Fraser Valley – Women’s Golf: Cascades stage thrilling rally to win silver medal at Nationals
The University of the Fraser Valley women’s golf team established a new high-water mark for the program at the Canadian University/College Championship, rallying on the back nine on Saturday to secure the silver medal in the team event.
The Cascades began Saturday’s fourth and final round at Domaine Château Bromont in Bromont, Que. sitting third in the team standings, trailing the UBC Okanagan Heat by a single stroke. They stumbled on the front nine – which was interrupted due to inclement weather – and found themselves trailing by seven at the turn.
But an outstanding back-nine performance saw the Cascades roar back to edge the Heat by three and claim the silver. UFV’s four-round team score was +93, UBCO was at +96, and the Montreal Carabins (+105), Western Mustangs (+106) and Victoria Vikes (+111) finished fourth through sixth, respectively. The UBC Thunderbirds (-5) ran away with the team gold medal.
The result marked the Cascades’ best-ever finish at the Golf Canada event – UFV’s previous best was a bronze, won in 2018 as the host squad at Chilliwack Golf Club.
“Incredible, absolutely incredible,” Cascades head coach Cody Stewart said. “It was a bit of a roller-coaster, but we knew it would come down to the last few holes – and it sure did.
“This is the most proud I’ve ever been as a coach. I feel fortunate to work with the group that we have. The culture, the chemistry, how they rallied for each other. Our athletes don’t care about the individual glory – they want what’s best for the team. The vibe on the team is so contagious.
“I’ve been telling them all year that they’re one of the top teams in the country. Whether or not they believed me – it’s a young, young group – they did it.”
Lucy Park, in solo eighth place (+26 for the week), was the Cascades’ top individual finisher. Emery Bardock (+30) tied for 11th, and Coral Hamade (+55) was 21st. Alex Brunner did not register an individual finish, as a wrist injury sidelined her for Friday’s third round, but she managed to post a scoring round for the UFV squad on each of the three days she was able to complete.
“She’s the MVP,” Stewart asserted. “If Alex didn’t persevere through a ton of pain, we might have been fighting for the cut line, honestly. She gave it her absolute all, and what she did for those three days blew my mind.
“I was hoping there was a chance she could play on Day 4. I thought we’d drained her batteries on Days 1 and 2, but somehow – I don’t know how – she did it today.”
Park led the Cascades’ back-nine rally, putting together seven pars and two birdies on her way to her lowest round of the week, a three-over 75.
“To go out and shoot a two-under back nine under crazy conditions was an effort worthy of a fifth-year player,” Stewart said of Park, who – like Brunner and Hamade – is still in her first season of eligibility. “The definition of clutch was her back nine. That put us over the top, for sure.”
Bardock, the lone upperclass athlete on the Cascades’ roster, was part of the bronze medal-winning team back in 2018. She contributed to the comeback by stringing together six straight pars to close out her round, highlighted by an incredible shot into the green on 17 that had the crowd roaring.
“Collectively, we were all rooting for each other and we all really wanted it,” Bardock said. “I think that’s what really pushed us to the finish today.
“A few of the rookies felt a bit of pressure because they’d never been in this situation before, but I think all of us would agree this was one of the most fun rounds of golf we’ve ever played, because we were chasing (UBCO).
“I’m very, very proud of all of them – Lucy, Coral and Alex all worked so hard this week. For me, this is something that’s super-exciting – we’ve never won a silver medal before, and I’m so proud to be a part of that.”
Men’s Golf: Armstrong wins individual silver medal at Nationals
Jacob Armstrong of the University of the Fraser Valley men’s golf team capped an outstanding spring season by tying for second at the Canadian University/College Championship in Bromont, Que.
The Winnipeg product, in his second year of eligibility and third overall at UFV, was steady as a metronome throughout the national championship, carding rounds of 69, 72, 69 and 69 at Domaine Château Bromont. That left him two strokes back of individual champ Aidan Schumer of the UBC Thunderbirds (-11), and in a three-way tie for second at -9 alongside Samuel Breton Gagnon of the Champlain St. Lawrence Lions and Alexis Leray of the Laval Rouge et Or.
Armstrong’s silver medal marks the second-best individual finish for a Cascades men’s golfer at the Golf Canada event, exceeded only by Daniel Campbell’s dominant gold-medal performance in 2018.
“It might have been the most impressive thing I’ve seen since I started coaching,” UFV head coach Aaron Pauls said, reflecting on Armstrong’s performance over four rounds this week. “Jacob was incredibly nervous, especially the last couple days when he knew he was in the mix. But his final round today was just remarkable. He works his butt off, and it was awesome to see him play so well on that stage.”
Pauls sensed Armstrong’s nerves from the way he was moving – “walking 1000 miles an hour, really antsy”. Yet his six-birdie, three-bogey round of 69 on Saturday – amidst weather so challenging it delayed play for a stretch – was the low round of the day and one of just three rounds under par.
“I’ve never been so out of breath from nerves my entire life,” Armstrong acknowledged with a chuckle afterward. “It was literally for four days in a row . . . It was actually absurd.
“Part of it was just fighting for the team. These guys, I care a lot about them, and I’ve been waiting to play a national championship for three years now.”
Indeed, after the Golf Canada event was cancelled due to COVID in 2020 and 2021, Armstrong made the most of his first crack at it, and has now put himself in position to be considered for a spot on Team Canada for the FISU World University Golf Championships, which run July 20-23 in Torino, Italy.
“It’s unreal – I’m still processing things, it hasn’t really hit yet,” Armstrong said, reflecting on sharing the silver medal.
“It’s a course that I think suited me. I just played my game and just trusted myself, and it worked out.”
Armstrong’s stellar showing led the Cascades to the brink of the podium in the team event. The UFV squad came into Saturday in fourth place, trailing the Victoria Vikes by nine strokes for the last podium spot. A red-hot start had the Cascades at -5 at the turn – easily the low team score of the day to that point – but they struggled over their last nine holes as a group, finishing at +9 for the day to fall just shy of a team medal. The Cascades finished at +18 for the week, trailing UBC (-7), Laval (+1) and UVic (+8).
Jackson Jacob (+1 for the week) finished solo eighth to give UFV two of the top 10 individual finishers. Eli Greene (+7) tied for 17th, Hudson LaFayette (+19) was T-36th, and Ben Whiton (+28) was 45th.
“We had the start that we needed today,” Pauls noted, “but we had a few hiccups on the back. We had a thunderstorm and it got super windy out here, which caused problems for some of us. But that’s the way these things go sometimes. You need to find a bit of lightning in a bottle, and it didn’t happen on the back nine for us.
“Obviously you want to win a medal, but fourth is still a very good result, especially considering the first two days we didn’t have great performances as a team. To fight back and get into the mix was a very good thing. Unfortunately we weren’t able to catch Laval or UVic, but I think our guys learned a lot about themselves and about golf this week, which is really positive.”
