St. Clair women win OCAA golf title.
St. Clair’s Mackenzie leads women’s team to first title
Heather MacKenzie battled nerves and a seasoned opponent in leading the St. Clair Saints to their first team gold in school history at the OCAA golf championships.
Only three years into her competitive career, MacKenzie chased individual gold for two days before Durham’s Tiffany Albath cemented a second consecutive title with a two-over 74 Wednesday at Roseland.
Heading into the third and final round with a two-shot lead, Albath pulled away with a solid 35 on the front nine to a wobbly 43 by MacKenzie.
MacKenzie finished with an 84 and teammate Ashley Unrau had an 85. In addition to picking up individual silver and bronze medals, respectively, their closing 169 gave the Saints the women’s team gold over Albath and her partner Stephanie Mole from Durham College.
“It would have been a bonus to get individual,” said MacKenzie, a third-year student in the professional golf management program.
“Team gold is what I really wanted. I wanted to hang in there for the squad and not blow up.”
The Saints had a 14- shot cushion in the team hunt coming into Wednesday’s round. Albath’s 74 and Mole’s rebound from Tuesday’s disastrous 98 for a closing 85 whittled that down to just four in the end.
“You feel a lot of pressure when it’s your home course,” the 19-year-old Unrau said. “I just tried not to think about it today.”
Ironically, the Saints have won a national CCAA women’s team gold from the 2005 championships hosted by Fox Glen but have never before taken the provincial tournament.
Saints coach Kevin Corriveau was “thrilled” at his team’s victory and the individual growth of MacKenzie.
“(She’s) made a concerted effort to play more competitive golf to get better,” Corriveau said. “She’s so much smarter about what she does on the golf course. To watch her manage her game the last few days, she kept me calm.”
Albath nursed some cracked ribs in a hotel hot tub Tuesday night in preparation for her title defence.
“I tried to take care of my back and not hit shots where I had to hammer on it,” she said. “I wasn’t in the rough as much today so that helped.”
Georgian’s Colton Kalkanis went wire-to-wire in winning the men’s individual title. Kalkanis closed with a 72 for a three-over 213 total that was two shots clear of Seneca’s Mitchel Kennedy. Kennedy had a 73 and bronze medallist Alex Dumais of Humber had a 74.
Dumais also collected a gold medal as Humber won its seventh straight men’s team title with an 874 total.
Byron Berger posted the best finish for the St. Clair men with a 79 for a 228 total that put him tied for 25th.
As a team, the Saints were seventh, which leaves them with an outside shot of getting to the CCAA nationals in Oshawa Oct. 15-19. The top four men’s teams advance but additional OCAA entries may be needed to fill out the field if associations from either end of the country decline to make the trip.