News

The Thunder Golf team competed in the ACAC Championships this past weekend that was hosted at Desert Blume in Medicine Hat.  The team left very early Friday morning and played a practice round on Friday afternoon.  Veteran Brendan Algeo got his first ever Hole-in-One on #2.  It was playing 200 yards and he knocked it right in!  Later in the round, second year player Connor Beeston actually hit the pin on a par 3 and almost got a hole in one himself.  Connor Dobberthien and Dylan Brown were also playing very well with lots of birdies and huge drives.
Unfortunately when Saturday morning came around, the weather created "the worst conditions that I have seen in the last 14 years that I can remember for an ACAC Championship," lamented Head Coach Kevin MacAlpine.  "Sometimes you get just wind or just rain but Saturday we had 50 km/h winds and rain blowing sideways.  It was 1 degree outside but with the wind chill and the rain, it was well below zero.  It was questionable whether Round 1 was even going to get played,' stated MacAlpine.  Even with some standing water on the greens, all the athletes gutted it out and finished out the day. "I am very proud of all 4 individuals as they were true Thunder Athletes and never gave up," concluded MacAlpine. Brendan Algeo was the highlight of Round 1 and continued his hot play, shooting an 83.  This was very good for Day 1, given the weather conditions.  The gutsy performance put Algeo in 8th place, only 6 shots back of 1st and 3 shots back of 3rd.  The rest of the team also battled it out and put the team in 5th place after Day 1.
Compared to Round 1, Round 2 felt like a vacation in Mexico even though it was only 2 degrees; the wind was way down and there was no rain.  Brendan Algeo once again continued his great golfing.  He got off to a quick start with a birdie on #2, the same hole in which he got his hole-in-one on Friday.  He finished the front 9 at even par and was only 2 shots back from the leader.  He then went on to birdie #11, putting the front spot within reach!  Unfortunately, things went awry for Algeo on the 12th hole and he suffered a triple bogie which took the wind out of his sails.  He did battle back and went even par on the last 6 holes, giving Algeo a 2-day total of 157, which put him just 3 shots back from first place (154) and 2 shots back from second. Connor Beeston also had a good round going on Day 2 but just didn't have any putts drop.  He also hit the pin again on his 2nd shot on a par 4, narrowly missing an eagle.  "All weekend Connor was hitting the pins. He just had a few bad holes which took him out of the mix."  He shot 81 on Day 2.
Overall it was cold but a great weekend for the Thunder who finished in 5th place as a team.  "Brendan's individual finish of 7th place was one of the best finishes for a Concordia golfer that I can remember.  And that's golf…but if you take the one bad hole away Brendan Algeo, he would be heading to Nationals.  I am still very proud of how Brendan played this weekend and it was a great way to finish his degree and last year at Concordia," stated MacAlpine.
Pretty well the entire team – less Algeo – will be back next year so Coach MacAlpine is looking for an even stronger outcome in 2016.