Fog rolled into Cordova Bay Golf Course Tuesday morning, delaying tee-offs for 45 minutes, but University of Victoria athletes played with very clear minds as they took home three of four titles at the annual Vikes Shootout.
Andrew Funk led the way with an impressive 6-under 66 to finish at a two-day total of 137, two shots better than teammate Lawren Rowe, who fired a 4-under 68 to go with his opening 1-under 71 as the two second-year players started the day one shot back of UBC鈥檚 Trent Abraham.
Funk made it two straight Shootout championships as he defended his 2014 crown. The two also paced the Vikes to the men鈥檚 team title with a 577 total, three shots better than UBC.
UVic鈥檚 first-year Quinn Fitzgerald shared the women鈥檚 individual title as she followed up her opening even-par 74 with a 2-over 76, the exact opposite of Kat Kennedy of UBC.
鈥淚鈥檓 very happy with the day,鈥� said Vikes head coach Justin Clews. 鈥淲e had pretty high expectations coming into this event. All our players were playing well, but for Quinn and Andrew to pull off those victories is special.鈥�
Funk made the turn in 4-under as he started on the back nine.
鈥淭hat鈥檚 the best round I鈥檝e ever shot,鈥� said Funk, a Parkland Secondary grad. 鈥淓verything was going well, putts were dropping and that was a lot of fun. It feels good defending the title.鈥�
Rowe鈥檚 round was equally solid as he went bogey free.
鈥淚t鈥檚 definitely good momentum going into the next few tournaments,鈥� said Rowe, a Mount Douglas grad. 鈥淎ll the credit goes to Andrew. He鈥檚 been playing great and it was just a matter of time before he put it all together for a couple of rounds.鈥�
Alex Cartwright (75-75) was tied for 14th; Jake Hamilton (75-77) and Matthew Broughton (76-76) were tied for 18th; Mike Griffin (73-82) was tied for 24th; Sean Hay (76-80) and Jesse Teron (80-80) rounded out the UVic men鈥檚 scoring.
In women鈥檚 play, Fitzgerald would likely have won her title outright if not for a double-bogey on her final hole. That didn鈥檛 take away the smile on the Calgarian鈥檚 face as she shared the win with her teammates.
鈥淓specially with this being just my third university tournament, I wasn鈥檛 really expecting to finish first, so it鈥檚 been a great experience,鈥� said the 18-year-old.
Avril Lee, of UBC, was third (75-77) and the T-Birds took the women鈥檚 team title at 617, nine shots better than George Fox University of Oregon with the Vikes another four back in third.
