A trio of University of Guelph golfers are back from another whirlwind trip, but this time it took them to one of the golf world’s most prestigious events.
Liam Fischer, Beck Ljungberg and Caleb Patry, who are known as ‘The Ontario Boys,’ first made headlines in March after attending The Players Championship in Florida. They have now travelled to Augusta National in Georgia to take in the first days of the 2025 Masters Tournament.
When the three golfers returned from their first trip in March, the group said the only thing that could make it better was a trip to the Masters. Luckily for them, it caught the attention of a professional golfer from Listowel, Ont. Corey Conners.
“We believe it to be Corey’s wife saw us on tv or saw our story somehow and mentioned it to Corey. That got Corey engaged to reach out to Ryan French to try to get us down to the Masters. So that’s what we believe the story is. We’re not too sure,” Ljungberg said.
Despite not knowing all the details, the Ontario Boys said Conners gave them tickets for Monday and Tuesday and paid for them to stay in Georgia.
“We feel that we probably had one of the best experiences just a regular patron can have at the Masters. We just loved every second of it,” Fischer said.
The group loaded into Patry’s SUV again and left Guelph on Saturday. They took turns driving on the way down, but did have to stop so Fischer could write an exam.
“We pulled, over to like, a Hilton or something. Luckily enough, the front desk person said we could use this room. I sat in there, wrote my exam. The boys got some McDonald’s,” Fischer said.
The group played two rounds of golf in Charlotte, North Carolina on the way down, before arriving at The Masters. This time, they met guys like John Daly along the way, attended a Golf Canada event and of course, made sure to thank Conners.
“We were sitting kind of close and he’s like, ‘Oh, hey boys, you want to come grab a photo?’ Then we took a photo with all the Canadians in front of 3,000 people behind us, and they’re all like, ‘What just happened?‘” Fischer said.
This time, the university supplied the three golfers with more official “Ontario Boys” shirts.
“There was actually a professor that helped create those for them, that saw the story and loved it. It was a combination of the Gryphon brand along with their story on it,” Scott McRoberts, Director of Athletics for the University of Guelph said. “They’re really good people. And I’m happy for them because they are good people. To have Guelph mentioned at Augusta is pretty huge.”
“I’m sure there was plenty of people who had no idea and probably thought our shirts were funky. But for the most part, we had probably over 100 people coming up to us and just wanted to meet us,” Ljungberg said.
The three got back to Guelph late Wednesday night. Despite not being in Georgia to watch the competitive rounds, the Ontario Boys are just happy they got to see the event in person.
“I think the two days that we went were perfect because honestly, I love just sitting on the couch and watching The Masters, especially because you can follow everybody. Would I want to be there for the Sunday around? Probably. But honestly, the two that we were there, they were awesome,” Ljungberg said.
When they returned, one of them had to hurry to an exam.
“I actually just wrote it at 11:30 this morning, so it worked out,” Patry said.
Going forward, the Ontario Boys have been asked to play in a charity event in South Carolina in May. Fischer will compete in the Canadian University Nationals in Kamloops, British Columbia in June, which the golf team is still fundraising for.
Along with the memories that will last a lifetime, they also picked up some memorabilia.
“I think the coolest thing that we got down there, and I think it’s pretty popular - I think all three of us got it, was the flag. Of course, we’re hoping to get it signed by Corey, because he’s going to win this year. That would be pretty cool to have that. But we’re not going to ask the guy for a signature when he’s taking photos and doing all this stuff for us,” Ljungberg said.
