It only took 54 holes for Andrew Bruce to learn a valuable lesson about his golf game.
Bruce, a 19-year-old Corner Brook native, finished at 22 over par in his first tournament as a member of the University of Victoria Vikes men’s golf team.
Making his debut in Bellingham, Wash., Bruce carded rounds of 79, 78 and 81 for a three-day total of 238 as Western Washington University played host to the season opener.
“It was an eye opener,” Bruce said Wednesday from Victoria upon his return. “I didn’t play as I wanted to and it just shows that I need to put in some more work to get where I want to be.”
Bruce said he will have to make improvements in his game if he wants to compete with the best golfers in the field, and one area he believes he must address is his lacklustre performance off the tee, because he didn’t put himself in position to score well in his debut.
“I wasn’t finding the fairway a whole lot and giving myself opportunities to hit the green and get a birdie putt,” said Bruce, who noted the course featured a lot of trees and he found himself punching out and trying to make par instead of trying to nail down a few birdies.
He’s getting used to juggling a hectic grind of hitting the golf course five times per week and being on top of things on the academic side as he works his way toward an economics degree.
He likes the golf facilities at his disposal and he gets to play a handful of nice courses around Victoria, so life isn’t too bad at all.
“We get to see a lot of different courses and that prepares us really well for tournaments,” he said.
