CALGARY LADIES MEDALIST SERIES

HISTORY

In 1971 Diane (Kirby) Williams initiated a tournament for Calgary’s lady low handicap golfers. With suggestions from Shirley Bacon, it was patterned after a competition in existence in Vancouver B.C. Diane worked with several of Calgary’s head pros and the “15 and Under” tournament series was founded. Calgary ladies with a handicap of 15 or less were invited to play 18 holes at the Calgary Golf and Country Club, Canyon Meadows, Earl Grey, Shawnee Slopes and Willow Park and the courses kindly waived the green fees.

As the tournament series increased in popularity the handicap (factor) had been reduced to twelve and only the 24 lowest entrants qualified to play. A maximum of six courses were played each year.

During the 1990’s it became increasingly more difficult to secure six golf courses for the series each year. On October 20^th, 1997 the Calgary Ladies Golf Association voted at their annual fall meeting to have the “Medalist Series” (new name) a sanctioned event of the association.

The Medalist series now operates with a five year rotation plan and each member club of the Association donates six tee times (24 players) for the series. This means that with all clubs participating, each course only donates five tee times once every five years.

Two coordinators from the regular players in the series volunteer to organize the events each year and report annually to the executive of the Calgary Ladies Golf Association. For each event players phone the coordinators one week prior to the event stating their current handicap factor. Maximum factor is 12.0 and the twenty-four players with the lowest factors will compete.

The host course need only provide the six tee times for the date they have agreed upon. The coordinators phone in the five groupings several days ahead and organize and look after all aspects of the event.