Early yesterday morning, as most of us nursed the wounds inflicted by a devastating Ottawa Senators defeat and lamented the lack of good Alberta beef at the local grocer, Canadian university golf was getting the shock of its oft-sidelined life. No, Annika had not discarded her baggy T-shirt and trouser set (the girl shows less skin than the Pope at a pool party).
It was even better.
Due west, on the greens of Cambridge, Ontario’s Whistle Bear Golf Club, the first ever Canadian university/college championship teed off, with nothing short of a nation’s expectations in tow.
Established by the Royal Canadian Golf Association, the new tournament, which runs until May 30, was been designed to bolster the image and intensity of Canadian university-level play. The championship is now the closest thing Canadian golf has to the United States’ NCAA competition. In fact, approximately 20 of the 130 male and female golfers currently converging on Cambridge have come up from American institutions.
While combining students from both Canadian and American golf programs has raised the bar for the entire field, Brent McLaughlin, RCGA director of amateur competition, stresses that “everyone’s equally prepared…there won’t be a decided advantage to the NCAA kids.”
U of T team captain and first team OUA all-star Mike Glenney agrees – it’s the rest of Canada that concerns him. “We’re used to just playing Ontario teams, so [this championship] is going to be different. It’s the best Canada has to offer.”
Kevin Ostrowski, who represented Canada a year ago in the World University Games in Taiwan, Daniel Korpela, and Mark Lebovits make up the rest of the U of T squad. Being the same foursome who claimed last year’s Queen’s Invitational, assistant coach Michael Hunt has high hopes for his crew. “They should easily finish in the top five as a team, while maybe contending for the title if all of the players are on form,” he wagered in the days leading up to the championship.
While U of T’s standing in the tourney depends on three more rounds of play, the future of Canadian golf is set in stone. There is hope that this newcomer to the RCGA Championship roster will do more than add another trophy to an already dusty and filled case. What the RCGA’s Richard Desrochers, managing director of the championship division, has in mind for the nation-wide event is nothing short of inspirational.
“There’s been so much focus on golf in Canada, what with Michael [Weir] winning the Masters,” said Desrochers, adding “we hope that through this initiative, universities will take a harder look at golf programs. Particularly those that don’t have one.”
McLaughlin chimed in with a similar tune. “Currently a lot of schools don’t receive funding for a golf program and as a result they don’t run them.” The existence of a national, university-level competition, he added, is “long overdue.”
In the wake of Mike Weir’s success, Canada is now at least a blip on the PGA radar screen. The aim of the Canadian university/college championship is to turn that blip into a strong and viable signal. “Our mandate is to help the game grow,” says Desrochers, “and this is certainly an avenue by which we can accomplish just that.”
For championship scores and updates, check out: www.rcga.org
