Typically, golf is not the first sport to come to mind when thinking of McGill athletics. However, fourth-year June Gleed made waves on the McGill athletic scene when she hit a hole-in-one at the Omnium Rouge-et-Or on Aug. 30 in Quebec City—the first ever for McGill golf.
For Gleed, a native of Newmarket, Ontario, golfing has always been a way of life.
“Golf has really been a big part of my family life growing up,” Gleed said “All my siblings play, and my father plays, so growing up, golf was always playing on TV, and we were playing it a lot. It’s always really fun and competitive between us in a really loving way, so that’s how I got myself into it.”
The Omnium is an annual competition between top golfers from universities in Quebec. It was the first of the 2018-19 golf season, and Gleed left her mark early. She hit her hole-in-one on the seventeenth hole of the Cap Rouge Golf Club in Quebec, which, due to a bizarre problem, was one of the first holes she played that day.
“It was an odd morning,” Gleed said. “My teammate and I couldn’t get out of our hotel room. We were up and ready to go, and we couldn’t open our door, and neither could our coach or the maintenance staff. Around 45 minutes later, they were taking a crowbar to our door to open it up, so it was an intense start to the morning.”
As a result, McGill was forced to start on the course’s back nine holes and were still fresh by the time they reached the 181-yard 17th hole. Gleed felt positive about her tee shot toward the hole, but was hesitant to get her hopes up.
“I knew I’d hit it well, and one of our coaches was saying that it was in, but I was unsure, and the other girls I was playing with didn’t really react, so you don’t want to get all excited and have it not [go] in,” Gleed chuckled. “We went up there and my coach said, ‘it’s in, it’s in’ so I started to get a little bit more excited after that, once I actually realized that it was in the hole.”
Following her impressive feat, Gleed had trouble staying focused on finishing her round.
“After that, it was hard to keep my emotions in,” Gleed said. “I was really excited, but it’s a long game, so you have to keep your cool, […] and keep playing every single shot, but once the round was over, I was very excited.”
Gleed draws inspiration from the recent victories of Canadian female golfers, such as Brooke Henderson.
“Brooke is around my age and we played in a lot of the same tournaments growing up,” Gleed said. “I never played with her, but it’s so inspiring to see how well she’s doing, and she’s representing Canada so well.”
Gleed will be graduating with a major in political science, specializing in Canadian politics. Off the golf course, she has stayed active on campus: She was president of Young Liberals of McGill and currently sits on the National Board for the Young Liberals of Canada as Vice-President policy. Gleed will conclude her McGill golfing career when she graduates, but she will never stop playing the game she loves.
“I would love to go to law school and continue my studies,” Gleed said. “But, wherever that takes me, I know that I’ll always keep playing.”
