Lauren Kim’s first golf clubs were a plastic set her parents bought her when she was a toddler.
When she fired a hard shot into her new TV, her parents knew it was time to take her to the family driving range.
“I fell in love with the game,” said Kim, whose parents own the Peace Arch Driving Range in south Surrey, BC. She was passed down from her grandparents and has been in the family for more than 30 years.
17-year-old Kim dominates women’s golf at the Canada Summer Games, shooting a 67 to break the single-round game record in Wednesday’s opening round at Legends at the Niagara Battlefield Course in Niagara Falls, Ontario. She was followed by a 68 on Thursday.
Kim, who signed for 2023 at the University of Texas, couldn’t seem to miss in Round 1, posting eight birdies.
“I would definitely say my putting was really strong, I only had 25 putts and my approach play was really strong too,” she said. “I placed shots near the holes to make it easier to make those putts and all those birdies.”
Kim had four birdies in a bogey-free round on Thursday.
“Today wasn’t terrible, I didn’t have too many mistakes,” she said. βThe scorecard was pretty even today. I just couldn’t drop putts early until I think my 12th or 13th hole, I hit a 30 foot course and that really threw me off and then I hit a few more thereafter.
“I think my putting really kept me in the game.”
Despite her considerable lead, Kim is not making any progress.
“I don’t usually think about being at the top, I’d better be doing something, I always take it shot by shot and just really try to be in the moment and keep my body and mind in the moment,” she said .
.Carlee Meilleur from @GoTeamOntario came to play today. π₯
The 14-year-old achieved a near-perfect scorecard in round two and jumped at the 36th hole @CanadaGames π₯@2022CanadaGames | #CGGolf pic.twitter.com/N7sLHMQqoX
β@GolfCanada
Kim, who started playing golf at age 10 and made it to the regional finals in the drive, chip and putt competition at that age, played her first US Women’s Open in June.
While the depth of field at the Canada Games doesn’t compare to the tournament where she missed the cut, Kim said the multi-sport experience of the Games is high on her list.
“Being with all these players for different sports, being surrounded by them is a really great environment,” she said. “It’s really cool, I see other athletes, it’s not just golfers.”
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Graf sets the men’s single round game record
The one-round record in the men’s games fell on Thursday. Logan Graf of Sylvan Lake, Alta., shot a 65 and moved up eight places in the leaderboard. He’s in a two-way tie for third.
Guillaume Paquette of Quebec leads at 6 under par, followed by Ryan Holwell of Newfoundland and Labrador. The 18-year-old Graf, who fired eight birdies, is tied with Cooper Humphreys at 4-under.
“It was a big turnaround from [Wednesday]the short game was the big difference,” Graf said of his improvement from the first round. “So it’s good to turn that around.”
Logan Graf talks about his record lap on Day 2 of the @CanadaGames π¨π¦β³οΈ
Sylvan Lake, Alta. Native is T3, two strokes behind leader Guillaume Paquette of @EquipeduQuebec @2022CanadaGames | #CGGolf pic.twitter.com/XyXK6pvmif
β@GolfCanada
Graf was five strokes behind after his 75th round in the opening round, but didn’t let a disappointing day sway his optimism.
“I know it’s a four-day tournament and there’s always a lot that changes for the tournament,” he said. βIt’s a lot of golf. So I was just waiting for a round like today to really come along and I knew four days was a long time to make the good golf happen so I was pretty optimistic after that [Wednesday].”
Leonie Tavares, a 12-year-old from Quebec, is the youngest golfer in the field. She posted a 1-under 71 on Thursday and is alone in sixth place and just two shots from the top three.
medal table
Ontario leads the medal count with a total of 132 podiums and 53 gold medals. Quebec is second with 99 overall medals and 33 gold medals.
BC is third in medals (87) but fourth in gold medal wins (23), with Alberta having two more gold medals but trailing BC by 15 medals overall and in fourth place.