Hawks make history

By Tyler Lowey, Times Reporter

After earning Holy Cross Collegiate’s first berth into the Alberta School’s Athletic Association provincial championships for golf, the Hawks couldn’t gun down the first-placed Cobras.
The Hawks captured the school’s first South Central Zone 1A/2A championship Sept. 18, punching their ticket to the provincial showdown in Spruce Grove at the Links and the Stony Plain Golf Course.
The Hawks were within striking distance after Day 1 (Sept. 25). The foursome of Ryan Orford, Landon Osachuk, Connor Dunlop and Kadin Wilson logged a 234 and sat five strokes back of the Rundle College Cobras.
Dunlop led the Hawks with a 77, seven shots back of the leader Ethan Choi from St. Michael’s School. Behind Dunlop was Wilson, who carded a 79. Rounding out the Hawks’ foursome was Orford with a 91 and Osachuk with a 99.
The four-player scramble took the top three scores from each team, combining them for a team score.
This marked the first time a Hawks’ squad earned their way to provincials. The last time they competed provincially was six years ago, when they hosted the event at the Strathmore Golf Club.
Day 2 saw the Hawks drop eight shots from the opener. Their round of 242 tied for the third lowest on the afternoon, but well back of the Cobras, who lit the course on fire with a 216, cutting 13 strokes off their first-day score.
Dunlop provided the steady hand for the Hawks. He duplicated his first-round score of 77 during the second day of competition, to finish with a 154. He finished 15 strokes back of the individual winner Choi.
“Feels good to take second, but we all think we could have done a little bit better,” said Dunlop, a Grade 12 student. “We didn’t play our best and it just wasn’t going our way enough to take first.”
Wilson faltered from his impressive round of 79, ballooning up to 87 on Day 2, to finish with a 166.
The only non-senior on the team, Orford, improved by one stroke on Day 2 and shot 90, bringing his two-day total to 181.
Osachuk also turned up the heat on the second day, carding a 91 to finish with a 190.
“We have a pretty balanced team with a combined handicap of 24 or 25,” said Hawks head coach Darrin Dunlop.
Darrin isn’t a teacher at HCC, so athletic director Josh Jalbert filled in for the head coach.
Darrin was on hand and monitoring his foursome when they went on to capture the 1A/2A South Country Zone title Sept. 18 at the Turner Valley Golf Club.
As a unit, the Hawks shot a 228, seven strokes in front of the second-place W.G. Murdoch Trojans.
Connor and Osachuk both carded a 78 to lead the Hawks. They tied for second, two shots behind Strathcona Tweedsmuir’s Alec Chunta.
Wilson shot an 82, good enough for fifth. Orford placed in the Top 10 and rounded out the foursome with an 84.
With only the three top scorers counting, players were able to take a few more chances than normal. Luckily for the Hawks, those chances taken didn’t cost them at all, only benefited.
Scattered across four groups, Orford was the second Hawk to tee off. Luckily, the Hawk golfers were spread out through four consecutive groupings, so they were able to check in with one another at certain tee boxes.
“I knew we were having a pretty good day,” said Orford, who claimed he hit his irons pure and made all his putts. “We would also text each other throughout the day to see how we were doing. It’s awesome that we are the first team to head to provincials in school history.”