Coach Clay Stothers Has His UBC-Okanagan Heat Playing Hot
By Brad Ziemer, British Columbia Golf
The UBC-Okanagan men’s team didn’t just win the Canada West Golf Championships, they dominated the competition. The Heat capitalized on home-course advantage to post a team total of 24-under par and beat the field by 17 shots at Okanagan Golf Club’s Bear Course in Kelowna.
Second-year player Ryan Gillis led the way, winning the individual title with a 36-hole score of nine-under par. UBC-Okanagan teammates Thomas Lemay and Andrew Rouble joined Gillis on the podium. Heat coach Clay Stothers was obviously delighted with the performance of the men’s team.
“I couldn’t imagine us winning by 17 shots and having three players on our team coming first, second and third,” Stothers said. “It was a surreal, magical couple of days when everything kind of lined up nicely.”
Stothers, the director of instruction at Okanagan Golf Club, is starting his fifth year as coach of the men’s and women’s teams at UBC-Okanagan and has done a remarkable job of building the program. The future is looking bright.
“Considering where we came from and where we are now is light years away, but to be quite honest with you I have still got a very young team. Ryan is second year, Thomas, who finished second, is a rookie, and my No. 1 recruit this year was injured and unable to play. So the future is ridiculously bright for our golf program. It is beyond exciting to kind of imagine some of the things we might be able to do in the future.”
Stothers credited a fast start by Gillis with helping spark his team. Gillis, a Calgary native who won the Alberta Junior Boys Championship this past summer, opened the Canada West tourney with an eight-under 64. “He was like seven-under through 10 or 11 holes and Thomas got wind of what was going on and I think he was seven-under through 10 or 11 as well,” Stothers said.
“I think when they saw what the other guys were doing they just kind of fed off of that and it just allowed everyone to play a little more freed up.” Chris Jo and Kevin Lee were the other members of the winning Heat team.
The UBC Thunderbirds, the defending Canada West champions, finished second at seven-under par, four shots better than third-place University of Victoria. UBC dominated the women’s competition, winning by 34 shots with a team total of 16-under par. It was the fifth straight Canada West win for the Thunderbirds.
Elizabeth Labbe led the way for UBC. She closed with a seven-under 66 and won the individual title by three shots over teammate Grace Bell with a 36-hole total of eight-under par. Jessica Ng (T3) and Keira Hou (5) also finished inside the top five for UBC.
UBC-Okanagan finished second overall in the women’s team competition at 16-over par. That was three shots better than third-place University of the Fraser Valley.