Guelph, Ont. golfers get all-star treatment at the Players Championship in Florida

CTV’s Colton Wiens catches up with three University of Guelph golfers who just got back from the drive of a lifetime.

Three University of Guelph golfers are now known as the Ontario Boys in the golf world after a whirlwind trip they won’t ever forget.

It all started on March 15, when Caleb Patry saw one of the social media accounts he follows was offering free tickets to the final day of The Players Championship in Florida.

“I sent a DM [direct message] to Ryan French, because I saw he had tickets available for the players,” Patry later told CTV News. “I texted the team group chat and asked if anyone was interested in going. Then, right away, [my friends] Beck and Liam were in. Two hours later we hit the road and were off to Florida.”

The group left Guelph, Ont. around 2:30 p.m. Saturday, knowing the final round started Sunday morning. The trio planned on heading straight south, but they were missing some crucial documents.

“I realized I don’t have my passport,” Liam Fischer explained.

It turned out, none of them had their passports.

Patry’s girlfriend drove down from Kingston to deliver his, while the group had to make stops in Thornhill and Burlington, before finally heading for the Canada-U.S. border.

“We just alternated shifts and tried to keep two people awake at once,” Patry said. “That’s how we did it.”

“We didn’t leave Beck’s house until 5:30 p.m.,” Fischer added. “It tagged on a little bit of extra time onto the already very long trip, but I think now we know it was worth it.”

After French sent the tickets, he shared their road trip story online. It quickly gained traction in the golfing world, even getting the attention of professional golfer Joel Dahmen.

“Dahmen was the first one to reach out that we heard of,” Patry said. “He referred to us as the ‘Ontario Boys.’ We felt like. from that point on, we kind of had to represent for Ontario.”

When the group arrived in Florida, they purchased golf shirts and customized them with “Ontario Boys” written in marker.

Next, came parking. Since they hadn’t pre-planned any parking for the championship, the trio was forced to run about three miles in the rain to make the first tee – where they got a warm welcome.

“As soon as we walked in the Players Championship, literally as we were scanning our tickets from the gate, someone was like, ‘Oh my God, you guys made the trip!’” Fischer recalled. “We all looked at each other like, ‘Wow, people know the story and know who we are.’”

The Ontario Boys took photos with anyone who recognized them, including Dahmen, who saw them from the field of play.

“He turns around, he comes up to us and was like, ‘Hey guys, how was the drive? Anything I can do for you?’ Then he reaches to his back pocket, pulls out his wallet, hands us a $100 bill and says, ‘Go get some beers,’” Patry said.

That was just the beginning.

“We were expecting this to be a one-day trip,” Patry said.

But their story gained even more traction online and additional golf groups kept reaching out.

The Ontario Boys were invited to play two rounds at Hammock Beach on Monday, then the TGL event at the Sofi Centre.

On their way there, they met up with some former University of Guelph Gryphons who were competing in Florida. Once the whole group got to the TGL event, the Ontario Boys were given the VIP treatment, were interviewed by ESPN and handed all the merchandise they could handle. They also met some of the pro golfers, including Rory McIlroy.

“A huge Rory fan,” Beck Ljungberg said. “He’s one of my idols growing up and just meeting him, and him knowing who we were was, it was just unreal. I had a smile on my face the whole time. I immediately called my father and pretty much told him, ‘This is insane.’”

“He’s so respected in the game of golf,” Fischer added. “The actually knew who we were. He had been following our story. He says, ‘No way, you guys are the Ontario Boys.’”

Before they headed home, the trio received another invite to play 18 holes at TPC Sawgrass, but on the Dye’s Valley course.

“It was an unreal experience,” Ljungberg said. “It’s really hard to put into words. But what a road trip and what an adventure it was.”

The trio are now back practicing their golf game in Canada and sharing the big lesson they learned from their adventure.

“I think I might keep [my passport] in my backpack at all times, just in case,” Ljungberg said.