Ryan Leprieur, Ellie Johnson & Lilian Zhao Strike Gold At B.C. Summer Games
By Brad Ziemer, British Columbia Golf
PITT MEADOWS, B.C. (July 22, 2024) - After they collected their gold medals at the B.C. Summer Games golf competition, the winners really weren’t looking to celebrate. They just wanted to catch up on their sleep.
The 44 juniors who played in the 36-hole competition at Meadow Gardens Golf Course spent two nights in their own ‘athletes village.’ Their digs were the hard classroom floors of local schools. And teenagers being teenagers, not much sleep was had. “Definitely not,” laughed Langley’s Ryan Leprieur, who won the boys’ individual title.
“Sleeping on the floor of a school classroom isn’t ideal to say the least. They gave us a little foam pad and a blanket. That’s about it.”
That didn’t seem to bother Leprieur, who shook off the cobwebs and fired a five-under 67 in the final round to win by five shots with a 36-hole total of six-under. Port Moody’s Lilian Zhao, who shared the girls’ individual title with Ellie Johnson of Vernon, was also feeling a little sleep-deprived.
“It was a little rough because I have never really slept in those conditions before,” Zhao said with a laugh. “We were in a high school and we had Zones 3, 4 and 5 in our room and we all knew each other. We were basically from the same area. On the first day everyone got a total of about four hours of sleep.”
Still, a good time was had by all and some good golf was played as well.
Leprieur, a 15-year-old who is heading into Grade 11, had six birdies and just one bogey in his final round. “It’s my low score of the year,” he said. The course was set up shorter than most tournament courses I have played this year, but I kept my composure and I feel really happy with the round.
“I roughly knew how I stood and I tried to keep it out of my mind, but sometimes it is hard. I knew I had a couple of shots to play with.” Leprieur said his intimate knowledge of Meadow Gardens gave him en edge on the rest of the field. “I have been a junior here for two years so I have played the course at least 80 or 90 times,” he said.
Jeffrey Jung of Surrey and Luke Van Alstine of Vancouver tied for second at one-over par. Hunter Auramenko of Campbell River was fourth at even-par. Zhao and Johnson both finished at eight-over par. They each received a gold medal.
Johnson closed with a two-over 74 — the low round of the girls competition — that was highlighted by an albatross on the par 5 eighth hole at Meadow Gardens. “I hit my drive and I was just in the left rough,” said the 15-year-old Johnson. “I had 135 yards left and I hit my 9-iron and it just landed in front of the pin and just barely rolled in. It was like perfect.”
Johnson, a junior member at Vernon Golf Club, said she thoroughly enjoyed her B.C. Summer Games experience. “I had a really nice group,” she said. “I made good friends with them, so that was really fun. It was a great experience.”
Like Johnson, Zhao is in the field for this week’s Canadian Junior Girls Championship at Marine Drive Golf Club in Vancouver. The 14-year-old closed with a four-over 76 and finished her round with eight straight pars.
Joanna Kim of Langley finished one shot behind the co-winners at nine-over par. Freya Song of Langley was fourth at 13-over par.
Zhao picked up a second golf medal as her Zone 4 team won the zone competition by six shots with an even-par total. Other members of the winning Zone 4 team were Shanya Christian of Pitt Meadows, Serin Girard of Richmond, Markus Wu of Surrey, Jeffrey Jung of Surrey and Levi Hallborg of Surrey.
Click HERE to see final scoring from the Golf event in the B.C. Summer Games.