Even though quite a few regulars were missing the turnout today was fairly decent. Golfing conditions were decent apart from an autumn chill for the early starters.

Tom Cook recorded 22pts on the way out and held it together on the back 9 (21pts). 43pts is an outstanding score and makes Tom the clear winner today. Tom’s handicap drops a massive three strokes: two strokes because of today’s win and an ESR of one. A new handicap of 23 is a just reward. Early bird Scott Sparks takes 2nd thanks to an excellent score of 41pts. 23pts on the way in (an eagle on the 14th doesn’t hurt) take Mark B to 3rd place and a new handicap of 14. John Ahad comes 4th but he will probably want the 18th hole back. El Capitan had a very nice score of 21pts on the front 9. But a no-score on the 16th prevents him from finishing higher than 5th. Mike Shabani tore the front 9 apart with 22pts. The back was more volatile so he has to settle for 6th. Jane Fraser is 1st lady in 8th. No less than 9 players recorded at least 21pts on front or back 9. Paul Brown even parred the 16th hole. And finally Kim Chaffart managed to par the 6th after losing his tee-shot and holing out from 100yds. Results…

CSS: 38pts (Men and Ladies – 17/37 in the buffer)

Overnight rain softened the ground and indeed the first lying water of autumn was spotted early on 18th Duke’s fairway. Very breezy conditions prevailed providing challenge for 44 competitors in the September Midweek Medal.

All credit then to Brian Ransom who shot 67 to win from Pralab Barua and Kamil Naidoo 69s. Striking good form for the ladies was Alison Chadwick 73. Results…

CSS remained at SSS.

This was the 7th of 8 medal rounds for the Midweek Grand Medal Trophy. So with just one round left Brian has 351, two ahead of Mark Rosamund and six from Kim Chaffart. R7 Leader board….

Ladies Captain Deborah recorded 23pts on the front 9. Solid 8 holes (translating into 18pts) on the back 9 enabled her to seal the win today. A 7 on the 18th was her only blemish/no-score for the day. The LC’s handicap loses two strokes down to 23! Better start making some space in your home for this trophy (and another trophy that the ladies won back in August ….). The day belonged to the ladies. Because 2nd place went to last year’s LC. Alison Chadwick’s round was the mirror image of Deborah’s round: a blob to start, 17pts out and 23pts on the way in. Good for second place and a new handicap of 19 (Ronnie was hoping for a much larger cut …). Charlie Whiteman saved the men’s honour by snatching 3rd place with 40pts. Christer Larsson and Jan Wilken both recorded scores of 39pts. Christer takes 4th place thanks to a better back 9. Both men do get healthy handicap cuts. Tina Neessen closes out the Top6. Results…

The President’s challenges:

• Ladies:
  Nearest the pin in 3 on the 6th: Cheryl Woodhouse
  Nearest the pin in 3 on the 15th: Jane Fraser
• Men:
  Nearest to the pin 7th: Sean Thomas
  Nearest to the pin in 2 on the 18th: Kim Chaffart
• Men & Ladies:
  Nearest the pin 10th: Alan King

CSS: 36pts (23/53 in the buffer).

After 6 rounds of the Men’s Top Dog Trophy Chris Lordan retains his lead ahead of Ned Shanklyn and Charlie Whiteman. R6 Leader board…

42 turned out on a cooler day for the Midweek Captain’s Day.

Tore Burman convinced as winner on 43 points from Toby Hunt 41 and Sheena playing well again 40. Chris Jones earned 4th place 38.There were no fewer than 11 ‘Twos’ and many birdies – some back-to-back eg Toby 3rd & 4th (4 overall), Sheena 2nd & 3rd (3 overall). Results…

Overall CSS remained at 37 points, all 4 above having handicap cuts (Tore by 2).

Midweek Captain John Ahad posed some challenges:

• Putting – 6 on 27 putts

  – Alastair Whyte winner on countback
  – Brett Colley
  – Julian James
  – Toby Hunt
  – Sheen Harrington
  – Hassain Mouilah

• Nearest to the Pin

  – Men 2nd Tore Burman
  – Men in 2 15th Richard Smith
  – Ladies 16th -not awarded
  – Ladies in 2 14th Veronica Mitchell

What a joy it was to play Prince’s in timely fashion with little, if any, waiting on any hole on a glorious sunny day. It also meant that everyone could see the amazing finish of the Test match. The Bank Holiday had kept many away from the course with only 33 playing.

Mark Bean, returning to golf after several years away and playing his first round since regaining his handicap earned himself an immediate 1.5 cut with 42 points to beat Nick Rogers and Peter Harrington, both two back on 40 points. One point further back was first lady of the day, Veronica Mitchell. Results…

CSS remained at 37 points and all of the above receive cuts to their playing handicaps.

39 competitors turned out for the 3rd round of the Midweek Anniversary Accumulator.

The first two positions were taken by late/very late starters. Dylan Merchant maintained recent form with a glorious 65 whilst Oliver Maskell knew what he had to beat and blasted home with a 68, just 2 over par gross. Another steady round 68 gained Teddy Holt 3rd place ahead of consistent improver Adrian Wells. Results…

CSS remained at SSS.

With just one round left in the Accumulator, the position is tied with Kim and Jeremy Ryan 217 ahead of Henry. But note that e.g. Dylan needs to get net 84 to level with Kim and Jeremy with Russell Stewart just 79 – so it’s all to play for in last round. R3 Leader board….

Those starting later were probably blissfully unaware of the deluge that the rest of us endured, so there was a combination of soggy and missing cards & checking if those missing were NRs or no shows. There were however, 114 cards processed and the booking sheet had been full from start to finish.

In the competition for those with a CONGU handicap, for a long time the best score in was a 70 from Mark Laverty with Habib Amir next on 72 (this despite his tee shot on the 10th not reaching the ladies’ tee!!). Then some of the late starters arrived back. Seemingly the usual adage of ‘beware the injured golfer’ holds true in this instance. Reportedly Loui Suarez left his driver in his bag as he’d been suffering a bad back and recorded a net 64 to take 1st place by 6 shots. His playing partner, Doug Donaghey also played well scoring a 70, but Mark took 2nd place with a better back 9. Results…

These 3 were the only ones to play better than the SSS of 71 (for the men) and CSS went to 72 for the men and 74 for the ladies.

Loui also gets an ESR of 2 shots to reduce his playing handicap from 19 to 15!

Last year’s ladies’ winner, Angela Flynn takes the honours again with a 75 (ladies get 2 additional shots because of the difference in the SSS) and runner-up was Cheryl Woodhouse one shot behind.

The winner of the non-CONGU handicap competition was July Myat Tun with a 69, playing off 26.

The nearest the pin result was sewn up before most of us had arrived at the Park, with Allan Richardson from Putney Park putting his ball to within a couple of feet. The longest drive went to one of our visitors, Luca Ioppa and well done to Glendale for interpreting the soggy sheet!

This year the Open was topped and tailed with a bacon roll to start and burger to finish. Sadly, the weather did not incline many to stay around for long.

A much reduced field started their medal round and even fewer finished! 7 of 40 were no shows and 10 of those who did NR’d and walked in after 9 or 10 holes. The rest were made of sturdier stuff, coping with the almost incessant rain, at times light and with little wind it could change in an instant to heavy in a gusting wind.

Possibly the early starters had the better weather and occupied the top 3 slots for most of the day. It certainly didn’t put Mark Rosamond off, so much so that his winning score of net 63 earned him an additional ESR of 0.5 to reduce his playing handicap by two shots to 15. Teddy Holt was the one to demote Adrian Wells (66) and Angela Flynn (68) to 3rd and 4th places. His 65 put him 2nd, earning him a 0.6 handicap cut, Adrian was also cut by 0.4. Results…

CSS remained at 67 for the men and 69 for the ladies.

In the Midweek Grand Medal it was all change at the top. With two more rounds to go, Mark now leads the way by four on 353 from Kim Chaffart and pushing previous leader Mike Jones down to 3rd place on 360. R6 Leader board….

Ladies

There may have only been 11 ladies in the medal but a further 5 were involved in other competitions which is a pretty good turnout on the day after the Bontor. The winds of yesterday had quietened, but picked up as the day progressed to make it still a challenge.

But it was one to which a few of the ladies were up for. Tenesi Karakaneva, Alison Chadwick and Jayne Maxwell all went out in 43, but aside from handicaps making a difference, Tenesi’s back 9 of 38 gave her a net 65 and 1st place and a reduction in handicap to 15. Two shots back on 67 was Alison, with Jayne a further two behind. Results…

With CSS moving to 68, Alison also had a cut reducing her playing handicap to 20.

Men

The field faced nice golfing conditions: receptive but pacy greens and a bit of bounce on the fairways. The gusts of wind became stronger and more frequent as the day went on. Some pin positions again were pretty cruel. The general feedback amongst the members on the new 15th tee is not very positive. At first the feedback was that the hole became too easy. Based on today’s results the field should reconsider: a few competitors experienced some real horror shows on that hole.

Toby Hunt uncharacteristically went for an early start. And the results speak volume. His round started with a wobble (6) on the first. But he only dropped one more shot on the way out. The back 9 was a bit more challenging. But a gross score of 77 (64 net) earns him a well deserved victory. Adrian finished 2nd (mainly thanks to a good back 9). Sean Thomas steady round (and the countback rule) means he finished 3rd. Ned Shanklyn keeps piling up the Top6 finishes. Brian McMahon and in-form Peter Jagger complete the Top6. Results…

Lowest Gross Score goes to Henry. His highlight must be the chip-in birdie on the 7th hole today (quite a week actually after birdies on SI 1 & 3 on Duke’s on Wednesday and a new handicap of 6). But he will deeply regret the 17th hole.

Toby Hunt takes the lead in the Grand Medal Trophy (341). Mike Shabani (351) and Pete Needham (353) are the closest followers. R6 Leader board…

CSS: 67