BU golfers tee off at Milby
The Bishop’s Gaiters golf team opened their 2019-2020 campaign on Wednesday Aug. 28 and Thursday Aug. 29, at their home course, the Milby Golf Club. The first RSEQ tournament of the season comes only days after the beginning of training camp for BU’S 11 golfers, led by coach Marty Rourke.
“We started our training camp on Saturday morning on Aug. 24. It was a quick three-day camp, since our golfers are already playing 36 holes at Milby on Wednesday and 18 holes on Thursday,” said Rourke, also the sports information coordinator at Bishop’s University.
“We have 11 team members. Five will be selected further on in the season to represent the Bishop’s team, while others compete as individuals. We have four veterans from our national team last year. I think our first years are up for the challenge,” he claimed.
“Milby is our home course, but it’s the type of golf course where practice and experience are crucial. The greens are particularly tough, and it’s imperative to understand the course in order to be successful. I think our rookies have noticed that quickly, but they are very promising,” mentioned Rourke. In fact, Félix Boucher, Gabriel Boudreault, Jared Dandy, Liam Llewellyn, and Jayson Robillard will be facing quite a challenge in their first year. Llewellyn and Boucher also participated in the Canadian Junior
Boys Championships in New Brunswick this summer.
“Camp went really well, and things are looking good. Two years ago, we finished fourth in the RSEQ. We qualified for nationals and finished 17th. This year, we finished third in the RSEQ and tied for 12th place at nationals,” noted the head coach. “It won’t be an easy task to choose the five guys who will represent Bishop’s at nationals, but we’re very optimistic.”
Veteran Gaiters also have a bright season ahead of them. “Nova Scotian Ben Chassé is coming back for his third year. He finished fifth as an individual golfer in the Canadian University Championships and he qualified for the Canadian Amateur Championships. It was amazing to see one of our little guys from the RSEQ, and Bishop’s, make it to a top spot in Nationals,” added Rourke. Chassé had the best ever finish for a Gaiter since the introduction of the championships and was the lowest scoring individual from the RSEQ.
“Third year Anthony Gosselin, who is originally from Coaticook, also won the Milby Championship this weekend and made the cut as an individual golfer for nationals,” remarked Rourke. “We’ll also have fourth-year Connor Lyon and second-year Ben Lowe as key players this year. We’ll keep pushing and see who plays the best in the first few tournaments to decide who will be the five guys to represent Bishop’s. We’ll go on from there.” Fourth-year Hayden Richmond and second-year Malcom Fava will also be competing for a spot in the Bishop’s team.
Rourke is still looking for female golfers after Meghan Lord and Zoe Whitfield graduated from Bishop’s this past June. “It’s unfortunate. We’re looking for more players, but we haven’t found any individuals this year,” he conceded. “We’re waiting to see if there would be any golfers interested who find out about our program once school starts. It’s still on our radar for sure.”
“It’s my eighth year coaching the golf team at Bishop’s. We’ve really ramped up the program in the last few years,” added Rourke. “We’ve had great players and we’ve been able to dedicate more and more time to it as we keep making a name for ourselves in the RSEQ and at nationals.”