The UBC Thunderbirds men's and women's golf teams will return to competitive Cascade Collegiate Conference (CCC) action south of the border this week as they host the UBC Thunderbirds Invitational and UBC Gail Moore Intercollegiate tournaments, respectively, at Sudden Valley Golf Course in Bellingham, Washington.
 
UBC will be looking to reclaim their CCC titles this season after both teams raised the 2019 conference banners and, after a year away from NAIA competition, were each was selected as favourites to capture another CCC Championship in the 2021-2022 CCC preseason polls.


 
Thunderbirds head coach Chris MacDonald is thrilled to start the journey back to the top of NAIA golf as the teams make their return to conference play in Bellingham.
 
"Everyone is very excited and looking forward to the CCC competition," said MacDonald. "We haven't played together as a team since March of 2020 in the U.S., so this is an incredible opportunity to get back to our NAIA league and start working towards a spot at Nationals in May for both teams."


 
The 'Birds will be up against a tough field of American teams – including Multnomah (2021 CCC Men's Golf Champions), Oregon Tech (2021 CCC Women's Golf Champions), Bushnell University, Lewis-Clark State College, Corban University, College of Idaho, and Walla Walla University – and MacDonald recognizes the challenges ahead as UBC readjusts to conference competition.
 
"Obviously we want to win and set some personal bests, but I think we have to be realistic about our expectations for this event and keep perspective as a group," said MacDonald. "We have new players, there has been practice interference with getting COVID testing competed, and we just had two tournament fundraisers this week on top of travel preparation. I don't want to make excuses, but we are still waiting on passports for key players and NAIA eligibility, so we have to give space to the players to find their roles and for everyone to get in the lineup. I do expect that will take us all five fall events for that to sort itself out. It's also been some time since we were in regular U.S. competition and these teams were able to play last spring and play conference and Nationals. We're excited for the opportunity, but have to be realistic and let the new students settle in. It's an exciting time to be a T-Bird and coach."
 
Tournament play gets underway on Monday, September 13^th and wraps up on Tuesday, September 14^th from Sudden Valley Golf Course.