By Martin Cleary
On the heels of a remarkable 2023 golf season, Isaiah Ibit made his true international debut this year as a member of the Team Canada NextGen squad.
And what an introduction it was for the Camelot Golf and Country Club member, who graduated Thursday from St. Peter Catholic High School as an Ontario scholar. In mid August, he’ll head to Kent, Ohio, where he’ll enroll at Kent State University and play for the men’s Golden Flashes’ golf team.
Ibit, 18, survived qualifying tournaments in Arizona and Guatemala to earn a spot on Canada’s three-man team for the Toyota Junior World Cup earlier this month at the Chukyo Golf Club Ishino Course in Toyota City, which is near Nagoya.
“I’ve never travelled outside of Canada and the United States before. It was cool to go to Japan and play a qualifying round in Guatemala in the beginning of April,” Ibit said in a phone interview this week.
It was an eye-opening experience for him, whether he was using the escalators on the undulating, par-72 course, posting three sub-par rounds for a near top-10 finish or making new friends from other countries on and off the course.
“The course wasn’t anything out of the ordinary, but it was definitely different than what you’d see in Ottawa,” Ibit added. “The course was farther away from the city, almost in the mountains. It was hilly, elevated and the fairways were small.”
On two occasions on each of the front nine and the back nine, Ibit rode the escalators on the course, which helped the golfers deal with any steep sections between holes.
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“It was definitely something I’ve never seen before,” Ibit said about the escalators. “They weren’t long (10 to 12 yards). We’d put our bags on the escalator and chat with our playing partners.”
During the pro-am round, which was two days before the World Cup, he experienced a four-person, automatic golf cart, which travelled the pathways by remote control.
The World Cup was originally scheduled for 72 holes, but the first round was cancelled because of heavy rain. Once the 54-hole championship started, Ibit, who toured the Chukyo layout in the pro-am and one practice round, was confident and acclimatized for his first international tournament.
Ibit shot rounds of 71-69-71 for an overall score of five-under-par 211. Japan’s Mao Matsuyama topped the leaderboard at 67-64-68-199 (17-under), while Billy Davis of the United States was second at 67-67-67-201.
“I feel I played solid golf,” he explained. “The first and last days were more grinding rounds to fight for your score. On the second day, I played good, but I could have played better. All my three scores counted (for the team standings).”
In the team competition, where each country used its top two scores from each of three rounds, the Canadian team of Ibit, Alex Zhang and Alex Long was seventh.
“We finished in the middle of the pack. Definitely, we were looking to do better, but we were happy how we fought. It was a really good experience,” Ibit said.
“It was really fun and definitely not a normal tournament I’ve gone to. It was cool to make new friends and meet people from different cultures.”
Before Ibit could play in his first World Cup, he had to qualify through a small Canadian competition and a regional team tournament.
The Canadian qualifier last February in Arizona may have been the most challenging. There were only three spots on the national team for the World Cup and one player already had received a berth based on his 2023 result. That meant six players from the Team Canada NextGen program were vying for the other two spots.
“I was lucky enough to qualify for it. That was pretty awesome,” said Ibit, who tied for first place at 10-under-par through 54 holes. “All around my game was strong. I drove the ball well and putted well, too.”
In April, the Canadian team travelled to Guatemala to play against the host country, Mexico and Puerto Rico. Canada and Mexico finished one-two to advance to the Tokyo World Cup.
Ibit shot three identical rounds of three-over-par 74 to help Canada reach the World Cup.
“I didn’t play that well,” he continued. “It wasn’t great, but it wasn’t bad. My ‘B game’ still allowed us to go.”
The months of July and August will be busy for Ibit as he wraps up his junior career.
He’s scheduled to play the 54-hole North & South Junior championship at Pinehurst Country Club on courses No. 2 and 7 beginning Monday, and the 102nd Ontario boys’ junior championship July 8-11 at the Otter Creek Golf Club.
In August, he’ll tee it up at the 119th Canadian men’s amateur championship Aug. 5-8 in Saskatoon and the Canadian boys’ junior championship Aug. 13-16 in Innisfall, AB.
After the two national championships, he’ll return home to pack his bags and head to Kent State University. He verbally committed to join the Golden Flashes program last July and officially signed his letter of intent last November.
“I really like the campus, the team dynamics and I got along with the players (during an official visit) and the head coach (Jon Mills, a Canadian),” Ibit said. “Some of the players I’ve known from playing with them the last couple of years. I felt comfortable and welcome at Kent State.”
The Golden Flashes have several Canadians on their golf roster, including junior James Newton of the Royal Ottawa Golf Club, who transferred to Kent State from Rutgers University last year.
Ibit was recruited by a handful of schools, but Kent State was on the top of his academic leaderboard for a long time. He plans to study exercise science.
In 2023, Ibit had a banner season, winning the Ontario Junior Players’ Invitational, the Golf Canada NextGen Ontario Tournament and the Golf Ontario Spring Classic. He also tied for fourth at the Ontario Men’s Amateur Championship and was named golfer of the year at the Ottawa Sports Awards Dinner.
After placing second at the NextGen Selection Camp last September, he was eighth at the Elite Invitational Tournament in the United States in November.
Earlier this season, Ibit placed 23rd at the Dustin Johnson World Junior Tournament in the U.S. and was seventh in the Golf Ontario Boys’ Junior Spring Classic.
Read More of our 2024 High School Best Series, presented by Louis-Riel Sports-Études, as we tip our caps to top local student-athletes at: OttawaSportsPages.ca/Ottawa-High-School-Best-2024
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Martin Cleary has written about amateur sports for over 52 years. A past Canadian sportswriter of the year and Ottawa Sports Awards Lifetime Achievement in Sport Media honouree, Martin retired from full-time work at the Ottawa Citizen in 2012, but continued to write a bi-weekly “High Achievers” column for the Citizen/Sun.
When the pandemic struck, Martin created the High Achievers “Stay-Safe Edition” to provide some positive news during tough times, via his Twitter account at first and now here at OttawaSportsPages.ca.
Martin can be reached by e-mail at martincleary51@gmail.com and on Twitter @martincleary.
