UBC Men & Women Looking For Encore Performances As New Golf Season Begins
UBC T'Birds Golf Coach Chris Macdonald With New Recruits Tina Jiang (L) & Coco Pei (R) - Image Credit Rich Lam/UBC Athletics
By Brad Ziemer, British Columbia Golf
The University of B.C. men’s and women’s golf teams have a tough act to follow.
For the first time in program history, the T-Bird women’s and men’s teams both won their respective NAIA national championship tourney this past spring.
As a result, the women are ranked No. 1 heading into the 2023-24 season, while the men are No. 2.
Past success — and the UBC golf program has enjoyed plenty of that in recent years — brings with it great expectations. As the Thunderbirds prepare to begin another season, longtime head coach Chris Macdonald has learned to embrace those expectations.
“It’s nice to be in that position because it just shows that we have good players,” Macdonald said in an interview. “And we’re very fortunate in that we have Shaughnessy (Golf & Country Club) backing us up and it just lets us go out and play. I don’t think we are afraid of those expectations, we’re just kind of looking forward to each event.”
The UBC men and women both open their seasons Sept. 11-12 in southern Oregon at the Oregon Tech Fall Classic at Running Y Golf Course in Klamath Falls.
The UBC women, who also won their sixth straight Canadian University/College Championship last spring, had one significant off-season departure. Victoria’s Sonja Tang, who has two years of Covid eligibility remaining, has transferred to NCAA Division I powerhouse University of Oregon.
“We are really excited for her,” Macdonald said. “We obviously supported the transfer. Sonja played four years for us and gets an awesome opportunity to go play for one of the top three Division I schools in the country.”
Macdonald acknowledges Tang’s departure leaves a significant hole to fill, but two highly regarded new recruits should help fill that void. Tina Jiang of Richmond and Coco Pei of Surrey join the Thunderbirds this fall. “Tina and Coco have played a lot on the B.C. junior golf circuit,” Macdonald said.
“Tina did really well at (the 2022) Canada Summer Games when I coached that group. She was 14-under that week and won the individual gold medal. Both of those women are in the top 30 to 50 in women’s golf at the Canadian amateur level, so we are super excited to have them coming in. I think they are really excited to get started.”
Macdonald has the luxury of not having to rush Jiang and Pei into his playing lineup. Bo Brown of Mississauga, Ont., Grace Bell of Calgary, Elizabeth Labbe of Quebec City, Jessica Ng of Vancouver and Una Chou of San Diego, who were all key members of last season’s championship run, will play the opening event in southern Oregon. Emily Li and Abigaille Chow, both of Coquitlam, round out the UBC women’s team.
Image Credit - Chuck Russell/Golf Canada
UBC T'Birds Men's Golf Team Member Forrest Van Alstine
On the men’s side, UBC remains deep despite the departure of Ethan de Graaf, who won four individual titles in his five years as a T-Bird. The UBC men welcome three new recruits this fall in Manu Gandhi of West Vancouver, Forrest Van Alstine of Vancouver and Grady Chuback of Winnipeg.
Gandhi was third at this summer’s B.C. Junior Boys Championship in Prince George, while Van Alstine was runner-up at the recent PNGA Junior Amateur Championship at North Bellingham Golf Course. Chubak was second at this summer’s Manitoba Junior Boys Championship.
That new trio will join returning players Mackenzie Bickell of Richmond, Dylan MacDonald of Markham, Ont., Niklas Jaakkola of North Vancouver, John Paul Kahlert of Maple Ridge, Hudson LaFayette of North Vancouver and Aidan Schumer of Columbus, Ohio.
Gandhi will join Bickell, Kahlert, MacDonald and LaFayette as UBC’s starting five in the season-opener in southern Oregon. “Manny played 39 competitive rounds of golf this summer,” Macdonald said. “He is keen to play so we are going to get him in this week.”
UBC plays in the NAIA’s Cascade Conference and is required to play two conference events in the fall. UBC will play host to the conference championship next spring at Loomis Trail Golf Club in Blaine. The remainder of its schedule features a mix of NCAA Division I and Division II events.
While Macdonald welcomes the high expectations his teams face this season, his job is also to manage those expectations. “It was a first for the school that both teams won the NAIA championship in the same year,” Macdonald said.
“It was a pretty extraordinary year and you always want to match that, but I always feel that if you are one of the top three or top six teams going into the last day you’ve had a great season. That will be our realistic expectation going back this year. Get in the final couple of groups and see where it goes. That is kind of what happened last year, especially on the men’s side where we found ourselves in a place where we had a chance.”