For the fifth straight year, the Kwalikum Kondors golf team has captured the AA Island Championship and is looking for its third straight provincial title.
The Kondors golf team has been able to continue its dominance of Vancouver Island golf the last six years with the five straight AA Island championships to go along with one AAA Island championship.
The Kondors take off Sunday, after players attend a junior qualifying tournament at Pheasant Glen.
KSS golf coach Butch Gayton said it’s a testament to the talent of the students and the practise they’ve been able to put in thanks to the courses and facilities available to them in the area.
“We’ve been very fortunate,” Gayton said. “Being able to have three courses to use for practices in the area and the golf academy at Pheasant Glen has gone a long way in helping develop our players.”
“We’ve been able to utilize basically every aspect of the golf game that you can think of and practise it over and over again, whether it’s beautiful outside or we need to head indoors to continue practising.”
Grade 11 Blair Stewart shot the low round for the tournament for the Kondors, firing a round of 76 at Arbutus Ridge Golf Course down in Mill Bay.
Grade 10 Jake Lane shot a 79, Grade 9 Aiden Goodfellow shot an 81, Grade 11 Tony Trozzo shot a score of 83 and Grade 11 Masato Wilson finished with an 87.
In total, the team shot a score of 319, which is unusually high for a team to win a tournament, but with the way the course was set up, teams scored high and had troubles with the pin placement to go along with how hard the greens were.
“It was tough out there,” Gayton said. “You couldn’t land anything close to the pin, you had to either hit it short and let it run or even leave it short of the green and chip it on.”
“The placements were tough and those greens were solid, so it made things tough not just for us but for everyone out there.”
For the most part, it’s been a season that’s seen various players step up and take the lead for the Kwalikum golf team in different tournaments.
For coach Gayton, that’s been a sign of just how deep this team can really be and he knows it’s a great problem to have as the team prepares for the provincials in Vernon.
“Our team depth is our success,” Gayton said. “When you can have your number five guy shoot a round of 76, that’s huge.”
“Any one of this group of five can shoot low and I’m usually expecting at least two of them to shoot in the 70’s.”
“We had two shoot in the 70’s at the Islands and no other team was able to do that, so it speaks volumes to the depth we’ve got on this team.”
