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Youngster one stroke off golf win

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Ponoka golfer Austin Jacobson was able to put the past behind him as he came one stroke away from winning the McLennan Ross Sun Junior Golf Tour tournament in Ponoka last week.

By Adam Jackson

For Austin Jacobson, it was another wet tournament in Ponoka, but with a much different outcome.

The 17-year-old finished second overall in the Ponoka stop of the McLennan Ross Junior Golf Tour on July 18. He also landed first in his age division, seeding him into the Tour Championship at Wolf Creek later this summer.

With a score of 72 on the par 71 course, Jacobson landed just one stroke short of tournament winner Andrew Harrison of Camrose.

“It’s nice to qualify — (Wolf Creek) is my home course so that should help me out in the end,” said Jacobson.

Jacobson has qualified for the tour championship before, but the results were nowhere near what he expected to achieve.

The accomplishment for Jacobson is more than just qualifying, though. For him, it was being able to bounce back from a disappointing 29th place finish at a tournament at Wolf Creek earlier this month.

“I was just feeling good,” said Jacobson. “I just kind of focused on hitting the ball straight down the fairway and everything was working.”

“I was hitting greens and hitting puts so it just made it easier.”

Ponoka golfers James Ursulak and Mikael Skaley also finished in the top 10 with scores of 73 and 78 respectively.

Although it poured in the morning, the sun shone in the afternoon, allowing the fairways and greens to dry up.

“It wasn’t too bad out there, it dried up pretty well and the greens were in good shape, so it was pretty playable.”

Jacobson also credits some of his success at the Ponoka Community Golf Course to his childhood.

“This is the course that I played when I was growing up,” he said. “I know every hole and know a lot of what goes on there, so it worked out to my advantage.”

“When you know the course, it makes it that much easier. You know all the holes and even the bounces.”

Right now Jacobson is taking a well-deserved holiday, but will quickly get back into the swing of things, attending a few more of the McLellan Ross Sun Junior Tour events then finally gearing down and preparing for the tour championship.