The Canadian team of Brigitte Thibault, Mary Parsons, Austin Connelly, and Joey Savoie made history Sunday at the Pan American Games in Lima, Peru.
While individually each golfer was just outside of medal contention, as a group they captured the bronze medal – a first in golf by Canada!
Connelly, a dual-citizen who is from Lake Doucette, Nova Scotia (but lives mostly in Dallas, Texas) was the star of the show on Sunday.
His 3-under-par 68 was enough to move him to sixth on the individual leaderboard, but more importantly, he helped Canada secure a third-place finish as a team. The lowest two scores (out of four) are used every day to make the team total.
Parsons (who is from Delta, British Columbia) fired a 2-under-par 70 and finished fifth in the women’s competition. Her score, along with Connelly’s, made up the Canadian total on Sunday.
It resulted in them capturing bronze by five shots over Colombia.
The United States won gold while Paraguay won silver, three strokes ahead of the Canadians.
Tristan Mullally – Golf Canada’s national women’s team’s head coach – coached the squad to the podium.
He told The Canadian Press that Connelly, who plays mostly on the European Tour, was built for a moment like Sunday.
“In a situation like this, where he’s playing in the final groups and it is for a medal, his routines and the way he goes about his business fit in perfectly,” Mullally said. “Not only is he a very good player, I think just what he does and how he makes his decisions really suits the bigger moments. I think he’ll have more of them.”
Connelly plays Callaway clubs, and he said this week – on the flat, tight layout in Lima – he tweaked his woods and changed out his irons to another Callaway model versus his usual set-up.
He said it made a world of difference and is now hoping the momentum from this week will carry over into the next four-of-five weeks on the European Tour, where he is battling for status in 2020.
Savoie, of La Prairie, Quebec, finished at 10-over for the tournament (and will be making a quick turnaround to the U.S. Amateur in Pinehurst, North Carolina this week) while Thibault, of Rosemere, Quebec, finished ninth. Thibault will be playing in next week’s CP Women’s Open on the LPGA Tour.
Thibault took to Instagram Sunday night to explain the rush of emotions she, and the team, felt in a heart-felt post.
“Feeling blessed to be part of a team that broke (through) and got Team Canada its fist ever golf medal at the Pan American Games. We supported each other the most all week and helped each other out,” she wrote. “BIG THANKS to Golf Canada and Tristan Mullally for trusting us with this task and bringing us all the way to Peru to experience the games. Living in the Olympic village with all the international athletes from all over the world and seeing how much we all support each other was a true experience that I won’t forget!”
This is the second time golf has been featured in the Pan Am Games, as it made its debut in Toronto in 2015. The Pan Am Games occur every four years, the year prior to the Olympics.
When golf returned to the Olympics in 2016 it only made sense for golf to be included in the Pan Am Games as well, since many athletes use those games as a warm-up for the Olympics.
The current Olympic teams for Canada are looks like it would be Corey Conners and Adam Hadwin on the men’s side and Alena Sharp and Golf Town Athlete Brooke Henderson on the women’s side. The official cut-off for the Olympic teams will come in June 2020.