Golf Ontario kicked off its 2024 championship schedule with the Ontario Junior Players Invitational Monday in Myrtle Beach, S.C.
Team Ontario’s Nobelle Park of Rattlesnake Golf Club and last year’s second-place finisher, leads in the girls’ division thru 36 holes. Park delivered commendable scores of 74 and 73, securing a two-stroke advantage over her Team Ontario teammate Aryn Matthews of Bigwin Island Golf Club, who posted scores of 72 and 77, finishing at 3-over par.
In the boys’ division, Next Wave athlete Gabriel Mainella of the Summit Golf & Country Club, climbed to the top of the leaderboard with solid rounds of 74 and 73, bolstered by eight birdies on the first day. He enters the final round with a one-stroke lead over Team Ontario’s Bode Stephen of Cataraqui Golf & Country Club, who carded rounds of 72 and 75 to stand at 5-over.
The 77-player field features many of Ontario’s top junior golfers, all of whom are looking to take home the championship title from the challenging and beautiful Moorland Course at the Legends Golf Resorts.
The competitions biggest change this year is the extension to 54 holes, an increase from last year’s 36 holes. Furthermore, participants have the opportunity to earn points towards the World Amateur Golf Ranking and Junior Golf Scoreboard rankings.
“It was great to see how well the players handled the 36 holes today, we should be in for an exciting finish,” Ontario Players Invitational Tournament Director Connor Doyle says.
The tournament concludes on Tuesday with the final 18 holes, starting at 8 a.m. from both the 1st and 10th tees.
For the full leaderboard and final round tee times, CLICK HERE.
QUOTABLES
“I’m nervous for tomorrow … but I hope play wel l… it’s tough competition.”
— Nobelle Park, Team Ontario Athlete,
“Today was definitely fun. I started off the day really well with an even par… but quickly kind of on the back stretch … lost a little bit in the second round.”
— Aryn Matthews, Team Ontario Athlete
“The conditions were tough, it was windy and cold in the the start of the morning. Feel like I did really good at the start. Pushed through the windy conditions.”
— Gabriel Mainella, Next Wave Athlete
FAST FACTS
Seven of the Top 10 Girls are Team Ontario Athlete
Lowest Girls Score of the day: Team Ontario’s Alexa Ouellet, 69
Six of the Top 10 Boys are Team Ontario
Lowest Boys score was 72: By 5 players
Course scoring average was 81.6
Team Ontario athlete and third-place finisher at last year’s Junior Players Invitational, Jordan Hwang of Emerald Hills Golf & Country Club, currently sits third again.
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