OUA GOLF CHAMPIONSHIPS TEED UP FOR SUNNINGDALE G&CC
This year marks the inaugural season for women’s golf in OUA competition and the hometown Western Mustangs have a tremendous opportunity to capture the first ever crown awarded. Western has finished first in the team standings of the last three events on the calendar, including a three-player record of 235 at the Western Invitational held at the St. Thomas Golf & Country Club October 6. Second-year Mustangs Christan Bosley and Susan Gleeson, who both shot tournament-best scores of 78 at St. Thomas, have been the anchors of a deep squad that has progressed over the course of the season.
“We’ve had a lot of very good team results and some good individual results with personal bests, which is how you measure yourself in this game,” says Western women’s head coach Alan Edmunds. “Overall, we work very hard at being mentally strong and mentally tough on the golf course.”
While the Mustangs have performed well this season, there is plenty of competition for the first OUA women’s championship. The eight-team field (McMaster University and Carleton University will feature individual competitors rather than a full team) includes a number of squads capable of winning the event, such as the Toronto Varsity Blues, the Waterloo Warriors and the Guelph Gryphons. Each team has earned a second-place finish in tournaments this season and Toronto placed first in the shortened Queen’s Invitational at the Loyalist Golf Club in Bath, ON earlier in the month. Varsity Blues standout Danielle Greene carded a 63 after 15 holes of play to take the gold in that tournament (Greene was also second in last week’s McMaster Invitational at Heron Point with an 82 and fourth in the Guelph Invitational with an 83). The Gryphons placed second as a team in the Lancer Invitational and Waterloo won silver in the McMaster Invitational, led by Jamie Steedman’s 86.
“Toronto, Guelph and Waterloo will all be in the hunt,” says Edmunds. “Each team has very good players.”
The McMaster men’s team, last year’s defending champions and winners in two of the past three years, look to make it three in four and head coach Scott Koblyk has a lineup with the potential to win the tournament. Second-year player Jason Wellings, a second-team all-star last season, and Hamilton native Matt Jacobs have led the Marauders this season. Wellings qualified for the US Amateur this summer and has posted two top-three finishes in OUA play, while Jacobs, a transfer from American school Farleigh Dickinson University in New Jersey, has four top-10s in five tournaments, proving he is already one of the better players in the province.
“One of the big things for us is that we’ve finished consistently high in each tournament even when we’re not playing our best,” says Koblyk, the 2002/03 Coach of the Year. “”We still feel like our best tournament is to come.”
McMaster and all of the other men’s teams will need to be at their best to defeat the Waterloo Warriors, OUA champs two seasons ago. Waterloo has two team silver medals this year and also won the Laurier Invitational and McMaster Invitational tournaments. In the latter event, captain Justin Fluit, a first-team all-star in 2004, tied for first overall in the individual results with a sizzling 71. Fourth-year player Jud Whiteside and rookie Jimmy Latta have performed well all season, including a pair of 73s from each golfer at the Laurier Invitational to help Waterloo win that event by 13 strokes. Second-year Warrior player Arjun Walia is familiar with Sunningdale, having won the individual competition at the 2004 Western Invitational in his rookie year. Guelph and Queen’s have both had good results in 2005 and should be in the mix.
The Robinson course at Sunningdale is expected to be in great condition and the weather is expected to cooperate with the forecast calling for a mix of sun and clouds.
“It’s an excellent golf course,” says Edmunds. “It’s a great test of golf and very fair.”
OUA GOLF CHAMPIONSHIP SERIES SCHEDULE
Day 1 - October 17, 2005 (practice rounds after 10:00 am) - Sunningdale Golf & Country Club – London, ON
Day 2 - October 18, 2005 (Round 1 approx. 10:00 am) - Sunningdale Golf & Country Club – London, ON
Day 3 - October 19, 2005 (round 2 approx. 9:00 am) - Sunningdale Golf & Country Club – London, ON
(Photo: Marauders golfer Jason Wellings plays from the sand at the recent McMaster Invitational. Photo by Cam Dunlop.)
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