By: Connor Blake, Photo courtesy of USm Athletics
Tristan Dundas, captain of the Men’s Golf team and senior business management major from Abbotsford, British Columbia has driven this year’s team to a Great Northeast Athletic Conference (GNAC) championship. For his senior year, he has been named captain and golfed his way to the GNAC player of the year award.
Dundas is a three-sport athlete, participating in golf, ice hockey and lacrosse at the highest of levels all while maintaining a 3.6 cumulative grade point average. Along with being a three-time All-Conference player in golf, he is also on pace to break the all time lacrosse goal scoring record (current record is 100 goals, Dundas has 77 with one more season to play). To top it all off, he was named the Student Athlete of the Year for the 2017-18 season at USM.
Teammates would say that Dundas works very hard at everything he does, keeps everyone on the team laughing, and is extremely reliable in each sport he plays. Teammate Brogan Kane, a sophomore majoring in finance and economics from Scarborough, Maine said, “Tristan is one of the nicest guys you’ll ever meet, he’s our team captain and the most deserving player to win GNAC player of the year”.
The Free Press spoke with Dundas this week about his recent accomplishments, his love for the sport of golf and about the future.
Q: What is it like being the GNAC player of the year?
A: Boy is it a treat! My goal coming into this year was to make all conference honors again and I was able to do that. Getting the GNAC player of the year was simply the
cherry on top.
Q: How have your coaches helped you on the course and off the course?
A: Coach Reggie has taught our team many things on and off the course from never throwing your club to teaching us how to master the art of patience as he did coaching for 20 years. It may have taken him 20 years but he finally received the national berth he deserved and a GNAC championship. He always made golf enjoyable no matter how you were playing.
Q: When did you start to play golf?
A: I was introduced to golf at around 8 years old but I didn’t start taking it seriously until high school (10thgrade) when I joined my high school golf team.
Q: Why do you play golf?
A: I had many friends who golfed at a young age and I just decided to start playing with them and continued to play because I grew to love it
Q: What has golf taught you that can be transferred to other areas of life?
A: What I would take away from golf is that patience is a virtue, sometimes in golf you don’t get the score you deserve but if you just hang in there, the good scores are bound to come. I relate this to life and how sometimes luck doesn’t go your way but as long as you keep trying your best and be patient, things are bound to get better.
Q: How do you balance school with golf?
A: At times it’s difficult and I hand in a lot of 11:55PM papers, but it’s all about allotting your time appropriately and having awesome professors who happily work with your schedule in case of missed classes.
Q: What piece of advice would you give to other student-athletes who are looking for success?
A: Things don’t come very easily or quickly, I have been thinking about winning this championship for years. It took me 3 years to get there so my advice would be no to wait, if you want to start something do it now. Picture yourself succeeding at what you are doing!
Q: What do you do outside of the sport?
A: I also participate on the men’s hockey and lacrosse teams and I’m often practicing in more than one sport at a time, which really fills up the day. But when I have down time I like to hang out with my friends and my girlfriend, going bowling and in the winter I love to ski.
Q: What are you planning to do after school?
A: Honestly I have no clue, everything is up in the air right now. I hope to use my business degree to either start my own business or to get in with a really good company, possibly in the insurance industry.
Q: Who is your inspiration in life?
A: Brock Padgham, we came to school together from our hometown of Chiliwack, British Columbia. He has been my best friend and hockey line-mate since I can remember. Being able to come to USM with him was an opportunity that most athletes never get to experience. We go through thick and thin together, and I look up to him everyday of my life.
Q: When you look back at USM what will you remember?
A: I’m going to remember all of the friends I made for life. I will remember winning the GNAC championship and I’m certainly going to remember the free trip to PGA National golf course in Florida that our team received for the win. I will also remember getting the game winning goal with 2 seconds left to win our first playoff game in 6 years for the men’s lacrosse team.