The 19th Hole

The third PACWEST golf tournament was hosted at the Chilliwack Country Club this past weekend. It was the final tune-up before the PACWEST championship tournament which is set for Thanksgiving weekend.

On Saturday Zach Olson of the UFV Cascades took advantage of the home course shooting a 70 to place him in a tie with Wyatt Brook of the VIU Mariners on the men’s leaderboard.

Veteran Jacob Vanderpas of the Langara Falcons was just two strokes back while Dustin Franko of the Douglas Royals and Cascade Kyle Claggett found themselves five strokes back of the leaders, but very much in the hunt.

Day 2 on Sunday saw better scores from most of the golfers across the board. Oliver Rizun of the UBC Okanagan Heat shot a tournament low of 70, but it wasn’t enough finishing five strokes behind the leaders. The weekend however belonged to Olson. His Sunday scorecard of 72 kept him out in front winning his first PACWEST crown of the season with a cumulative score of 142, four strokes better than four other golfers.

As a team the Cascades blew the field out of the water shooting a combined score of 589, a whopping 22 strokes better than the Heat at 611.

The women’s leaderboard saw Rebecca Reitsma of the Heat lead from wire to wire. On Saturday she shot an 80 to give herself a one stroke lead over teammate Samantha Copeland. Meanwhile Alex Foston of the VIU Mariners was three strokes back.

On Sunday Reitsma kept up her hot shooting, finishing the round with a tournament low of 78 and a two-day cumulative score of 158 capturing her first PACWEST title. Copeland, her teammate, shot an 81 but finished four strokes behind. Foston shot an 82 and was five strokes off the leaders.

As for the team score the Heat shot a 320 while the Mariners checked in shooting 335.

Thanksgiving weekend the PACWEST championship tournament will tee-off and open on Friday at the Nanaimo Golf Club.

This coming Wednesday the PACWEST will announce the 2018 Golf All-Stars.