History was made by the UBC Okanagan men’s golf on Tuesday as they won the school’s first ever Canada West Golf Championship.
The team of Ryan Gillis, Thomas Lemay, Andrew Rouble, Chris Jo, and Kevin Lee brought home the championship with a combined score of -24 through the 36-hole tournament, 17 strokes better than second place UBC.
Gillis (-9), Lemay (-7), and Rouble (-4) also won the individual gold, silver, and bronze. They were all named Canada West first team all stars as well.
Jo finished with a score of -1 and was named a second team all star.
“It means everything right, it’s why we do it,” said Heat head coach Clay Stothers after the victory. “They were ridiculous, like it was absurd. What did we finish, minus 24, and we won by 17, so yeah, the team played pretty good.”
“The great part is the entire team played great,” added Stothers. “Having all three guys finish first, second and third, and then for the team to win on top of that means so much. It all kind of goes back to a belief system and what we’re trying to do and have fun while we’re doing it. I knew they could do it and I’m happy for them that they can see that they did it.”
Gillis’ win is UBCO’s third straight gold medal in the individual championship after Justin Towill won in 2022 and ’23.
“When you have athletes like Ryan, it’s super easy [to coach them],” Stothers said about his gold medallist. “He’s a guy you just kind of let him go and do his thing and he doesn’t get too up or too down. When you watch him play, you have no idea if he’s five-under or five-over, he’s super even keeled and doesn’t get ahead of himself. He’s a phenomenal human being and his ceiling is through the roof.”
The tournament took place at the Okanagan Golf Club.
The men’s golf team has two more events this year – a match-play style event at the University of Fraser Valley Cascades on Oct. 21 and 22 and the Firestorm Fall Invite in Arizona on Nov. 4 and 5.
