Dinos Golf dominates the new season
By Rodrigo Verney, October 14 2022—
Calgary is in the midst of experiencing history as the Victoria Tse and Ronnie Postnikoff dynamic golf duo continues to set the field ablaze. The two Dinos golfers are striking fear into the game of the majority of the competition as they continue on to top the charts in their respective categories. Luckily for us, the Dinos march doesn’t just stop there. The six University of Calgary players present in the season are all breaking the mold from the inside out. May that be from sweeping the podium on the women’s side to our rookie player tying for the third place not much behind teammate Ethan Banks and Postnikoff himself.
The Dinos have dominated the game over the last 16 days. The hot start was ignited by Tse after she secured the first title for the Dinos golf team at the season-opening competition hosted by their rivals — the University of Alberta. Tse wasn’t about to let the competitors believe in a chance even after her opening-round score of 77, following that up with an impressive 79 for the win. Her teammates also made headlines after incredible plays to raise the bar even higher for them. Lana Wong came in third with a two-day score of 173. She was followed by Georgia Mackenzie who placed sixth overall with a score of 194.
The Dinos’ rampant win streak wouldn’t stop there, of course. Not long after, they swept the competition at the Pronghorns Open with a fantastic performance by Tse, who lead the charges and dominated the tournament from the moment the ball touched the field. She had the best result on both Sunday and Monday completely separating herself from the rest of the competition and safely securing her spot at the top.
The Pronghorns Open was a moment of revelation on the men’s side. The newcomer Sam Bratvold led the Dinos to the top spot and his first win at the University varsity level. The freshman prodigy finished with a score of 146 to put his markings in the first place. Banks joined Bratvold on the podium with a second-place tie, putting two Dinos in the top three. Postnikoff held on to the ninth place after matching Bank’s final-round score of 76, sharing the spot with Tommy Sluka.
It was the Dinos’ turn to host their tournament on the 25 and the 26. The Dinos took every advantage the home turf gave them and extended their start to the season by setting fire to the leaderboards by dominating the three podium positions in both the men’s and women’s divisions. A clear message to every participating university. Tse once again secured her first-place streak with a 16-stroke difference from the second. Wong and Divya Chawla followed closely placing second and third, respectively, to dominate the podium.
On the men’s side, Postnikoff posted the best round of the tournament to sit comfortably on the number one spot with a final score of 144. Banks was a mere two shots away from Postnikoff and clinched second place at home. To cap off this performance, rookie Cian Besler-Chalcroft tied for third place on the podium completing the Dinos’ perfect sweep of the podium.
The Dinos played at the Canada West championship on Oct. 3 and 4 at Cordova Bay Golf Club in Victoria, B.C. Their mindset continued on to the conference title. The Dinos had an incredible run and were close to reaching the podium very early on. The women closed the first day of play with a combined scored of 236 for the fourth place spot while the men got an overall score of 308 to grab the sixth place. On the women’s side Tse used her veteran experience to place fourth overall on the first day. However, UBC’s dominance over the tournament was clear from the first day with their star players Hudson Lafayette and Jessica Ng taking the top of the scorecards. This has been one of the best seasons for the Dinos so far and they can safely look forward to claiming their spot in some golf competitions at the Golf Canada level, the highest amateur level in Canada.