Conditions were good for scoring on a dry sunny day with little wind and more of the rough trimmed back on the front and sides of the fairways. The clear winner, who took most advantage of the conditions, was Richard Norden with a sparkling 45 points (net 59 strokes) who earned himself a minus one shot exceptional scoring handicap adjustment by submitting his card as General Play. Richard scored 23 points out and 22 points in, with 6 pars. Our runner up was Peter Flint with an excellent 40 points playing a very strong back 9 (24 points) and an average outward 9 (16 points).

There were 4 players on 38 points: Giles, Pralab, Naveed and James – well played to all those.

Conditions were pretty tricky: thick air and gusting winds limited carry on a lot of shots. Playing into the wind on the 12th was especially brutal. That hole played as SI 1 today (cf. attached report). Keeping the ball out of the rough (not necessarily on the fairway) was a step in the right direction. The women keep showing the men how to play in these conditions.

Alison came home in 32 (net). A birdie on the 18th didn’t hurt. That strong streak allowed her to finish on 67 net. With a little help of the countback rule she claims victory today. Keith came second. He had 2 birdies on the front 9 en route to a 37 (gross). Double bogeys on 13 and 14 were the only negatives of the day. 78 (lowest gross of the day) translates to an excellent 67 (Net). Charlie Edwards had the best front 9 on his way a 68 net and 3rd place (he will regret his scores on holes 12-14). 2nd woman of the day was Cheryl with a commendable score of 70 (net). Rick, Jeremy and Brett also recorded scores of 70. But some of them would like to have (a couple of) hole(s) back.  

Angus takes the lead in the MW Grand Medal ranking. Chris Jones and Cheryl are the closest competitors.

Below are a PDF report of the results, score analysis reports (for the geeks/stat lovers .

The course seemend in pretty decent condition: enough roll on the fairways and receptive greens. There was the occasional shower but nothing near the apocalyptic conditions forecast by the mainstream media (fake media …) . 1st conclusion from today’s comp: cherry picking the perfect time/day to play the comp is of little use. Final conclusion: avoid the rough at all costs (but I guess you should try to do that all year round). 3 women managed to stay clear of the rough in a very efficient way (I assume that other parts of their game were on song too but the women in general tend to avoid the rough). 18 NR’s today. That’s 28% of the total field … Clearly a lot of the RPGC members disagree with the great Seve Ballesteros (“El Rough es mi amigo”).

Sheena Harrington posted a very decent 68. That score enabled her to hold off all but 2 opponents. Chris Saloway sailed to victory thanks to an excellent back 9 (38 gross) to record a total score of 78 gross (64 Net). Paul Green’s score could have been a lot better had it not been for a  …. 9 on the  12th (he was outdone on that hole by the MC – more on that below). George Milton posted the lowest gross score to claim 4th place. 2 women take the next spots: Monique had a solid round to record a net 69. Ronnie matched that score 60 but lost out on the countback. John Ahad rounds out the Top 7. Nick Rogers manged to record a … 10 on the 18th (I guess that means 3 tee-shots went OB?). The best first 11 holes (is there a prize for that?) belonged to the MC. He birdied the 1st hole then scrambled his way to a score of +2 gross walking off the the 11th hole. He then managed to hit his only really bad drive of the day and walked of the 12th with a … 10. He steadied the ship with bogeys on 13 and 14. But he then NR’ed on the 15th …

Richard Inglis takes the lead in the Jubilee standings (137) closely followed by Cheryl (138), Mark Bean, Sheena and Patrick remain in the hunt.  

Everyone thoroughly enjoyed this format of team competition, which was new to a few members. The weather was glorious, the course was in good condition and the scoring was good too. Clear winners with a gross 71, net 59, was the team of Cheryl, John Ahad and Stephen Haworth; only they know whether there was an outstanding player or whether all played an equal part, however inclusion of Cheryl playing off the red tees almost certainly played a part.
In a very commendable 2nd place were the team of Peter Flint, James Deissler and Rannesh with a gross 72, net 61.
Sweep payment was to the 3 in the winning team.

Another Texas Scramble will be arranged in about 6 weeks time.