By Brad Ziemer, British Columbia Golf

British Columbia retained bragging rights after winning its second straight Indigenous Challenge Match with Ontario at the Bear Mountain Resort in Victoria.

Team B.C. outscored Ontario 9-7 in the two-day match-play event at Bear Mountain’s Valley and Mountain courses.

Christina Spence Proteau of Port Alberni and partner Joan Hinkey of Nanoose Bay won both of their matches. Proteau and Hinkey beat the Ontario duo of Lorraine Elijah and Sophie Malenfant 4&3 in their Tuesday match.

They won their opening match Monday by the same 4&3 score over Kathy Jamieson and Melanie Burgess of Team Ontario. “Joan definitely carried me a fair bit yesterday, so I earned my keep a little more today,” said Spence Proteau, a winner of multiple provincial and national championships.

“We balanced each other out really well and had a lot of fun at the same time. Both matches started off a little bit slow at our end, but we had really great back nines both days.”

Winning was obviously nice, but Spence Proteau noted this event is about much more than that. “Everyone is competitive and wants to do their best, but there’s a collegiality that is different from other events,” said Spence Proteau, who won the inaugural B.C. Indigenous Championship in 2023.

“One of the players from Ontario has brought a gift for each of us the last two years. So I am going to send some smoked salmon from Port Alberni as a gift. There are some friendships being forged across the provinces.”

B.C. won last year’s the inaugural Indigenous Challenge Match against Ontario, which was also played at Bear Mountain, by a score of 18-14. “We’d love to see the other provinces get involved, beyond British Columbia and Ontario,” Spence Proteau said. “I think Golf Canada would support a national match play event.”

Each team was comprised of 16 players — four two-person teams in net and gross divisions. B.C. Junior Boys champion Austin Krahn of Christina Lake, who repeated as B.C. Indigenous champion this past spring, played at Bear Mountain with Cody Bailey of Prince George. They won both of their matches, but had to battle from behind to seal their victory on Tuesday over Team Ontario’s Daylon Gee and Ron Atatise.

“Our match went right to the 18th hole,” said the 16-year-old Krahn. “We were three down through three after a tough start. Then we battled back pretty hard. We were down two with three to play and then we won the last three holes to win it by one. It was a pretty good battle. There were really good shots by both teams. It was just great golf all-round.”

It was a family affair of sorts for Krahn, whose older brothers, Mitchell and David, were also part of Team B.C. “This year the competition was really, really high level,” Krahn said.

“My two brothers and I all had our matches go to the 18th hole today. It was a great experience and you get the same kind of pressure you get in this tournament that you do in the B.C. Junior. It was the same kind of stuff going down the stretch. It was really fun and having the whole family here is really special.”

The other members of Team B.C. included 2024 Indigenous Championship winner Kylie Jack of West Kelowna , Hayley Geremia of Langley, Harry Ferguson of Invermere, James Ivers of Surrey, Josh Charles of Victoria, Robert Louie of Kelowna, Sharon Jack of West Kelowna, Erin Duhaime of Victoria, Gloria Morgan of Vernon and Cherie Williams of Victoria.

Stephen Tooshkenig, Ontario's non-playing captain, said his team thoroughly enjoyed the competition. “We were tied after day one and B.C. went into a different mode today, played quite well, made some putts and ended up beating us 9-7," he said. "It was very close all the way through. Several matches went to the 18th hole.”

Click HERE for complete final scoring.