Alex Dumais won his second straight OCAA bronze medal. COURTESY HUMBER ATHLETICS.
By Andrew Millichamp
The Humber Hawks men’s golf team has won their seventh straight OCAA championship.
The Hawks put up a final tally of 874, three shots better than runner-up Georgian College. Niagara College picked up the bronze.
“We didn’t play our best but we did play solid,” Hawks head coach Ray Chateau told Humber News. “We did enough to win.”
While the men’s team did win gold, individually the players struggled at times.
Alex Dumais shot rounds of 70, 73 and 74 for a total of 217, which was good enough for his second consecutive bronze medal.
Christian McCullough shot a 219 which had him finish tied for fifth, while Nick Fortin and Ben McFaul tied for ninth with scores of 220. Ben Bell rounded out the team with a 229 total.
“We had some excellent performances out of everybody,” Chateau said, noting that “a couple of players struggled” at times.
With the exception of Dumais everyone had at least one round over 75.
“I don’t think it was nerves, it might have been a lack of experience,” said Chateau. “I really was impressed with how well we finished. We played the last five holes of the tournament ten shots better than Georgian.
“When it mattered, when the pressure was on, our guys played great and closed well,” Chateau said.
The depth of the Humber team will again be displayed at nationals, which take place from Oct. 15-19 at Durham Golf Club in Oshawa, Ont.
“I expect that we’re going to contend,” said Chateau. “Certainly I think the Oshawa golf club will separate teams and the better players will emerge much quicker.”
“Roseland (site of the OCAA championship) is the type of golf course where it kept everybody bunched together,” Chateau said. “The pin positions really limited anyone going under par. I think Oshawa is a much more demanding golf course.”
Chateau says Humber, ranked number one in the country, will be right in the thick of it as they battle for a fourth straight CCAA championship.
“I expect at the end of the day it’ll probably be Humber, Georgian, University of the Fraser Valley and Camosun College battling it out.”