Nanaimo’s Shirin Anjarwalla is about to compete at the major that matters most in Canadian junior girls’ golf.
The 16-year-old tees off starting Tuesday (Aug. 1) in Ottawa at Golf Canada’s Canadian Junior Girls’ Championship.
It’s the third straight year competing at junior nationals for Anjarwalla, who was 26th in 2015 and 19th in 2016. She said she’s thankful to sponsors and supporters helping her make it out east.
The course, Camelot Golf and Country Club, will be new to her, but she’s heard it’s tree-lined and hilly.
“I have some experience of hills and side-hill lies, so I don’t think it will be too bad and my game is pretty well suited for the course,” Anjarwalla said.
She’s been playing some good golf this season, having won the Mid-Island Women’s Amateur on her home course at the Nanaimo Golf Club in June and then placing 11th at the B.C. Women’s Amateur later that month in Kelowna.
“I’m always finding new things to work on with my game,” she said. “I’ll come back from a round and think about what I could do better and I’ll go work on it, but I think my game is really coming around for this particular tournament and I think I’ll be able to get everything together for it.”
The field will be tough. According to a Golf Canada press release, 12 of the juniors in the competition are among Canada’s top-50-ranked women’s amateur golfers.
“I try to think of it as a tournament round, but just another round of golf for me,” Anjarwalla said. “Because when I play best I’m not really thinking so much about my outcome or who I’m playing against. I just try and play with myself and against the course.”
This will be the last tournament of the season for Anjarwalla, and while she wants to improve on her past two national championships and even try to win it all, she primarily wants to go do the best she can and try to have fun.
“As long as I can keep smiling and commit to my shots and stay confident, I think the putts will drop and I’ll be hitting good shots,” she said.
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