Alex Francois won his second big golf title last weekend.
The Moscrop Secondary senior followed up a win at the CN Future Links Pacific championship with a comeback victory on the Maple Leaf junior tour, adding the Junior Worlds qualifying tournament to his already bulging golf bag.
The 16-year-old Francois came back from a four-stroke deficit to card a tournament-best four-under-par 68 in the final round to win the juvenile boys’ division by four strokes over Vancouver’s Alex Park at Pagoda Ridge Golf Club in Langley on May 18.
After an opening round 74, Francois was near-bogey free in the second round, firing three birdies and 13 pars to go along with his eagle-two in a three-under-par finish on the back nine.
“I just never gave up – kept fighting until the end,” said Francois, who shot a two-round, two-under-par 142 on the 6,360-yard Fraser Valley course.
The win shortlisted Francois for a possible spot at the Callaway Junior World golf championships in San Diego in July.
Francois’ win was highlighted by a chip in for an eagle on the 286-yard par-4 13th hole.
“I had a five-under in five holes streak,” said Francois in a MJT press release. “The expectations I had for the final group were very high, therefore I knew I had to post a good score. This gives me the confidence of being able to win from behind.”
A week earlier at the CN Futures event in Victoria, Francois shot a consistant 54-hole total 217 to edge Vancouver’s Jordan Lu by a single stroke.
Francois opened with a pair of one-over rounds of 72 before finishing up with a final round 73.
“I knew that if I could fight my way through the tough greens, I’d be good and in the second round I made zero three-putts, and I think that was the key to my win this week,” he said in a release.
Francois, and the other top-five competitors in the junior division, earned exemptions to the Canadian national boys championships to be held in Niagara Falls, Ont. from July 28 to Aug. 1.
Younger sister Sumie Francois finished in a tie for third place in the girls’ division with a 147 total at Pagoda Ridge.
In Victoria, the 14-year-old Sumie placed in a tie for 10th place 11 shots back of 18-year-old champion Valerie Tanguay, who defeated West Vancouver’s Alix Kong in a sudden-death playoff.
