A new format for this competition was proposed by the executive. As a trial the Handicap buttons division will be dropped for 2009 as the Senior Men’s Interclub League already provides a similar handicap competition, using a "home and away" format. In the Open Division the winning team will be the one with the most points gained during the comprehensive season.

There will be more matches played than before and the Open division will see an increase in competitive play with approximately 2 weeks between matches. Each golf club, represented by a two man amateur team, will play a four ball match against every other golf club participating in the competition, resulting in 11 round robin matches. Handicap strokes are not used in these matches. The Zone 5 clubs (18 holes) in action will be:

Club Coordinators are requested to provide 2 competitors for each match and you do not have to use the same pairings each time. Each amateur player must be of senior age (over 55 years) on the day of the match. The scoring system is 1 point for a win, ½ point for a tie (play 18 holes only) and 0 points for a loss. The posted schedule depicts that each club will play either 5 home & 6 away games or 6 home & 5 away games for a total of 11 bi-weekly matches. Blue tees are recommended for play (1st set of tees in front of the back tees) but white tees (middle) may also be used if mutually agreed upon.

Historically the Senior Open Buttons tee times were about 11:00 am on Mondays. This restriction can now be relaxed and the hosting team can use any convenient tee time. Other weekdays may be used for these matches. The Senior Men’s Interclub League will still be playing on Mondays (on 6 of 12 courses after 12:00 PM) from April through September. When these clubs are "away" there should be available tee times on Mondays at the "home" courses. Hence, a Monday tee time is still popular. Tuesdays and Thursdays are also being used. The zone coordinator will no longer book tee times for these matches. As a guideline the zone coordinator produced a playing schedule depicting the 66 home and away matches. Included are the agreed upon tee times as confirmed by each club. Should a match need to make alternate arrangements then it will be up to the club coordinators/players to sort out the details.

The onus is on the home team to report both the results of the match and the correct spelling of the names of the 4 players involved, in a timely fashion. The zone coordinator will tally the weekly results and provide feedback to all clubs and to the Times Colonist (Island Scoreboard). The scheduled 11 matches are now on weekdays from mid April to mid September.

Reporting results format - Send ASAP to John Dunick or telephone 250-380-9480 as follows: “Results for 01 April - BM at GV are” “John Smith & Dave Clark (BM) defeated Jim Black & Bob White (GV) for 1 point” or “John Smith & Dave Clark (BM) halved match with Jim Black & Bob Whites (GV) for ½ points each”

Contact person for Senior Buttons Competition:

John Dunick
250-380-9480