Eli Greene shot a five-under, 67, to help the Cascades make up 14 strokes on their competition in the final round and capture a team silver medal at the Golf Canada University/ College Championships at the Idylwylde Golf Club in Sudbury, ON, on Thursday.
"Personally, I was really excited for them, but we wanted to win," explained Cascades head coach
Connor O'Dell. "To be honest though it's a good consolation prize to have a good final round and catch up and be able to snag second."
Greene tied fellow Cascade
Jackson Jacob for seventh place individually at +2 for the four-round event, while
Lucas O'Dell (+18) finished in a tie for 20
th. Rookie
Brett Bateman had a strong showing at +22 to finish tied for 27
th, and graduating senior
Ben Whiton ended the event at +42 in 43
rd.
The Cascades' silver medal improves on their bronze medal finish from last year.
Full event scores can be seen here.
The Cascades ended the opening round in fourth place, but a difficult second round saw the team shoot nineteen over par as the team fell to sixth. The squad rebounded in the third-round thanks in part to a round of two under par from Jacob, but the UFV team still sat nine strokes back of a medal position going into the final day.
In that final round Greene carded just a single bogey, while picking up six birdies to post the best score of any golfer in the final round by four strokes. His final round 67 also fell just two strokes shy of PGA tour golfer Corey Conners' course record.
Coach O'Dell noted just how impressive Greene's performance was in the final round.
"Eli played crazy good. The final round was probably the windiest and most difficult day that we played. The best score on the day outside of Eli was one under, and for him to be able to shoot five under on a very difficult course, under very difficult conditions, was stellar."
In addition to the men's silver medal, the UFV women's program picked up a fifth place finish at the event and O'Dell noted that both teams having such strong finishes again at nationals shows the strength of the UFV golf programs.
"It's a reminder that we do actually have one of the best golf programs in the country, and our teams are competitive. There is a lot of big schools across the country with some excellent golf programs, and for a small school we have a really strong program."
