On Monday, September 14th, at the challenging Lookout Point Golf Course, Brampton eked out a win over a tightly packed field to seal victory in this year's Senior Ryder Cup Championship. Brampton team members are: Rick Dodds-Hebron, Phil Obendorf, Larry Littlefield, Bob Dool, Bill Johnstone, Bill Kerr; and Super Seniors are Bob Little and Paul Hurley.
It seemed to be ordained since they destroyed their division, romping through Niagara-on-the-Lake, Links of Niagara and Wyldewood with 78 points (out of 96 possible points) in the four matches. This was a full 32 points ahead of the second place Links of Niagara team. On paper it appeared to be a tough division to win since Links of Niagara have won the championship twice in recent years.
Bill Kerr, the Brampton team captain, had to make some last minute player adjustments due to injury and illness - but his finetuning obviously paid off, as his players were able to handle the difficult Lookout Point track better than the other teams. Many players (including some from Brampton) were seeing the course for the first time and that is a recipe for frustration - especially trying to figure out the sometimes bizarre escarpment greens.
Summit who finished in second, 2 points behind with 15.5, had an incredible trip to the Championship. They had tied with an American club, River Oaks, from Grand Island, U.S., in another division. As a result of the formula for wild card entries into the final, they had to playoff at a neutral course. Amazingly, both second place teams had 60 points and both were exactly 4 points behind their first place teams, North Halton and Cutten respectively. Gary Bartlett of Dundas Valley kindly organized a team playoff at their course, with Summit finally advancing.
North Halton were unable to defend their title and finished well back in the field with some of their players failing to solve Lookout's greens.
Final team scores were Brampton 17.5, Summit 15.5, Beverly 14.0, Bridgewater 13.0, Cutten 12.5, Lookout 12.5, North Halton 10.5, Springville 8 and St. Catharines 4.5. All players were extremely pleased with the well organized event and the gracious folks at the host club Lookout Point. Special thanks to Allan Shaw who spearheaded the tournament being held at his fine club.
Next year's Championship will be held at Twenty Valley.
Photos from the Championship will be posted as soon as they are received. |
