It was an all too familiar Friday story weatherwise with very heavy rain showers drenching all but the two early starters. A number of players walked in on the back 9 and a few more of us should have! Notwithstanding the conditions, and the continuing long rough in front of the tees and away from the fairways on Dukes, Justin continued his recent good form posting a winning 35 points. Richard B. was second (33 points) including NRs on the 5th and 6th but 10 pars on the other 16 holes. Rannesh was third on 31 points, a steady round with two NRs.

After a 2 week delay the field did battle for our Claret Jug. The weather continued to remain volatile. I think it is a fair assumption every game faced a few showers today. Some were absolutely drenched but pressed on.

Ed: Confirmed by local Weather station report below

Richard Norden kept his composure en route to an excellent 63. 2 6’es on the back 9 are minor blemishes. Graham matched Richard’s score of 63 (net). But 2 6’s and an 8 on the back move him into 2nd (blame the countback rule). 3rd and 4th place go to a duo with scores of 64 (net). Darren takes 3rd place thanks to a score of level par on the way in. Countback rule had no other choice but to award 4th place to Caroline. Richard Back was in a group of 3 players with the best front 9 (+4  gross). He also managed to go -1 on all the par 3’s today. Jeremy also went +4 gross on the way out. But he finishes 6th today because of some untidy holes on the way in (+5 gross).

Women

So after the earlier postponement and then re-instatement of the comp., the main outcome of today was that we all got in before the klaxon went, not sure that for most of us golf deserves much of a mention! The one exception being Jenny whose net 68 was 3 ahead of Ali and thus the only one to record a score better than what used to be called SSS and having said earlier on that she only played well outside of competitions.

An indication of the trauma we encountered showed there were just 2 cards not recording an 8 or higher but on the plus side 3 people recorded birdies.

So after the first round Gina is leading by 2 shots from Sheena in the Gross and is also leading in the Handicap Cup (HI up to 19.4) by 3 from Val.
In the Pembroke Cup (HIs 19.5 and above), Jenny is naturally in the lead from Ali.

There is still all to play for next week.

Men

It was a game of 2 halves – dry for the Senior division and a lot of rain for most of Junior Division.

Jay leads the Senior Division scratch with an extremely competent gross 67 on back 9 from George Milton. 6 shots back but not out of contention over the 2 rounds is Ross H 73 from James P and Richard B 75s.
The Senior Division swept all honours in the Best Scores Analysis attached – well done George 4 birdies.
In a competitive vein latest birdie and eagle trees for Sundays reports are attached. Ant leading Richard I 29-23 for birdies.

Ben D leads the Junior Division 85 from Nigel G 88 and Louis D 89.

Large number of NRs in Junior Division compared with Junior reflects the timing of rain later in the day. So Handicap net Trophy and sweep dominated by George M 62, Jay 64 James P 65 with Toby and Ben D 66.

This was first Sunday where we went back to scorecards after Covid lockdowns/restrictions. Now mandatory and WHS updated under R.O.G. penalty of DQ for Handicap Index, Course Handicap and both marker’s and player’s signatures required. As before , responsibility rests on the player to certify all correct before dropping card in green box.

Finally as an aside I have recently acquired a Weather Station in back garden and attach what I hope are not too busy graph reports for wind, rain barometric pressure for the day – I hope you can relate to the timing of the weather on your round with esp. rainfall/rate of rain.

Five 3-ball teams competed in this 1,2,3 waltz competition in warm sunny weather with a refreshing breeze. A full 18 holes was possible after Glendale re-opened the Princes course following the Thames Water flood clean up (although the full pond on the 10th had an unnatural black colour and very unpleasant smell of sewage).

The ‘par’ score for this form of competition is 72 stableford points and most teams were in and around that score. However the outright winners were the Jansari, Wildman & Owen team with a team score of 81 points. All three players played to their handicaps and dovetailed well, including two birdies for Justin and one each for Rannesh and Richard. Sweep pay out to the winning team.

For the second midweek competition in a row the field was playing a reduced number of holes. A bit of confusion with a South-Korean society caused a delay for the 9.30am starters. The (very) early starters avoided most of the heat.

Rick was amongst those and made the most of the “cooler” conditions. Birdies on 17 and 18 teed him up for a score of 23pts on the last 9 holes (and a total score of 38pts). Brian matched that score of 38 but “only” scored 22pts on the back 9. Keith is keeping up his good form and came third with 35pts. Richard Smith had 3 birdies en route to 34pts and 4th place. Alan King came 5th. But 2 very unwelcome sh…ks of the tee on 6 and 18 are a blemish on an otherwise decent round of golf. Surprisingly the women didn’t fare too well today. Ronnie takes 6th place also with a score of 34pts. No birdies on any of the par 3’s today. But a “2” was recorded on the 6th hole.

The return to the old regime proved tricky for some. Playing out of the bunkers was not nice (just ask Gina. She reckons she visited every bunker on the course today …). The old regime also meant the return of paper scorecards. And this proved too much to ask for some. This needs to improve rapidly! 1 final reminder/notice about the scorecards will be added to next week’s start sheet.

Summer (golf) is finally back. The pace of play was not helped by PP playing their CC. This held up our first couple of games on (too) many occasions.

Since (most of) the men don’t have the precision & power of Colin Morikawa (winning 2 majors on your debut – what an achievement) the main message for the men was stay away from the rough. And if you look at the leaderboard you will understand quite quickly how many of them succeeded. Rhys had an excellent back 9 (21pts) to beat Donna Wilson on countback.

A group of 4 women finished on 34pts. 3rd place goes to Fiona Coombe who recorded an impressive 23pts on the last 9 holes. Ronnie “only” had 21pts on the last 9 holes so she finishes 4th. Julie and Caroline scored 20 and 19pts respectively on the last 9 holes so they finish 5th and 6th. Ray closes out the Top7 just beating out Val. But I think the Women’s Captain will have nightmares about holes 17 & 18. Looks like her golf is on the mend. Guess she is trying to peek around 7th August …

In glorious summer sunshine, and with faster greens than we have been used to recently, it was James Deissler’s turn to ‘shine’. With holes 8 and 9 off limits due to Thames Water’s main drain overflow on Monday afternoon, James accumulated 39 points off 16 holes, with a routine 15 points on the front 7 holes but a sparking 24 points on the back 9, with 3 pars and a birdie on the last hole. One can only surmise possible reasons for this ‘retun to form’ but no doubt the absence of Rannesh’s dog Yangu took some pressure off. In second place with a par round of 32 points off 16 holes was Justin Wildman, just ahead of Peter Flint and Pralab Barua both on 31 points. The rest of us probably chose slightly the wrong clubs or spent too long in the rough. Sweep payout to the top 4.

The field entered a stableford competition on an improvised 14 hole course layout. But it’s fair to say that most of the players handled conditions pretty well.

Keith posted a very tidy score of 32pts to become leader in the clubhouse (19pts on the front 9 and 13pts on the last 5 holes). Colm matched Keith’s sore on the front 9. But 2 birdies on the last 5 holes set him en route to 15pts and a nice win. That score of 15pts on the “last 5 holes” was only matched by Jeremy Prescot. 2 players finished with 31pts. Joe takes 3rd place since he had the better score over the last “9 holes”. Julie is the first woman at 5th. Brett Colley completes the Top6. Best “front 9 score” goes to Paul Green with his 21pts.

Let’s hope the weather helps Glendale a bit so we can play 18 holes next week.

Women

Another day where staying out of the rough was a good idea. Something today’s winner managed with ease. Perhaps she was inspired after her Double C win in the rain during the week, or perhaps it was her playing partners (Sheena & Deb in case you wondered). She started off with great gusto and much better than them, just fading a bit on the longer 7-9 holes, but her back 9 gave her the equivalent of 22 stableford points giving Avi a 3 shot margin in her victory on 66.

Patrick says this is an omen for tonight as 66 was when England last won an international tournament so let’s hope he is right & it is all down to Avi.

Our recent recruit, Hilary continues her good form with a 69 to take 2nd spot. As tends to be the case whilst a full handicap is being built, Hilary’s HI will drop to 27.2 tomorrow a drop of 1.5 compared to Avi’s 0.1 change – the vagaries of WHS.

Men

56 competed for the July medal. Conditions were ideal for golf except again for the punishing rough.

Captain Kim steered the field avoiding the rough for another captain’s innings of 65 to win. Snapping at his heels with 66s were Pierpaulo Rhys Mark B and Raymond. Jay led a group of 67s with lowest gross and 4 birdies.
Kim again won the senior divisional medal and Colm th junior – results attached in divisional format.

The round constituted round 4 of the Grand Medal Trophy (best 4 from 7 this year) and sees Cuneyt 280 leading from Richard O with Brian M and Russell 284s.
1st 8 sweep winners per attached report.

Finally the increase in wildlife engendered by increase in rough etc. was captured with the brutality of nature – a heron picking off moorhen chicks for a snack by the clubhouse waters.