Three young Niagara-on-the-Lake golfers were among the top performers at the region’s annual Champion of Champions Tournament on Saturday.
Lucas Roberts-Ramos, the junior champ at the NOTL Golf Club, and Eli Perng, top junior at both the Cherry Hill Club and Eagle Valley, finished in a four-way tie for second in the tourney, played at Cardinal Lakes Golf Club in Welland.
The pair, competing in the junior boys division, shot 80, ending up 10 shots behind the winner, Jack Hanna of Twenty Valley Golf Club.
And 14-year-old Natalie Simpson, who also plays out of the Cherry Hill Club, was runner-up as well in her division at the Champions tourney. She shot 102.
Simpson has been junior girls champ at Cherry Hill for the past two seasons.
Roberts-Ramos was one of the top shooters in the NOTL club’s championship last month, winning the junior crown with a two-day total of 167 (77-90).
Perng, from St. Davids, is just 13, and has been honing his game by competing in a variety of junior tournaments all summer across Canada and the United States.
He’s coached by Tyler Glass of Eagle Valley.
Other NOTL Golf Club champs also competed in the Champion of Champions event in Welland. To qualify for the tourney players have to win their club championship or be the club’s designated representative.
Men’s champ James Grigjanis-Meusel shot 83 to finish in a tie for eighth, while women’s winner Louise Robitaille’s 89 put her in a tie for sixth.
Other competitors included: Stephen Warboys (senior men, 82, ninth), Yolanda Henry (senior women, 89, fifth), Don Allen (super senior men, eighth) and Judy Mantle (super senior women, fourth).
Meanwhile, with the golf season winding down, leagues are wrapping up play over the next few weeks.
In Monday’s business women’s league, Suzanne Watson won low gross with a round of 42.
Other winners: Jen Kroeker (longest drive on #1), Kirsten Murdoch (closest to the 150 on #2), Tracey Peters (closest to the pin on #4), Sally Huck (sank the longest putt on #7) and Mary Beccario (closest to the pin in two on #9).
Watson also topped the leaderboard in the Tuesday nine-hold women’s league, shooting 45. Shelley Sansom was second with 49 and Carolyn Cochrane shot 51.
Marion MacIntyre was low net with 33, followed by Sansom (34) and Cochrane (36). Maureen Dickson was closest to the pin in two on #7.
Al Kavanagh was top dog in the Tuesday men’s Woofs league, shooting 2-over 38.
Martin Vagners was low net (32) and Stephen Fraser had a birdie on #4 and was closest to the pin. Jon Schmidt won the hidden hole (#1).
Last Thursday in men’s league play, Ricky Watson and Grigjanis-Meusel shot even-par 36 to take low gross.
But the big winner was Paul Bataglia, who sank a long putt to win the weekly putting contest and take home the $700 prize.
Other winners: Gord Paget (sank the longest putt on #2 and had the longest drive on #3), Ward Simpson (closest to the pin on #4) and Mark Derbyshire (closest to the pin on #9).
Vagners and Simpson tied for low net with 31 and five players scooped $35 net skins: Bill Smethurst (#1), John Liotta (#3), Bill Jenkins (#6), Ron Planche (#8) and Dan Plomish (#9).
