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sa¹ú¼Ê´«Ã½â€™s top young players, including Naomi Ko of Victoria, will be after the title at the sa¹ú¼Ê´«Ã½ Women’s Amateur Championship beginning today at the Vernon Golf and Country Club.

A new champion will be crowned in Vernon as Jisoo Keel, who won the event last year at Beach Grove in Tsawwassen, is not in the field to defend her title.

This year’s field features some of sa¹ú¼Ê´«Ã½â€™s top players. All four members of Golf sa¹ú¼Ê´«Ã½â€™s national team — Royal Colwood’s Ko, Grace St-Germain of Ottawa, Jaclyn Lee of Calgary and dual-citizen Maddie Szeryk of Allen, Texas — are in the field.

So are two members of the national developmental team, Chloe Currie of Mississauga, Ont., and Delta’s Mary Parsons, who came second last year at Beach Grove. The 20-year-old Szeryk is sa¹ú¼Ê´«Ã½â€™s top-ranked amateur player and is coming off a record-setting junior year with Texas A&M.

Another top player in the field in Vernon is Kat Kennedy of Okotoks, Alta. Kennedy just completed an impressive collegiate career at the UBC by winning the Canadian University/College Championship.

Ko, named sa¹ú¼Ê´«Ã½ junior athlete of the year across all sports by Sport sa¹ú¼Ê´«Ã½, golfs in the NCAA with the North Carolina State Wolfpack. The Islander was named the 2014 Pacific Northwest Golf Association top junior girl and won the sa¹ú¼Ê´«Ã½ junior girls’ amateur championship. Ko also finished fourth at the sa¹ú¼Ê´«Ã½ women’s amateur championship, fourth in the Canadian junior girls’ amateur championship, second in the AJGA St. Louis, and 13th in the AJGA junior girls’ championship.

Ko finished tied for 40th at the senior level in the 2016 Canadian women’s amateur, third in the CN Future Links Pacific Championship and she won the CN Future Links Ontario Championship.

The top finishers in Vernon advance to the 2017 Canadian Women’s Amateur, set for July 25-28 at Cutten Fields in Guelph, Ont.