Jefferson Hagen / MacEwan Athletics
Plenty of promise was exhibited by MacEwan golf team members during tryouts at Red Tail Landing Golf Club last weekend.
But the highlights of the week might have come from a pair of women playing at courses elsewhere in Edmonton.
Fifth-year Griffins Daniela Donnelly and Elizabeth Stewart both captured their respective women's club championships – at Glendale and Royal Mayfair – over the weekend.
"They're kind of riding a high right now and I can't help but think they can ride some of that momentum into the season," said MacEwan Griffins golf coach Jodi Campbell. "They're playing really good, maybe as good as they've ever played.
"The fact that they're hitting their stride at the beginning of the season is perfect for us," he added. "They're both pretty motivated going into the ACAC for their last season this year, as well."
Donnelly and Stewart – the 2015 ACAC player of the year – will anchor a Griffins women's team that is looking to improve on a silver medal finish in 2016. Rachel Wiebe is returning for a second season, while newcomer Hailey Turcotte made a splash during tryouts.
"She's had a really good junior career and played really well at tryouts," said Campbell after Turcotte shot rounds of 86 and 83 at Red Tail Landing.
"We're excited to have her as an addition to the women's team," said Campbell. "I think we now maybe for the first time ever have three girls that can post some really solid numbers (Turcotte, Stewart and Donnelly), which, at the end of the day, is going to give us as good a chance as any of making a run at nationals, too."
The Griffins men's team is trying to fill some big shoes after both Barrett Belland (who swept the ACAC tournaments last season) and Brett Hawken have graduated. Regular team member Mitch Lukasewich is also not back.
However, All-Canadian Josh Gorieu – who was runner-up for the ACAC individual title last season – is back in fine form. The fourth-year player led the Griffins at tryouts with rounds of 72 and 74. Also back are regular team members Noah Lubberding (73-77 at tryouts) and Christian Solkowski (75-75), while Brandon Walterhouse, who competed individually in his freshman year last season, will look to land a spot on the competitive team.
"We ended up replacing half of our men's team this year," said Campbell. "We did this once before and it kind of feels like a rebuilding year. But at the same time, our goals don't change. We're wanting to remain competitive. We've got four core guys coming back.
"We've got a couple of young guys coming in that will easily fit in," he continued. "It might be a rebuilding year, but at the same time I'm pretty happy with the makeup. We've got some young guys who will be with us for a couple years and make sure we're competitive moving forward."
The top two performers from the rookie class at tryouts were Dakota Smith and Justin Berget, who will both push for spots on the Griffins' weekly five-man team this season. Smith shot rounds of 76 and 72, showing big improvement from 2016 tryouts when he was cut from the squad.
Berget, out of the Stony Plain GC, is coming in off a great junior career. Earlier this week, he finished tied for fifth in the McLennan Ross Sun Junior Tour Championship at Wolf Creek GC.
"Dakota's continued to improve over the summer. I expect he'll play really well," said Campbell. "Justin is new and coming out of high school, so he's had a really solid year playing on the junior tours in Alberta here. We're looking to see what he can do in his first year and get his feet wet in the ACAC."
Rounding out the list of new players for the men's team are Les Fisher and Zac Yurick.
For the men, a team of five will be selected for each tournament and the top four scores count. The rest will compete individually. For the women, the top two scores out of a team of three will compete for the team title.
The Griffins golf squads will hold an intra-squad match on Sept. 9 to get ready for the new season, which begins with the North Regional Sept. 16-17, hosted by UAlberta-Augustana at Camrose GC. Medicine Hat College (MHC) will host the South Regional on Sept. 23-24 at Desert Blume GC before the Griffins return to their home course at Red Tail Landing for the ACAC Championship Sept. 30 – Oct. 1.
Campbell expects to compete for both ACAC banners again.
"Over the years, we've gotten to the point with our program where you've got to have a balance between veteran players and up-and-coming players, so you've always got someone in the pipe ready to take their place," said Campbell.
"A lot of the top teams in the CCAA like UFV, Humber, Holland College, Camosun College – it's not a question of whether they're going to be good. They're just always good because their program is developed in a way that you stay competitive."
The Canadian Colleges Athletic Association PING nationals are set to be hosted by Durham College at Oshawa, Ont.'s Royal Ashburn GC Oct. 17-20.
