By Brad Ziemer, British Columbia Golf

SECHELT, B.C. (August 2, 2024) - It was not exactly love at first swing for Jenny Guo and the game of golf. 

When she took up golf four years ago as an eight-year-old, the West Vancouver resident much preferred swinging a racket. “Her favourite sport was tennis, not golf,” her mom, Yu Na, said as she watched her daughter blow away the field at the B.C. Juvenile Girls Championship at Blue Ocean Golf Club in Sechelt.

Golf and the now 12-year-old have clearly come to love one another. Guo put in a most impressive display over the three-round competition, which she won by 11 shots with a score of eight-under par. Not bad for a kid about to start Grade 7.

“I really didn’t like it at the start, but slowly I started to like it more and more,” Guo said of golf. “I won my very first tournament I played in when I was nine, so I was pretty good from the start. But that was after a whole winter of preparation.”

Guo closed the B.C. Juvenile — for players aged 16 and under — with a one-under 71. She basically won the tournament with a bogey-free, six-under 66 in the second round that put her seven shots in front of the field.

Knowing she probably had the tournament won, Guo was focusing on trying to win a second trophy in the final round. “After the first day there was some pressure, but after the second round I was leading by seven, so today I was really trying to win the best-ball so my brother could get a trophy.”

That brother is her twin brother Jack, who made the cut in the Juvenile Boys Championship that was also held at Blue Ocean. When Jack and Jenny finished their final rounds, they had a one-shot lead in the two-player better-ball competition. They ended up finishing second by one shot.

Guo has had an impressive summer. She turned heads in mid-June at the B.C. Women’s Amateur Championship at Balfour Golf Course when she matched the course record with a five-under 67 in the second round. She played the back nine that day in 30 shots.

Her final round at Blue Ocean was not quite as clean as her second-round 66. Guo joked about being “on the bogey train” when she bogeyed the ninth, 10th and 11th holes. But she rebounded nicely with birdies on the par 5 12th and 14th holes to get her round back on track.

“I feel like my putting was really good the first two days and my tee shots were good all three days,” Guo said. “Today my putting was a little rougher. I missed a lot of shorter ones. My chipping was really good this week and my iron shots were good, too. My wedge shots weren’t as good, but they were okay.”

Guo is now off to next week’s Canadian U15 Championship at Emira Golf Club in Ontario. Asked about her chances there, Guo smiled and said, “I don’t know much about who is playing there, so I am not really sure. But I feel like my game is pretty good.”

Guo will be making the trip east with her mom, who will be competing in the Canadian Senior Women’s Championship that week about an hour away in Georgetown, Ont.

Charlotte Tam of Burnaby finished alone in second at three-over par. She closed with a solid three-under 69. Lilian Zhao of Port Moody also shot a 69 and finished third at four-over par.

CHIP SHOTS: Guo’s brother Jack tied for 23rd in the Juvenile Boys Championship. He will be in the field for next weeks’ B.C. Bantam Boys Championship at Bowen Island Golf Club.

Click HERE for complete final scoring.