It wasn’t long ago that snow and ice were carpeting the local golf courses.
Leave it up to Burnaby’s Ilirian Zalli to lead the thaw.
The teenager posted three consecutive rounds of 69 to capture this week’s Maple Leaf Junior Golf Tour’s Humber College PGM presented by TaylorMade at Swan-e-Set Bay Resort in Pitt Meadows.
Not only did Zalli set an amazing pace, winning by 12 strokes over Vancouver’s Tony Li, but he also secured for a direct exemption into the 66th annual International Junior Masters in East Aurora, NY, June 24 to 28, and for the B.C. Golf junior boys championship, July 2 to 5.
Now that’s what you call a fast start.
The 16-year-old, who attends Vancouver’s David Thompson Secondary, went bogey-free in the opening round, shooting par on the front nine and connecting for three straight birdies on the back nine.
On the second day, he chalked up five birdies on the par-72 course, and closed out with four on the final day. Only one other player in the junior boys division managed a sub-70 round, third-place Michael Wu with a 69. It gave him a three-day, nine-under par 207, which set the pace for the whole tournament.
“It feels fantastic to play up a division and win. It’s been a long winter and it’s great to know that the hard work has paid off,” Zalli said.
In 11th place was 17-year-old Daniel Taddei, who registered rounds of 78, 81 and 80 (239) to finish 20 shots off the pace.
In the juvenile boys division, Burnaby’s Andy Luo was in the hunt until the final day, placing third after a three-day total of 223 (73, 75, 75). He sat one stroke back after an opening round of 73, but the 16-year-old was unable to match Washington State golfer Thomas Huang, who closed the tourney at 220.
Jay Xu finished second in the peewee boys division after a three-round tally of 231 (75, 80, 76), 10 shots behind Vancouver’s Ryan Liang. The main point of separation was 12-year-old Xu’s second round, where he stumbled with seven bogies and a double-bogey.
In the bantam division, Burnaby’s Denby Carswell placed ninth after firing a three-day total of 233 (75, 80, 78).
Ling Yu Hao, meanwhile, placed ninth in under-15 girls, with a three-round score of 245 (90, 79, 76).
