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鈥檚 British Open just 10 days before Johnson arrives in Scotland.
鈥淚鈥檓 pretty excited to be going there (St. Andrews) to play,鈥� said Johnson Monday afternoon. 鈥淚t鈥檚 one of the best, biggest golf courses in the world.
鈥淔or a lot of people, myself included, it鈥檚 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.鈥�
One other thing that is exciting for the grade 11 student is the fact that he鈥檚 representing Canada for the first time thanks to a strong performance at a qualifier tournament in Saskatoon earlier this year. 鈥淚t鈥檚 my first year representing Canada so it鈥檒l be a new experience for me. I鈥檝e represented Saskatchewan a couple of times before but this is different and it should be pretty cool,鈥� offered Johnson, suggesting that he鈥檒l have to change his way of play when in Scotland as the courses there will not be the same as the ones in Saskatchewan. 鈥淚t鈥檚 going to be completely different. We don鈥檛 have anything like that in Saskatchewan so it鈥檚 going to be a totally different kind of game.
鈥淚 watch a lot of golf, I watch the British Open for example, and from that I鈥檒l hopefully learn how to play different shots there and what kind of shots I need to hit there to be competitive.鈥�
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. 鈥淭here is going to be a lot of good players there so I鈥檓 hoping to get some good experience playing against some of the best guys and seeing how my game stacks up against them,鈥� mentioned Johnson. 鈥淚t鈥檚 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.鈥�
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 鈥� before heading to the 鈥楬ome of Golf鈥� 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鈥檚 2014 tournament title.
