varsity news

Durham Lords Media Release
Friday, October 17, 2008

Tough Final Round for DC at Nationals

Charlottetown, PEI – The Durham Lords men’s golf team wrapped up play this season as they finished the final round of the CCAA National Golf Championship in Prince Edward Island on Friday. The Lords slipped to tenth place overall after shooting a final round of 322 for an overall total 942, well of the pace for a national medal.

Durham Lords Individual Scores
Rob Lewis – 74-77-78 (229)
Brad Hickey – 83-75-74 (232)
James Hoffman – 79-78-79 (236)
Chad Boudreau – 79-78 (237)
Matiss Mazutis – 77-79-86 (242)
Justin Knaggs – 80-78-84 (242)
Ian Parker – 78-84-81 (243)
Tyler Boudreau – 86-88-97 (271)

OVERALL SUMMARY

On a bone chilling day in Stratford the 2008 CCAA Golf Open Championships wrapped up with two dream finishes.

In women’s action the Humber College Hawks took home the Gold Medal in the team competition maintaining their 10-shot lead from yesterday with two rounds of 78 and a 76 from the team of Shauna Wilde, Bev Peel and Maggie Trainor respectively.

In the women’s individual chase for Gold, today got a whole lot more interesting. Playing as a twosome were the leaders going into the day Maggie Trainor from Humber and Anne-Catherine Tanguay from Champlain St. Lawrence. Trainor had a four-shot lead going into today’s action, but Tanguay made up the difference quickly shooting a one-under par 35 on the front-nine. An impressive number in any condition, but with the cold and high winds taking over the course, this was a tremendous feat.

With Trainor going two-over on the front that made for a three shot swing and the lead was down to one. The two players battled back and fourth on the back nine, playing great golf hitting fairway after fairway and green after green. 

Trainor and Tanguay came to the 18th tee tied for the lead. They both stepped up and hit great drives and great second shots on the long par 5, but it was Anne-Catherine’s wedge shot from 80 yards out that would lead her to victory. With a sand-trap between her and the pin she hit a tremendous shot landing it five feet from the pin. Trainor couldn’t get her long birdie attempt to go and Tanguay stepped up and rolled in the winning birdie putt that gave her the Gold medal.

Tanguay talked about the 18th hole saying, “I knew we were close, but I just focused on staying relaxed, taking deep breaths and staying in my zone. I was pretty comfortable out there and I was really determined to stick it tight on my approach. I knew as soon as I hit it that it was going to be good.”

She commented on her very tidy round of 71 adding, “I hit 16 greens in regulation and never really got into much trouble all day. I felt great with my putter things just seemed to go well.”

A first year Social Sciences student from Quebec City, Tanguay will be a force to reckon with in the years to come.

In men’s action it was a very similar story as the Thompson Rivers Wolfpack were able to hold on to the six stroke lead they had going into the day and secure their Gold Medals.

The Wolfpack relied on a team effort the entire week and Head Coach Bill Bilton talked about his team saying, “I’m speechless right now. We didn’t even have a team at TRU on August 10th. To be able to bring this group together and win a National Championship is incredible. I’m really proud of how the guys played.”

“This has been an awesome week. The hospitality we’ve received has been tremendous everyone we’ve met, the volunteers, the staff at the course, it’s just been great, added the ecstatic coach.”

The men’s individual championship needed a 55th hole to decide the winner as the leader going into the day Mitch Lock from Fraser Valley sat tied with Shawn Vanderwal from Thompson Rivers after 54 holes in the three-round championship.

Lock had a chance to take the title on the 54th hole, bombing a drive down the middle and hitting an amazing 4-iron to leave him 10 feet for eagle and the win. He gave the put a great effort, but left it on the lip.  Tapping in for birdie, he forced the playoff with Vanderwal.

The two players went back up the 18th for their playoff. Both players hit solid drives off the tee and Lock was away, and was first to play for their second shots. He crushed his 3-wood into the wind landing it on the front of the green. Vanderwal decided to go for it on the par-five as well but didn’t quite get up onto the green as his well struck 3-wood stayed straight and landed in the bunker.

That’s when the magic happened. Vanderwal stepped into the bunker and hit a tremendous shot, leaving his ball two feet from the pin with basically a tap-in. Lock gave his long eagle putt a go at the hole, but hit it a bit too hard leaving himself a tough putt coming back. He wasn’t able to get it to go and Vanderwal rolled in the birdie for the win and the CCAA Championship.

Vanderwal talked about the dramatic playoff finish commenting, “I was going to lay-up on the playoff hole, but after Mitch hit such a great 3-wood I didn’t have a choice. I hit a solid shot, but it didn’t cut as much as I needed. That was only my second bunker shot of the whole week, but it’s one of the better parts of my game some I felt pretty confident.”

Vanderwal was three shots behind going into the day and shot a final round 72. The two players were tied at one-over par for the 54-hole tournament.

Shawn also talked about winning the tournament saying, “I’ve never really played golf this late in the year so I didn’t know how I was going to play in the colder weather. I had a great time, played pretty well all week and it feels great to come out on top.”

Like Anne-Catherine, Shawn is also a first year student. He’s majoring in English at Thompson Rivers and will no doubt be back on the scene in the year’s to come.

For the host Holland Hurricanes it was somewhat of a disappointing week, but the Hurricanes had two young teams and competed hard from start to finish. The women finished in fourth and got a final round 82 from Jessica Norris. The men finish in seventh and were lead by Alex Egan's 75 on day three.

It was a great championship week from start-to-finish with great weather especially given the time of year and potential for some unbearable conditions.

Many of players will probably take away the memories of the island hospitality as well as the notorious Fox Meadow Foxes, who took several players balls during the week and could be found very close to the players as they passed the sixth hole.

For all the tournament scores and results please go to: www.hollandcollege/2008pinggolf/ 

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FOR MORE INFORMATION:
Jeff Walker
Student Services & Athletics Officer
Holland College, Tourism and Culinary Centre
4 Sydney Street
Charlottetown, PE C1A 1E9
Phone: 902-894-6870
Email: jgwalker@hollandcollege.com
www.hollandcollege.com