A local golfer has won the 2022 Alberta Schools Athletic Association Golf Provincial Championship.
Mya Rowan, 16, a Grade 12 high school student at Salisbury Composite, shot for a score of 144 over the two-day tournament last week. The score was good enough for par and edged out her closest competitor by two strokes.
One of the shots that helped her was a hole-in-one.
“I knew it was a good shot and I thought that I would have a great tap-in birdie,” said Rowan. “I was jumping up and down, high-fiving everybody, it was just a lot of fun.”
Rowan is pretty new to the sport. She picked up the clubs about three years ago to find a way to keep active during the pandemic. It was love at first shot.
“I like how you can control everything and you don’t have to depend on anyone to pick up the slack,” said Rowan. “I feel like I was the best at it [out of all the other sports I played] so it was a lot more fun.”
This isn’t the first time that Rowan has been close to a championship. In last year’s tournament, she was one shot away from finishing third. The goal heading into this year’s provincials was to stand on the podium.
“I did not expect to win at all,” said Rowan. “My goal was to place, so to get third or better because last year I came fourth.”
Even after the first day, winning wasn’t a guarantee. Rowan had shot a 74 and was five strokes behind the leader. It came right down to the wire on the second day.
“On the last hole I had a one-shot lead and it was a par five,” said Rowan. “When I was in the fairway with my seven-iron I was shaking cause there was water in front of me.”
“I just sorta went through the routine I always go through and stuck to all the practice I’ve done and it worked out pretty well.”
Rowan didn’t know if she had won the tournament immediately. The person chasing her for the lead was in a group behind her so it was a bit of a waiting game.
Rowan says the moment she found out she was a provincial champion was something she won’t forget.
“It was the most excited I have been for golf,” said Rowan. “I was probably even more excited than my hole-in-one just because it was the biggest tournament I’ve won so far.”
That tournament was the last one for Rowan for the 2022 season. Now her focus will turn toward making a university team.
“My plans are to go to either Simon Fraser University or the University of Victoria.”
With a provincial championship under her belt, it shouldn’t take too long for Rowan to find a team.