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Men’s golf takes silver after losing tiebreaker

Despite an incredible performance from Charles Fitzsimmons, the Western Mustangs men’s golf team fell short of the gold medal at the Ontario University Athletics championships this week.

Fitzsimmons came in first in the tournament with a two-day total of 138, which was good for 6-under-par. He shot 70 on the first day and 68 on the second.

“He promised before the tournament started that he would be there both physically and mentally, and that’s what he did. He showed up and put it all on the line,” head coach Jim Waite said of the fourth-year social science student. “He was solid throughout the tournament. He was hitting the fairways, he putted well, he chipped great. It was really an all around great effort.

“There wasn’t a flaw anywhere in his play. He took on the best players in the province and beat them all. To win this tournament and finish first among this group of players is a tremendous accomplishment”

As a team, the Mustangs finished second, narrowly missing a gold medal by one stroke. Both the Mustangs and the Ottawa Gee Gee’s finished the tournament with a score of 590. However, the tiebreaker fell to the scores of the fifth golfers on each team, which saw the Mustangs edged by one point and forced to settle for silver.

“Sure, it was heartbreaking [to miss the gold by one stroke] because we worked so hard to make it happen,” Waite said after the tournament. “We don’t want the fifth player to [shoulder the blame] because any one of our guys could have picked up one shot along the way.”

Johnny Hall was the second best Mustang in the tournament, finishing tied for 17th after shooting 7-over-par, while Andrew Zanatta tied for 21st shooting 9-over-par. Alex Hrycko, 11-over-par, and Greg Gabel, 12-over-par, rounded out the five Mustangs competing with ties for 29th and 34th, respectively.

“They were over the top of my expectations,” Waite said of his team’s performance. “Experience is such a huge factor in university golf and we thought that these guys would come through for us and they did.”

This year’s tournament was played at Angus Glen Golf Course in Markham, ON. The course hosted the 2002 Canadian Open, a PGA Tour event.

“I know it was special for the guys to play here,” Wait said. “It’s a great course, but it’s also a very tough course. You have to pick your spots really well and make sure you hit the greens well or else you’re going to be in trouble.

The Mustangs look primed to compete again next year as four of their top five players are returning for the 2010 season. The only athlete moving on from this year’s team is Zanatta, who is graduating.

“He was a grinder for us. He always gave us a score we could use,” Waite said of the London native. “He was never the low guy, but he was always around the 72, 73, 74, 75 range in every tournament he ever played in, which was really great for us.”

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