LOCAL PARTICIPANT: Lily Zhang, an 8-year-old Buffalo area junior golfer, is one of 80 juniors from across the U.S. and Canada who will be competing in the 2018 Drive, Chip & Putt National Finals this Sunday from Augusta National Golf Club, the host of the Masters Tournament. (Photo: The Buffalo News)
For many junior golfers, the idea of one day being able to compete in a national championship at the hallowed Augusta National Golf Club is the stuff of dreams. But, for Buffalo’s 8-year-old Lily Zhang, that dream becomes reality on Easter Sunday.
Zhang, whose family are members of Buffalo’s Park Club, joins 79 other junior golfers from around the U.S. and Canada, ages 7 to 15, at Augusta National on Sunday to participate in the 2018 Drive, Chip & Putt National Finals. The event is the culmination of a year-long qualification process that begins at the local and regional level, before the finalists – boys and girls – are selected from four different age groups.
Last year, Zhang qualified locally at the Fox Valley Club in Lancaster, NY, where she earned a spot in the Subregional Qualifier held at the Turning Stone Resort in Rome, NY, before advancing to the East Regional Qualifier at Winged Foot Golf Club in Mamaroneck.
Zhang, who describes her interests outside golf as being “art, piano, viola and dance,” will compete in the Girls’ 7 to 9 age group at Augusta on Sunday.
The Drive, Chip & Putt competition – which is a collaboration between golf’s biggest organizations including the USGA, PGA of America, PGA Tour and the Masters Tournament – features three primary areas of golf skill (hence the name), with the driving competition including points for the longest and most accurate drives out of three attempts; the chipping competition, including points for the best closest-to-the-pin shots out of three; and the putting competition, which includes points for longest and most accurate putts.
Drive, Chip & Putt qualifying begins in the spring and continues throughout the summer, with the top qualifiers eventually advancing to the National Finals, held on the Sunday prior to the Masters each year. Qualifying for the 2019 Drive, Chip & Putt competition has already begun, with one local qualifier scheduled for the Rochester area on July 19 at Southern Meadows Golf Course.
CLICK HERE to find out how to enter
the 2019 Drive, Chip & Putt competition!
This year’s National Finals will be broadcast live on Sunday, April 1, at 8 a.m. on the Golf Channel and on www.drivechipandputt.com.
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