Years of experience readies Thomson for championship

Christin Thomson has spent the past two weeks at Kitchen Creek working hard on her golf game in preparation for the Canadian junior girls’ championship Aug. 15-17 in Fredericton, N.B.
Making her third appearance at the championship as a member of the Manitoba team, the 17-year-old has been getting help from local club pro Steve Woods.
“I have met with Steve a few times to try and get my golf swing down really good,” said Thomson. “For a while, I was playing 18 holes every day. I have also been chipping and putting for an hour every day.”
Thomson said about 30 girls aged 16-18 will be competing at the national showdown.
“I am not really nervous. I am sure I will be when I get down there,” she said. “Right now, I am more excited because I have never been to that part of Canada.
“I don’t want to put too much pressure on myself because I know I am prepared,” she added. “If I try my best, that is all that matters.”
Thomson said her goal is to finish in the top 15 or 20.
“I know I am good enough to play with these girls,” she remarked. “The past few years, I haven’t played that good. I usually have one bad day and it kind of ruins the tournament for me.”
But Maureen Thomson noted her daughter is much more prepared for this tournament than she has been in previous years.
“She has worked a lot harder this year–she has worked so hard and I hope it pays off,” she stressed.
And when Thomson returns home from the championship Aug. 18, she will head out to Kitchen Creek the next morning to defend her title in the annual Ladies’ Open.
Although her goals for the championship may not seem too high, Thomson’s ultimate goal is to land a scholarship with a prestigious U.S. university or college.
“These next couple of years will be fairly important because I want to get a good scholarship at a good school,” she stressed. “I have already received some letters from scouts.
“It is funny because I don’t even know they are at the tournaments watching. I will just get a letter in the mail.”
Thomson has a fair share of golfing experience under her belt. She has been golfing recreationally for the past eight years but it wasn’t until four years ago that she began to do so competitively.
“I got started because of my parents,” she explained. “I was into a whole bunch of different sports and I thought I would try it.”
Thomson made the Manitoba junior girls’ team for the first time when she was just 15 years old after three days of qualifying rounds.
“[The Manitoba junior team] was the first major team Chrissy had made but not the first major event she had golfed in,” her mother noted.
Earlier this summer, Thomson headed to Ajax, Ont. to compete in the Eastern Canadian Junior Championship put on by the American Junior Golf Association (AJGA).
She wound up tied for 10th out of 18 after carding rounds of 84, 83, and 83 for a three-day total of 250–34 strokes over par.
“I did okay. It was a really big tournament and very competitive,” she noted. “Aside from me, there were only two other girls from Ontario at that tournament–everyone else was from all over the States.
“To enter that tournament, I had to write a résumé with all of my previous golf tournaments and scores on it,” she added. “There were probably about 50 people who entered the tournament . . . sometimes it is just luck of the draw if you get in.
“That was the most difficult tournament I have played in–the yardage was a lot longer,” she remarked.
Thomson said Woods is getting her to play from the white tee blocks at Kitchen Creek so she is used to the longer yardage at out-of-town tournaments.