By Amanda Hu
The University of Calgary men’s and women’s golf teams made a symbolic hole-in-one after both captured the Alberta Colleges Athletic Conference championships Sep. 28 and 29.
Teeing off at the par 72 River Bend Golf Course in Red Deer, the weekend began with a slow start for the golfosauruses as opponents–including the favoured Mount Royal College–asserted some noticeable skill in the beginning holes.
On the men’s side, Wilson Mitchell made three birdies throughout the course of the day, finishing with a score of one over par with 73 strokes. Closely trailing behind for Dinos scoring was Tim Webb and Brett Van Den Bossche, shooting 75 and Kenny Gregor at 76 strokes. These good efforts put the Dinos in second place with 299, slightly behind MRC with 292.
The women’s team started the tournament off playing with formidable purpose. Aryn Flette led the charge, ending the day with 82 strokes, with teammates Lauren Diederichs standing at 88 and Karla Gustafson at 91. Scoring used the best two out of three scores, as per women’s championship rules. After landing in second place with 170, trailing MRC by two, the women’s team needed keep their putts down to an average two per hole to have a chance at the win.
The second day saw the Dinos drive farther and putt better, keeping their scores down significantly. The men’s team needed to keep their score under 294 to overtake MRC. Travis Mueller made a great amount of improvement in his play finishing three under par with 69 strokes. Van Den Bossche finished with two under par 70 making his two-day total a first place-winning 145. Webb improved his Saturday score to finish the day at one under par 71 and took second place with 146.
“Our team total was four under [par] on the boy’s side, which is really impressive,” said Dinos head coach Ryan Anderson.
The team finished the tournament with a total score of 583, besting main contender MRC’s score of 587, and setting a new Dinos all-time record.
“Mount Royal certainly is a good team,” said Anderson. “I knew that they had the potential to win. Mount Royal played very strong the first day and we did as well, but I knew if they played strong, Mount Royal would have to play exceptionally to beat them. It turns out that we played amazingly the second day.”
The women’s side was also on fire as all three players lowered their score by a minimum of four strokes. Flette shot 78, adding to her tournament total of 160 which won her second place in the match. Diedrichs made five under par 77, an impressive 11 stroke improvement over Saturday. Gustafson also made an impact shooting an 83 and making a birdie during the game. The golf girls destroyed the competition and stretched the distance between them and the second-place holders, MRC with a berth of 15 points. Calgary finished at 325 while MRC ended the tournament at 338.
The Dinos’ showing was surprising to some, considering that the men’s team is made up of four first-year players, one second-year and a their unquestionable veteran, Blake Lawrence, who qualified as a wild-card player. In addition, three of the seven players on the women’s team were teeing off at the tournament.
“Aryn on the girl’s side played an average of eight shots less than she had be playing all season,” said Anderson. “Lauren had kind of a rough day the first day and she turned her game around the second day and played really well. Those two combined were awesome and [attributed to] overtaking Mount Royal. Karla is usually pretty consistent with her play too, which really helped in the second day.”