The 2010 Senior Ryder Cup Championship was won handily by The Cutten Club with 17.5 points at Twenty Valley on Tuesday, September 7.  They finished a full 3 points (or one match) ahead of Port Colborne.  Team members were John Buzanis, Bob Desautels, Peter Lago, Rick Ludlow, Mike North, and John Pate.  Super Seniors were Dave McBain and Tom Cox.  Bob Armstrong, a key part of the team, is a school principal and could not attend the Championship.  In his place was alternate John Buzanis  who contributed 2 points.

On a hot windy day with temperatures hovering at 29 degrees; winds gusting to 60 km per hour; treacherous greens stimping at a slippery 12, made it a wild ride if you did not have your "A" game.  There were branches and  leaves dancing across fairways and greens; balls were oscillating and moving  as players tried to  line up their putts. It  was  fortunate that the predicted rain did not materialize.  Players were using 3 to 4 clubs more in some cases to reach their normal distances.  All the more credit to Cutten for prevailing in these conditions.

In  the latter stages of the Championship  the final result was in doubt, as teams drifted in from both the 9th and 18th holes (due to a cross over this year).  Both Port Colborne and Trafalgar had early leads and it was not until the final matches with Pete Lago who got 2.5 critical points from Russ Potter of River Oaks and Rick Ludlow with 2.5 points that the Championship winner was declared.  All clubs who participated were champions in their divisions and had the opportunity to win.  This year as happened in 2009, all matches were seeded to ensure that each player competed against an opponent of similar calibre.

Cutten had won their division with 77 points over a tough River Oaks team that finished at 65 points and nailed a wild card spot in the Championship.

Other team scores were - Port Colborne 14.5, Trafalgar 14, River Oaks 14, North Halton 12, Twenty Valley 12, Loch Ness Links 12, Bridgewater 7, and Links of Niagara 5.

There were 6 skins with Art Stead (Port Colborne) being the big winner with an eagle 3 on No. 1 and a birdie 3 on No. 17.  Bob Hoffstetter (Bridgewater) had an eagle 2 on No. 2, Chuck Pilkey (River Oaks) had a birdie 3 on No. 3, Jim Clelland (Trafalgar) a birdie 2 on No. 7, and Brian White (Loch Ness Links) with an eagle 3 on No. 10 were the rest of the skins winners.

A bonus for the Cutten team was a complimentary challenge match at River Bend Golf & Country Club in  London against their top seniors.  This was communicated by Wally Berseth of River Bend, who was a guest at the Championship and used to play in the Senior Ryder Cup matches when he was a member at Dundas Valley.  He is spearheading a move to establish a western SRC division in London and Kitchener for next year. (More on this as it develops)

Club Manager, Tracy Robinson, Professional, Brody Whetham, Superintendent, Steve Muys, and their staff at Twenty Valley did a superb job hosting and preparing the course for this year's Championship

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.

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.

• Bill Bockel
• Wayne Nelsen
• Mike Lawler
• Len Dowsett

• Donald McQuaig
• Dave R Smith
• Gene Pyne
• Paul Fell