Jaclyn Lee has been a member of Golf Canada’s National Team Program for the last eight years dating back to 2014 and is currently in her third season as part of the Young Pro Program.  The 23-year-old is happy that her wrist injury is a thing of the past and is now focused on doing what she loves most – competing on the golf course. 

Having first started out at the age of 10, Lee says she’s always really enjoyed the competition associated with the sport.

“My dad took my older sister, Carolyn, and I golfing in the summer time when I was 10 and that’s when I picked it up. Actually, I wasn’t a huge fan at first because I really didn’t know what I was practising for.  But we started competing in tournaments a year later, and that’s when I fell in love with the game,” she recalled.

The 23-year-old says her parents Stephen and Maria Lee were always very supportive of her and her older sister’s interest in the sport. Lee recalls their sibling rivalry would often be played out on the golf course.

“I remember in one of the first tournaments we played in together my sister beat me by a few strokes and I was shocked. I remember thinking ‘I should’ve beaten her,'” Lee recounted.

“I remember saying to my parents ‘How did Carolyn beat me? I’m better than her.’ And they were like ‘This is what happens when we give you mulligans all the time,'” she added with a laugh.

Fast forward a few years and Lee was not only beating her old sister on a regular basis, but also most of the top girls in her age group. In 2012, she won the Future Links Western Championship. In 2013, she won the Future Links Prairie Championship and the Alberta Junior Girls Championship.  Then in 2014, Lee captured the Future Links Prairie Championship, the Alberta Junior Girls Championship, and the Alberta Ladies Amateur. 

For young Jaclyn enjoying that level of success on the golf course required that she make certain sacrifices off the golf course.

“School was very important for me so I would always prioritized school and golf. You grow up pretty quick when you are trying to managed your time like that,” she pointed out.

Lee’s dedication would pay off as it earned her a spot on Golf Canada’s Junior Squad.

“I remember that I was playing at a tournament at Cherry Downs and Tristan (Mullally) came up to introduce himself, and told me that I was on track to make the national team,” she recalled about her first meeting the Canadian national women’s head coach.

“I also remember being shocked and being really excited because of the meeting. Then, I got the call later that year that I made the team and it was pure joy and pure excitement.”

Lee says she has developed a lot from her time on the National Team Program.

“My game has improved a lot and I’ve grown as a person.  Tristan knows so much about the game and I trust him.  He’s really good with everything in life and he’s taught me so much about putting, chipping and how to improve my short game,” she noted.  

Keeping on the topic of her game, the long time national team member was asked how she would best describe it.

“I would like to improve my short game; it was a lot worse before I met Tristan, but we’ve come a long way,” she added.

Besides access to the world class coaching and resources available through the National Team Program, Lee is also grateful to have gained a strong mentor along the way in Alena Sharp.

“Alena is someone I got to know in my later junior and amateur days and she’s really taken me under her wing and has been there for me. I have a lot of respect for her,” Lee said.

The talented young Canadian golfer adds that her time at Ohio State University has also played an important part in her development.

“I wanted to go a program that had good athletics but also had good academics. Ohio State had a really good balance. And, I really loved the new indoor facility they built at the campus.” 

Lee’s notable highlights at OSU includes a win at the 2018 Westbrook Invitational and the 2018 Big Ten Championship. The Canadian amateur standout also made it to the quarter-finals of the 2018 US Women’s Amateur and to the semi-finals of the 2018 Ladies British Amateur Open Championship.

“There were so many great memories on the golf course during my time at Ohio State. I learned a lot from all the coaches there, especially head coach, Therese Hession. It was amazing to work with coach Hession. She’s always so excited about the game and we had such a cool vibe working together.”

Off the golf course Lee enjoyed taking in the cool vibes at the Ohio State University football games.

“It was always such an electric crowd and atmosphere in those football games,” she said.

In November of 2018, Lee finished sixth at LPGA Q-School to secure her LPGA Tour card for the 2019 season and made the decision to forgo her last semester of eligibility with the Ohio State women’s golf team.

However, a serious wrist injury combined with the COVID-19 pandemic would force her to miss significant parts of the 2019 and the 2020 seasons. On her road to recovery, Lee spent much of her off season in Arizona working on her game.

With plenty of time to rest and recover, she is back at 100 per cent and eager to play a full season of competitive golf – regardless if that’s on the LPGA Tour or on the Symetra Tour or a combination of both.

Looking ahead at her long term goals, the talented young Canadian has big ambitions on the golf course.

“I would love to be able to win out on the LPGA Tour, maybe win a major. As well, I’d love to compete in the Olympics,” she said.  

And looking at the bigger picture, I would love to be able to inspire young kids to play the game and do my part to help grow the game.” 

Having missed large portions of the 2019 and 2020 seasons, she’s grateful to be healthy again and is focused on playing a full season in 2021.

“Between me getting injured and COVID, it’s been a while since I’ve had a chance to really compete regularly, so it’s a great feeling to get back out there again,” she said. 

“I just want to get back to competing regularly and playing the kind of golf that I know I can play.”

PONTE VEDRA BEACH, Fla. _ Justin Thomas found the right time for a near-perfect performance to put a rough start to the year behind him, rallying from three shots behind with bold play to close with a 4-under 68 and win The Players Championship on Sunday.

Thomas becomes only the fourth player to win a major, The Players Championship, the FedEx Cup and a World Golf Championship, and it couldn’t have come at a better time.

He called it as good as he has ever played tee-to-green, and he needed it to outlast Lee Westwood, a hard-luck runner-up for the second straight week. Westwood birdied the final hole for a 72 to finish one shot behind.

Corey Conners of Listowel, Ont., was among four golfers who shot a 6-under 66 in the final round, the lowest single-round score of the day. Conners finished the tournament in seventh place at 10-under 278.

Abbotsford, B.C. natives Adam Hadwin and Nick Taylor both finished within the top-50. Hadwin finished in a tie for 29th place at 4-under par. Taylor finished in a tie for 48th place at 1-under par.

Thomas began the year with a barely audible anti-gay slur under his breath after missing a short putt. That led to one corporate sponsor dropping him and another giving him a public reprimand. The one time he had a chance to win, he learned his grandfather died before the final round of the Phoenix Open.

He was shaken until Sunday at the TPC Sawgrass, where he took on every shot and delivered a gem.

Thomas went birdie-birdie-eagle-birdie around the turn, and put away Westwood for good with a pair of lag putts from 50 feet _ one for birdie on the par-5 16th to take the lead, another on the island-green 17th for a par.

Thomas still had one more shot before he was in the clear. He took on the water framing the left side of the 18th fairway, the ball moving right-to-left and bouncing straight off the crown of the first cut, safely in the fairway.

His approach landed on the fringe _ the first green he missed all day _ leaving a simple two-putt for par and the 14th victory of his PGA Tour career. He returns to No. 2 in the world.

“I fought so hard today,” Thomas said. “It’s probably one of the best rounds of my life tee-to-green. I’ve seen some crazy stuff happen on TV in the past, and I’m glad to be on this side of it.”

All the crazy stuff came early.

Bryson DeChambeau, coming off a win last week at Bay Hill, topped an iron off the tee on the par-4 fourth hole that went only about 140 yards until it plunked into the water. From 237 yards on a forward tee to a green protected by water, he hit a slice with a 5-iron some 40 yards right of the green.

“Dude! I don’t know what happened!” he said to his caddie. “I’ve never done that before.”

DeChambeau made double bogey and was scratching the rest of the way to stay in the game. He still had a chance with an eagle on the 16th hole to get within two, but when Thomas made par on the 17th, his chances were about over. DeChambeau shot 71 and tied for third with Brian Harman, who had a 69 and played the final 12 holes without a bogey.

The 47-year-old Westwood hit his tee shot into the water on the fourth hole and had to make an 8-footer to save bogey. He hit his approach out of the pine straw that clipped two branches and found water on the par-5 second hole to make bogey.

He was never far away from the lead, and Westwood regained a share of the lead with an 8-foot birdie putt on the 14th.

His chances began to slip away with his second shot into the par-5 16th. It hit a big oak and dropped into the sand, and his third shot found a bunker in front of the green. Instead of matching birdies with Thomas, who was in the group ahead, Westwood had to scramble for par to stay one behind.

And on the 17th, his long birdie attempt rolled 7 feet by the hole. He faced another crucial par putt, and he finally missed.

Thomas was outside the cut line after nine holes on Friday. He followed that with a 64 on Saturday to get in the mix, and he finished off in style to pick up $2.7 million with a win against the strongest and deepest field in golf.

It wrapped up a year in which the PGA Tour shut down after one round of The Players a year ago. Thomas was among those serving on the Player Advisory Council that was a part in getting golf back from the COVID-19 pandemic.

He looked at the gold trophy with Commissioner Jay Monahan to soak in how far golf had come in a year. For Thomas, he came a long way in three months.

PONTE VEDRA BEACH, Fla. _ Lee Westwood isn’t interested in comparing himself with the player who rose to No. 1 in the world a decade ago. All he knows is he’s playing some of his best golf, and he gets another chance to see if it can hold up against the best field.

Westwood had all the shots Friday in a bogey-free round at The Players Championship, with two birdies at the start and a nifty pitch to a troublesome pin on the par-5 ninth to close with a another birdie and a 6-under 66.

That gave him a one-shot lead over Matt Fitzpatrick (68) going into the weekend on the Stadium Course at the TPC Sawgrass, with U.S. Open champion Bryson DeChambeau not too far behind.

Westwood, who turns 48 next month, played well enough to win the Arnold Palmer Invitational last week at Bay Hill except that DeChambeau was one shot better in a fascinating duel of generations on a course that favours power.

Sawgrass favours no particular style, and it produced an eclectic mix of contenders at the halfway point.

“I think to compete in any of these tournaments against the best players in the world, you can’t have any weaknesses in your game,” Westwood said. “I wouldn’t be able to say I’m doing this better or that better. There’s not a shot out there I’m afraid of. There’s not a shot out there I’ll walk up to and think, `I haven’t got this one.’

“I’m comfortable out there with everything.”

He was at 9-under 135 and will be part of the All-England final pairing Saturday.

Sergio Garcia was another shot back after a 72 that looked like it was a lot worse with so many putts the Spaniard missed, including a 23-inch par putt on the 15th hole that followed a 5-foot par putt he missed on the 14th.

Still, the 2008 champion showed plenty of game _ and enough par putts that went in _ to stay in the hunt. He drilled his approach to inches away on the par-5 11th for his third eagle of the week, which a already ties the tournament record.

And he finished in style with an approach that danced around the flag and settled 5 feet away for birdie on the 18th.

“It was a beautiful roller coaster,” Garcia said. “There were a lot of good things. Unfortunately, a lot of bad things. But more than anything there was a lot of fighting, and that’s one of the things that I’m most proud of because when things are not really happening and you miss a couple putts here and there, it’s easy to kind of let the round get away from you.”

When the second round was suspended by darkness, 16 players were within five shots of the lead.

DeChambeau was in the group three shots behind after a 69 that began with a double bogey from the trees and a muffed chip out of the rough from behind the green. He was bogey-free the rest of the way on a course that doesn’t let him swing for the fences because of water and cross bunkers and other brands of trouble.

“I’m happy with the fact that I’ve still been able to keep myself in it and score well,” DeChambeau said. “I’ve been pretty lucky, for the most part. I don’t think that’ll happen this weekend. I’ve got to make sure that my game is good off the tee, so I don’t have those issues occurring and I don’t have to rely on luck for the most part. I have to get it in the fairway.”

Kirk holed out from the first fairway for eagle and closed with back-to-back birdies for a 65. Starting with a chip-in for birdie on the 15th, he played six straight holes in 6 under.

Sungjae Im tied the tournament record with six straight birdies, a streak that ended when he missed the green to the left on the par-3 third, and even then he nearly chipped in. He had to settle for a 66 and was three shots behind.

Dustin Johnson wasted a good start and shot 70, leaving him eight shots behind. Jordan Spieth made his first double bogey in 411 holes _ the longest streak of his career _ and shot 74 to make the cut on the number.

Corey Conners of Listowel, Ont., is the top Canadian, firing a 72 to stay at 4 under after opening with a 68.

Adam Hadwin of Abbotsford, B.C., (69) is 1 under, fellow Abbotsford native Nick Taylor (74) is even, while Mackenzie Hughes of Dundas, Ont., (72) is 3 over and expected to miss the weekend cut.

The weekend is as much about who’s missing.

Rory McIlroy, who opened with a 79, wasn’t much better Friday. He made another double bogey on the 10th hole and shot 75. His 36-hole total of 154 was his highest ever in his 11 appearance at The Players Championship. He is the first defending champion to miss the cut since Rickie Fowler in 2016.

Four players from the top 10 in the world missed the cut _ Xander Schauffele, Patrick Cantlay, Tyrrell Hatton and Webb Simpson, whose hopes ended with one of 13 balls in the water at the island-green 17th.

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PONTE VEDRA BEACH, Fla. – Canada’s Corey Conners is tied for second after the morning wave of the first round of the Players Championship.

Conners, from Listowel, Ont., shot a 4-under 68 today. He’s tied with England’s Matthew Fitzpatrick, three shots back of leader Sergio Garcia of Spain.

Conners holed out for eagle from 154 yards out on the par-4 14th (he started on No. 9) before making a 22-foot birdie putt on No. 15 to get to 3 under.

The Canadian’s lone bogey came at No. 1, with birdies following at Nos. 2 and 7.

Conners is coming off a third-place finish last week at the Arnold Palmer Invitational.

“I took a lot of positives from last week,” he said. “I had a solid week, was playing well all four days and just tried to keep the same mindset, keep the same sort of game plan that I had last week and just picking my spots to be aggressive. Just playing with a lot of confidence.”

Nick Taylor of Abbotsford, B.C., shot a 2 under today.

Adam Hadwin of Abbotsford and Mackenzie Hughes of Dundas, Ont., had afternoon tee times.

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ORLANDO, Fla. – The long ball helped Bryson DeChambeau outlast Lee Westwood on Sunday in the Arnold Palmer Invitational, only the key shots were as much with his putter as his driver.

DeChambeau holed a 40-foot birdie putt on the front nine and a 50-foot par putt early on the back nine. He closed it out with a nervy 5-foot par putt for a 1-under 71 and a one-shot victory over the 47-year-old Westwood.

It matched the low score of the day, one of only three rounds under par in the toughest final round at Bay Hill in 41 years.

DeChambeau and Westwood were never separated by more than one shot over the final 15 holes, a fascinating duel of generations that came down to the last shot.

DeChambeau took a one-shot lead to the par-4 18th and hit his most important drive of the day – in the fairway. Westwood’s tee shot settled in a divot, and he did well to get it on the green and two-putt from 65 feet. DeChambeau’s birdie putt slid by some 5 feet and he shook his arms in celebration when the par putt dropped.

Westwood closed with a 73, not a bad score considering the average of 75.49 was the highest for a final round since 1980.

Corey Conners was third at 8 under after a 74.

DeChambeau said he received a text Sunday morning from Tiger Woods, who is recovering from serious leg injuries from his car crash in Los Angeles. He said Woods, an eight-time Bay Hill winner, told him to “keep fighting.” He also considered the words from Arnold Palmer to “play boldly.”

DeChambeau rose to No. 6 in the world with his ninth PGA Tour victory, and he became the first player this season with multiple victories, to go along with his U.S. Open title in September. It matched the longest it took for a multiple winner on the PGA Tour since 1969. Nick Price won his second title in the 21st week of the season in 1994.

ORLANDO, Fla. – Lee Westwood made a pair of 30-foot putts over the final three holes Saturday, one for eagle and the other a closing birdie, for a 7-under 65 that gave England’s ageless wonder a one-shot lead in the Arnold Palmer Invitational.

Westwood turns 48 next month and is feeling younger by the years, coming off a third European Tour title and still easily among the top 50 in the world.

Now he goes up against U.S. Open champion Bryson DeChambeau, whose 68 included a birdie on the par-5 sixth hole in which he cut off so much of the water he had only 70 yards for his second shot on the 531-yard hole.

Corey Conners of Canada, who started with a one-shot lead, could only manage a 71 on a cool, breezy day at Bay Hill with only a few drops of rain. He also was one shot behind.

“It’s nice to still be playing in these tournaments,” Westwood said. “You’ve got to be top 50 in the world and if you would have said to me 20 years ago will you still be top 50 in the world at 48 I might have been slightly skeptical. And it just shows that I’m still capable of playing well in these tournaments with all the good young players around me and obviously contending, because that’s what I’m doing this week.”

Sunday was shaping up as another thriller at Bay Hill.

Jordan Spieth opened with a birdie and a hole-in-one, took the lead by holing a bunker shot on the par-3 seventh, saved par after a tee shot into the water and shot 68 with the kind of round he’d rather do without. Spieth prefers boring golf, and this was anything but that.

He was two shots behind, along with former PGA champion Keegan Bradley, who had the low score of the week at 64.

Spieth didn’t have the only ace. Jazz Janewattananond made on on the 14th hole that thrust him into the ix with a 69, leaving him four shots behind in a group that included Rory McIlroy, who bogeyed the last for a 72. Despite such a pedestrian round, McIlroy was very much in contention.

They will be chasing Westwood, who first played the Arnold Palmer Invitational in 1998. He was at 11-under 205.

Westwood posted his lowest score ever at Bay Hill and made only six pars. He had eight birdies and the eagle on the 16th hole, along with a pair of three-putt bogeys.

Westwood has five victories since turning 40, including last year in Abu Dhabi, among the strongest fields on the European Tour. He rallied to win the Race to Dubai late last year, his third time finishing the year as Europe’s No. 1.

So this didn’t surprise him, especially on a course that fits his eye, even though he has only one finish in the top 10.

“I haven’t lost any of my length and I haven’t lost any of my enthusiasm to go and work and work in the gym,” Westwood said. “My nerves are still intact, I still get into contention and enjoy it rather than kind of back off.”

Spieth is getting used to being in contention, too. He had chances in Phoenix and Pebble Beach, and he was in the peripheral of contention at Riviera.

Starting four shots behind, he made up ground quickly with an 18-foot birdie on the first hole and then hit a 5-iron that rolled up the right side of the green, turned toward the cup and dropped for an ace.

“That was obviously a really cool moment,” Spieth said.

He will play Sunday with Tommy Fleetwood, who had a 68 and was three behind. Spieth had to play as a single most of Saturday when Justin Rose, who made a 9 on the third hole, withdrew soon thereafter citing back spasms.

DeChambeau got one of the loudest cheers of the day by hitting into the rough. The biggest gallery lingered behind the sixth tee to see if he would go for the green. He aimed well to the right, but it still was a thrill to them to see DeChambeau grab driver and blast away.

The fans packed behind the ropes on the other side of the water let out a huge cheer when his ball descended and tumbled into the rough, 70 yards from the pin.

“Oh, man, I felt like a kid again, for sure,” DeChambeau said. “It was exciting, especially when you pull it off. It was almost like winning a tournament. It’s kind of the feeling I had. It was like, `Oh, I did it.’ I got the same chills and feeling when I saw it clear and there was no splash. I gave the fans what they wanted.”

The tournament isn’t decided until Sunday, and with hardly any rain, the greens are unlikely to lose their speed and firmness. McIlroy likes his position. Westwood likes his even more.

ORLANDO, Fla. – Canadian Corey Conners spent more time grinding out pars than chasing birdies, and that proved to be the right recipe Friday at the Arnold Palmer Invitational as Bay Hill began to bake under a warm sun.

The 29-year-old Conners, from Listowel, Ont., surged into the lead with a 25-foot eagle putt on the par-5 16th hole – his second eagle on that hole in two days – for a 3-under 69 and a one-shot advantage over former Bay Hill winner Martin Laird (67).

Rory McIlroy was poised to at least join Conners in the afternoon until he hit a couple of loose drives that cost him one shot when he could only pitch back to the fairway, leading to bogeys. He closed with five straight pars for a 71 that he figures could have been worse.

“It could have been the round that I could have shot 74 or 75. I got in with 71 and pretty happy with that,” McIlroy said.

He was two shots behind, along with Viktor Hovland and Lanto Griffin, who each had a 68.

Jordan Spieth remained in the mix going into the weekend, which is becoming a regularity in the last month as he tries to end more than three years without winning. Spieth hit a superb flop shot over the bunker to a fast green that rolled out to a foot to escape with par and a 69.

Conners was at 9-under 135, and now everyone braces for the weather.

The forecast featured plenty of rain Saturday, which figures to make Bay Hill play longer and tougher, while also keeping the greens from getting as crusty as they were last year when Tyrrell Hatton won with a closing 74.

“We’ll just see what happens and be ready for anything,” Conners said.

Hatton at least gets a chance on the weekend. He opened with a 77 and was 10 shots better Friday, a 67 that allowed him to make the cut was one shot to spare.

Also making the cut were both Ryder Cup captains – Padraig Harrington of Ireland with a 74 to be nine shots behind, Steve Stricker with a 71 that left him one shot better.

Conners, whose lone PGA Tour victory came two years ago at the Texas Open, saved par seven times during his round, the exception coming at the par-3 second hole when he came up short of the green, some 80 feet away, and wound up missing his par putt from 10 feet.

Otherwise, the Canadian has been solid. This is only the second time he has held the lead going into the weekend, the other occasion at the Valspar Championship in 2018 when his bid to go wire-to-wire ended with a 77 in the final round.

“I haven’t really been in this position a lot, but I have a lot of confidence in my game and feeling really relaxed the last few days, so try and keep that going,” Conners said. “I feel like I have a lot of energy. I had an off week last week and really excited for the weekend.”

Laird has recent success winning on a familiar course. In the fall, he ended seven years without a victory by winning in Las Vegas, scene of his first PGA Tour victory in 2009. He won at Bay Hill in 2011 on a final round so tough a 75 was enough to get the job done.

Now there are plenty of others in the mix.

U.S. Open champion Bryson DeChambeau overcame consecutive bogeys at the end of his front nine and hot 71. He was three shots behind. Another shot back were Spieth, Justin Rose (68), Sunjae Im (70) and Paul Casey (69).

Hatton wasn’t the only player who saw a big improvement. Jazz Janewattananond of Thailand had the low round of the tournament with a 65, which was 10 shots better than his first round.

And then there was Robert Gamez, still exempt from winning in 1990 – three years before Spieth was born – by holing out with a 7-iron on the 18th hole. The 52-year-old Gamez shot a 92 and was disqualified for not signing his card.

Jason Day looked to be in much better shape than seven shots behind. He played in the morning, had a pair of birdies and came to the 16th, the easiest at Bay Hill. He lost his tee shot to the right and to use binoculars and the zoom lens of a camera to make sure the ball stuck in the tree was his.

That led to a double bogey, and he took another double bogey on the 18th hole by taking four to get down from a bunker.

“A little unfortunate that it got stuck. It was literally in a nest,” Day said. “So I think mama birdy is going to come back and find another egg there.”

Nick Taylor and Adam Hadwin, both from Abbotsford, B.C., failed to make the weekend cut. Taylor (75) was 4 over, while Hadwin (72) was 7 over.