Perng wins again on junior tour
Eli Perng carded a 74 Wednesday to place first in the U13 boys division on a Niagara District Junior Golf Tour event at Cardinal Lakes. Photo: BILL POTRECZ
Eli Perng continues to dominate the U13 boys division on the Niagara District Junior Golf Tour.
The 12-year-old St. Davids resident fired a 75 to capture top spot Wednesday at Cardinal Lakes. It was Perng’s fourth tour victory in four events this summer.
Perng, who attends St. Davids Public School, may have broken par were it not for a mixup with his laser rangefinder.
“My round today kind of got a little screwed up because my laser was set to metres instead of yards so I was always just a little bit short,” Perng said. “I could have probably made a couple of more birdies if it was set to yards.”
Perng, who didn’t discover the inaccuracy until the final hole, edged Matthew Milton by eight strokes.
“My mindset in the bigger tournaments is to shoot as close to par, 75 or lower usually,” he said.
Perng, who began golfing at a young age, began participating in high-end events two years ago at Pinehurst, N.C., at the U.S. Kids Golf World Championships.
“You have to qualify and sometimes have to submit a massive resume,” he said. “It’s incredible. The places I have gone to golf have been beautiful.”
He also finished second (to fellow St. Davids resident Kaige Zhu) at the Junior Canadian Golf Championship last month at the Kanawaki Golf Club near Montreal.
Zhu will now attend the U.S. National Championships this fall while Perng will be the alternate.
Perng’s favourite memory was from a round he played at Pebble Beach in California last year at the 32nd Annual Legends Invitational Tournament where he met and played with several retired NFL players.
“Foresight (Golf Canada) flew me to Pebble Beach and on the 18th hole I hit a drive right down the middle of the fairway and it felt so good!”
Perng loves the challenge of the game.
“I love hitting these shots, I love driving the ball down the middle of the fairway. It’s one of the best feelings in the world.”
1. Eli Perng 75; 2. Matthew Milton 83.
U19 GIRLS
Tiffany Kang captured her first tour victory of the season, carding an 86 to place first in the U19 girls division.
“I did like how my game was pretty consistent today, nothing too crazy happened,” Kang said. “That was comforting” and it was an enjoyable round because the course was really nice.”
Kang, a 15-year-old St. Catharines resident, and multiple winner Casey Kenney were the lone U19 competitors but Kenney dropped out after a few holes.
“Casey withdrawing because she wasn’t feeling well was also kind of surprising so a couple of holes after were kind of tough,” Kang said.
Kang, who attends Eden High School, then hooked up with the boys U13 group playing behind her.
“I played with a group that was behind me and we still played from the same tees,” she said. “It was a little bit of a different strategy I guess because now it’s not against a competitor, it’s against myself and seeing how well I could do. Even when I am playing against other people I try and focus on myself.
“It was a good opportunity for something like this to happen. I can learn from this and focus on my game a little bit more.”
The Sawmill member, who played on the tour two years ago before taking last year off, began golfing with friends and family before starting to take the game more seriously three years ago.
She continues to strive to fine tune her game.
“I would like to be perfect and have more consistent ball striking,” she said. “I can depend on it and then once in a while there is this whack of a shot I’m not expecting so to be able to control that more and have a less frequent amount of those shots.”
1. Tiffany Kang 86; 2. Casey Kenney, WD.
U17/19 BOYS
Will Burleigh earned his second tour victory of 2024, firing a 74 to edge Carter Fullerton by three strokes in the boys U17/19 division.
“I just had a great all around game going,” the 17-year-old graduate of West Niagara Secondary School said. “Driver was working, I hit a lot of fairways, I hit most of the greens and the putter was working.
“I didn’t have any big mistakes, a couple littles ones here and there, but stuff that was pretty easy to recover from.”
Burleigh said getting off to a strong start helped his confidence.
“It makes a world of difference, mentally for sure,” he said. “It’s a lot easier to recover when you need to.”
Burleigh, whose home course is Sawmill, also won at Rockway this year.
“Obviously, I want to win but I don’t go into the course thinking I am going to win today,” he said. “Let’s just have fun and go out and have a good round.”
Burleigh will study kinesiology at Brock this fall.
1. Will Burleigh 74; T2. Carter Fullerton 77; T2. Braxton Fleguel 77; T4. Cameron Strugar 78; T4. Michael Martel 78; 6. John Kingdon 79; T7. Jack Hanna 81; T7. Dawson Dermatas 81; 9. Jaxon Pozzobon 82; T10. Jack Ilskens 83; T10. Thomas Gale 83; T10 Colby Franchetti 83.
U15 BOYS
Brennan Turner remains perfect.
The 14-year-old Fonthill resident made it eight tour victories this season in eight events, shooting a 74 to win the U15 division by 10 strokes over Mike Nevinger.
“I had an OK round today that could have been better but could have been worse so I’m not too mad about it,” Turner said. “My driver and irons weren’t too bad today but the putter kinda killed me because those greens rolled pretty fast considering it looked like they were just aerated. That pretty much sums it up for today.”
1. Brennan Turner 74; 2. Mike Nevinger 84; T3. Carter Thompson 86; T3. Brett Sharpe 86; 5. Callum Birdsell 93; 6. Alex Shorthouse 96; 7. Logan Taylor 104; 8. Eli Corfield WD.
The tour concludes Monday, Aug. 27 at Beechwood.
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