ST JOHN'S - Mother Nature provided a gold medal test for golfers competing at the 2025 Canada Games throwing everything she had at the elite field with British Columbia's Austin Krahn and Quebec's Leonie Tavares getting gold stars finishing top the Bally Haly Country Club leaderboard.

Pounding rains one day, biting cold the next, then ferocious winds and a little bit of sun made for four intriguing and tough rounds, so tough that even the Team Newfoundland and Labrador contingent, who are familiar with the sometimes diabolical winds, were waving the white flag.

"A bit of wind would help us but there was a lot today, too much to control really," said Newfoundland and Labrador's Sam Fisher, who carded a final round seven-over 79 to finish in 15th. "There's a lot of them (golfers) talking about how cold it is for August, seven degrees.

"But it's hard for everyone. We're not doing very well in it either.

"Usually it's not this bad, it seems like we have seen three different seasons in the last three days.

"It gets bad but not this bad."

With many of the golfers in St. John's dreaming of professional careers the Canada Games were not just a competition but an education and reality check.

  The type of conditions at Bally Haly and the pressure to perform were new to many of the 44 golfers from 10 provinces and one territory some dealing with the elements better than others.

Home course advantage did not help Lucan Meade, who carded a 27-over par 99 in the worst of the conditions during Thursday's third round

Krahn, already identified by Golf Canada as one of the country's top amateur golfers, held steady carding an even par 72 in the third round then a spectacular seven-under 65 in Friday's final round to clinch the gold medal finishing 15 shots clear of Nova Scotia silver medallist Kooper MacKay.

"Sometimes today you were out there, and you got about 100 yards and I'm trying to hit 140 yards just to get to the hole. It's crazy," said Krahn, winner of three British Columbia junior tournaments this season and a member of the Team Canada NextGen program. "Rarely do you get a week where you get to play in all of it.

"Typically, some weeks are just rainy or some weeks are just windy but we have had the rain, we've had the wind, we've had the sun it's been everything this week so it's lots of fun because you get to test your skills in every condition.

"Out here every hole is different depending on when you are playing it. Back home we don't get much wind like this."

The two golfers who probably had more trouble with the conditions than anyone else but no one enjoyed themselves more were Alayna Mortimer and Sloane Tarapaski, the first two women from the Yukon to tee it up at a Canada Games.

Between the two golfers Mortimer was the only one to break 100 and that was a 97 in the opening round, but both were beaming at the experience of playing in the Canada Games and making a small piece of Yukon sport history.

"They're both pretty excited about them being the first two and pioneers," said Yukon coach Cole Marshall. "They're both young enough to play at the next Canada games as well. So hopefully it's them again.

  "They're the pioneers. The other girls that are all probably eight, nine, 10, get to see these girls on TV and, or the news, and makes them want to compete and get better.