Trinity, Texas – Team Canada won the gold medal in the women’s team competition after grabbing the lead on Friday and finishing strong despite tougher conditions on Saturday at The Spirit International Amateur Golf Championship (The Spirit) at Whispering Pines Golf Club in Trinity, Texas.
The women’s team was represented by Vanessa Borovilos of Etobicoke, Ont., and Aphrodite Deng of Calgary, Alta. The duo finished with a combined score of 22-under to hold off Australia and France by one shot. Borovilos and Deng fired a combined 65-64-65=194 over three rounds to earn gold for Canada for the first time in the women’s team competition at The Spirit.
Deng led the way on Thursday with four birdies for the team, following that with four on Friday to match her teammate. Borovilos got red hot on the back nine Saturday, grabbing six birdies including four straight on holes 11 through 14, before adding two more on nos. 16 and 17.
“Aphrodite and I were talking on the front nine and even par is not going to do it so one of us needed to start making some putts and being aggressive,” said Borovilos following Saturday’s round as they waited for the rest of the field to finish.
“It’s easy to create momentum out here so once you see a couple start falling you start getting more aggressive and confident going forward and luckily that was able to happen today,” she added.
“Yeah, conditions were definitely tougher today, but Vanessa played really good in them, and it was fun to watch her play, and it was a really good day for her and us,” said Deng.
Individually, points are awarded for eagles (2 points) and birdies (1 point). Borovilos added seven points on Saturday to bring her overall total to 14, finishing T3 alongside Valentine Delon of France. Amelia Harris of Australia won the individual competition with 16 points and Sara Brentcheneff of France finished second with 15.
This was the second consecutive appearance for Borovilos, having played in 2024 alongside Lauren Kim (Surrey, B.C.). The duo earned a bronze medal for Canada in the women’s team competition. Individually, Borovilos finished T5 and Kim T11.
The men’s team was represented by Justin Matthews of Little Britain, Ont. and Dawson Lew of Toronto, Ont. NextGen Boys coach, Matt Wilson of Toronto, Ont. lead Team Canada in Texas.
In the combined team championship, Canada finished T5 at 33-under (194 women’s and 2005 men’s) with Spain. The United States (U.S.) won gold finishing with a total of 45-under to beat Australia by one shot. France earned the bronze medal, finishing 40-under with England in fourth at 34-under.
Lew and Matthews finished T13 with a combined score of 11-under in the men’s team competition. The U.S. men’s team added gold, finishing 30-under with Colombia and Australia tying for second at 23-under.
Individually, Lew finished T11 with 13 points and Matthews 38th with six points. Matthews was making his second appearance at the tournament, after competing with Ashton McCulloch (Kingston, Ont.) in 2024.
Canada was competing at The Spirit for the tenth time in tournament history. Along with the gold medal earned by Borovilos and Deng, Mackenzie Hughes was the co-winner of the men’s individual championship in 2011, and Brooke Henderson won the women’s individual championship in 2013. Canada’s best combined team finish in was in 2021, earning the silver medal.
The 12th playing of The Spirit was contested over 54-holes of stroke-play competition that brought together a field of 80 players, featuring two men and two women from 20 countries. In addition to the combined team component, competitors battled in individual championships as well as men’s and women’s team competitions.
For the final leaderboards from The Spirit, please click here.
