Prince’s was in reasonably good shape (except for the muddy fairways). Jay Barker put some new sticks in the bag. The change paid off immediately: a round of 70 gross translates into 39 stableford points. 3rd place is nice reward for good day at the office. Steady Eddy Brian McMahon recorded another solid round on Prince’s: 21pts on the way out enable him to push Jay into 3rd thanks to the countback rule. One of the late starters Sean Thomas logged an excellent score of 40pts (21pts on the way back). Sean’s handicap drops to 12 in a nice finish to the 2018 golfing year. The RPGC version of Waldorf and Stadler, aka Kerry S and Alan K, claim 4th and 5th spot with excellent rounds of golf. Julian James’ strong back 9 land him 6th place. Paul Brown trounced Val by 9pts and earned bragging rights for one day. It has to be said that apart from Tenesi the ladies didn’t like today’s conditions. Results… 

On a housekeeping note: Ludovico can you please record your score on the computer at the clubhouse. Doing your admin is NOT one of the duties of the Handicap Secretary. Recording a score on the computer takes 90s. No valid excuses for not completing this task.

CSS: 37pts (Men & Ladies)

After all the rain it was of course very boggy underfoot, so we were fortunate that the public were out shopping allowing us to switch courses to play on Prince’s which unlike Duke’s had no temporary greens. Although the early starters would have played a few holes in the rain it didn’t have any detrimental affect on their results as they took the top places. Scoring was tight amongst the also-rans, but the top 3 scored 40 or more with Keith & Lee winning on 44 points, 2 points back were Brian & James with Kerry and Alan in 3rd place on 40. Results… 

There were some interesting handicap calculations and the ladies got 2 additional shots, so most pairs ended up with more points than they recorded.

The Harringtons were again the most festive with their hats and lights adorning their trolleys – sadly it didn’t improve their golf!

Overnight rain made Prince’s muddy but not as bad as Duke’s. Otherwise it was pleasantly mild just two days from the winter solstice.

Peter and Sheena won adulation for their Xmas gear – esp. Peter with Xmas lights on his trolley!

Adil Lalani shot a fantastic back nine 24 points to win overall with 40 points. Luke Baker shot a workmanlike 39 points and well done to Hassan with 37 points off 6. Results…

Unusually on Prince’s CSS was reduced from SSS 37 to 36 points with no ‘Twos’.

The rain of the last few days left its mark: competitors faced muddy fairways, some casual water in bunkers and fairly receptive greens. Roger Rojas was one of the early starters and laid down the marker with an excellent score of 39pts (he will regret his score on the 18th hole though. Stunningly his score was only good enough for … 6th place today. No less than five competitors managed to record 40pts.

5th place goes to Luke Baker who keeps up his excellent form (FYI: he finished second last week). Paul Grand just edged Luke thanks 19pts on the back 9. Paul B will have mixed feelings about his round: he would’ve taken 40pts and a par on the 16th hole on any given day. However today: that tally only leads to 3rd place and to make things worse he is beaten a) on countback by b) none other than … Val. She did a Paul Brown and let victory slip away with an untidy bogey on the 16th. Nigel Ward’s excellent back 9 (11pts on the last 4 holes) enable him to leapfrog Val into 1st. The whole 40-gang get sizeable handicap cuts. Results…

Please also note that Tony Kopczak went from hero (winner last week) to zero in just 7 days. Exit polls seemed to indicate that Captain and Secretary ended in a tie …

CSS: 37pts (Men & Ladies)

Benign but seasonably muddy conditions prevailed for the field of 31 competitors. Jon Cooper posted a winning 37 points to win the midweek Champagne Chase in his valedictory round at RP (after circa 33 years) with 37 points from a strong 36pts from Angela Flynn. Keith Cassidy and Tamas Ladacs shared honours on 35 points. Results…

On a day where the UK political situation shared characteristics of an embittered banana republic, the important question arose: did the presence of swans on the clubhouse pond spell curtains for Canadian Geese?

CSS remained at SSS.

Weather proved to awful for the 8.00am starters. Strong winds, muddy fairways, uneven greens were met by brief and heavy showers. It won’t come as a surprise that scoring proved to be tricky for the field.

Roger Rojas recovered from seeing his Man City lose to Chelsea yesterday to take the clubhouse lead with 35pts. Lee Marshall saw his round of solid golf rewarded with 36pts. Change of the clubhouse lead after just two completed games. Rain means that Tony Kopczak will show up with his blue Inspector Gadget coat. The trick seemed to work. A wobble on the 1st hole was immediately offset by a birdie on the 2nd. Another wobble followed when it took him 3 shots on the 8th just to get his ball … past the ladies tees. 19pts on the way out were followed by an identical score on the back 9. He even tried to be too smart for his own good. Sensing a good score he tried to manage his handicap by professionally messing up the 18th. He didn’t take into account that CSS would move (see below). As a result Inspector Gadget’s handicap gets cut by 1.2 strokes down to 18. Luke Baker, who was in the same flight, didn’t fare too well in the rain. Once the waterproofs came off he put on a clinic on the back 9: 24pts. He also skilfully messed up the 18th. Still good enough for 37pts and 2nd place. Anis Driaa matched Roger’s score and since both players recorded identical number of points on the way in the computer had to pick the player to finish 5th. HandicapMaster decided that Anis would finish ahead of Roger. The software developer must be a Chelsea fan or dislike Man City fans … HLB closes out the Top6. Results…

Other note: 2019 Men’s Captain Nigel Gaymond’s ambition for today was to complete one round without swearing. Unfortunately he pulled his tee-shot on the 1st into the trees on the left. Hacking out proved to be too tricky and a few 4-letter words soon followed … Outgoing Captain NR claims he could’ve avoided a +0.1. But he too got fixated by a static CSS. To use his words: If I’d tried harder on the back 9 I could’ve …

Only one lady stayed within her buffer. Rumour has it that a skilful display on the greens helped Sheena pull off that feat.

How tricky were conditions? Only 6 (!) out of 47 players stayed in their buffer. CSS: 34pts (Men & Ladies)

Threatened rain held back to allow some good scoring for the last midweek medal of 2018. An excellent 64 from an improving Jeremy Prescott decisively won the medal with Pralab Barua second and Bruno Clercx having best gross and third on countback from Richard Hodgkinson net 69s.

Jeremy’s 64 follows club captain Nick’s (and Jay Barker’s) inspiring 64 on Sunday. Best lady was Ann Gardner with a buffer-zone 72. Results…

CSS remained at SSS.

Ladies

The first of the team events coincided with the start of the new lady captain’s reign and a customary drive-in started the day. Deborah Potter, the new LC hit a perfect shot down the centre of the fairway, probably she was the most surprised! A drive-out was also included for the outgoing LC as she’d missed her own drive-in, obviously now in more relaxed mode, hers went close to the tree on the left.

The team event was a Texas scramble with two teams of four and one of three, and not only were the shot allowances close, but so were the results. Despite having four chances on each hole, it was the three man (lady) team to record the only birdie of the day. Both teams of score had gross 73s, but the captain’s team of Deborah, Alison, Val & Sheena prevailed courtesy of their additional 0.2 handicap allowance. Results…

Men

This week’s rain clearly left its mark on the Prince’s course. Muddy fairways, sticky/slower greens that turned out to be pretty uneven too in some occasions. Kudos to Jay for rediscovering his mojo. 69 gross was a welcome result after a couple of tough(er) weeks. Three birdies (one of them on the 7th and another one on the 13th) were the testament of a very good round of golf. Caleb Mills and Oliver Maskell netted excellent scores to claim spots in the Top6. Steady Brian McMahon and resurgent Jim Fogarty (who will regret the last 3 holes – he actually did a “Paul Brown” on the 16th …) complete the Top6. Nick Rogers made the golfing headlines for the right reasons on this occasion. A double bogey 6 on the first seemed to settle his nerves rather than rattle him. A solid front 9 was followed by an excellent back 9. Countback awards victory to the soon to be former Men’s Captain. Well done! Results…

CSS: 69 (14 out of 42 remained in their buffer)