ROCKY MOUNTAIN HOUSE, Alta. – The NextGen Western Championship, fueled by JOURNIE Rewards is set to begin Thursday at Pine Hills Golf Club in Rocky Mountain House, Alta.
Practice rounds are scheduled for June 1, before the official 54-hole tournament gets underway on June 2. Play is scheduled to wrap up on Saturday, June 4.
The top six male competitor will earn a spot in the upcoming Canadian Junior Boys Championship, presented by BDO, August 7-10, at Rivershore Estates & Golf Links in Kamloops, B.C. The top six female golfers (including ties) will also earn exemptions into this year’s Canadian Junior Girls Championship, July 25-29, at The Marshes Golf Club in Ottawa, Ont.
The starting field will feature 94 players – 67 Junior Boys and 27 Junior Girls – vying for a spot in their respective Canadian Junior Championship later this summer.
The NextGen Western Championship is the third of six regional junior championships presented in partnership with JOURNIE Rewards. Alessandra Nagayo and Ben MacLean took home the honours in the latest NextGen Championship at Oak Bay Golf Club in Port Severn, Ont. For the full schedule of 2022 NextGen Championships, click here.
Halfway between Calgary and Edmonton and a 3-wood to the west is home to Pine Hills Golf Club in Rocky Mountain House, Alta. True to the name of the town in which it is located, Pine Hills offers an array of elevation changes and blind approaches over it’s hilly, yet majestic landscape. In 1989, an additional 9 holes were added to the original layout to complete the 18-hole championship course that requires creativity and shot-making to go low.
For past results of the 2022 NextGen Championships, fueled by JOURNIE Rewards: Pacific | Ontario
Additional information about the 2022 NextGen Western Championship can be found here.
NOTABLES
Cole Bergheim (Red Deer, Alta.)
Top 10 results at the 2021 NextGen Fall Series West Championship and the 2022 MJT National Championship sets Cole Bergheim up nicely for another stellar result at the NextGen Western Championship. Bergheim will be hoping to improve on his 15th place finish at the NextGen Pacific Championship earlier this year, and he will have every chance to do so this week at Pine Hills Golf Club.
Logan Graff (Sylvan Lake, Alta.)
Graff, who plays out of the same club as Bergheim, will be poised to get his hands on the trophy in Rocky Mountain House, Alta. The Sylvan Lake, Alta. native finished as the runner-up at last year’s Alberta U19 Boys Championship and is keen on taking his game to the next level in 2022.
Georgia Barr (Calgary, Alta.)
The 2020 Alberta U17 Girls Champion will look to continue making strides in her young golf career at the NextGen Western Championship. In 2021, Barr’s game trended in the right direction with a 5th place result at the Alberta U19 Girls Championship, a T8 finish at the Alberta Ladies Amateur Championship and a 13th place finish at the 2021 NextGen Fall Series West Championship.
Eileen Park (Red Deer, Alta.)
Don’t let Eileen Park’s size or age fool you. As a 12-year-old, Park won every event in her age category on the Maple Leaf Junior Tour last season and finished in second place at the Alberta U19 Girls Championship. She’s proven she can play with the best of them before, and she will be looking to do so again when she tees it up in Rocky Mountain House on Thursday.
About the NextGen Championships series, fueled by JOURNIE Rewards
The NextGen Championships, fueled by JOURNIE Rewards is a high-performance junior golf series which totals eight competitions. From May to July, six championships will take place across Canada where the region’s best junior golfers will compete to earn exemptions into their respective 2022 national championships. NextGen Championships provide junior players an opportunity to develop and showcase their skills at the highest level of tournament golf.