By Brad Ziemer, British Columbia Golf

The UBC-Okanagan men’s team didn’t just win the Canada West Golf Championships, they dominated the competition. The Heat capitalized on home-course advantage to post a team total of 24-under par and beat the field by 17 shots at Okanagan Golf Club’s Bear Course in Kelowna.

Second-year player Ryan Gillis led the way, winning the individual title with a 36-hole score of nine-under par. UBC-Okanagan teammates Thomas Lemay and Andrew Rouble joined Gillis on the podium. Heat coach Clay Stothers was obviously delighted with the performance of the men’s team.

“I couldn’t imagine us winning by 17 shots and having three players on our team coming first, second and third,” Stothers said. “It was a surreal, magical couple of days when everything kind of lined up nicely.”

Stothers, the director of instruction at Okanagan Golf Club, is starting his fifth year as coach of the men’s and women’s teams at UBC-Okanagan and has done a remarkable job of building the program. The future is looking bright.

“Considering where we came from and where we are now is light years away, but to be quite honest with you I have still got a very young team. Ryan is second year, Thomas, who finished second, is a rookie, and my No. 1 recruit this year was injured and unable to play. So the future is ridiculously bright for our golf program. It is beyond exciting to kind of imagine some of the things we might be able to do in the future.”

Stothers credited a fast start by Gillis with helping spark his team. Gillis, a Calgary native who won the Alberta Junior Boys Championship this past summer, opened the Canada West tourney with an eight-under 64. “He was like seven-under through 10 or 11 holes and Thomas got wind of what was going on and I think he was seven-under through 10 or 11 as well,” Stothers said.

“I think when they saw what the other guys were doing they just kind of fed off of that and it just allowed everyone to play a little more freed up.” Chris Jo and Kevin Lee were the other members of the winning Heat team.

The UBC Thunderbirds, the defending Canada West champions, finished second at seven-under par, four shots better than third-place University of Victoria. UBC dominated the women’s competition, winning by 34 shots with a team total of 16-under par. It was the fifth straight Canada West win for the Thunderbirds.

Elizabeth Labbe led the way for UBC. She closed with a seven-under 66 and won the individual title by three shots over teammate Grace Bell with a 36-hole total of eight-under par. Jessica Ng (T3) and Keira Hou (5) also finished inside the top five for UBC.

UBC-Okanagan finished second overall in the women’s team competition at 16-over par. That was three shots better than third-place University of the Fraser Valley.

BIRDIE BARRAGE: There has been absolutely no sign of a sophomore slump for Surrey’s Lauren Kim, who is off to a great start in her second year at the University of Texas. Kim played three excellent rounds at last week’s NB3 (Notah Begay III) Collegiate Match Play Championship in New Mexico. Kim had 15 birdies and two eagles in her three matches. She tied her first match, won her second match 2-up and her third 4&3.

The event featured the men’s and women’s teams from Texas, New Mexico, New Mexico State and Stanford. Texas won the women’s event and combined with the Texas men to also win the combined title. Victoria’s Chelsea Truong, a freshman at New Mexico, won one of her three matches. Kim headed into the event No. 28 on the World Amateur Golf Ranking. She is the highest-ranked Canadian.

WILSON HONOURED: Nanaimo’s Matthew Wilson was named the Summit League Peak Golfer of the Week after leading his Weber State squad to the team championship at the Bill Cullum Invitational hosted by Cal State Northridge. Wilson, a freshman at Weber State, finished the tournament in solo third at three-under par after firing rounds of 72, 72 and 69.

VEGAS, BABY: Abbotsford’s Adam Hadwin will make his lone appearance of the PGA Tour’s fall season at this week’s Shriners Children’s Open in Las Vegas. Hadwin finished solo second at last year’s Shriners, one shot behind winner Tom Kim. Hadwin has enjoyed considerable success at the Shriners. In addition to last year’s runner-up finish, Hadwin had top-10s in 2022 (T10), 2021 (T6) and 2019 (T4).

Fellow British Columbians Nick Taylor of Abbotsford, Adam Svensson of Surrey and Roger Sloan of Merritt are also in the Las Vegas field after competing in last week’s PGA Tour event in Utah — the Black Rock Championship. Svensson and Taylor tied for 25th at 13-under-par, 10 shots behind winner Matt McCarty. Svensson opened the tournament with a career-best 11-under 60.

Sloan tied for 61st at five-under. Taylor remains 58th on the FedEx Cup points list, Svensson fell one spot to 77th and Sloan fell four spots to 172nd.

SCHOOL DAYS: PGA TOUR Q-school is seldom stress-free, but Richmond’s Chris Crisologo sailed through the first stage with relative ease. Crisologo tied for fifth at a first-stage site in Broken Arrow, Okla., and will move on to second-stage qualifying, which goes in late November and early December.  Click HERE to see the final scoring for the Oklahoma Q-School site. 

Three other British Columbians were not so fortunate. Jared du Toit of Kimberley missed by two shots at a first-stage site in Maricopa, Ariz., where Vernon’s Bryce Barker fell five shots short. Duncan’s Callum Davison missed at a site in Nebraska. First-stage qualifying continues this week for Jake Lane of Vancouver and Jeevan Sihota of Victoria. Lane is competing at a site in Bermuda Run, N.C., while Sihota is at a site in Albuquerque, N.M. Langley’s James Allenby and Khan Lee of Chilliwack are both scheduled to compete Oct. 22-25 at a first-stage site in Murrieta, Calif.

DATE CHANGE: Hurricane Milton forced the LPGA Tour to postpone its Q-Series event scheduled for this week in Plantation, Fla. It will now be played Oct. 20-25. Vancouver’s Leah John and Mary Parsons of Delta will be among those looking to advance to the final stage of LPGA qualifying in December.

MATCH PLAY CHAMPS: Vancouver’s Ilirian Zalli and Jackson Jacob of Langley won the 79th playing of the Vancouver Golf Tour’s B.C. Match Play Championship played at Vancouver Golf Club. Zalli and Jacob beat the duo of Steven Lecuyer of North Vancouver and Stephen Gotch of Vancouver 2&1. The win was Jacob’s first as a pro and Zalli’s seventh of the season on the VGT. They each earned $3,000. That money will come in handy for Zalli, who heads to Spain next month for the second stage of the DP World Tour qualifying school.