Luke Evans was sitting in 21st place after an opening round 81 two weeks ago at the Ontario collegiate championships.
His final year at Fanshawe College had started with a promising fourth-place finish. But placing 21st and 35th in the last two events before provincials was not the way he wanted to finish his career with the Falcons.
“I wanted to be a leader on the team,” the Georgetown golfer said. “I had to look at myself in the mirror and say, ‘You’re much better than this.’”
He proved that over the next two days. A 75 in the second round moved him into the top 10 and a 73 on the final day earned him a fifth-place finish.
“Playing myself into the top five was huge and I carried that momentum into nationals.”
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Last Friday, Evans stood on the 18th tee of Redcrest Golf Club near Newmarket about to hit the most important tee shot of his golf career.
He held a two-shot lead over Zach Pageau in the Canadian Colleges Athletic Association championship after starting the final round five shots back. Facing him was a 407-yard par 4 with water down the length of the right side of the hole and trees on the left.
Evans had never been in a position like this before. Growing up, he played soccer and hockey competitively, but it wasn’t until seven years ago when he got a membership at The Club at North Halton that he really started to take golf seriously.
He had some good finishes in junior golf, but this was entirely new to him.
“I won like a one-day tournament, but nothing like a four-day national championship,” Evans said.
Still, there were no nerves as he prepared to hit that final drive.
“It was the most confident I had been over a tee shot all week,” he said. “I just felt like it was meant to be and I ripped one down the middle.”
Pageau and Evans would both have birdie putts, but after Pageau missed, the 20-year-old knew he could two-putt for the win.
“It was the biggest sigh of relief,” he said. “It felt like a big weight had been lifted off my shoulders. It let me enjoy the moment.”
When he tapped in his par putt to cap a one-under par 70, Evans became Fanshawe’s first individual Canadian champion and helped the Falcons secure the team silver medal.
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The team placing was Evans’ main motivation heading into the final round. Fanshawe was second in the team standings, six shots back of Montreal’s Cégep André-Laurendeau. Evans had helped Fanshawe win its first national medal, a bronze, two years ago, and was hoping to bring the school its first national title.
That deficit seemed much more manageable than the five shots Evans needed to make up on Pageau.
“I don’t mind trailing, but five shots seemed like a lot,” he said. “But the team event, I was trying to get us the gold. That’s what I really focused on.”
However, bogeys by Pageau on No. 1 and 7 and a birdie by Evans on No. 4 quickly cut the lead to two. When the Christ the King graduate rolled in a 10-foot birdie putt on the 10th hole, the lead was down to one.
Evans made par on the 215-yard, par 3 12th, and Pageau double bogeyed, suddenly putting him in the lead. He would add a shot to his advantage on each of the next two holes before matching Pageau’s birdie on the 15th hole, setting him up to claim the Canadian title.
While his ball striking and hitting fairways had always been a strength, Evans said his short game really made a difference, particularly a change to cross-handed chipping the week before nationals.
But the biggest difference, he said, was his mental game, which fuelled his comeback at the provincial tournament and carried through to nationals.
“Last year, I would let my emotions get in the way. I would have just laid down,” he said. “But it was all mindset, turning a negative into a positive when things didn’t go my way. I wanted to be a leader.”
On the biggest stage of his golf career, that’s exactly what Evans was.
