On June 27, 2024, Jessie Mercer was named the new head coach of both the Men’s and Women’s Golf programs here at Queen’s.
Mercer has been involved in golf since the age of 13, where she itted she was sort of forced into it by her father.
Luckily for Mercer and her father, she was good at it. Most notably, Mercer sported purple as a Western Mustang, where she was named OUA All-Star for all five of her seasons in the OUA.
Throughout her university career, Mercer was able to achieve three First-Team honours and two Second-Team honours. Her dedication to the sport earned her a spot on the 2015 FISU World University Games Team, where she placed ninth overall.
When speaking with Mercer, she noted how the state of Canadian Golf is in a peculiar situation, and really is up for grabs in of who’s going to step in and capitalize on all it has to offer. Canadian university golf goes untapped, Mercer said.
She believes it can continue to grow if OUA golf and U SPORTS golf is on the radar.
“For high school students, that are looking, for how they want to compete in post-secondary, if we can keep a few more athletes in Canada knowing the competitiveness across the OUA, I think it can only get bigger, better, [and] more competitive,” Mercer said in an interview with The Journal.
Canadian university’s should be looking to get on par with the likes of U. S. programs.
In of leveraging the opportunity provided by Canadian Golf, Mercer believes she’s the perfect fit for Queen’s.
Previously being heavily involved at the provincial and national levels for Golf in Canada, Mercer believes her experience with the sport will allow her to navigate the loads of talent at Queen’s in an efficient manner.
“On the Golf Ontario side, I was lucky enough to be really involved in junior golf,” Mercer said.
The new coach is well-versed in the journey stemming from growing up with the sport.
“I’m pretty familiar with the landscape of junior golf, you know, where kind of those good players are playing, to hopefully tap in a little bit from a recruiting standpoint,” she said.
One thing Mercer wants to see out of her programs are a bit more activity. Although golf seasons are short, Mercer believes staying more active will help set our Gaels up for success.
“Adding a few events will set us up when we get to the national championship. We’ll have a few more events under our belt, a few more good memories on the golf course, to feed off and build momentum into those bigger championships,” Mercer said.
Having such events is important due to a short season for the varsity sport, taking place from Sept. 15 to Oct. 4.
Mercer was very clear the more opportunities players have to compete and practice throughout those few weeks, the more consistent and comfortable they’ll be come the championship events.
Golf is on the come-up in Canada, especially within younger demographics and the addition of a young new face in Jessie Mercer, who’s well established within the junior golf community in Canada, is an exciting opportunity for the Gaels—not only to bring more talent to Queen’s, but to help establish a new generation of successful golf in Kingston.
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