Barry Wright
A 38-year drought on the links is over for Lambton College.
Eric Pattenaude has won the silver medal in the men's individual competition at the Ontario Colleges Athletic Association (OCAA) golf championship near Peterborough.
The second-place finish by the Sarnia Golf and Curling Club member is the first top three finish by a Lambton Lion since Peter Hilbert won the provincial title in 1976.
Despite carding the lowest score on the final round of the 54-hole event, a one under par, 71, Pattenaude fell one shot shy of the winner Michael Rizzetto of Hamilton's Mohawk College.
Pattenaude's three-day score was a two over par 218.
“Over a three-day tournament, you can always think of ways of making up a single shot,” said the 25-year-old University of Guelph grad, who is taking an instrumentation course at the college.
“But overall I hit the ball extremely well,” he said. “My putter let me down.”
Meanwhile, Pattenaude, who played four years of university golf at Guelph, and his Lambton College teammates, Ethan O'Meara, Steve Brown, Connor Denning and Seth Hellinga, also competed in the men's team competition.
They finished sixth out of 17 schools.
“Ethan, Steve and Connor are all returning next year,” said Pattenaude. “If the team can find a quality fourth player they'll be right there (in contention) again next year.”
O'Meara and Brown both cracked the top thirty in the individual competition, placing in a tie for 17th and 27th respectively.
Corey Nathan, a St. Patrick’s High School grad now playing for Fanshawe College, tied for 20th in the individual competition and was part of the Falcons fifth place finish in the team competition.