Alicia Easthope’s excellent adventure on the links continues next month in Niagara Falls.
The International Team Challenge on the Maple Leaf Junior Golf Tour (MJT) is the latest major tournament for the Sandpiper Golf and Country Club product after last week’s junior nationals and this week’s junior Ryder Cup in Montana.
The journey started last month with a strong showing at U19 provincials with rounds of 77, 80 and 74 for a 231 total to finish plus-18 at the Cottonwood Golf and Country club in DeWinton.
“I was very happy,” Easthope said of her second provincial appearance. “It was a very big change for me this time. I’ve improved a lot. Last year I wasn’t even close to the running and this year I was in the second group on the last day, which was awesome.
“I ended up coming fourth, which was a great result. My goal was top five so I made that and because the girl that came second wasn’t from Alberta I got to have the opportunity to play on the inter-provincial team at nationals.”
The trio of Easthope, Kenna Hughes of Calgary, the Alberta U19 champion at minus-2 at 211 and Kehler Koss (plus-16 at 229 at provincials) of Calgary, wound up sixth out of nine teams in the inter-provincial competition at junior nationals.
Easthope, 17, completed her junior national debut by placing 42nd out of 70 golfers who made the cut with rounds of 83-83-74-77 for plus-29 at 317.
“It was a really good experience. I’ve never played in a tournament with a cut before,” Easthope said. “My goal was to play four good rounds of golf and I knew if I did that I would end up making the cut.
“Evan after the cut was done I was still having the same goals in mind. I just went out there and played golf and hit the ball a little bit better the last two days than the first two,” she added. “I struggled the first two days for sure. I actually had a pretty good comeback with a 74 and 77 after a tough start.”
Easthope did her best work in the rain during the third round at the Links at Penn Hills in Shubenacadie, N.S.
“It was actually a pretty tough course. The ground was very hard and it was tough to make your ball stop in places that you wanted it stopped. It was just something that you had to really adapt to and really try to figure out how to get the ball where you wanted it to be with the conditions the course was in,” said Easthope, who tied for ninth at the Alberta Ladies Amateur the week before U19 provincials with scores of 79-78-79 for plus-20 at 236 at the Highwood Golf and Country Club in High River.
The junior national winner was Naomi Ko of Victoria at minus-5 at 283, while Hughes (plus-23 at 311) tied for 30th and Koss (plus-40 at 328) tied for 59th.
Easthope and Koss were U17 teammates for Alberta in the Ryder Cup format against Montana at the Whitefish Lake Golf Club. They were joined by two U16 and U15 females in the match play event.
“It was a really good experience to play a different format than usual, like the usual stroke play. I’ve never really played a really serious match play round,” said Easthope, the only female from northern Alberta on the team.
The first day featured 36 holes of best ball and alternate shot rounds but the second day of individual match play was rained out so Alberta was awarded the championship trophy.
“I actually played really well,” Easthope said. “I probably played my best in the best ball play.”
Easthope will take a breather before gearing up for the International Team Challenge, Sept. 23 to 25 at the Hunters Pointe Golf Club.
“It’s been a long couple of weeks. I’m taking a bit of a break and I’ll have some time to practice and work on some things,” said one of two female provincial qualifiers for the MJT event after rounds of 73 and 82 as the 15 to 19 age division winner by nine shots at the June tour stop at The Links in Spruce Grove.
It’s been a summer of low scores and top finishes for the Bellerose Composite High School graduate.
“Overall consistency has kept my game going a lot more and I would also say a lot better short game because some days your long game just isn’t quite working for you and the way you can score is you have to get the ball in the hole and that comes down to short game,” said the runner-up by six shots as the youngest golfer at the Edmonton Ladies Amateur with scores of 71, a personal best for the first-round lead, and 78 at the Derrick in June the week after the MJT tournament in Spruce Grove.
