Sixteen-year-old Yorkton golfer Kade Johnson will be doing something most golfers simply dream about from July 29-31 as the Sacred Heart student will be travelling to St. Andrews, Scotland, to represent Canada at the Euro Junior Golf Cup (EJGC).
While there Johnson will play on two of the most historic golf courses in the world: St. Andrews and Scotscraig, the latter being the 13th oldest course in the world designed in 1817 and the former playing host to the PGA’s British Open just 10 days before Johnson arrives in Scotland.
“I’m pretty excited to be going there (St. Andrews) to play,” said Johnson Monday afternoon. “It’s one of the best, biggest golf courses in the world.
“For a lot of people, myself included, it’s in the top two or three golf courses to play in a lifetime so getting a chance to play it and be there for a while is going to be pretty exciting.”
One other thing that is exciting for the grade 11 student is the fact that he’s representing Canada for the first time thanks to a strong performance at a qualifier tournament in Saskatoon earlier this year. “It’s my first year representing Canada so it’ll be a new experience for me. I’ve represented Saskatchewan a couple of times before but this is different and it should be pretty cool,” offered Johnson, suggesting that he’ll have to change his way of play when in Scotland as the courses there will not be the same as the ones in Saskatchewan. “It’s going to be completely different. We don’t have anything like that in Saskatchewan so it’s going to be a totally different kind of game.
“I watch a lot of golf, I watch the British Open for example, and from that I’ll hopefully learn how to play different shots there and what kind of shots I need to hit there to be competitive.”
Johnson is also aware that while there he will be going toe-to-toe, tee-to-tee, with some of the best young golfers from both Scotland and the United States; challenges he knows will be tough, however challenges he also feels he is ready for. “There is going to be a lot of good players there so I’m hoping to get some good experience playing against some of the best guys and seeing how my game stacks up against them,” mentioned Johnson. “It’s a huge honour to represent Canada and I think if I play my game I can do well and hopefully we can repeat for Canada because we won last year.”
Johnson leaves for Toronto on July 22 where he will spend two nights preparing with his fellow Team Canada members - seven other 15-19 boys, four 14-under boys and two girls – before heading to the ‘Home of Golf’ St. Andrews, Scotland, July 24 for the Euro Junior Golf Cup. He will then play from July 29-31 with the hopes of defending Canada’s 2014 tournament title.
