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MONTREAL – Canadian Olympic hockey champion Marie-Philip Poulin stole the show at the fourth annual McGill Athletics Golf Classic, an open tournament held Monday at the Kanawaki Golf Club on Montreal's south shore.
Olympian Andrea Nugent (BA '94) and financial wealth mogul Joseph Bakish (BSc '05), both former varsity swimmers at the University, served as honorary co-presidents of this year's event, which featured 88 golfers and was hosted by the McGill swim team, which swept theRSEQ men's and women's conference championships last March.
Played in splendid weather conditions with 23C degrees and sunny skies, the tourney generated $90,300 in revenue, with netproceeds earmarked for enhancing health and wellness support offered to McGill student-athletes. A portion of the funds will be directed to funding varsitymedicals as well as the creation of two Athletic Financial Awards, for the Black, Bi-racial, Indigenous Heritage and People of Colour community (BIPOC).
Poulin, a three-time Olympic gold medalist who washired by the Montreal Canadiens last week, served three seasons as a skillscoach with the McGill Martlets hockey team. She won the VIA Rail "Beat the Pro" competition on the third hole, outshooting Julie Piers, a former LPGA tour golfer whose daughter Emma Piers is a sophomore forward with the McGill Martlets. She had 14career LPGA top-10 finishes, winning the Edina Realty LPGA Classic in 1995 and twice recorded a hole-in-one on the tour.
Earlier, Poulin's drive on the 13th hole was measured at 253.7 yards by TrackMan, a radar-device used on the PGA Tour.
Using a best-ball format, the winning team shot an impressive 12-under par 58, with a threesome composed of former McGill basketball player Noah Daoust, Montreal lawyer Larry Kanemy and his son Dominic Kanemy.
The VIA Rail "Longest Drive" competition, a 415-yard par-4 for men, was won by Dominic Kanemy, who earlier had been measured at 307 yards by the TrackMan software on hole 13. Gayle Noble, a McGill Sports Hall of Fame inductee who played varsity soccer, took the women's longest drive title.
The "Closest to the Pin" competition, a 185-yard, par-3 on the ninth hole, was won by McGill golf coach Antoine St. Jean, whose company Generation Golf, sponsored the 13th hole and supplied the TrackMan device.
The "Putting with the Pearl" competition was won by Joey Petruzzi, who edged out McGill swim coach Peter Carpenter on a coin-toss for a prize pack, which includeded a massage at the McGill Sport Medicine Clinic.
The Kanawaki Golf Club, founded in 1914, has served as the venue for all four McGill Athletics Golf Classics. The inaugural event in 2018 featured 64 golfers with RDS football analyst Pierre Vercheval serving as honorary president. The 2019 event had 96 participants, with hockey graduates Shauna Denis (BCom '07, DipPR '08) and Mathieu Darche (BCom '00) as honorary co-presidents. The 2020 tournament was canceled as a result of the coronavirus pandemic. The 2021 tourney had 84golfers, with football grads Dr. Jean-Philippe Darche (BSc '97) and Matt Nichol (BEd 98) presiding in the honorary role.
Major sponsors of the 2022 McGill Golf Classic were Tonic Performance and Rogers Sports & Media. Other contributing sponsors not previously mentioned included Poppers, Richardson Wealth, Canderel, Sport Media Marketing, Coca-Cola, Molson-Coors, TD Insurance, Genesis Saint-Laurent, the Martlet Foundation and the Redbird Sports Shop.
SEE PHOTOS FROM THE 2022 TOURNEY