Jeevan Sihota of Victoria and Gavyn Knight of Parksville are in the mix as Golf sa国际传媒 has stated a goal of reaching a combined 30 Canadians on the PGA and LPGA Tours by 2032, up from the current 13.
Professional player Sihota, out of Gorge Vale, was named to Team sa国际传媒, which features young pros and NCAA Division 1 players. Knight, out of Morningstar, was named to the GenNext Under-21 national team. A total of 57 golfers were named Wednesday to the revamped national team program for 2023.
“Thanks to the Golf sa国际传媒 Foundation as well as our generous donors and partners, the enhanced Team sa国际传媒 program structure is well positioned to support more of this country’s top athletes towards our goal of getting 30 Canadians to the major tours over the next decade,” Golf sa国际传媒 chief sport officer Kevin Blue said in a statement.
“The performance of Canadian golfers on the world stage has improved significantly since the implementation of the Team sa国际传媒 player development program in 2005. sa国际传媒 is currently represented by 13 players with status on the LPGA or PGA Tour, a substantial increase from the eight players with major tour status when the national team program was launched.”
Professionals from sa国际传媒 joining Sihota, 18, on Team sa国际传媒 for 2023 are Chris Crisologo, Arizona State Sun Devils graduate Jared du Toit of Kimberley, Purdue Boilermakers graduate Stuart Macdonald of Vancouver, University of Washington Huskies graduate Henry Lee of Coquitlam and current Barry University collegian A.J. Ewart of Coquitlam.
Sihota surprised many last year by spurning NCAA Division 1 offers to turn pro immediately after high school.
sa国际传媒 players selected for the women’s Team sa国际传媒 are Angela Arora of Surrey and the University of Tennessee Volunteers, Lauren Kim of Surrey and the University of Texas Longhorns, Leah John of Vancouver from the University of Nevada and 16-year-old prodigy Michelle Liu of Vancouver.
Knight is a freshman playing for Boise State. He is joined on the Canadian U-21 NextGen boys’ team by sa国际传媒 players Cooper Humphreys of Vernon, committed next fall to the Oregon State Beavers, and 14-year-old Alex Zhang of Richmond. Knight bested runner-up Humphreys by five strokes to win the 2021 sa国际传媒 boys’ junior championship. The rising Islander also placed third last year in the sa国际传媒 men’s amateur as a 17-year-old against golfers many years older and tied for second this year in the 2022 Canadian junior championship.
The NextGen girls’ team includes sa国际传媒 players Luna Lu, 15, and 16-year-olds Martina Yu, Vanessa Zhang and Yeji Kwon, all from the Lower Mainland.
“Increasing the number of total LPGA and PGA TOUR players will deepen the pool of Canadian world-class players who are able to contend for major championships and Olympic medals,” said a Golf sa国际传媒 report, Accelerating the Future of Canadian Golf.
The report noted sa国际传媒 is tied for 10th with France, Germany and Ireland/Northern Ireland with six golfers each in the combined men’s and women’s world top 200. The U.S. leads with 125 followed by South Korea with 70, Japan with 46, England with 22, Australia with 18, South Africa with 17, Thailand and Sweden with nine each and Spain with eight.
The report said the goal is to develop a national system that “will yield 20 world top 200 players who come from sa国际传媒. This means that there would be approximately 30 players from sa国际传媒 who have status on the LPGA or PGA tours.”
