Aphrodite Deng stepped on to the tee at the par three, 14th hole having held the lead nearly all morning at her national championship. The 15-year old amateur enjoyed a flawless start to her day by going out in 31 to jump to the top of the leaderboard on Thursday morning at the CPKC Women’s Open. Nelly Korda was playing in the group behind Deng and watched and waited on the tee as the Calgary resident hit her tee shot safely onto the putting surface.

Deng’s success on Thursday comes as no surprise to those who have been following the 22nd ranked amateur in the world. Deng, who says her parents named her Aphrodite because they wanted her name to be unique, has already won three times this season in the junior ranks. Deng captured Korda’s AJGA event and the amateur played alongside Korda for two rounds en route to winning the Mizuho Americas Open junior competition that was played in tandem with the professionals competing that week. Deng picked up her sixth junior title in July when she became the first Canadian to win the U.S. Girls Junior Championship.

“There was a lot of cameras there, too, so I'm more used to it in front of the cameras and crowds,” Deng said about how her experience at the U.S. Girls Junior prepared her for this week. “I was a little nervous, but I am with every tournament.”

There was a sense of history repeating on Thursday for those old enough to remember watching Lydia Ko win the CPKC Women’s Open for the first time at the age of 15. That was in 2012, and Ko remains the last amateur to win a professional event on the LPGA Tour. Deng began her march towards history on Thursday when she opened with a five-under par round of 66 to take the early lead on day one of her national championship.

“It's really cool,” Deng said after her fairytale start to the week. “Definitely something that I dreamed about.”

Thursday morning, Deng teed off in the seventh group of the day alongside fellow Canadian Benedetta Moresco and Italy’s Gurleen Kaur. The trio faced chilly conditions with swirling winds but Deng says she leaned on the strength of her game, her ball-striking, to quickly climb the leaderboard. The teen opened with back-to-back birdies to set the tone for her round and dropped a single shot during the day when her par save at the 15th hole slid past the cup. Deng rebounded with back-to-back birdies to bookend her round and sit atop the morning wave at Mississauga Country Club.

“My ball striking is usually pretty good,” Deng said about her day in which she found 13 of 14 fairways and needed just 26 putts. “Today my putting was really good and my short game was good.”

There’s a reason it's been 18 years since Ko became the last amateur to win in the professional ranks. Because it’s tough. And Ko didn’t just win as an amateur, she also became the youngest winner ever to do so with her victory in Canada at 15-years of age. She made history once more when she successfully defended her title the following year and became the first amateur to win an event twice.

While it may seem unlikely that Deng could match the history that Ko made nearly two decades ago, she’s positioned herself well to make a run at doing something special this weekend and join Brooke Henderson as only the second Canadian, since Jocelyn Bourassa in 1973, to win Canada’s national open.

15-year-old Amateur Soars Up Leaderboard on Day One of Her National Open

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