The team’s successful season, marked by strong team finishes and outstanding individual performances, comes as no surprise as Blues golfers all have many years of experience behind them before coming to U of T.
Head coach Chris Tortorice often recruits players to the team at junior provincial and national tournaments. This is where he found Richard Persaud, an OUA First Team All-Star who finished second individually at the OUA Championships this year.
“I played a lot of junior golf at the provincial level and national level,” says Persaud. “Actually, that’s how I met the coach, through the provincial training, and that’s how he introduced me to [the Varsity Blues].”
The team has a three-day tryout period in September. Athletes are chosen based on their previous competition results and their scores from the three rounds of golf that they play during the tryout period.
There are three official team practices each week. They are held in the dome driving range during the fall season, which kicks off once tryouts end.
As practice coach for the team, Dave Woods helps team members “practice a combination of short-game shots and full swings,” says Blues golfer Julia Pilliar.
In addition to working with practice coach Dave Woods, the women’s team has their own coach, Evelyn Paik.
“Having Evelyn Paik as our assistant coach is a huge asset as she comes to tournaments with us and focuses solely on helping the women’s team,” says Pilliar.
In the spring the team practices twice a week at the Angus Glenn Golf Club in Markham.
Team members are also expected to keep in shape on their own time so that they are physically ready to compete.
The fall season is very short, lasting only until mid-October.
“The team packs a lot of work into that season,” says Persaud. “Then we come back in the spring and play a spring event, usually in the states, and then we usually play the National Championships in May.”
The team competed in Florida this year and fundraised to attend these tournaments. The men’s team placed second at the Spring Break Invitational at Wanamaker Golf Course in Port St. Lucie, Florida. Second-year Laura Upenieks won the women’s tournament by nine strokes while Tyler Miehe, also in second year, placed third in the men’s with a score of 150.
The men’s team place second at the OUA’s this year.
“Nothing specific separates us from the teams who did better,” says Miehe. “I’m sure that the five teams that beat us that week, of all the tournaments in the fall we beat each one of those teams at least once.”
“It’s a two-day event and you don’t always perform your best in two days,” adds Persaud. “I think we performed pretty well, it’s just that a lot of the other schools happened to perform a little bit better. I’d say it’s a pretty even playing field.”
Both Persaud and Miehe agree that the men’s team needs to improve their psychological game and they attribute their sixth-place performance at the OUA Championships to weakness in this aspect of the sport.
“We’ve had a few seminars where Dave has asked us to describe how we feel when we’re playing badly and how we feel when we’re playing well,” says Miehe.
During the front nine holes at the OUA Championships the team was in first place, but by the back nine their performance was not as strong.
“At the OUAs this year we were seven shots back at the start of the day and a few of us had really good front nine [scores], then on the back nine we did worse,” says Miehe.
As the National University/College Championships approach, the men’s team plans on improving the consistency of their performances and their psychological approach to the game.
The women’s team had a better outcome at the OUAs, placing second overall.
Individually, Upenieks finished second with a score of 153 and Julia Pilliar finished in third place with a score of 156. Both athletes were named OUA First Team All-Stars.
As the 2010/2011 golfing season comes to a close, the main goal for both the men’s and women’s teams is to place among the best three teams at the Canadian University/College Championships at the end of May.
