A double dose of Spartans and a Knightly foursome have brought back provincial gold to Okotoks.
The Strathcona-Tweedsmuir School Spartans captured both the boys and girls 1A/2A banner at the Alberta Schools’ Athletic Association Provincial Golf Championships with the Holy Trinity Academy Knights claiming the boys 3A/4A title at the two-day event in Grande Prairie.
“They’re just a great set of kids and a lot of them are accomplished tournament golfers outside of high school,” said Knights coach John Real. “And the way that they worked together was awesome to watch.”
The Knights foursome of Christian Flick, Patrick McLarty, Nolan House and Sam Stadnyk produced overall scores of 216 in both rounds, a gross score of +3 in the tournament, 10 shots better than the second-place finishers Calgary’s Western Canada High.
Flick, who shot 69 and 71 in the two rounds, had the second-best overall score in the boys competition, just one shot back of Edmonton’s Brady Wagner.
McLarty, a U17 provincial champion on the Alberta Golf circuit, shot rounds of 79 and 76 with House scoring rounds of 81 and 77 and Stadnyk added scores of 84 and 81.
“The way they score it is on every hole after all the scores pour in, they only count the three best scores from the team members,” Real said.
“It forces you to stay in the game even if you know what you’re doing as an individual might not lead to any type of medal performance. You’ve still got to keep going strong for the team and that’s exactly what happened.”
The Knights advanced through zones in Canmore with McLarty’s score of 69 leading the way to the school’s first provincial qualification as a team in 16 years.
HTA has won the team provincial banner in all three years it's qualified, having previously won in 2002 and 2009.
“We’re a tough zone to get out of,” Real said. “You have to have a really good team to get out of the South Central Zone. There’s a lot of good golfers that come out of the zone.”
Many from this area.
The Spartans girls team ran away with the provincial crown with its +84 gross over 116 shots better than the next closest competitor.
Charlotte Mix, Sarah Wilcox, Kiran Van Horne and Elizabeth Jones produced combined rounds of 251 and 265.
Mix led the way with scores of 74 and 82, finishing fifth overall in the individual leaderboard.
The Spartans boys, comprised of Neal Fairburn, Hayden McManes, Ibrahim Tariq and Michael O’Leary, won the banner with scores of 233 and 240, a 12-shot advantage over second place Wainwright.
The provincial golf tournament took place Sept. 23-24 at both the Grande Prairie Golf and Country Club and Dunes Golf and Country Club.
For more information, go to.asaa.ca/golf.
