Bryan Carbery isn’t retiring to spend more time at the golf course. The golf course is where the coach of the University of Victoria golf program has already spent most of his life.
This fall, after 14 seasons, “Carbs” as he’s known to his players, will step down from the Vikes head coaching job, although Clint Hamilton, UVic’s director of athletics and recreation, isn’t letting him walk off the course entirely.
“I don’t think it’s a total retirement,” said Carbery, who laughed and said he’ll remain in an advisory capacity. Carbery and his wife Bonnie won’t miss his 90 days a year on the road, but he’ll never be too far from the team. “I don’t think Clint’s going to let me go too far away.
“They’ll give me a fancy title, like director of golf or something.”
Beside smoothing out the “blips” for interim coach Justin Clews — an assistant pro at Uplands Golf Club — Carbery’s main reason for staying on board is to help maintain all the contacts and relationships painstakingly cultivated over the years. He’s done it all, from booking hotel rooms to driving the team as far as California to save money. He’s drummed up free tee times, and encouraged benefactors to donate scholarship funds.
“At the end of the day, there’s a lot more to coaching golfing than people realize,” Carbery said, recalling a team stop at the Seattle airport where the restaurant staff informed him his Visa was maxed out. Turned out the ticket staff had charged him $15,000 for baggage, instead of $200.
“There’s a lot more than just teaching them how to swing.”
In the retirement announcement from UVic, Hamilton referred to the monumental contribution Carbery has made in building the Vikes golf program.
“His passion, determination, and unwavering commitment to developing our golf team to a national championship level was always on display, and matched only by his commitment to our student-athletes,” Hamilton said.
Carbery, who’s turning 65 next month, grew up in a golfing family — his dad Hugh’s ashes are buried on the course at Uplands Golf Club, and sons Spencer (an ECHL coach in South Carolina) and Kasey (a chef) are avid golfers. Carbery played juniors with best buddy Don Billsborough, the soon-to-be-retired head pro at Uplands, and was Billsborough’s first assistant pro back in 1973.
What Carbery has been good at is teaching and building a golf program out of next to nothing. It all started when Carbery coached Lanny Sawchuk, who went on to Stanford. Lanny’s dad Ted Sawchuk, president of Uplands and head of UVic student services, suggested the club donate an afternoon for a tournament to raise money for a UVic golf program. Vikes athletic director Wayne MacDonald bought in, and two years later, the program was born.
Currenttly, the UVic Golf Classic, the main fundraiser for the golf program, is in its 17th year, as Uplands continues its support.
“Uplands has been great. They’ve been absolutely amazing,” Carbery said.
Uplands teaching pro Dave Rands works on the technical, video analysis side of the game with the Vikes, while Carbery, the 2013 Canadian University/College coach of the year, is more of the old-fashioned school of thought. He believes focusing on the basics is where improvement begins, rather than changing heads on a golf club.
That said, Carbery is pleased to know former Vike Alison Quinlan is joining the program as a sports pychologist, while doing her Masters in sports psychology. He wants that piece of the puzzle added to the team.
Carbery’s aim is to help the Vikes become more consistent. The strategy has brought the Vikes RCGA Canadian University men’s titles in 2003, ’05, and ’06, and a women’s championship in 2008.
Individually, Shelby Dreher was a force through the championship years, and won the individual title in 2005. Todd Halpen appeared on the PGA Tour, Christina Spence-Proteau was a two-time RCGA champ, Anne Balser was a four-time member of the Canadian national team, and Mitch Evanecz made five cuts in his rookie PGA season. Evanecz earned Web.com Tour status in 2013.
The Vikes were the first school to win both men’s and women’s individual titles in the NAIA championships in 2012, when Carson Kallis and Megan Woodland topped the leaderboards.
Carbery considers Woodland one of the top 25 golfers in the country. The Claremont grad said joining the UVic golf team was the best decision she could have made.
“I always had a great time with Carbs as my coach,” Woodland said about her four years at UVic. “He had a way of reinforcing my goals on the golf course.
“He really had my back.”
