Vandette goes low, wins national title

By Ryan McCracken on August 3, 2018.

rmccracken@medicinehatnews.com @McCracken

Christopher Vandette made history on multiple fronts at Medicine Hat Golf and Country Club Thursday.

Trailing by six strokes after three rounds at the Canadian Junior Boys Championship, Vandette says he knew he would need to make up at least four in order to force a playoff in Thursday’s finale — so he did two better, tying the course record with a 6-under 65 while passing more than a dozen golfers to win the national title with a 2-under 282.

“The plan today was to get on a hot start. There’s two par-5s in the first three holes, so take advantage of those, and as well a couple birdie par-4s in the middle of the front nine. I tried to take advantage of those, I did, and from there it was smooth sailing,” said Vandette, who dropped in six birdies — five on the front-9 — without logging a single bogey. “It really feels awesome. This year’s been a little less eventful than last year so it feels really good to get this toward the end of the summer. It just lets me know that all the hard work I’m putting into it is paying off.”

Vandette’s 282 was enough to earn the 16-year-old both the juvenile and junior titles — just the 10th time in the event’s 80-year history that a young golfer has managed the feat.

“It’s the best juniors Canada has to offer, so just being able to win this championship means a lot,”said Vandette, adding a thank you to his father for his support throughout the season. “He’s a club pro at Summerlea where I play, so he definitely knows what he’s talking about. Probably for a father-son relationship you don’t want to always listen to your dad all the time, but he definitely helped me a lot throughout my season this year.”

Gerry Mei — who shared the lead with Daniel George at 2-under after three rounds — settled for a second-place finish alongside Quebec’s Olivier Menard after going 1-over in the final round to finish at an even 284. While the North York, Ont. product fell just two strokes shy of the title, he was all smiles after his final round.

“I’m really satisfied with my overall score. Coming here I didn’t really think I’d have a chance at winning but I’m really, really happy with how I finished off,” he said. “I’m really satisfied with basically all parts of my game. My putting wasn’t as good as yesterday, but it wasn’t bad. I had a couple mistakes and that’s it.”

Mei says he was especially impressed to hear of Vandette’s record-tying round. On a day Mei says seemed to be stacked against the golfers, Vandette managed to thrive.

“That’s really impressive, especially on this course,” said Mei. “The greens are super tough, especially today. On the last day I guess Golf Canada wanted to make it a challenge for all of us but I guess that didn’t affect (Vandette). I’m really happy for him.”

Alberta prevailed in the inter-provincial team division to take the championship ahead of Ontario and British Columbia, respectively. The Albertan squad of Ty Steinbring, Korbin Allan and Chandler McDowell finished at 286 to best Ontario’s Nolan Piazza, Matthew Anderson and Luc Warnock by a single stroke. B.C.’s group of Joel Veenstra, Song Bai and Michael Chrisologo edged out Manitoba by a shot to take third at 291. It was the third consecutive year that Alberta clinched the team title.

Jeffrey Fang took third in the juvenile division after shooting a 1-under 70 in the final round to finish with a 4-over 288.

Medicine Hat’s Caleb Kinch finished tied for 48th after shooting a 5-over 76 Thursday to end his tournament at 299.

Vandette’s historic victory earns him a place at the Canadian Men’s Amateur Championship next week.

“That’s such a strong tournament. I’m really excited for it,”said Vandette. “It’s out in Victoria where we practiced this winter, so we played both courses before and it’s going to be an exciting week.”

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