By Dan Plouffe
Orleans’ Isaiah Ibit earned the biggest prize of his budding golf career yet on Friday as he celebrated a comeback victory at the 2024 Canadian Junior Boys Championship in Innisfail, AB.
The Camelot Golf and Country Club player was off the pace by seven strokes after the first two rounds, but fired a solid 5-under 67 on moving day to get within two and then posted the best score in the field in the final round with a 6-under 66.
“I knew that Thursday would have to be a pretty big moving day, especially considering I was seven back,” Ibit recounted via Golf Canada. “I knew I had a lot of ground to make up and thankfully I played a really good round that day.”
In the final round, Ibit recorded birdies on the 14th and 15th hole and another on the 18th – where he went birdie-eagle-eagle-birdie over four rounds – to finish in style with a five-shot victory.
“It’s really nice and it’s kind of bittersweet because it’s my last junior tournament as my junior career is over,” Ibit said shortly after his last round. “But it’s pretty surreal. It hasn’t really sunk in yet as of right now.
“I’m just worried about getting to school first.”
The next stop in Ibit’s golf journey will be Kent State University, where he’ll be joining the Golden Flashes NCAA team.
That’s the same school previously attended by Canadians Corey Conners, Mackenzie Hughes and Taylor Pendrith, who have all won events on the PGA Tour but never earned Canadian junior boys’ crowns.
Read More: HIGH ACHIEVERS: Isaiah Ibit makes international golf debut before heading to Kent State University
A member of Golf Canada’s NextGen program, Ibit made his first trip outside of Canada and the U.S. on the road to June’s Toyota Junior World Cup, which was held in Japan at a course that had escalators to help golfers climb a few steep slopes.
The St. Peter Catholic High School grad collected a number of Ontario titles in his 2023 season and also played at the Canadian men’s amateur the week before the junior event, placing 50th out of 265 with a 3-over total.
“This summer has gone by really fast,” added Ibit, who also collected an inter-provincial cup title with Ontario at the national junior event. “Didn’t seem long ago where I was playing in March as there was still snow on the ground up here. So it’s gone by pretty fast, but it’s nice to end off the season with this.”
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