This week marked a huge event in 17-year-old Blake Peterson’s life. She travelled to West Palm Beach to compete in the 2010 Optimist International junior Golf Championships, a national tournament for junior golfers that wraps up Sunday.

Peterson, a senior at Oakmont, has moved her game up to the national stage. The tournament had qualifiers throughout the country. Peterson qualified for the Optimist through a first tee tournament where she shot a 77 and took overall tournament honors.

“It’s a tournament where people from all over the world come,” she said. “There are 83 girls there from all over the world in the 16-18 age group.”

Play consists of 36 rounds over three days. After those rounds the top 35 girls qualify for championship play that lasts one day. For those who don’t qualify, there will be a consolation round.

“It’s the biggest tournament I’ve ever been in,” Peterson said. “It’s the first time I’ve travelled more than two hours to go to a tournament … Really nice course and I’m hoping to get more experience on those kinds of courses, meet new people and just get to know the different aspects of golf, other than I’ve seen.”

Peterson began golfing the summer before 8th grade, when she was about 13. Many of her family members played in tournaments and her aunt thought she might have a knack for it. For the first three years of her golf career, her grandfather taught her.

But it wasn’t until recently that Peterson has really stepped up her game.

“She’s improved tremendously,” coach Tim Berg said. “She was a high 90 to 100 shooter. She shoots in the 70s quite often. I think she broke 70 once.”

Berg, who is an instructor at Cherry Island, has coached Peterson for a little over a year and noticed her improvement and work ethic. Peterson has become more competitive in the last year and has strived to improve her game.

“Once I started shooting under 80 I just realized I could do that,” she said. “It clicked with me this summer … I am getting more to where I really want to practice and I want to excel. Now my scores are getting better and hopefully I can take it far.”

Peterson hasn’t quite started looking into colleges yet but would love to go somewhere that would give her a scholarship, and where she could play golf. She said the ideal situation for her would be to end up somewhere in San Diego.

“She really loves the game and works hard at it,” Berg said. “I think she’ll do well in the future with the game.”

Her favorite aspect of the game is the challenge golf presents. She said that a lot of the game is the mentality of it, and she has mental toughness.

“I think my mental game is stronger than a lot of players I’ve played with,” Peterson said. “A lot of parents give kids a lot of pressure, no one gives me pressure. It’s my own motivation that keeps me going. It really helps me so I don’t feel like I’m pressured to play golf.”

When she’s not golfing, she’s working for her mother, who owns a Mr. Pickles in Roseville. She loves to spend time with her friends and play guitar.

This week however, Peterson’s life is filled with golf. In the first round, which was played on Thursday, she shot a 92, Berg said.

“In national competition you get a little nervous, your swing kind of leaves you and you hit a lot of erratic shots,” Berg said. “I expect her to kind of settle down and get used to it.”