Jacob Armstrong of the University of the Fraser Valley men's golf team capped an outstanding spring season by tying for second at the Canadian University/College Championship in Bromont, Que.

The Winnipeg product, in his second year of eligibility and third overall at UFV, was steady as a metronome throughout the national championship, carding rounds of 69, 72, 69 and 69 at Domaine Château Bromont. That left him two strokes back of individual champ Aidan Schumer of the UBC Thunderbirds (-11), and in a three-way tie for second at -9 alongside Samuel Breton Gagnon of the Champlain St. Lawrence Lions and Alexis Leray of the Laval Rouge et Or. 

FINAL RESULTS

Armstrong's silver medal marks the second-best individual finish for a Cascades men's golfer at the Golf Canada event, exceeded only by Daniel Campbell's dominant gold-medal performance in 2018. 

"It might have been the most impressive thing I've seen since I started coaching," UFV head coach Aaron Pauls said, reflecting on Armstrong's performance over four rounds this week. "Jacob was incredibly nervous, especially the last couple days when he knew he was in the mix. But his final round today was just remarkable. He works his butt off, and it was awesome to see him play so well on that stage."

Pauls sensed Armstrong's nerves from the way he was moving – "walking 1000 miles an hour, really antsy". Yet his six-birdie, three-bogey round of 69 on Saturday – amidst weather so challenging it delayed play for a stretch – was the low round of the day and one of just three rounds under par.

"I've never been so out of breath from nerves my entire life," Armstrong acknowledged with a chuckle afterward. "It was literally for four days in a row . . . It was actually absurd. 

"Part of it was just fighting for the team. These guys, I care a lot about them, and I've been waiting to play a national championship for three years now."

Indeed, after the Golf Canada event was cancelled due to COVID in 2020 and 2021, Armstrong made the most of his first crack at it, and has now put himself in position to be considered for a spot on Team Canada for the FISU World University Golf Championships, which run July 20-23 in Torino, Italy.

"It's unreal – I'm still processing things, it hasn't really hit yet," Armstrong said, reflecting on sharing the silver medal. 

"It's a course that I think suited me. I just played my game and just trusted myself, and it worked out."

Armstrong's stellar showing led the Cascades to the brink of the podium in the team event. The UFV squad came into Saturday in fourth place, trailing the Victoria Vikes by nine strokes for the last podium spot. A red-hot start had the Cascades at -5 at the turn – easily the low team score of the day to that point – but they struggled over their last nine holes as a group, finishing at +9 for the day to fall just shy of a team medal. The Cascades finished at +18 for the week, trailing UBC (-7), Laval (+1) and UVic (+8). 

Jackson Jacob (+1 for the week) finished solo eighth to give UFV two of the top 10 individual finishers. Eli Greene (+7) tied for 17th, Hudson LaFayette (+19) was T-36th, and Ben Whiton (+28) was 45th.

"We had the start that we needed today," Pauls noted, "but we had a few hiccups on the back. We had a thunderstorm and it got super windy out here, which caused problems for some of us. But that's the way these things go sometimes. You need to find a bit of lightning in a bottle, and it didn't happen on the back nine for us.

"Obviously you want to win a medal, but fourth is still a very good result, especially considering the first two days we didn't have great performances as a team. To fight back and get into the mix was a very good thing. Unfortunately we weren't able to catch Laval or UVic, but I think our guys learned a lot about themselves and about golf this week, which is really positive."