Outside of the game itself and the thrill of competition, there are so many other positives to hitting the links and playing a round. Meeting up with old friends; hosting an important client outside of the boardroom; having the chance to get outside and connect with nature – these are just a few of the reasons why golf reaches so many.

While seeing a deer at the edge of a forest or taking a sip by a stream can make you feel at ease and calm your nerves for the putt ahead, nature can sometimes have the opposite effect on your game.

Not everyone will appreciate a prehistoric monster of several hundred pounds on the greens, but the thrill-seekers among us will certainly enjoy the added challenge.

See? Just another example of the game of golf offering something to everyone.

Enjoy the game and whatever nature brings your way!

SAN FRANCISCO – Rory McIlroy arrived at Harding Park on Monday knowing he will be at the Match Play Championship at least through Friday.

So will the rest of the 64-man field.

In a format change to avoid the single elimination that often sent the stars home early, the Cadillac Match Play Championship features 16 groups of four players, with the best record from each group advancing to the weekend.

And there was one other twist – the groups were decided by a lottery.

Golf balls gave way to pingpong balls that were plucked out of a bowl to determine which players went into each of the 16 groups. The balls had numbers corresponding to the seeds (based on the world ranking), with Nos. 1-16 serving as the top guy in each group and the other players broken down into sections of Nos. 17 to 32, Nos. 33 to 48, and Nos. 49 to 64.

Had it been a straight draw, top-seeded Rory McIlroy would have been joined by Graeme McDowell (32), Keegan Bradley (33) and Francesco Molinari (64). With the lottery system, McIlroy got Billy Horschel (18), Brandt Snedeker (35) and Jason Dufner (53).

Masters champion Jordan Spieth, the No. 2 seed, drew Lee Westwood (26), Matt Every (40) and Mikko Ilonen (62).

One thing hasn’t changed. For all the analysis of who had the toughest group, match play remains as unpredictable as ever.

“It’s a tough road to get to Saturday,” Snedeker said.

The other change, of course, is the venue. Harding Park is a tight, tree-lined public course in San Francisco that hosted the 2009 Presidents Cup and a World Golf Championship in 2005. It’s nothing like Dove Mountain in the high desert of Arizona, a wide-open course at altitude that favored power and was toward the bottom of just about every player’s list of favorite courses.

Tiger Woods was the star both times the best in golf came to Harding Park. He beat John Daly in a playoff at the American Express Championship, and he went 5-0 in the Presidents Cup. Woods failed to qualify for the Match Play for the first time since it began in 1999. He now is No. 116 in the world.

Phil Mickelson also was a late scratch for what he described only as “personal reasons.” This marks the fourth straight year that Mickelson has missed the Match Play, where he has reached the quarterfinals only once.

Monday was a light day of practice, and there was a rare pro-am for a WGC event before the tournament begins on Wednesday.

There will be no halved matches during round-robin play. Tiebreakers will be determined by head-to-head matches, and in case of a three-way tie in a group, there will be a sudden-death playoff to see who advances.

The round of 16 on Saturday morning will be followed by the quarterfinals in the afternoon, and then the semifinals and championship match on Sunday.

Most players embraced the change, and it certainly helps with the sponsor and the public. No more than five of the top 10 seeds were around by Friday in the last three years of single elimination.

“Just because you have a bad nine holes doesn’t mean you’re going home until the weekend. That’s a comforting fact,” Snedeker said. “But you still have to play great golf. I think everyone is excited about the fact there’s no way to fake it. The guy playing the best is going to get out of his group.”

No one was happier than Ilonen, who only got into the field when Mickelson withdrew. Ilonen played in the Volvo China Open on Sunday, flew over to San Francisco as the first alternate and was prepared to wait around for two days and fly home to Finland if no one withdrew.

When he landed in San Francisco on Sunday night, he had a text from his wife that he was in the Match Play.

“I said, `How do you know?’ She told me she saw it on a website,” Ilonen said.

He didn’t trust what he heard until he went to a higher authority – Twitter.

Walking through the dining room, he quickly went over to his first-round opponent to greet him. That would be Spieth, and the sole purpose was to congratulate the 21-year-old Texan for his wire-to-wire Masters victory.

There is a different buzz to the new Match Play. San Francisco is a refreshing change from Marana, Arizona, for one thing. And there was less a sense of urgency about the Wednesday matches. Everyone is guaranteed three cracks.

“And then it will start feeling like the old one,” Jimmy Walker said. “But it’s still match play. You’re still trying to beat the other guy. You’ve got to play good.”

ST. ANDREWS, Scotland – The R&A has announced the results of a pace of play survey, with an industry forum to discuss the findings planned for later in the year.

The survey received more than 56,000 responses from golfers in 122 countries between September 2014 and March 2015. It was carried out by The R&A as part of its efforts to investigate the issues affecting golf and the extent to which they impact on participation in the sport.

The survey revealed that while 70% of golfers are largely happy with the duration of their rounds, 60% of golfers expressed the view that they would enjoy golf more if they played in less time.

Importantly, of the 25-44 year-olds who said that they were never happy with pace of play, 21% said that golf would need to take as much as one-and-a-half hours less for them to play more often. Of the 8,468 golfers in this age range who responded, 19% said they would welcome the opportunity to play nine holes more often as an alternative format.

The survey found that the two biggest factors preventing people from playing golf are work commitments (34%) and family commitments (29%) with the time taken to play (16%) ranked third. Other factors mentioned were alternative hobbies (12%), cost of play (7%), difficulty of play (1%) and cost of equipment (1%); although there were some regional variations on these percentages.

The R&A is organizing a forum later this year where it will invite contributions from a range of organizations in golf on addressing pace of play and explore the key areas of player behaviour, management approaches and golf course issues.

Duncan Weir, Executive Director – Working for Golf at The R&A, said, “This survey is the first step for us in examining, in detail, the wide range of issues currently affecting participation in golf. There is plenty of anecdotal evidence available but we conducted the survey to obtain accurate data on how much of an issue pace of play is for golfers and to give us an insight into what they see as the main factors contributing to slow rounds.

“We feel that the next step in this process is to engage with our partners throughout the golf industry to look at these findings and invite them to contribute their views to these important discussions. Our forum later this year will provide the opportunity for these discussions to take place.”

The R&A distributed the survey through its affiliated bodies around the world and it was offered in six languages: Chinese, English, French, German, Japanese and Spanish.

The report is available to download here.

LONDON, Ont. –  Freedom 55 Financial has signed four young Canadian golfers as brand ambassadors, including rising golf stars Albin Choi of Toronto, Matt Hill of Brights Grove, Ont., Taylor Pendrith of Richmond Hill, Ont., and Adam Svensson of Surrey, B.C.

The four will join current Freedom 55 Financial golfer and brand ambassador Mackenzie Hughes on #TeamFreedom, a group of young Canadian athletes striving to reach the pinnacle of their athletic dreams.

 “At Freedom 55 Financial, we’re dedicated to helping Canadians achieve their goals and dreams. It’s an honour to be a part of the journey each one of these young athletes is embarking on as they pursue their dreams,” said Mike Cunneen, Senior Vice-President, Freedom 55 Financial. “#TeamFreedom is about providing a supportive presence as these athletes pursue their aspirations.”

The addition of four professional golfers to #TeamFreedom further solidifies Freedom 55 Financial’s support of and commitment to golf in Canada, from grassroots to professional levels. Freedom 55 Financial supports grassroots development initiatives as sponsor of the Canadian Junior Golf Association’s Clinics for Kids program, for which #TeamFreedom golfers will serve as ambassadors. The company is also the lead sponsor of the TOUR Championship of Canada presented by Freedom 55 Financial in London, Ont., PGA TOUR Canada’s flagship event which sees five players graduate to the Web.com Tour each season.

In 2014, Freedom 55 Financial signed 24-year-old Mackenzie Hughes as its first brand ambassador after he captured PGA TOUR Canada’s order of merit in 2013 in his first year as a professional. A previous Freedom 55 Financial Canadian Player of the Year, Hughes will use this experience as he tees up on PGA TOUR Canada this season.

“The support I have received from the team at Freedom 55 Financial has been tremendous,” said Hughes. “It is great to see that they will be supporting several other Canadian athletes, as we all strive to achieve our dreams, and further establish Canada as a leading sports nation.”

Like Hughes, Choi, Hill, Pendrith and Svensson each have a unique story, defined by successful stepping stones, as they work toward their dream of playing on the PGA TOUR.

Choi recently won PGA TOUR Canada’s Florida Qualifying Tournament, gaining full status on PGA TOUR Canada this season. A winner of two NGA Tour events this past winter, the North Carolina State Alum is looking to carry that momentum forward when the PGA TOUR Canada season kicks off in Vancouver.

One of the highest-regarded amateur players to ever come out of Canada, Hill won eight tournaments in one season as a collegiate athlete, equalling Tiger Woods with the most individual wins in a single season. He is currently competing on the PGA TOUR Latinoamerica and will also play on PGA TOUR Canada this summer.

A Kent State grad, Pendrith was low amateur at the 2014 RBC Canadian Open finishing tied for 43rd. Known for his long-bombing drives, Pendrith will focus his efforts on PGA TOUR Canada in 2015.

After a standout collegiate career at Barry University, including 11 wins in his last 14 event starts and leading his team to two consecutive national championships, Svensson turned professional in March 2015. He recently won his second professional event, capturing his first two starts back-to-back on the SwingThought.com Tour. He will look to carry that winning momentum as he focuses his efforts on the Web.com Tour and PGA TOUR Canada this upcoming summer.

To follow these young professionals on their journey, join the movement by using the hashtag “#TeamFreedom.”

DALY CITY, Calif. – Lydia Ko celebrated another birthday week at Lake Merced with another victory Sunday in the Swinging Skirts LPGA Classic.

Ko won for the second straight year, this time beating Morgan Pressel on the second playoff hole by rolling in a 5-foot birdie putt on the par-5 18th for her seventh career LPGA Tour victory. She turned 18 on Friday.

Ko made two birdies in the three times she played the closing hole at Lake Merced. She made an 8-footer in regulation to close with a 2-under 70.

Pressel had to settle for three pars on the 18th. She missed a 15-footer in regulation for the win, closing with a 72. Her best chance was a 10-foot birdie putt on the first extra hole that grazed the edge of the cup. Pressel badly pulled an 8-foot birdie putt on her third try with Ko in close.

“At the start of the day, I didn’t know how it was going to go,” Ko said. “It’s been a great birthday week again.”

Brooke Henderson, the 17-year-old from Smiths Falls, Ont., holed a bunker shot for eagle on the par-5 14th to stay close to the lead and she had a 25-foot birdie putt on the final hole to join the playoff. It missed on the low side and she had to settle for a 74.

Ko, already the No. 1 player in women’s golf, moved to the top of the LPGA Tour money list with her second tour victory and third worldwide title this year. But it was hard work. She never had the lead until making her winning putt on the 20th hole of the day.

Equally important was a 40-foot birdie putt on the par-3 15th that curled in from the left side right when it looked as if this was Pressel’s tournament to win. Ko missed a 6-foot birdie putt on the 17th for a share of the lead, though she converted on the 18th to finish at 8-under 280.

It was a tough loss for Pressel, whose last victory was in 2008 at the Kapalua LPGA Classic. She had a two-shot lead with four holes to play until making back-to-back bogeys, and then failing to make a birdie on the 18th.

The par-5 closing hole could not be reached in two, so it effectively came down to a wedge and a putt.

“I just couldn’t convert the putts,” Pressel said. “It all comes down to putting. She birdied it twice and I didn’t.”

Ko opened with two straight bogeys and fell as many as four shots behind. She also chopped up the 16th hole with a poor tee shot and an approach that went well long, leading to a bogey. But the Korean-born Kiwi was spared by sloppy play all around her over the final hour on a crisp afternoon.

Henderson, trying to become the third player in history to win on the LPGA Tour before turning 18, was shaky from the start. She hit her opening tee shot to the right behind trees and had to punch out to the fairway, leading to bogey. She came up well short on the par-3 third and made another bogey, and fell out of the lead for the first time since Friday morning.

The Canadian never caught up, though she was never out of it until missing her 25-foot birdie attempt on the 18th.

“It was one of the least nervous putts I had all day,” Henderson said. “I could see it going in in my mind, but it didn’t happen in real life.”

She headed for Texas to try to Monday qualify for the next LPGA event. Finishing in the top 10 only makes a player eligible for the next tournament if she is an LPGA member. Henderson last year was denied a waiver to the LPGA’s minimum age requirement of 18.

Pressel took the lead by making pars, and she started to seize control when she rolled in a 45-foot eagle putt on No. 6 for a two-shot lead. But she missed three short putts on the front nine – two for birdie, one for par – that kept her from getting a little more separation.

The final hour took shape with three big shots. Henderson holed her bunker shot for eagle on the 14th to reach 8 under and get within one shot of the lead. Moments later, Pressel got up-and-down from behind the green to get to 10 under and, in the group ahead of them, Ko made her big birdie putt to reach 8 under.

Pressel dropped shots on the next two holes. Henderson chunked a chip on the 15th and made bogey. Ko went well long on the 16th and missed a 10-foot par putt. Pressel had a one-shot lead going to the last hole and could hear the gallery’s big cheer on the green when Ko made her 8-foot putt to tie her for the lead.

Brooke Henderson (Robert Laberge/ Getty Images)

SARASOTA, Fla. – Rachel Rohanna won the Guardian Retirement Championship on Sunday for her first Symetra Tour title, beating five players by two strokes.

Rohanna finished with a 2-over 74 in windy conditions for a 5-under 211 total at difficult Sara Bay.

The 24-year-old former Ohio State player earned $16,500 to jump from 16th to fourth on the money list with $23,223. The top 10 at the end of the season will earn 2016 LPGA Tour cards.

“I can’t even feel anything right now. It has been an amazing week,” Rohanna said. “I’m so excited and so happy to have my first win down in Sarasota. I’m just happy with the way I played and I am ready to take on the next one.”

Rohanna was asked if she had any special plans for the $16,500?

“I’ve got my eye on a new heifer so I might be getting a new cow soon,” Rohanna said.

Rohanna, from Waynesburg, Pennsylvania, opened with a 71 and had a 66 on Saturday to take a two-stroke lead into the final round.

“When the last putt went in everything drained from my body,” Rohanna said. “I think I’ll be able to take this experience into other tournaments. I remember getting some of my first junior wins and amateur wins and those gave me so much confidence and now to finally say I have a professional win is just awesome.”

Also Sunday, her younger sister, Emily, helped Youngstown State win the Horizon League tournament.

Lee Lopez (70), Lindy Duncan (70), Jean Reynolds (70), Maude-Aimee LeBlanc (71) and Giulia Molinaro (74) tied for second. Lopez took the money lead with $26,698.

SAN FRANCISCO – Phil Mickelson has withdrawn from the Match Play Championship because of personal reasons.

Mickelson did not elaborate in a short statement Sunday released by the PGA Tour. Mickelson says he is happy with the new format and he likes Harding Park as a venue for the 64-man field. He said only that it was unfortunate he would not be able to play this year.

Mickelson was replaced by Mikko Ilonen of Finland.

Mickelson has not played since his runner-up finish at the Masters. He has skipped the Match Play in recent years when it was at Dove Mountain in Arizona, and when the Match Play was a single-elimination format. It now will be round robin with 16 four-man groups, meaning each player is guaranteed at least three matches.

AVONDALE, La. – Whatever derailed Justin Rose’s game appears long gone now.

Sensing he needed to birdie the final two holes to keep the lead, Rose pulled it off with aggressive swings and clutch putts for a one-stroke victory over Cameron Tringale on Sunday in the Zurich Classic.

“Earlier this year it looked impossible to win,” Rose said, referring to his three missed cuts and failure to finish better than 37th in his first five starts of 2015. “I’m very happy to have turned my game around.”

Rose completed a 7-under 65 in the rain-delayed third round Sunday morning and closed with a 66 at TPC Louisiana for his seventh PGA Tour title. He finished at 22-under 266, a record total on the course southwest of New Orleans that has hosted the city’s PGA Tour stop 10 times since 2005.

The Englishman has won at least once in six straight seasons, the second-longest streak on the tour behind Dustin Johnson’s eight straight. He’s projected to jump from ninth to sixth in the world ranking.

Rose said his drastic improvement two weeks earlier at the Masters, where he tied for second, helped him in the Big Easy.

“I took my Masters performance with a huge amount of confidence,” Rose said, recalling in particular the sense of calm he was able to maintain down the stretch at Augusta National.

Playing aggressively on the soggy TPC Louisiana, Rose made six birdies in the final round and played the last 66 holes without a bogey.

Rose’s final two putts from 10 and 13 1/2 feet allowed him to hold off Tringale, who birdied the 18th for a 65.

“I’m pleased,” said Tringale, who was looking to become the eighth first-time winner in the last 11 years in New Orleans. “To finish one back is still a pretty good week.”

Boo Weekley, who led after the first round, finished third at 20 under, and Jim Herman and Jason Day, ranked sixth in the world, tied for fourth at 19 under.

Canada’s David Hearn finished at 18 under for a share of 6th with Daniel Berger.

When Rose sank his final putt, he punched his right hand high above his head and looked straight behind the green at roaring fans in the suite of one of his main sponsors, Zurich, which also sponsors the tournament.

He then took off his white cap whipped it across his body and later flexed his left arm to bring attention to the sponsor’s logo on his sleeve.

He had to wait about a half-hour before his closest pursuers completed their rounds, but allowed himself to soak up adulation from fans before the result was official.

“I obviously walked off the golf course feeling like I’d done enough,” Rose said. “The reception when I came off the golf course was I’d done enough. So it’s hard not to enjoy it.”

Rose began the final round tied with Day for the lead at 16 under. But Day, who had to finish most of his third round Sunday morning, hooked his drive into trees lining the left boundary of the second fairway. On the next swing, his ball smacked a tree and bounced right back to him.

He wound up with a bogey on the par-5 hole that he birdied in first and third rounds. On 13, he left a 70-yard approach shot short of the green. He said hot, steamy conditions wore him down over the course of 32 holes.

“The early days and the hot days, and just the long days in general kind of finally caught up to me,” Day said. “I played great all week, but this final round just had a lot of mental errors.”

Rose made birdie putts beyond 10 feet on the par-5 seventh and par-4 eighth to improve to 19 under. That was good for the lead until Tringale, several holes behind, birdied the sixth, chipped in for eagle on the seventh and birdied the eighth to reach 20 under.

The course, carved out of a cypress swamp, was soggy from rain that had fallen for much of the past month, including heavy downpours that delayed parts of the second and third rounds.

There was standing water on the edges of some fairways and mud in well-worn spots. As players walked the course, their steps produced a sound similar to water being squeezed from a sponge.

Allowed to lift, clean and place their golf balls in the fairways and with no roll of any significance to be found, players swung aggressively and aimed approach shots pin-high.

With the top of the leaderboard tightly packed as Rose stepped to the par-3 17th, he showed no interest in playing it safe, even though the pin was placed to the left side of the green, near a bulkhead dropping down into a water hazard from which alligators looked on. Rose took out his 5-iron and belted a 210-yarder straight toward the pin, landing about 10 feet behind the hole, setting up his clutch birdie putt.

“It would have been easy to hit it 20, 30 feet right of that pin, but I kind of knew that – because I was three or four holes ahead of some of the other guys in contention – I knew they had birdie opportunities.”

On the par-5 18th, with water to the right, Rose unloaded a 295-yard drive down the middle, then smacked a 3-wood 243 yards just left of the green and chipped over a sand trap to set up what would be his winning putt.

RIDGEDALE, Mo. – Joe Durant had a hole-in-one and teamed with Billy Andrade to win the Champions Tour’s Bass Pro Shops Legends of Golf on Sunday at Big Cedar Lodge.

Andrade and Durant closed with a 9-under 45 at the par-3 Top of the Rock course, playing nine holes of modified alternate shot and nine of better ball. Durant aced the third hole on the second nine, using a 7-iron on the 167-yard hole.

“You don’t know when those are coming,” Durant said. “I just hit a good solid shot. I was just trying to hit it right of the flag … and it just happened to go in the hole. You’ve still got to keep going. You’ve got to regroup after something like that. We stepped up the last five holes and did what we needed to do. I couldn’t have a better partner. I was so excited to win with my buddy. It feels really good.”

Durant and Andrade finished at 19-under 159 in the 54-hole event, opening Thursday with a better-ball 63 on Buffalo Ridge’s regulation Springs course and shooting a 51 on Saturday in high wind on the par-3 course. They each earned $230,000 for their first victories on the 50-and-older tour.

“It was an unbelievable week,” Andrade said. “We ham and egged it very, very nicely and Joe hit some beautiful shots today. The hole-in-one was fantastic. I can’t be more excited to be in a situation to win out here because this is what we want to do. This is our goal, to try to get in the winner’s circle, and to do it like this and do it with Joe has been such a treat for me.”

Sandy Lyle and Ian Woosnam tied for second, three strokes back after a 51. The former Masters champions took a two-stroke lead into the final round.

Moments after Durant’s ace, Mike Reid had a hole-in-one on the eighth hole. He used a 4-iron on the 194-yard hole. Reid and Dan Forsman tied for 10th at 13 under.

Larry Nelson and Larry Fleisher won the Legends Division for players 65 and older, beating Jack Nicklaus and Gary Player by two strokes.

Nelson and Fleisher birdied the final hole for a 1-under 26 for nine holes of better ball on the par-3 course. They finished at 12 under in the 45-hole event.

“We played really well,” Nelson said. “Yesterday was just a miserable day to play golf. I mean, it was windy, gusting. Sometimes I couldn’t stand up hardly. It was amazing how hard the wind blew and for us to hold it together there. And today was just kind of a fun walk around nine holes and not trying to hurt ourselves.”

Nicklaus and Player had two birdies in a bogey-free 25.

“It was a very exciting week, a very different format,” Player said. “I think golf needs more of this.”

NIAGARA FALLS, Ont. — While the golfers needed to brave chilly conditions and tackle challenging winds, the Golf Association of Ontario’s (GAO) inaugural Team Ontario Cup turned out to be a great success. The event, held April 24-26 at the Grand Niagara Golf Club in Thorold, concluded with both the boys’ and girls’ Team Ontario 1 teams capturing the trophies.

The GAO’s Team Ontario along with five Regional teams (Ottawa, York, Waterloo, Niagara and Essex-Kent) all took part in the two-round, team-format event. Team Ontario entered two teams on both the boys’ and girls’ side, while the Regional teams entered two teams of four boys and one team of four girls with the low three scores for each of the two rounds counting towards the team’s total gross score.

The eventual winners, Team Ontario 1 were comprised of Unionville’s Max Sear, Thornhill’s Jason Chung and London’s Jackson Bowery. As for the girls, Team Ontario 1 was made up of Richmond Hill’s Monet Chun, Ruthven’s Alyssa Getty and Ridgeway’s Madeline Marck-Sherk.

In addition to the team championship, the event also recognized the low individuals in three categories: Overall, Juvenile and Bantam. On the boys’ side, the Overall Champion was Sear. The 17-year-old came out blazing during the opening round firing a -10 (62). He finished his second round +2 (74) but still captured the title by seven shots. The Juvenile boys’ division was shared by Chung and Team Ottawa member and Long Sault resident Ty Celone. Both golfers posted similar scores with opening rounds at even-par (72) and -1 (71) second rounds. Taking the Bantam division was Team York member and Whitby resident Brendan Dunphy. Dunphy finished the tournament +9 after rounds of 75 and 78.

After round one, the talk on the girls’ side was on Chloe Currie, as the Port Credit native finished with a -3 (69) and held the lead. Her performance also helped Team Ontario 2 hold the team lead heading into the final round. However, a 79 during round two opened the door for Chun to not only capture individual honours, but help propel her team to the title. Chun, who finished the opening round at +1 (73), had an even-par (72) during round two to capture the Overall, Juvenile and Bantam championships.

Most Valuable Contributor

In addition to the on course championship, the event also featured a banquet for the teams on Saturday night, at the Legends on the Niagara Golf Club, where each team presented their Most Valuable Contributor (MVC) award.

The MVC award goes to the person on the team that best exemplifies: leadership, integrity, sportsmanship, team spirit and work ethic. Winning the awards for their squads were: Sear (Team Ontario), Sharon’s Kevin Doran (Team York), Tecumseh’s Adam Nunes (Team Essex-Kent), Almonte’s James Parsons (Team Ottawa), Brantford’s Michael Rizzo (Team Waterloo) and St. Catharines’ Taylor Simoneau (Team Niagara).

Ontario-Quebec Matches

Based on the results from the event, the Ontario team for the 2015 Ontario-Quebec Matches, July 27-29 at Smugglers Glen Golf Club in Gananoque, was also announced. The team is made up of the top two juvenile boys and girls and the top four bantam boys and girls from Regional teams. Team Waterloo coach Mike Martz will coach the 2015 team. The roster includes: Celone, Mississauga’s Lachlan O’Hara (Team York), Dunphy, Windsor’s Shawn Sehra (Team Essex-Kent), Toronto’s Dee Xie (Team York), Waterloo’s Dylan Henderson (Team Waterloo), Toronto’s Cynthia Zhao (Team York), Niagara Falls’ Sukriti Harjai (Team Niagara), Windsor’s Jasmine Ly (Team Essex-Kent), Strathroy’s Haley Barclay (Team Waterloo), Richmond Hill’s Emily Zhu (Team York) and Markham’s Hailey McLaughlin (Team York).