By Brad Ziemer, British Columbia Golf

Vancouver’s Leah John has played five events in her senior year at the University of Nevada and has won three of them.

It’s obviously been a very good year and one that is setting the table for a professional career that is now just three months away.

“I will turn professional immediately after graduation and hop on the Epson Tour,” John said in an interview after finishing as co-medalist at the Causeway Invitational in Sacramento last week.

“I got full Epson status from my finish at Stage 2 of qualifying school. It is really nice to have something to kick off the next stage of my golf.” Before she begins that journey, John is keen to finish off her final season at Nevada in style. Four spring events remain, including this week’s The Show at Spanish Trail tourney in Las Vegas.

That’s where John, a two-time B.C. Women’s Amateur champion, earned her first collegiate win in 2022. John is hoping her Nevada team can play its way into the NCAA regionals and beyond this spring,
“It has been a nice one, for sure,” John says of her senior year.

“It’s interesting because you feel the same, you are still doing your process and plugging along as you usually do, but then every tournament you get rewarded. It has been a really awesome season. I am enjoying it thoroughly and having people to share it with is what makes it special.”

John finished tied with Sneha Sharan of Sacramento State at the Causeway tourney, which was hosted by UC Davis. Both players finished the 54-hole event at one-over par. “The rough was long and for the last day the pin placements were quite challenging,” John said. “And it was windy. It just demanded finesse, for sure.”

John, who will graduate this spring with a degree in kinesiology, credits better ball-striking with helping her become a more consistent player. “In a lot of ways I feel like I haven’t changed at all, but I must be doing something different,” she said.

“I think my ball-striking over the last couple of years has improved a lot. I have spent a lot more time on my swing and getting better mechanics and also looking at force reduction for injury prevention. I would say my swing has been one of the largest products over the past couple of years.”

She also said her solid play at the first and second stages of LPGA Tour school last year helped her confidence. “It was interesting because my confidence was not the lowest, but it was not very strong when I walked in there.

"I was just there saying, I am going to check this out. I was having a bit of a tough time when I went to Q-school mentally. It increased my confidence and I was like, okay, I must be pretty good if I got this far. I see what the other girls can do and I see that I can do what they do and maybe do some things better, so that feels good.”

John’s Epson Tour debut figures to come June 7-9 at the Fireekeepers Casino Hotel Championship in Battle Creek, Mich.

TOP 10 for BAEK: Langley’s Chaewon Baek, a junior at Gonzaga University, tied for ninth at the Causeway tourney to record her third top 10 of the season. She finished the event at four-over par, just three shots behind co-medalists Sharan and John. The University of B.C. women’s team opened their spring season at the Causeway, finishing seventh in a 12-team field comprised mainly of NCAA Division 1 schools. Una Chou led the way for the Thunderbirds with a tie for 11th finish.

COLLEGE NOTES: The Simon Fraser University women began their season at the Tim Tierney Pioneer Shootout in Alameda, Calif. The Red Leafs finished seventh in the 16-team event hosted by CSU East Bay. Meera Minhas led the way for SFU, tying for 10th spot at five-over par. The UBC Okanagan-Heat women’s team finished fourth in The Trailblazer tourney in Las Vegas. Lauren Nedo and Julia Alexander-Carew both tied for ninth for the Heat.

WORLD TRAVELLER: Kimberley’s Jared du Toit continues his round-the-world golf odyssey this week in Santiago, Chile. Du Toit will play his first Korn Ferry Tour event of the season at this week’s Astara Chile Classic. It follows a busy three weeks where du Toit teed it up on the Asian Tour in Malaysia, Oman and at last week’s New Zealand Open, where he tied for 40th and earned $4,930 US. Du Toit currently sits 23rd on the Asian Tour’s Order of Merit. In addition to his full status on the Asian Tour, du Toit has conditional status on the Korn Ferry Tour and is exempt through the first six events of the new PGA Tour Americas circuit that begins its season March 21-24 in Tulum, Mexico. Du Toit will be joined in the Chile field by Vancouver’s Stuart Macdonald, who missed the cut in the Korn Ferry Tour’s Argentina Open last week by two shots. 

BAY HILL BECKONS: Surrey’s Adam Svensson missed the cut at the PGA TOUR’s Cognizant Classic in The Palm Beaches. Svensson will join Abbotsford natives Nick Taylor and Adam Hadwin at this week’s Arnold Palmer Invitational at the Bay Hill resort in Orlando, which is one of the PGA TOUR’s big-money designated events. Merritt’s Roger Sloan is in the field for this week’s other PGA TOUR event, the Puerto Rico Open.

FOR SALE: Newlands Golf Course in Langley is up for sale. Newlands has been a fixture of the Fraser Valley golf scene since opening in 1948 as a nine-hole layout. The Newlands property now includes a championship 18-hole layout as well as an 11-hole executive course. Newlands is owned by the Anderson family, who also own Guildford Golf Course in Surrey. Guildford is not for sale. Newlands is being listed by Vancouver-based commercial real estate company Cushman & Wakfield. Vice-president Brad Newman-Bennett says there is no formal asking price, but it is believed the family is seeking something in the $40-million neighbourhood.

CHIP SHOTS: The three City of Vancouver pitch and putt courses opened for the season on March 1. Green fees this season are $15.75 for adults, $11 for seniors and juniors aged 18 and under. . .The Falls in Chilliwack and Carnoustie in Port Coquitlam are both scheduled to open for the season on March 15.