Kent State’s Veronika Kedroňová leads individual competition at 6-under; three players share top spot in the Team Canada – NextGen Selection Camp
AURORA, Ont. – The Kent State Golden Flashes opened a three-shot lead over the Auburn Tigers in the first round of the Women’s Canadian Collegiate Invitational with a score of 7-under par.
Unbothered by the morning’s inclement weather that delayed Monday’s opening round by nearly two hours, the Golden Flashes were able to capitalize on a favourable back nine to help set the pace during the first-ever round of the Women’s Canadian Collegiate Invitational.
Beginning her round on the 5th hole of a shotgun start, Veronika Kedroňová of Roznov pod Radhostem, Czech Republic led the charge for the Golden Flashes. Steady throughout the entire round, Kedroňová made seven birdies to pull her way into the outright lead of the individual leaderboard.
“We have an amazing team culture,” commented Kedroňová following her round of 66 on Monday. “I don’t know how many teams have that kind of friendship we have on our team and we’re really together and playing for each other rather than just trying to post our own scores,” she added.
Kedroňová, a member of the Czech Republic national golf team and ranked within the top 200 of the World Amateur Golf Rankings (WAGR), started her opening round on the fifth hole and grabbed the outright lead after rolling in back-to-back birdie putts on Nos. 15 and 16 to get to 5-under. A bogey on the 18th would be the only speed bump to Kedroňová’s round, navigating around the blemish with immediate birdies on the par-4 second and par-5 fourth to help take a two-stroke edge over Auburn’s Anne Fernandez of Singapore.
The Czech international looks to keep her game plan the same heading into Tuesday’s final round, maintaining the iron play and putting that led her to a low round on Monday. Her play with the flatstick was the major takeaway for the tournament’s leader through 18 holes, having recently adjusted her putting ahead of the collegiate season.
“For me it’s just a matter of rolling the ball. [Today] I would get up to the green when it was kind of close and I just tried to roll it somewhere, and it would just end up in the hole,” Kedroňová commented.
Prior to Kedroňová finishing her opening round at the fourth, her Kent State teammate Leon Takagi of Tokyo, Japan briefly held the clubhouse lead at 3-under, having worked around a double-bogey at the par-5 seventh with birdies on Nos. 9, 12, 14,16 and 4 to turn her day around and stay within striking distance of her teammate.
Notably, Takagi and Kedroňová are joined in the top ten of the individual leaderboard by another one of their teammates, Isabella Goyette of Medina, Ohio. Goyette pieced together a 2-under 70 to round out the trio of Golden Flashes in the top ten.
Madison Messimer of Myrtle Beach, S.C. and Charlotte Cantonis of Tampa, Fla. will start the final round alongside Takagi at 3-under, three shots off the pace. A group of five players sit a shot behind at 2-under par.
Playing in the Team Canada Selection Camp running concurrently with this week’s Women’s Canadian Collegiate Invitational, Nobelle Park of Oakville, Ont., Clairey Lin of Langley, B.C. and Jodie Han of Vancouver, B.C. all pieced together rounds of 73 to each grab a share of the lead heading into Tuesday’s final round.
The trio will look to separate from one another with a guaranteed spot on the 2026 Team Canada – NextGen team awarded to the event’s winner. Alongside the collegiate players, this group will be part of a 9 a.m. local time shotgun start on Tuesday.
Due to heavy rain delaying the start of Monday’s opening round, tournament organizers have shortened both tournaments from 54 holes to 36 in an effort to ensure a timely finish.
Co-hosted by the University of Michigan and Kent State University, the inaugural championship features nine additional NCAA Division I teams and the University of British Columbia (UBC) Thunderbirds, the latter sitting in 11th through 18 holes at 20-over par.
The winner of the individual competition on Tuesday will receive an exemption into the 2026 CPKC Women’s Open, while the top five finishers – including the winner – will nab exemptions into the 2026 Canadian Women’s Amateur Championship, presented by BDO, set to descend on The Toronto Golf Club in Mississauga, Ont. for the 112th playing of the event.
To view the full leaderboard from the opening round of the Women’s Canadian Collegiate Invitational, please click here. For an updated leaderboard and tee times from the Team Canada – NextGen Selection Camp, please click here.
