By Brad Ziemer, British Columbia Golf

Little girls dream big and Luna Lu was no exception. She started to get serious about golf when she was eight or nine years old and that’s when she began imagining what it would be like to play on the LPGA Tour. Well, she’s about to get a taste of it.

The 16-year-old from Burnaby has played her way into this week’s CPKC Women’s Open at Shaughnessy Golf & Country Club. Lu, the 2022 B.C. Junior Girls champion, earned one of four spots up for grabs at the tournament’s Monday qualifier at Point Grey Golf & Country Club.

“Ever since I started playing golf it has been my dream to play on the LPGA Tour,” Lu said. “So this is really exciting.”

Lu fired a one-under 71 on a Point Grey course that was set up long and difficult for the 42-player field. It was stretched to more than 6,500 yards — similar to what Shaughnessy is expected to play this week — and the pins were tucked in some challenging locations.

“The conditions were really pure, but the pins were definitely in tough positions,” Lu said. “A lot of them were in corners near the edge of the green or tucked behind bunkers. If you short-sided yourself, it was really hard to get up and down.”

This was Lu’s first Monday qualifier and she acknowledged feeling some nerves as she began her round. “I was pretty nervous,” she said. “But I thought if I just play consistent, then I don’t have to think about the outcome.”

She parred her first two holes, which helped calm the nerves, and then birdied the third and fourth holes. Her longtime instructor, Morgan Creek-based Brett Saunders, was caddying for Lu and was a steadying influence. “I think a lot of people think you have to go lower in qualifiers than what you really do, so I was trying to just keep her patient,” Saunders said.

Lu, who is heading into Grade 11 at Burnaby North Secondary, said Saunders did a lot more than just keep her calm. “He was a big help on the greens, he helped me a lot with my reads. I am happy that I made four birdies today. That just proves that I can play a tough set-up like this.”

Lu is a member of Golf Canada’s NextGen (junior) team. She has played some great golf the past couple of years both here in B.C. and south of the border in American Junior Golf Association events. That fine play in the U.S. earned her a spot in an AJGA invitational tourney that was played alongside the LPGA Tour’s Mizuho Americas Open at Liberty National Golf Cub in New Jersey this past June.

Lu thinks that experience will help her this week at Shaughnessy. “At that Liberty National event I learned that pros make mistakes, but they just recover from them,” she said. “They’re just human, so I think that will help me settle down a little bit.”

Lu joins five other British Columbians in the Shaughnessy field. Surrey’s Lauren Kim, Victoria Liu of Vancouver, Sonja Tang of Victoria, Angela Arora of Surrey and Yeji Kwon of Port Coquitlam all received exemptions into the tournament.

Lu’s one-under 71 got her a spot right on the number and a clutch shot from a greenside bunker on the par 3 17th hole helped her post that number. Lu blasted out to within five feet and sunk her par putt. She two-putted from about 10 feet on the par 5 18th hole to post her 71.

Fourteen-year-old amateur Alice Ziyi Zhao of Irvine, Calif, topped the field with a three-under 69, while Kum-Kang Park of South Korea shot a two-under 70 and Lu and Argentina’s Magdalena Simmermacher both shot 71s. Former Vancouver resident, Anna Huang, just missed qualifying as the 14-year-old carded an even-par 72.

Lu now hopes to play a couple of practice rounds at Shaughnessy, a course she has only played twice before. She hopes to have Saunders by her side again as her caddie. Saunders knows Shaughnessy well. He caddied for Adam Hadwin at the 2011 Canadian Open when Hadwin had his big breakthrough moment on the PGA TOUR and tied for fourth.

He wants to Lu to enjoy her week and create some memories she’ll cherish for a lifetime. But with the event happening in her home town, Saunders will be counselling Lu to not be distracted by all the outside noise. “There are going to be friends yelling at her and saying hi,” Saunders said. “She’s almost going to have to put the blinkers on a little bit.”

Click HERE for final qualifying scores.