughout the B.C. Amateur tournament but his two-over-par final round score allowed Lu to catch him on the final hole. The Vancouver Golf Club member started the Championship off with a bang, recording a hole-in-one during the opening round, one of four aces fired in the tournament.
Junior golfer Roy Kang, a 15-year-old Seymor member, paired with Alex Francois, 16, to beat out 64 other teams to win the tournament’s best-ball competition. The team combined to shoot a 19-under-par 265 that included a hole-in-one by Francois on the first day of competition and a total of 19 birdies.
