Tee 2 Green with Barry Sharpe - - January 24/2010

The second half of the 2009-2010 college golf season for World Amateur No. 2 Nick Taylor and his University of Washington Huskies begins February 3 in the 54-hole Waikoloa Intercollegiate on the Mauna Lani Resort in Hawaii.

Head coach Matt Thurmond has quite a cast of team members to chose from this season including a quartet of outstanding Canadians, led by Taylor, the Abbotsford, BC sensation, Canada's top male amateur golfer as selected by the RCGA for the second consecutive season.

A senior, Taylor recorded three individual victories in '09 (Hawai'i-Hilo Intercollegiate, Oregon Duck Invitational, and U.S. Intercollegiate) and tied for medalist honours at the CordeValle Collegiate. He finished second at the NCAA Regional Championship and the Pac-10 Championship; tied for ninth at the NCAA Championship; and was named Pac-10 Player of the Year as well as a semi-finalist for the prestigious Ben Hogan Award. He also was presented with the Mark H McCormack Medal which recognizes the top-ranked golfer in the Royal and Ancient's World Amateur Golf Ranking at the end of each amateur season and following the European and U.S. Amateur Championships.

Other Canucks, all from British Columbia, likely to see action for the Huskies this coming campaign will be senior Darren Wallace of Langley, the individual medalist at last year's Pac-10 championship; junior Kevin Spooner from West Vancouver and Charlie Hughes, a freshman from Maple Ridge.

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2010 will be an interesting time for Simon Fraser University men's and women's head coach, John Buchanan. The clan golf program was returned to the SFU Athletics department in late 2009 after an absence of four seasons.

In the 1990s and early 2000s, the Clan were one of the top programs in the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics, winning 11 NAIA Regional Championships during a 13-year stretch, culminating with a second place finish at the 1999 NAIA National Championships. That same season SFU golfer Brent Osachoff won the individual NAIA National Championship in a playoff with a score of 289 over 72-holes, and was named SFU Male Athlete of the Year.

COACH Buchanan is no stranger to SFU Athletics, having served as head coach of the men's soccer program from 1966-1980, a stretch that included seven regional championships and SFU's first men's soccer NAIA National Championship in 1976. Buchanan was elected the Canadian Soccer Hall of Fame in the 'Builder Category' in 2006 and in the early 1990s; Buchanan began a second career as head coach of the SFU golf program.

"We have already secured the Vancouver Golf Club as our home course," says Buchanan. "Obviously I'm very happy to be back helping SFU Golf." Both men and women players are invited to try out for the Clan and can contact coach Buchanan at jbuchana@sfu.ca or 604-936-3823

Among those BC players who may tee it up for the Clan this season will be southpaw Adam Karim from Coquitlam's Centennial Secondary; Gavin Symmons of Vernon; Gord Swenson and Michael Lawrence of Richmond; Nate Beauchamp of Burnaby and Ahmed Amlani of Surrey,

First tournament of the years for the Clan will be at Cal State in Bakersfield, Ca., February 21-23. Following that visit, SFU will head to Point Loma, Nazarene, in San Diego; Notre Dame de Namur University in Belmont, Ca., March 21-23. The Great Northeast Athletic Conference Tournament will conclude this brief season April 18-20.

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The University of Victoria Vikes Men's schedule begins at the Arizona Intercollegiate tournament in Phoenix, Ariz., February 15-16 and concludes June 3 in Fredericton, NB at the RCGA University/College Championship, In between will be visits to the Smee Builders Invitational in San Diego, Calif.; the Warriors Invitational in Lewiston, Idaho; the NAIA Regional Championship in Salem, Ore and, if it is a good season for head coach Bryan Carbery, the NAIA Championship in Quad City, Iowa at the end of May.

The UVic team consists of Jarred Callbeck, Victoria; Jordan Ediger, Calgary; Mitchell Evanecz, Red Deer, AB; Lee Haney, Vancouver, Bc; James and Samuel Holland, New Minas, NS; Steven Lane, Surrey, BC, Will Parker, Edmonton, AB; Cole Shaw, Prince George, BC; Erik Swinburnson, Victoria and
Chase Teron, Red Deer, AB.

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Digby, NS native Anne Balser is expected to pick up where she left off by leading the University of Victoria women's squad in 2010. In September 2009, Balser helped the Vikes win their own Vikes Shootout at Cordova Bay Golf Course and also claimed the individual trophy in a shootout. It was the second individual title of the fall season for Basler, who helped UVic take the team and individual titles in the Wayland Baptist Peaks Classic in mid-September.

Other members of the Vikes include: Kristy Chew, Vancouver; Kalli Gordon, Parksville, BC; Alyssa Herkel, Port Alberni, BC; Michaela Misener, Stanhope, PEI; Ashley Roulston, NB; Stephanie Sykora, Squamish, BC and Megan Woodland of Victoria.

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After a couple of seasons of dominating Canadian golf University of British Columbia head coach Chris MacDonald is in the midst of a rebuilding campaign for both his men's and women's Thunderbirds golf teams

For the balance of the 2010 campaign the UBC women's side will have Jocelyn Alford of Calgary, AB; Kylie Barros of Edmonton, AB; Haley Cameron, Kelowna, BC; Alyssa Human, Kamloops, BC; Eileen Kelly, Victoria, BC; Vanessa Leon, Brampton, ON; Lindsay Manion, Surrey, BC; Rebecca Minaker, Kitimat, BC; Janelle Samoluk, Calgary, AB and Kate Weir of Trail, BC.

The men's team will be made up of Matt Hamilton, West Vancouver; Jared Hundza, Edmonton, AB; Yuya Kihara, Vancouver; Seon Kim, Coquitlam, BC; Dennis Nikou, Balsta, Sweden; Shane O'Neill, St. Albert, AB; Conado Paderes, Vancouver; Andrew Robb Richmond and Jack Wesche, Calgary.