B.C. Golf Notes: T-Birds Look To Take Flight At Nationals
The UBC T-Birds Men's Golf Squad Are Ready To Challenge For The NAIA Championship This Week. Pictured From L-R Are: Andrew Harrison , Jack Wood , Evan Holmes , Nate Ollis And Trent Abraham - Image Courtesy UBC Athletics
By Brad Ziemer, British Columbia Golf
UBC coach Chris Macdonald likes the fact that this week’s NAIA men’s national championship tournament is returning to the TPC at Deere Run in Silvis, Ill.
The course, which is the site of the PGA TOUR’s John Deere Classic, reminds Macdonald of Shaughnessy Golf & Country Club, where the T-Birds play and practise all year long.
“It’s long, but that is one of our strengths,” Macdonald says. “We have a good ball-striking team. It suits us really well because it’s a lot like Shaughnessy, except the greens are a little bit bigger and maybe a little bit more undulating.”
The 72-hole championship tourney begins Tuesday and UBC enters as the 10th seed, although Macdonald thinks that is somewhat misleading. “I feel like we played a harder schedule than most of the teams and it brought our ranking down.” says Macdonald, who believes his team has a good chance to contend this week.
“I feel they are really prepared to play. It is a hard tournament to win. . .You need your three best players to get hot that week and then get support, even-par rounds, from your four and five guys.
“Our goal at the start of the year was to be in the top five and be in contention on the last day and see if we can’t get the breaks and that hasn’t changed. I think we are in a position to do that.”
UBC’s top three players this year have been Andrew Harrison of Camrose, Alta., Nate Ollis of Victoria and Evan Holmes of Calgary. Jack Wood of Banff, Alta., and Trent Abraham of Hamilton round out the five-man squad.
“They are a close group,” Macdonald says. “They have learned how to be more consistent and I think they are pretty good at identifying holes they need to score on and the fact they need to protect par and I think that is a big step in playing team golf at the collegiate level. You can’t be going at every pin and I think maybe that is the biggest (area of) growth they have had this year.
“They are ready to have a good tournament. I think if they can get off to a good start and get some confidence they could definitely be there at the end.”
UBC tied for eighth at last year’s nationals, which were held in Daytona Beach, Fla. The University of Victoria, currently ranked 13th, is the other Canadian team in the 30-team tournament.
RAINY DAYS IN GEORGIA: UBC’s women’s golf team finished tied for 15th at last week’s weather-shortened NAIA women’s national championship tourney in Pooler, Ga. The T-Birds finished the event, which was shortened to 36 holes, at 55-over par. That was 32 shots behind the winning team from Keiser University. UBC was led by Avril Li of Port Moody, who tied for 38th place at 11-over par.
LIFE OF RILEY: Former B.C. Junior champion Riley Wheeldon of Comox looks to have his game in great shape heading into this week’s season-opening event on the Mackenzie Tour-PGA Tour Canada circuit. Wheeldon fired rounds of 66 and 65 to win the most recent of the Vancouver Golf Tour’s spring ‘major’ tournaments at Pagoda Ridge in Langley and Royalwood in Chilliwack.
His 13-under total was four shots better than runner-up Seann Harlingten of West Vancouver. Wheeldon, who also won a VGT major at Bear Mountain in Victoria earlier this month, earned $1,600 for the win.
The Freedom 55 Financial Open tees up the Mackenzie Tour-PGA Tour Canada season later this week at Point Grey Golf & Country Club in Vancouver. Wheeldon lost in a five-man playoff last year at Point Grey.
COLONIAL CALLING: Abbotsford’s Adam Hadwin and Nick Taylor will both be in the field for this week’s PGA TOUR stop at Colonial Country Club in Fort Worth, Tex. Hadwin had the best finish of his rookie season at Colonial last year, when he tied for fifth place. Hadwin will be looking to bounce back from a tough Sunday at the AT&T Byron Nelson tourney, where he fired a final round five-over 75 to drop from a tie for 13th to a tie for 58th spot.
ON THE WEB: This is an off week for the Web.com Tour, where Surrey’s Adam Svensson and Roger Sloan of Merritt finished tied for 32nd place Sunday at the BMW Charity Pro-Am in South Carolina. North Vancouver’s Eugene Wong missed the cut.
WOMEN’S DAY: Langara Golf Course is celebrating Women’s Golf Day on June 7 with a special event. Tickets are $50 and include five holes of golf starting at 5 p.m. Tips will be provided by pros at each hole. Participants also receive two six-ounce glasses of wine at a cocktail reception that follows golf. For more information or to register, contact GolfSpecialEvents@vancouver.ca.
CHIP SHOTS: Victoria’s Jim Rutledge has accepted a sponsor’s exemption into next week’s Bayview Place Island Savings Open at Uplands Golf Club in his home town. . . .Langley’s Jessica Wallace tied for 37th at a Symetra Tour event in Milton., Ga . . .Kimberley’s Jared du Toit (Arizona State) and Vancouver’s Stuart Macdonald (Purdue) are teeing it up this week in the NCAA Championship tourney in Eugene, Ore.