Austin Krahn Captures Juvenile Boys Championship For His Second Provincial Title This Season
BC Juvenile Boys Champion Austin Krahn With Highland Pacific GM Jeff Palmer - BC Golf Photo
By Brad Ziemer, British Columbia Golf
A couple of other players shot lower rounds, but no one was more consistent than Austin Krahn at the B.C. Juvenile Boys Championship.
The 16-year-old Christina Lake native shot three straight sub-par rounds at Highland Pacific Golf Club in Victoria and earned his second provincial championship of the season.
“This week I minimized my mistakes,” Krahn said. “It was all about keeping it consistent and I think I only had six bogeys on the week. It was just pars all round and then I dropped in a couple of putts for birdies. I just kept my rounds really solid.”
Krahn, who won the inaugural B.C. Indigenous Championship this past spring at Nk’Mip Canyon Desert Golf Course in Oliver, finished the 54-hole Juvenile Championship for players aged 16 and under at six-under par after closing with a two-under 69. That followed a second-round 68 and a first-round 70.
The win was especially sweet for Krahn, who was coming off a disappointing performance at the recent Canadian Junior Boys Championship in North Bay, Ont., where he missed the cut. “I went to the Canadian Juniors and I played pretty bad, so coming into this it was kind of almost a revenge week,” he said. “I just wanted to get it back together after that.”
Krahn began the final round one shot behind Eric Joo of Coquitlam. What looked to be a two-man battle for the title became a three-way race when Manpreet Lalh of Nanaimo got hot. Lalh closed with the low round of the tournament, a six-under 65.
“Me and Eric were battling the entire round and then Mani made an eagle on 13 and that got him within two and it was like just the snap of a finger and Mani was in it,” Krahn said. “Then it was really fun from there. I birdied 13, which gave me a three-shot lead, and then I had some clutch up and downs on 16 and 17 just to seal the deal and give me the confidence coming down 18.”
Krahn had to battle back from being three shots down on the front nine when he bogeyed the par 5 seventh hole and Joo made a birdie. “At that point it was just go, go go and try to make as many birdies as possible,” said Krahn, whose family owns and operates a par 3 course in Christina Lake.
“Unfortunately, Eric hit it into the water on nine and made double and that got me right back in it. I rolled a birdie in on 10 and birdied 13 and just started making putts.” One of those putts was a key 15-footer on No. 16 to save par. Krahn ended up winning by two shots over Lalh, who capped his brilliant round by chipping in for birdie on the 18th hole. “Mani had a heck of a round,” Krahn said.
He is understandably pleased to have captured two provincial titles this season. “It feels great,” he said. “And it just feels great to be on top of my game and playing well.”
Joo closed with a two-over 73 to finish third at three-under par. Joo and partner Louis Chun of Port Coquitlam won a two-player better-ball competition that was held during the tournament. They finished at 17-under par, four shots ahead of Krahn and partner Charlie Pearcey of Victoria. The team of Finley Dober of Kelowna and Grace Aoting Yao of West Vancouver were third at 12-under.
A 36-hole zone competition was won by the Zone 4 team of Cadence Ko of Richmond, Thomas Zhang of Vancouver and Max Osten of Delta. Their score of 22-over par was two shots better than the Zone 2 team of Dober, Oakley Mayner of Kelowna and Tim Hachey of Osoyoos.
Click HERE for complete final scoring.