ONTARIO PLAYDOWNS - Consider This - The Burrows Report

By Dave Burrows

I think there are three possible solutions to the District Playdowns

First is the concept of going back to the "old" way of doing things. You select your district reps in each of fours, pairs, singles, and novices. Then you play a one day "Zone" competition for all events to determine the Ontario finalists in a round robin format. Finally, the Ontario Finals are played on one day as well in a round robin format with the final 4 Zone winners taking part.

The upside of these competitions is you are guaranteed more participation from a district, as a "stacked" team can only win one district title. Also, the number of weekends used is reduced substantially. The downside is that Ontario sometimes fields weaker overall teams in the Nationals.

The second solution is to have a combinatiion of district winners and district percentage representatives. This will give you 16 teams of district winners, and 16 teams selected from the number of entries received in each district. For example, District 5 with 8 teams of fours (both men and ladies) would likely have 3 or even 4 teams go forward to make up the total 32 teams. The biggest downside is that you can only play one event on a two green facility. You would need two, two green clubs to host the fours, pairs, singles, and novices.

Otherwise the possibility exists, with the 32 teams playing the first day in 8 round robins. The second day would see the winners moving forward and playing quarters, semis, and finals. The upside is tremendous. More participation and more encouragement for districts to get their members entering. More games on the first day for all teams. More excitement in the final stages for both the players and the spectators. Finally, stronger overall teams moving into the Nationals.

The third solution is by far the best, but also by far the hardest. GROW YOUR CLUB! Burlington L.B.C. works extremely hard each season to add membership, to involve the membership, to teach the membership, to entertain the membership, to challenge the membership, to encourage all members to volunteer around the club.

There are special events with music, barbeques, jitneys, dream teams, and more. This year we are hosting the Cystic Fibrosis event which is bringing in between 50 to 100 professionals to play on the greens Monday nights for 5 weeks. Tuesday evenings fill the greens with 4,3,2,1 draw competitions. Wednesdays are devoted to practice and teaching players new skills. Thursdays sees 32 Australian Pairs teams completing in 5 divisions for a season long competition. We host quite a number of outside events, and we have 10 separate Club Championships over the season. Our new Club Mixed Champions this year are Freda & Ernie Gersok, who have moved back to Burlington from Alabama.

We already have over 40 entries in the club singles events, and they do not take place until July 22nd!

We have volunteers for the bar, the greens, the kitchen, the draws, the gardens, the clubhouse, the food prep, the coaching, and more.

Is it easy? NO! Is it worth it? YES! Our membership last year was 236 and this year is looking better yet. This is the pyramid effect. More members, more involvement, more volunteers, translates into more tournament players, more district participation, and more fun! All clubs can do this. All clubs could add district teams. Then our problem is solved.