Meet our 2022 Champions of Champions!
Zone 4's Champion of Champions tournament is such a tradition and seems such a natural fit that one might assume it's something to be found all over the continent, if not the world. That isn't the case, however. In fact, as we wrote about three years ago (before Covid so rudely interrupted almost everything), there doesn't seem to be another of these anywhere else on the continent.
To refresh, the annual C of C invites every Zone 4 member club (19 of them this year) to make up a team consisting of a men's and women's amateur champ, a senior men's champ, and a junior boy or girl. Then, on a beautiful fall Sunday (well, this year, at least), the teams compete for the Fred Wellsby Trophy.
Point Grey Golf & Country Club hosted this go round, and played as a championship course should. For many players it was a first chance to see the club's freshly renovated practice area, along with two new and dramatically transformed holes. "I heard lots of impressed comments," says tournament chair Bruce Main, adding the club was a delight to work with.
This year's winners proved to be the star-studded Shaughnessy team, but it wasn't so much Holly Horwood, amateur Will Eddie or senior Thomas Porteous who propelled the club to a three-shot victory, as it was William Hou, their junior.
In fact, Hou, a 16-year-old grade 10 student at St. George's, shot the low round of the day, a 66, despite playing from the same 6,400 yeard tees as the amateurs. After a steady start, Hou got his round going with a 30-yard pitch-in eagle. "That got me focussed," he said afterward.
Zone 4 Champions of Champions - Shaughnessy Golf Club Team
Shaughnessy's 214 (best three of four scores per hole) gave them a three-stroke victory over Point Grey, with Richmond another stroke behind for third. Congrats to Shaughnessy and to all the participants who qualified for this prestigious and genuinely unique event.
- Jim Sutherland