Megan Osland Top Canadian At Stage 1 LPGA Qualifying School, Advances To Stage 2 In Florida In October
by Alfie Lau
Kelowna’s Megan Osland’s golf future continues to burn bright after she finished T12 at the Stage 1 LPGA Qualifying School in Rancho Mirage, CA from Aug. 3-9.
Osland, who just completed her senior year at San Jose State University, shot rounds of 73-72-69-72 to finish at (-2) 286 and handily advances to Stage 2 LPGA Q School, which will be held Oct. 19-25 at the Plantation Golf and Country Club in Venice, FL.
Three other Canadians also advanced, with Laura DeMarco (+2) 290, Christina Foster (+4) 292 and Brittany Marchand (+4) 292 also finishing in the top 60 and ties to earn their ticket to Stage 2.
Three notable Canadians who did not stamp their tickets to Florida were Chilliwack’s Jennifer Greggain, who shot a (+6) 294 to miss the top 60 by one stroke; A Ram Choi of Surrey, who shot (+12) 300 and ‘Canadian Ninja’ Kyla Inaba, who shot (+18) 306.
The tournament was won by South Africa’s Bertine Strauss, who shot a (-14) 274 to beat American amateur Megan Khang by one stroke.
Khang is best known as the top seed at the recent USGA Junior Girls Championship and she was upset by Victoria’s Naomi Ko in the match-play portion of that tournament.
Osland is coming off of a strong season as captain of the San Jose State Spartans Women’s Golf Team. She had two NCAA Division 1 wins – the Wyoming Cowgirl Desert Intercollegiate and Juli Inkster Spartan Invitational - in her senior year, was a four-year letter winner, had 11 top-10 finishes and 22 top-20 finishes during her Spartans career and academically, was named a San José State Dean’s Scholar.
During her senior year, Osland was a first team All-Mountain West honoree and played 31 rounds for 73.52 stroke average, which was the sixth-best stroke average in San José State history.
Osland also finished in the top-10 in six of her 11 tournaments played, tied the school record with a (-6) 66 in the second round of the Bay Area Intercollegiate and finished fourth at the MW Championship, eighth at Bay Area Intercollegiate and ninth at the Peg Barnard Invitational.