Svensson Ties For 21st In Los Cabos; UBC-Okanagan’s Julia Alexander-Carew Wins In Arizona
(November 10, 2025) - SFU coach Krysta Schaus is proud of the way her men’s and women’s golf teams performed this fall despite a major off-course distraction.
At about the same time the Red Leafs were beginning their fall campaigns, SFU announced it was launching an independent report to determine whether the university will continue competing as a NCAA Division II school or possibly return to Canadian sports competition.
“The timing on that announcement certainly wasn’t ideal for our team, but the message that I have shared with our team and we have taken with us this whole fall semester is that a decision hasn’t been made yet, so we are not going to get ahead of ourselves and play that what-if game because that really doesn’t help anyone,” Schaus said in an interview.
“Our goal remains the same. We are still Canada’s only NCAA team, that’s what we want to continue to be, and we have big goals that we want to reach this year. We want to have really strong showings at our conference championship, at regionals and nationals.”
Both the men’s and women’s teams had strong fall seasons. The men won twice and the women won once and were second in their final fall event at the recent East Bay Fall Invitational in Hayward, Calif. “It was another strong season for both teams,” Schaus said.
“I think expectations were quite high going into the fall season. Both teams won conference championships last spring. On the men’s team we didn’t have anyone leave or graduate and on the women’s team we had one senior that graduated but otherwise we had the same squad coming back with a couple of incoming freshmen on both teams. Both teams ended up winning their first event of the fall season and kept things going from there.”
SFU has asked Bob Copeland of McLaren Global Sport Solutions, “to report on the impact of joining U Sports and/or other Canadian competitive frameworks.” That report is due later this month.
Copeland was earlier tasked with looking at the future of SFU’s football program. That program was later axed. “We are really trying to quiet out the noise of the review, especially when we are at events,” Schaus said.
“But when we are back home we want to make sure our voices are heard. We have written a letter to the provost at the university and teams have a meeting set up with him in the upcoming weeks to make sure that when this decision is made we have done everything that we can to make it clear that we are teams that have excelled in the NCAA and we want to continue to do that.”
Schaus is proud of the way her players have responded since the review was launched. “There was a town hall meeting for all of the student athletes the night before the final round of the St. Martin’s tournament and the women’s team came together in the hotel lobby so they could sit in on the Zoom call for that,” she said.
“As you can imagine, that’s quite a distraction when you are trying to win a golf tournament. The fact they went out there and won the event the next day says a lot about them and their ability to focus on course and manage those distractions.”
BIRDIE BARRAGE: Surrey’s Adam Svensson finished 18-under par and tied for 21st. That tells you how low the scores were at the PGA TOUR’s World Wide Technology Championship in Los Cabos, Mexico. It was a birdie-fest at the Tiger Woods-designed El Cardonal Golf Course, where American Ben Griffin won with a score of 29-under. Svensson, who earned $60,500, moved up two spots to 163rd on the FedEx Cup points list as he attempts to manufacture a late-season rally to secure PGA Tour status for 2026.
Fellow British Columbian Adam Hadwin, who is also chasing status for 2026, tied for 53rd at 13-under in Los Cabos and moved up one spot to 147th on the points list. Hadwin made $14,260. Abbotsford’s Nick Taylor, who was playing his first event since August, missed the cut in Los Cabos. Just two events remain on the fall schedule.
This week’s Butterfield Bermuda Championship will be followed the next week by the seáson-ending RSM Classic in Sea Island, Ga. Svensson and Hadwin will be playing both of them, while Taylor’s next action will come at next month’s Nedbank Golf Challenge in Sun City, South Africa.
THE HEAT IS ON: UBC-Okanagan’s Julia Alexander-Carew won the individual title and helped the Heat women finish second at the Firestorm Fall Invite in Buckeye, Ariz. Alexander-Carew, who is in her third year at UBC-Okanagan, finished the 54-hole event at one-under par. She edged teammate Lauren Nedo and Emma Marshall of Embry-Riddle University by one shot. At 23-over par, the Heat finished just three shots behind the winning team from Embry-Riddle in the 12-team competition played at Verrado Golf Club. The University of Victoria finished ninth.
In the men’s competition, UBC-Okanagan finished third at three-over par, 12 shots behind the winning team from Texas-Wesleyan University. Vernon’s Ryan Vest tied for eighth place to lead the Heat. The University of Victoria men finished fourth and were led by Solomon Decksheimer, who was solo fifth in the individual competition at four-under par. The Firestorm tourney, hosted by Arizona Christian University, marked the end of the fall season for UBC-Okanagan and UVic.
BOUNCE BACK: Vancouver’s Anna Huang bounced back from a tough start to make the cut at the Aramco China Championship on the Ladies European Tour. Huang opened with a two-over 75, but rebounded to shoot a six-under 67 in the second round and make the 36-hole cut by two shots. Huang closed the 54-hole event with a four-over 77 and tied for 59th. The 17-year-old Huang, who has won twice this season, now stands 11th on the LET’s Order of Merit. The LET completes its 2025 season Nov. 27-30 in Spain at the Andalucia Costa Del Sol Open de Espana at Real Guadalhorce Club de Golf.
SEASON ENDING: The City of Vancouver is preparing to close its three pitch-and-putt courses for the season. Rupert Park will close on Nov. 14, while the Stanley Park and Queen Elizabeth Park courses shut down on Nov. 30.
CHIP SHOTS: Vancouver’s Vanessa Zhang has been selected as the Ivy League’s player of the month. Zhang, in her second year at Harvard University, won two individual titles in October for the Crimson. . .Vancouver’s Jerry Li has committed to play his collegiate golf at Emory University, a NCAA Division III school in Atlanta.