Third and Fifth Place for NorCal Juniors at Drive, Chip and Putt
April 6, 2015
Tiger, Phil and Bubba have the course again, but on Sunday morning Augusta National belonged to a group of juniors including Northern California residents Megan Chou and Meghan Paracuelles.
Chou, from Los Altos, and Paracuelles, who hails from Folsom, were among the 80 juniors representing 30 U.S. States and three Canadian provinces who competed in the second annual Drive, Chip and Putt National Finals.
Meghan Paracuelles
Paracuelles, who competed in the Girls’ 7-9 division, placed third with a total of 19 points. Chou, who played in the Girls’ 12-13 division, finished fifth with 17 points. Both are members of the Junior Tour of Northern California and the NCGA’s Youth on Course program.
Each final was scored based on a 30-point system, offering the player with the longest drive 10 points, the player with the closest cumulative chips 10 points and the player with the nearest cumulative putts 10 points, in each separate skill.
In 2014, Lucy Li of Redwood Shores won the Girls’ 10-11 division title. A month later, Li at age 11 became the youngest player to ever qualify for the U.S. Women’s Open.
Megan Chou
Looking ahead to the 2016 Finals, there’ll be 10 Local Qualifiers held in Northern California at 10 different sites:
- Diablo Creek GC in Concord, June 18
- Empire Ranch GC in Folsom, July 6
- Riverside GC in Fresno, June 16
- Coyote Creek GC in Morgan Hill, June 22
- Marin CC in Novato, July 15
- Riverview GC in Redding, July 13
- Spring Creek GC in Ripon, June 25
- Teal Bend GC in Sacramento, June 30
- The Club at Crazy Horse Ranch in Salinas, July 8
- Poplar Creek GC in San Mateo, July 21
Following Local Qualifying, there’ll be Sub-Regional Qualifying held at Haggin Oaks Golf Complex in Sacramento (August 10) and Coyote Creek GC (August 11).
The Regionals will then be held Sept. 12 at Chambers Bay in Tacoma, site of this year’s U.S Open.
All championship scoring at the local, sub-regional and regional qualifiers is based on a 25-point-per-shot basis, with each participant taking three shots per skill. Each participant accumulated points per shot in all three skills (maximum of 75 points per skill = 25 points per shot x 3). The overall champion in each age category was determined by the participant with the most points accumulated between all three skills (maximum of 225 points = 75 points per skill x 3).
–Jerry Stewart
