Fresh off the heels of an impressive showing at the 2025 Waterloo/Laurier Invitational where he shot three under par on route to tying for second place in the tournament, third-year golfer Brett Bateman joined The Cascade to discuss golfing, teammates, and his secret weapon — Google Earth.Â
How did you start playing golf?Â
I played golf when I was a little kid with my dad and my grandpa, and then I didn’t really play for the rest of my childhood. I started playing high school golf when I was in grade eight and nine, then started taking lessons in grade 10, and playing tournaments in grade 11. I didn’t expect to play university golf at all until grade 12.
What drew you to the UFV golf program?Â
[Connor O’Dell] was my golf coach, he always said [UFV] would have been an opportunity for me … I just decided that that’d be a pretty fun thing to do if I was gonna go to school anyway.
Do you have a pre-round routine?Â
Nothing really set in stone. Pre-round, I usually hit balls first on the range, but I’ll hit balls for probably half an hour, 45 minutes, and then just do putting. I always use the same ball marker, and I usually keep the same amount of tees in my pocket when we play.
How did you prepare for the Laurier/Waterloo invitational?Â
We do quite a bit of study … We used Google Maps, Google Earth, or golf apps, and we looked at the course from aerial footage, got numbers to different targets, and then you do one practice round. So that helps you hit different clubs off different tees, and chip and putt around the greens to get familiar with the course.
You shot a 71 in your first round and a 69 in your second round in Ontario. Were you more used to the course in the second round? Or did you change something in your game?Â
We [played] at two different courses. So the first round we actually had a practice round, [but] the second round, we didn’t get a practice round at all. We relied on the work we put in [prior] to know the course a little bit. It’s hard to see on Google Earth what the course looks like, so a lot of the holes that we thought about looked a lot different … I’ve never really played a tournament where I haven’t seen the course before.Â
How does your mindset differ when shooting a good round vs. a bad round?Â
A good round, you feel like you’re in the zone, so you don’t really think too much about it. I’d say you just keep doing what you’re doing. And then when playing bad, I always look at just trying to save it. If you start bad, you can always come back. Or if something bad happens, I believe in my skill to come back from that.Â
Who is your favorite teammate to play a round with?Â
Probably Mac Smith. He’s really funny. We have a lot of common interests with sports, he’s a big basketball guy, and I like to watch basketball. So we talk a lot about that.Â
What has your coach and former teammate Eli Greene meant to you?Â
It’s pretty cool having him as a coach. He’s very detailed, and he knows us as people, which helps because we’ve had [him] as a teammate for two years, and now a coach. He’s able to help in ways that other coaches haven’t, because he understands us.
What are you looking forward to most at the Canada West Championship on your home greens?Â
Just that, looking forward to playing at a course where we play so often … I think it’s going to be good for us. Home course advantage is definitely a thing in sports. Over the next week, we’re going to keep playing there and it’s nice because we’ll be able to understand the course in all different conditions, so we kind of know how it plays.Â
Interview edited for length and clarity.
