Golfer Costabile finds sweet home in Alabama
Ontario junior champion has busy stretch before heading south
Peyton Costabile paid a visit to the picturesque campus in February and decided almost immediately the next step of her academic and athletic careers would be at the University of Alabama-Birmingham.
The Ayr native made it official shortly after and shared the news of her decision earlier this week during a rally at Southwood Secondary School. She had signed a full-ride scholarship to study kinesiology at UAB and play golf for the Blazers at the NCAA Division 1 level.
“When I went on campus, I just fell in love with it and it felt like home,” said the 17-year-old Costabile, the reigning Ontario junior girls’ champion who plays out of the Whistle Bear Golf Club.
“I’ve heard people say that before, and I didn’t believe it was true until I went to UAB and was like, ‘Oh, I guess this is the feeling that everyone’s been talking about.’ It’s difficult to explain, but I had a feeling come over me like I was part of the community even before I signed.”
Costabile made a splash on the North American golf scene last August when she won the Ontario junior championship in Brockville. The victory ensures her name will forever be included in an impressive list of past champions that includes Brooke Henderson (2011, 2012), Alena Sharp (1997, 1998), Sandra Post (1965, 1966) and Marlene Stewart Streit (1951, 1952).
University scouts and coaches took notice, and the five-foot-tall Costabile, who utilized the services of Next Level Sports U recruiting agency, was suddenly a hot commodity.
The Team Ontario golfer also made an official visit to Kennesaw University in Georgia and an unofficial trip to Florida Atlantic University before deciding on UAB. Additional planned visits were cancelled when she signed her scholarship.
“I’m extremely excited and kind of relieved to have this out of the way, to know where I’m going to school next year and being able to focus on golf this summer,” she said.
Costabile’s abbreviated summer schedule starts next week with the Women’s Porter Cup at the Niagara Falls Country Club in Lewiston, N.Y. Her father, Dino, will handle the caddying duties, and Costabile is looking forward to “having fun and sharing a lot of laughs.”
She has a qualifying event in Brighton, Ont., for the USGA junior girls’ amateur June 22. She will play in a qualifier for the USGA women’s amateur in Oshawa just five days later.
She will then play in the July 2 to 6 North and South junior championship in Pinehurst, N.C., the July 11 to 14 Ontario junior girls’ championship in Kingsville and the July 26 to 29 Canadian junior girls’ championship in Ottawa.
Costabile is also hoping to make her way into the field for the July 19 to 22 Canadian women’s amateur at the Westmount Golf and Country Club in Kitchener.
“And that’s it,” she said. “The first day of practice (at UAB) is on the 17th of August, I can move into my dorm on the 15th, and we’re planning on being there for the 12th.”
We, in this case, are Costabile and her mother, Anne, who has yet to see her daughter’s future home or meet her coaches.
Costabile said both her parents have played a huge role in her success — “they helped to get me where I am today” — as well as her coach, Mark Elliott, of London’s
When I went on campus, I just fell in love with it and it felt like home.
PEYTON COSTABILE
Sunningdale Golf and Country Club.
The Blazers compete in their first tournament in September, and five of seven players will be on the roster for the first event, said Costabile.
UAB head coach Kari Bellville goes with players who post the best scores in a pre-tournament round, and Costabile sees no reason why she can’t make an immediate impact as a freshman.
“My coach is very score-oriented and she doesn’t pick and choose who goes into a tournament,” said Costabile. “That’s another reason to love her and love my new school.”
The Southwood rally to celebrate Costabile’s achievement was also about her classmate Sarah Makcrow, a soccer player who will attend Laurentian University on a scholarship this year.
Chip shots Victor Ciesielski of Cambridge and Keaton Jones of Kitchener are in the Monday qualifier for the RBC Canadian Open. The PGA Tour event starts Thursday at the St. George’s Golf and Country Club in Toronto . ... Aiden Shah, 18, of Waterloo qualified for the Maple Leaf Junior Golf Tour’s National Team Challenge Invitational, Sept. 16 to 18 at Royal Niagara Golf Club, by winning the junior division in a two-day event at Tarandowah . ... Rob Cowan (Westmount, Wellesley) and Charlie Burke (Innerkip, New Hamburg) are in the Ontario senior men’s match play championship that starts Tuesday at Taboo Muskoka, while Jack Deighan (Cambridge, Galt), Josh Hunke (Deer Ridge, New Hamburg) and Nolan Wilson (Galt, Cambridge) are competing in the men’s match play at the same venue.