Natasha Kozlowski would love to be a younger version of Brooke Henderson, the burgeoning Canadian golf superstar, but there's somebody else on the LPGA tour she prefers to emulate.
She's a big fan of Suzann Pettersen, the sometimes potty-mouthed Norwegian who has been known to drop the odd F-bomb within range of the TV cameras after she makes a bad shot.
"She swears and I swear a lot. I have a foul mouth - I like to verbally express my emotions," said Kozlowski, 17, who has had a breakout season on the provincial junior scene, including a win a few weeks ago on her home course at the Ladies Simon Fraser Open.
"I've said some things in front of rules officials before and they just turn a blind eye to it. They're fine. If I hit a bad shot I don't hold on to it, I just let it go - whatever works."
Kozlowski didn't have much to cuss about Aug. 13 at the Prince George Golf and Curling Club. She came back from being four strokes down to defending champion Lindsay MacDermott after the first round to win by seven strokes. Kozlowski shot 74-73 for a two-round total of 147, while MacDermott, a Kamloops golf pro, went 70-84-154 and finished second.
"She had a really good round on the first day and probably nerves got to her on the second day," said Kozlowski. "I just kind of stayed consistent, stayed out of my head and put in a pretty good round."
On her shot off the tee in the second round on the par 5 first hole, Kozlowski left her drive 165 yards from the pin and her approach shot stopped eight feet from the hole. She missed the eagle attempt but sunk the birdie and that set her up for another solid round.
Kozlowski grew up around the PGGCC and started playing when she was seven. Her older brother Roman used to play tournament golf and her parents, Val and Duane, remain avid golfers and PGGCC members. Ever since Kozlowski started playing in tournaments at age 11 she's wanted to win the Simon Fraser title.
"That felt pretty good - that was the big one. That was the tournament I played best in all year," said Kozlowski, who works in the pro shop at the PGGCC and plays the course three or four times a week.
Her clubhouse celebration came one day before her 17th birthday and she's one of the youngest champions in the 51-year history of the tournament. Donna Bell of Prince George won her first of back-to-back Simon Fraser Open titles in 2001 when she was 20.
Kozlowski was the runner-up to MacDermott in 2017, finishing five strokes back.
In this year's Junior Simon Fraser Open, held in June, Kozlowski ended up second to Cody Bailey.
A week after her Ladies Simon Fraser triumph, Kozlowski went to Gallagher's Canyon Golf Club in Kelowna and finished in a tie for ninth at the B.C. juvenile girls championship. She got off to a tough start, climbing to six-over on the first four holes on her way to an 11-over opening-round 84, but shot 79-80 in the next two rounds to finish 17 strokes behind champion Akari Hayashi of Victoria.
"The first day I couldn't get anything together - the first four were bad and then I was OK," she said. "I play so many events I usually can control my nerves pretty good, but I didn't like the golf course at all. It didn't set up for me and I started on the back nine too, which I didn't like. I don't think anyone played well on that golf course. The scores were high for that kind of calibre of a tournament.
"Overall I'm happy with it."
Kozlowski has had her share of success this summer and on July 24 she won the Maple Leaf Junior Golf Tour event at Predator Ridge Resort, near Vernon. She captured the Hoselton Trophy by three strokes, shooting 74-87-161.
Now enrolled in Grade 12 classes at College Heights Secondary School, Kozlowski is starting to attract interest from university golf team recruiters. She loves the idea of leaving the snowy winters behind in Prince George and playing golf year-round somewhere on the West Coast while studying kinesiology.
"I don't want to stay here, I want to go far away and play in college," she said.
Golf is not her only game. Kozlowski is a former club volleyball player who plays for the College Heights senior team. She missed the tryouts last weekend while suffering through having her wisdom teeth pulled but the five-foot-seven high school veteran has a spot on Jason Olexyn's team at middle blocker.
She has one more golfing road trip ahead of her this season at the Maple Leaf Tour National Team Challenge in Niagara-on-the-Lake, Ont. Kozlowski is part of the two-female, four-male Team West for the three-round event, Sept. 21-23.
