Last weekend, four Portage College Voyageurs traveled to Red Deer to compete at the Alberta Springs Golf Club for the Alberta Colleges Athletics Conference (ACAC) provincial title, and a spot to represent Portage College in the national tournament.
The young college team faced more experienced players from veteran golf programs at other schools, keeping all four Portage players out of the winners' circle. But it wasn't just competing players from six other colleges and universities across the province that the local golfers had to deal with. Winter came to the province early this year — and put a chill on the championships.
"Worst golf conditions that I've seen"
The starting tee- times for both days were frost-delayed. On Saturday, players experienced a 90-minute delay. On Sunday, they were supposed to start at 10am, but with the frost, start times were delayed until 1pm. Due to the delays, organizers also had to change the starting format from staggered tee-times at the first tee to a shotgun format with teams starting around the course. The wind on both days was averaging 25-30 km/h , and felt like -6C the entire round.
Manager of Recreation and Athletics at Portage College, Jim Knight, described Sunday as, "the worst golf conditions that I've seen for the ACAC in the past six years."
Voyageur overall results
Wade Doucet was the Voyageurs top male player, shooting an 88 on Saturday, and an 84 on Sunday. He finished 27th overall. Teammate Brailey Martin was tied for 31st, shooting matching 88s on Saturday and Sunday. Voyageurs players Colton Cardinal and Marwin Smaiel rounded out the local team, both finishing in the two last spots of the 46-player men's roster.
U of A Augustana player Micheal Harrison took the top spot on the men's side on the weekend, scoring rounds of 73 and 72.
Female Voyageur, Candice Janvier, finished 15th overall, scoring a 101 on Saturday and a 108 on Sunday.
Medicine Hat College Rattlers' Becky Martin was the women's ACAC champ, shooting a two round 74-76 weekend total of 150 — 16 strokes ahead of the second place finisher.
Nationals in Medicine Hat
The Medicine Hat Rattlers team was the overall winner on the weekend with their four golfers combining for just 330 shots over the two day event. Red Deer finished two strokes back in second place. The Voyageurs team finished in last place, 133 strokes off the winning score.
The Rattlers will be hosting the Canadian Collegiate Athletics Association (CCAA) Nationals from October 15-19 at the Desert Blume Golf Course in Medicine Hat. Teams will come from BC, Ontario, Quebec and Atlantic Canada.
Cool event
While the golfing competition will be heating up, according to Environment Canada's 24-day fore-cast, the weather won't. Daytime temperatures in Medicine Hat for the national championships won't get much above six degrees Celsius with overnight lows ranging from three to seven degrees below freezing.
- With files from Rob McKinley
