The dream of earning a golf scholarship in the U.S. came true for Bradford-born player Andrew Gwilliams. After appearing in major tournaments at home and abroad, he found his way onto the roster of the Grand Valley State University in Allendale, Michigan this year.
A past student of Bradford District High School (BDHS), he is excited at the prospect of playing in the 2022 NCAA golf season starting in May.
“Having the chance to play against the next level of incredible competition and on challenging courses is a great opportunity for me,” he said.
Golfing has been part of his life from a very young age. He said his earliest memory of hitting balls was on a driving range at Cardinal Golf Course in King at the age of three.
“I immediately loved it, and spent a lot of my summertime there,” he said, noting that then, at around eight years old, he was able to hit balls far enough to carry over creeks and ponds and finally play full courses.
Gwilliams started playing competitively when he was 13. In his junior year, he won the GBSSA (Georgian Bay Secondary Association) championship as a member of the BDHS golf team and went on to represent the school region at OFSSA, the Ontario school championships. He was also selected to represent the Maple Leaf Junior Tour Team Canada in 2019 at the Nordic Cup in Sweden.
The recruiting call from the Grand Valley State came in last summer, and was followed by an on-campus visit to check out the university’s training facilities, described by Gwilliams as "incredible.”
He was then offered a spot on the university team in mid-December, and officially signed the scholarship contract with them in January.
Currently studying and training in Florida, where he was awarded the Henry Brunton Golf Academy Athlete of the Month in October 2021, Gwilliams can’t wait to get ready for his rookie season in the NCAA.
“My goal is to get acclimated with the team quickly and become a contributing player to their success,” he said.
He praised his future team, also known as ‘The Lakers,’ and feels confident about their chances in the upcoming seasons.
“We have a lot of players who have the ability to shoot very low scores, a group of players who are all very determined to win every single event we play in,” he noted.
Besides growing as a golfer and person throughout his university experience, Gwilliams sees the opportunity to play against higher-level competition as a pathway to get to his ultimate goal of making the PGA tour.
As for moving to Michigan, he said he is definitely going to miss his family, but noted that living with a lot of kids at his age down in Florida over the past year was good preparation for life on campus.
Looking back on his childhood in Bradford, where he also played rep minor hockey as a young boy, he recalled happy memories of spending time golfing in town.
“I loved going to the Cherry Hill driving range and trying to hit the cars they had as targets on there,” he said.
