Jefferson Hagen, MacEwan Athletics
EDMONTON – There were 36 men's players in action in the final round of the Alberta Colleges Athletic Conference North Regional on Sunday afternoon at Red Tail Landing.
But the title race was essentially match play between just two.
First round leader Michael Harrison held a one-shot advantage over MacEwan's Justin Berget for most of the round – even stretching it to two at one point. But when the two-time defending ACAC champion made bogey on 15, the duo walked up the 18th fairway all square.
That's when Berget came up clutch.
"My ball was in the fescue on the right side of 18 and I had 135 (yards in)," he said. "It was sitting up nice, though, so I got a club on it and put it to about 12 feet. Michael got down in two from 25 feet and made par, and I rolled in the birdie on 18 for the win."
The bird gave Berget a nice round of 69 to go with the 70 he shot and Saturday and finish -5 to nip Harrison (69-71) by a shot. Nicolas Pittman of Concordia had the low round of the tournament on Sunday – a 3-under 68 – to finish third at 1-under.
Two-time reigning ACAC champion Michael Harrison of UAlberta-Augustana held the lead for much of the day on Sunday before a bogey on 15 allowed Berget to pull even and pass him with a birdie putt on No. 18 (Jefferson Hagen photo).
While the win is only a regional event and not the coveted ACAC Championship gold medal, for Berget to pull it off still means a lot.
"It just proves that I can," the Stony Plain GC product said. "I was always close, I felt my game was close, but I was never able to close. It felt good to get it done finally."
MacEwan head coach Jodi Campbell noted Berget was due for a victory sooner or later.
"Bergie's been playing so good all summer that it was only a matter of time he was going to break through and win one," he said. "He was a shot back and so he obviously had a goal in sight. The fact he was able to close it out is huge.
"Whenever you can go sub-70 and throw a 69 down, birdieing the last hole to win it, that's what you want to do. He was pretty pumped. We're super excited for him."
Nate Gerhardt (T10 – 74-75), Stephen Christenson (13th – 74-78), Noah Lubberding (T15 – 79-77), Blake Caron (T15 – 78-78), Jarrett Bossert (T19th – 76-84) and Jose Lopez Peterson (T24th – 79-84) rounded out the results for MacEwan's men's team. The Griffins finished fourth in the team standings (600), 12 shots behind winner SAIT (588), while UAlberta-Augustana was second (595) and Medicine Hat third (599).
"Is it odd that I'm just not concerned about that team score right now? All the teams are so tight and the competition is really strong," noted Campbell. "I was probably more impressed with some of the individual performances today. In a way that overrode the fact that as a team we didn't finish that strong.
"At the same time, it's about gaining some momentum. I'm less concerned about this event than I am about the one two weeks from now when we head into the ACAC Championship. We got some good experience – 60 per cent of our team are rookies, so they come out here, get their feet wet and start the season in a good way. I think the rest of it will look after itself two weeks from now."
Besides Berget's day, Campbell also pointed to two huge individual performances for the MacEwan women's team as Skyler Thompson broke 90 for the first time, shooting 88, and Taylor Eskdale broke 100 for the first time, shooting 98.
"Sometimes it's about those personal goals," said Campbell. "We have a young lady who's never broken 100 before and she shot 98.
"Then we had Skyler, who couldn't break 100 all of last year, but she walked into this year and her goal was to try to break 90 and she throws an 88 down. That type of performance is a confidence builder for them. When you look at all three of them, I'm super excited for them, but overall, let's just get this first event out of the way and we can build on Calgary next weekend."
Jordan Hoyda watches her drive on No. 8 Sunday at Red Tail Landing. She led the Griffins with an 84 in Round 2 for a seventh-place finish (Jefferson Hagen photo).
Jordan Hoyda led the Griffins women's team with a seventh-place finish after rounds of 98 and 84, while Thompson was ninth (100-88), Terynn Jensen 13th (103-105) and Eskdale 14th (114-98). The Griffins finished fourth in the women's team standings at 370, well back of champion Concordia (319) and runners-up Medicine Hat and SAIT (347).
Concordia's Kennedy Turcotte won the women's individual title (74-76) by 13 strokes over SAIT's Carey McLean (83-80), while Concordia's Kassidy Turcotte (87-82) placed third.
MacEwan finished fourth in the mixed team title race with a score of 474. SAIT (455), Concordia (469) and UAA (473) finished in the top three positions.
The Griffins next head to the ACAC South Regional on Sept. 21-22, hosted by SAIT at Valley Ridge Golf Course. The ACAC Championship is set for Sept. 27-29 at Coal Creek GC in Ryley, Alta.
