The OUA championships saw mixed results for the men’s and women’s golf teams.
The team travelled to Ottawa for the OUA Championships, which took place from Oct. 16-18. The event was held at Hylands Golf Club, the same venue as the 2022 OUA Championships. Going into the weekend, the Gaels had high hopes of being among the top of the OUA following their regular season success.
READ MORE: Queen’s Golf takes it all in Windsor
The women’s team came out firing in cool harsh conditions, able to grab an early six shot team lead. All three of the scorers were in the top ten in scoring after day one. It was day two where the team would double down and run away from the pack.
The team was led by recently recognized OUA all-stars, Hannah Lee, Nurs ’29, who shot 74, and Gabriella McDaniel, ArtSci ’27, who shot 75. Lee would earn a tie for the best score in round two, propelling her to a second-place finish in the individual section.
The team would win by 18 shots and capture their first OUA championship in Queen’s Women’s Golf history.
On the men’s side, an injury in the practice round forced them to be without their best player, David Ursu, Sci ’28, who had won multiple events during the season.
The team was unable to get off to a good start, facing a 16 shot deficit after day one. Day two was more of the same and they were ultimately unable to gain any ground, finishing in tenth.
To talk about the historic victory for the Gaels’ women’s team, The Journal sat down with Head Coach Jessie Mercer to speak about her team.
“They worked incredibly hard and all really wanted it for each other,” Mercer said. “Both Gella and Marlow both played their third OUAs, so for those two to finish it off like that is pretty cool.”
Mercer was reminiscent on past losses, but said that her team used those heartbreaks to fuel the win.
“Last year the team won two events, but had a really disappointing OUAs. From Gella’s standpoint, she was like ‘I’m not going to let that happen again,’” Mercer said.
During the event, it was announced that Mercer would be recognised as OUA women’s coach of the year. Mercer took over the program in 2023 and has continued to make Queen’s a force in university golf.
“It’s really special, it goes to the whole coaching staff and team as well,” Mercer said. “I’m really grateful for all of them for allowing me to lead and push the program forward, it’s just the beginning for this program.”
The team will have all winter to think, prepare, and train for the Canadian University/College Championship held in early June 2027.
Tags
Men's Golf, OUA Golf Championships, women's golf
All final editorial decisions are made by the Editor(s) in Chief and/or the Managing Editor. Authors should not be contacted, targeted, or harassed under any circumstances. If you have any grievances with this article, please direct your comments to eic@queensjournal.ca.