Lauren Fox picked a great time to have the two best rounds of her life. The Grade 11 student placed second in the Saskatchewan Junior Women’s Golf Championship in Nipawin. Fox shot four over par in her second round of the tournament, vaulting her from fourth to second.
“I went to the range that morning and I was struggling, and my dad just said, ‘You gotta fight,’” Fox said.
After shooting 85 on the first day, Fox bounced back with 76 in the second round, and 78 in the third, clinching second place. The second round score was tied for the second best score of the entire tournament.
“The first day, I didn’t really have anything,” Fox said. “My driver was spraying, my irons weren’t solid, and I was blowing my chips past the hole and I couldn’t make a putt.”
It was the perfect time for Fox to find her game.
“I had never broken 80 at a tournament before, and then I did it twice in two days,” she said laughing.
Fox took advantage of the relatively short drive to Nipawin to get some practice rounds in before the tournament. Nipawin is a four-hour drive from Creighton.
“We went down there like four or five times,” Fox said. “It’s the closest any event will ever be.”
Fox calls the Phantom Lake Golf Course home, and plays nearly every day of the week during the summer. She said she usually scores in the high thirties and low forties on the nine-hole course.
“I like to get out there whenever I can, probably about six days a week,” she said. “I go out almost every night with my brother and my dad.”
The shorter length of some of Phantom Lake’s holes give Fox a chance to practice some of the key skills she thinks are the difference in women’s golf. Fox said she usually drives the ball around 200 yards off the tee.
“The guys will try to the green on a par five in two strokes, but for the girls, we all drive it about the same,” she said. “It’s more short game than long game.”
Due to placing second at provincials, Fox will be participating in the Canadian Junior Girls’ Championship in Lethbridge, Alta. from July 30 - Aug. 2 and hopes to play the full four days.
“Every golfer is guaranteed two days, and then after the two days, they make a cut,” she said. “The top 70 players play for another two days. The rest, usually about half, they go home. I’d really like to make the cut, but if I don’t, I’d like to finish in the top 100.”
Fox will be representing Saskatchewan alongside two others who qualified in the tournament.
