Jefferson Hagen, MacEwan Athletics
SAINTE-VICTOIRE-DE-SOREL, Que. – Justin Berget is just two shots off the lead after the opening round of the PING CCAA men's golf championship at Continental GC-St. Laurent, located about 90 minutes north of Montreal.
The MacEwan Griffins golfer and 2019 ACAC champion shot a 1-over 73 on the 6613-yard track Tuesday and is tied for fourth among a field of 60 top players from across Canada.
"It's not that surprising, to be honest," said MacEwan head coach Jodi Campbell. "He's having that kind of season. His confidence is high. He's hitting the ball really well. He's making good decisions and he's really bought into what it takes to play your best golf. As a third-year player, he's hitting his stride."
Berget carded two birdies, three bogeys and 13 pars and is right behind leader Louis-Alexandre Jobin-Colgan of Champlain St. Lawrence, who fired a 1-under 71 on the opening day of the four-round tournament.
"The golf course is really tough," said Campbell. "It's narrow. The wind was up today, so you look at a lot of scores across the leaderboard. The best players tend to separate themselves and Bergie was definitely one of them. There's some really good scores on the board right now and he's definitely leading the way for the team again."
Noah Lubberding is tied for 24th after a 78, while Nate Gerhardt and Blake Caron (both T41st – 81) and Stephen Christenson (T45th – 82) rounded out MacEwan's Day 1 scores.
That puts them in eighth out of 11 teams participating with a score of 313 (top four of five scores count each day), but Campbell notes they're only four shots out of the top five. Champlain St. Lawrence leads with a 300 total.
"There are top teams across this country, the ACAC included, that did not perform well today," said Campbell. "We're still in the mix. I know we're kind of in the middle, but we're only four or five shots out of fifth. Our goal is to always try to get into the top five.
"We've got three more rounds and there's lots of time to gain (ground). It's really about consistency. If you have one off day, you're going to get left behind. For us, it's about following that process and sticking with it the entire week. The results will look after themselves."
With temperatures hovering at 13C on Tuesday, many teams donned toques and inclement weather gear, but you could easily have seen the ACAC competitors reaching for shorts. After all, that's 16 degrees warmer than it was at the ACAC Championship in Ryley, Alta. last month.
Berget, for one, has definitely proved no matter what the conditions are, he'll just plug away and rack up solid holes – as evidenced by his nine-shot win at the ACAC Championship in ridiculously tough conditions.
"Bergie already proved the conditions don't matter," said Campbell. "He's mentally tough, he's a gamer, he's the kind of guy that will step up and be ready to play when the time comes."
Round 2 goes Tuesday with the tournament wrapping up on Friday.
