Lafleche takes seven-stroke lead into final round
With the way the Winnipeg teen is striking the ball, however, perhaps that's all it'll take for her to become unreachable on Wednesday.
Lafleche, who began the day with a two-shot advantage, ended Tuesday's round at the junior women's provincial championship with a seven-stroke lead after firing a rock-solid 2-under 70 at Quarry Oaks in Steinbach.
MIKE PETERS / GOLF MANITOBA
Niakwa's Jeri Lafleche shot 70 on Tuesday at Quarry Oaks, growing her lead to a seven-shot advantage in the Junior Girls Championship.
The Niakwa member is not afraid to recognize that she's played outstandingly through two days, but she's also not wiping away her game face with 18 holes remaining.
'I'm not really thinking too much about the outcome. I think I'm just going to try to stick with my game plan. It's worked pretty well these past two days. Nothing really major has come up where it's put me in some big trouble. So just thinking about that tomorrow is going to be pretty key, I think,' Lafleche told the Free Press after her round.
Reigning champion Addison Kartusch has the best chance at catching Lafleche on the final day. Kartusch is 4-over for the tournament after carding a 3-over 75 in the second round. Jewel Lafleche, Jeri's younger sister, is in solo third at 15-over, while Payton Oakden (17-over) and Camryn Thomas (21-over) round out the top five.
'Seven strokes — it sounds like a lot, but then I know that it only takes a couple of holes for me to give that back,' Lafleche said. 'Addie and I have played a lot of golf together, and I know what she can pull out, but I'm confident in my game, so just kind of finding that balance.'
Along with Monday's 1-under 71, Lafleche is the first to post consecutive rounds under par at the Junior Girls Championship in more than two decades. Golf Manitoba's round-by-round archives go back as far as 2004, but it's fair to say the leader has put together one of the finest two-round performances in tournament history.
The former back-to-back Women's Amateur Champion poured in four birdies in Tuesday's round, and unlike Monday when she rode a rollercoaster of birdies and bogeys on the front nine, she struck a groove early on and enjoyed a more consistent outing.
'No part of my game is letting me down this week,' said Lafleche, who is the only player to finish in red figures this week. 'So I'm not trying to avoid hitting certain shots, and I think playing aggressively and being able to execute those aggressive shots has maybe saved me a few strokes on some holes that I know maybe birdieing or paring is going to gain strokes on the field.'
Lafleche is seeking her first Junior Championship crown in her final start at the tournament.
Meanwhile, Kartusch remains hopeful that she can continue a historic run of play in provincial tournaments. Last year, the St. Charles teen became the first Manitoba woman to win the Match Play, Amateur and Junior Championship in the same summer. She can repeat the triple crown with a win on Wednesday.
'I definitely put a lot of pressure on myself to perform the way I want to, but I've kind of been in this position before,' said Kartusch, a two-time winner who is also playing in her final junior event.
'It's not a comfortable feeling, I guess, because it's still a tournament and I want to play well, and it's golf — you don't know what's going to happen — but I think having played a bunch of tournaments before now and having experience, I do feel confident about the rounds I put in this summer, so far.'
Kartusch and the Lafleche sisters will tee off in the final group at 12:23 p.m.
On the Junior Boys' side, Spence Mott and Payne Wood went shot-for-shot in a thrilling final grouping, combining for 12 birdies and finishing with matching 4-under 68s.
Mott, who hails from Shilo, is 5-under for the tournament and holds a one-shot lead over St. Boniface's Wood heading into the final round.
'There were a lot of birdies,' said Mott, who was under par on seven holes. 'He put more of the pressure on me most of the time, put everything closer so I had to make a lot more feet in putts than he did.'
Wood had the cleaner round, dropping just one shot on the third hole — his only bogey through 36 holes — but Mott scored more. Birdies on one, five, seven, nine, 11, 15 and 16 outweighed his three bogeys on Tuesday.
'I think everything kind of just worked,' he added. 'I didn't hit it out of play once, didn't really give myself many long putts and made the par 5s pretty easy.'
Others firmly in the mix include host course member Ty Brewster, who paces the 15 and 16-year-old division but sits five shots back of the overall lead at even par, and Niakwa's Ryder St. Laurent, who leads the 13 and 14-year-old division at 1-over. Tanner Grose, Gavin Carver and Nathan Hoogsteen are tied for fifth place at 4-over.
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The junior men's championship will see a different winner for the third year in a row. Teerawut Boonseeor of Thailand and Shilo's Zostrianos Giordani-Gross have won the last two events, respectively, after Winnipeg's Braxton Kuntz went back-to-back.
'I just want to keep the game face on. Try and shoot three rounds under par,' said Mott.
Mott, Wood and Brewster are off at 11:24 a.m.
'I think (I have to do) the same as today,' Mott added. 'The lower I keep my expectations, the more birdies I just start to make — they just start falling a lot more, instead of chasing them.'
joshua.frey-sam@freepress.mb.ca
Joshua Frey-SamReporter
Josh Frey-Sam reports on sports and business at the Free Press. Josh got his start at the paper in 2022, just weeks after graduating from the Creative Communications program at Red River College. He reports primarily on amateur teams and athletes in sports. Read more about Josh.
Every piece of reporting Josh produces is reviewed by an editing team before it is posted online or published in print — part of the Free Press's tradition, since 1872, of producing reliable independent journalism. Read more about Free Press's history and mandate, and learn how our newsroom operates.
Our newsroom depends on a growing audience of readers to power our journalism. If you are not a paid reader, please consider becoming a subscriber.
Our newsroom depends on its audience of readers to power our journalism. Thank you for your support.
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