Overnight frost ( air temp 0.0C on main results page) started a very cold day but the sun shone early and winds abated.

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Colm uncorked anther great round to win with 41 points, 2 clear from a sparkling round from Gunnar – a relatively mild day for the Swede. Peter Needham a creditable 38 with 1 of just 5 ‘TWOs’

A bubbly 35 from Gina won the women’s prize [separate additional report] from Captain Val 34.

Whilst the author did not play, 8th turned out to be easiest hole overall per attached Competition Scoring Analysis Report maybe shortened hole? Ed – yes to a par 3.

Well done to all those who played today in cold, damp and increasingly windy conditions – ‘winter golf’ is truly here, although some scores were remarkably good.

Andrew Brown took the honours today with a sparkling back 9 (25 points) giving him a total of 42 points. In second place with 40 points was a resurgent James Deissler 19 out and 21 back, no doubt disappointed by his double bogey 6 on the 18th. In 3rd place was Ted with a commendable 39 points, 19 points out and 20 back. The limited sweep monies go to Andrew and James, with £1 to Ted to cover his entrance fee.

To put it mildly: there was little roll on the fairways today. If you want any proof have a look at the Scoring Analysis of today’s comp: even though a par 4 for the men the average score on the 17th was 6.14. Making it the 3rd most difficult hole of the day.  Further proof: even though the 15th played 70yds shorter for the men it still ended up as SI 11 today.

How do you post a good score then? By mastering the greens: Angus had another good round in a brief period of time. His own unofficial stats measurements indicate that he 1-putted no less than … 10 greens. No wonder you post a score of 39pts. Richard H posted the best score on the first 9 holes (23pts). Reality sunk in a bit on the back 9. His 16pts on the way in mean he only reaches 2nd place today. Jim Deissler used a Brady-esque comeback on the last 9 holes (22pts) to finish 3rd. Julian played a consistent round of golf (17+19pts) to claim 4th. Jeremy and JM Gomez also score 36pts to complete the Top6. Kevin and Peter matched those scores. But especially Kevin will have regrets over his 17th hole. The countback rule sets them back just outside of the Top6.

Please find below a PDF report of the results, Competition Scoring Analysis and Best Score Analysis.

Winter comps well underway now, with the first round now played on both courses. First real cold morning of the season- sunshine morphing into cloud and increasingly windy; passage of cold front showing in main men’s results with min 5C at 08:30 .

Women

Well what can I say! Pre-WHS this would have been a reduction only round since no one managed to reach the heady heights of 30 points, let alone 36. Nowadays of course it just means that it is highly unlikely that this will count as one of your best 8 rounds in WHS.
Seems the combination of the first really cold day, the leaves all over the place and heavy underfoot conditions caught us all out. So today’s winner was Monique with 28 points.
It was also the first round of the Eclectic, but if you look on the report for it, only 2 have a score as everyone else picked up once they’d run out of shots (or enthusiasm for the hole), so all that can be said for this is that there is room for improvement from everyone!!

Men

Play was off yellows and it was muddy despite no recent rain; some might have expected better scores but PCC was unchanged at zero. Maybe WHS handicaps settling down with less very recent joiners in early volatile WHS handicap timeframe.

Anyway, Tim Ash Vie emerged from the pack to win on 39 points with 3 followin 37 – Barry, Roger and Russell.

This was round 2 of the Winter Competition and fresh from holiday golf, Secretary Peter H took advantage to share lead with Julian and Roger 73; Russell just behind 72.

In the associated first Duke’s Eclectic round, Russell has the advantage 76.5 from Mark B 76.6.

All the men playing off the yellow tees didn’t make the increasingly muddy Dukes course any easier for most of the field, although there were some good scores on this mild and cloudy autumnal day. All the deciduous trees have now turned brown, red or yellow with many of their leaves deposited on the course, making ball finding considerably more difficult and sometimes unsuccessful.

The best two scores were posted by Game 1, Tim Ash Vie and Adrian, both with 38 points, Tim winning on countback over the back 9 holes. As per last week, poor scores on the first hole don’t mean you can’t win (Tim had a blob and Adrian a 6). Tim then amassed 15 points on the front 9 and 23 points on the back 9, with 6 pars including 4s on the SI 1 14th and on the long 17th. Adrian had a much better front 9 (21 points), which included a birdie 3 on the 4th for 5 points ! – there must be a good story there.

In third place was John Curry (36 points), who it was very nice to see on a Friday. John had a very tidy round with 11 pars and gross 78. Sweep payout goes to these top 3.

Finally a mention for Benoit’s 5 on the SI114th, which I am told was a birdie with his 2nd ball, after the first tee shot went out of bounds – you never know when the golfing gods are on your side.

The field enjoyed some surprisingly mild temperatures. That made up a bit for the expected mud. Ball hunting was made more complicated (especially near trees …).

Chris Jones used an excellent back 9 (22pts) to claim victory today. His win will still have tasted a bit bitter sweet because of an untidy 6 on the 18th. Early starter Pralab recorded a very solid score of 39pts to finish 2nd. Julian had the best back 9 (23pts). Peter Goodall used 3 birdies to match Julian’ score of 38pts. But the countback rules awards 3rd place to Julian. A group of 4 players finished on 37pts. First woman of the day, Gina, was the best of this group (the birdie on 14 didn’t hurt). The Men’s Secretary has to settle for 6th (blame the countback rule again …). Stephen could’ve avoided the crowd had it not been for a … 6 on the 18th.

Midweek Winter Rankings: Tamas (37pts), Brett (74pts), Rob (73pts)

Midweek Eclectic Princes: Jay (71), Brett (72), Richard S/Pralab (73)

Please see below a PDF report of the results, Scoring Analysis.

Mild and grey conditions prevailed . Not as muddy as Wednesday.

Women

At least it wasn’t too wet underfoot today, even if we’re back to needing a trusty stick with which to dig out the mud from our trolley wheels for those of us unable to carry. But probably the best thing was that our round finished in less than 4 1/4 hours which hasn’t happened on a Sunday for some time.

After last week’s runaway victory today’s was a much closer affair with Katharina & Alison both on 36 points missing out by 2 to Jayne with 38 – a steady round of 19 out & 19 back. Alison might have thought her back 9 of 19 would be good enough for a 2nd place, but Katharina’s contrasting round of 13 out & 23 back ensured that she takes 2nd spot.

Needless to say Jayne is leading the eclectic, but only just & there are 3 more rounds to go (weather & Covid willing).

Men

Playing Prince’s with new flags showed inaccuracy – course established 1923 not 1924 although Duke’s course was added and RPGC formed 1924.

First place was hotly contested between James A and Secretary Peter H on 40 points with James leadng on countback – despite Peter recording a net albatross 3 on`15th. Julian shot a consistent 39 ahead of Adrian, Gunnar, Tony K and Kerry with 38s.

The 16th was the scene of yet another nearly hole in one for Richard O- see picture below. Previous was 6 October on 2nd Prince’s. Next time Richard….

The Prince’s Eclectic which favours low handicapppers is led by Ant 71.2 just .1 from Armi with Kerry 3rd 72.0 after the first round.

The round started in dank occasional mizzly rain which persisted for most of the front 9 (longer for Pralab who was out earlier), however the rain stopped by around 11.30am after which it was quite a pleasant autumn day. The muddy conditions made it a ‘long’ and tiring round for many of us and it was surprising to see that Glendale allowed some buggies on the Princes course.

In first and second places were Julian and Darragh respectively. Julian (36 points) got off to a slow start (just one point for the first 3 holes) but then got his net par on the 4th and never looked back, so 14 points out and 22 points back. Darragh (35 points) on the other hand birdied the first hole and had amassed 8 points when he had finished the 3rd hole; after that it was a steady round of 19 out and 16 points back. So the morale must be, “don’t give up if you get off to a much worse start than your playing partners”.

Richard Norden came in with a tidy 34 points to take 3rd place from yours truly. Sweep payout to Julian and Darragh and Richard N. gets his entrance fee refunded.

Finally a mention for Benoit who had his 39 playing handicap ‘capped’ to 32. With his reduced handicap he scored a creditable 31 points but this would have been 38 points if he had been allowed to play off his full handicap (which has now been reduced by 2 shots).

Thanks to everyone for taking part

Richard

Overcast weather, light drizzle but mild temperatures gave the park a real autumn feeling.

Early starter Mike Jones posted an excellent score of 43pts (22+21) to become leader in the clubhouse. He would hold on to that spot until midday. It took an outrageous score of 49pts to beat Mike. New member Lamont matched Mike and John Ahad with 22pts on the front 9. But he caught fire on the way home: birdie on 18 for 5pts, par on 11 for 4pts. Add to that 3 points on holes 12, 13, 15, 16 and 17. Only blemish was a 1 pointer on the 14th hole. End result: 27 (!!!!) pts on the back 9. Tamas “frozen” Ladacs can you give me a prescription of your medication? May be it will soothe my back? Whatever the medication was it worked wonders (suppose it would be a stretch to ask the Glendale to perform drug tests after each round). 3rd place is yours thanks to your great score of 42pts. John used an excellent front 9 (22pts) as launchpad to 4th place (total score: 41pts). Rob Dykes is the final player to reach 40pts. Richard B closes out the Top6.

Needless to say that Lamont takes the lead in the Midweek Winter Comp. Ed -later chopped 19 shots to 14.3. He also leads in the Duke’s Eclectic just ahead of Richard Back.

Below PDF report of the results, Scoring Analysis and Sweep payouts.

Last of the Sunday medals for the women until April, but the men carry on!!

The best thing to say about the day was that it didn’t rain and the sun shone – but that wind was cutting and pretty gusty at times

Women

I can’t imagine that anyone except Cheryl isn’t pleased to see the end of medals for the women on a Sunday until April. She seems to have played a different game from the rest of us, finishing 9 shots ahead of the rest of the field and proving that the newly reduced slope is fine if you can hit your ball well. Well played Cheryl – guess all those lessons are paying off.
Of the 12 who played, only half have an actual result with 5 NRs and Fiona signing for a 5 on the 13th but her entry on the computer and on the card she marked both showed a 6.

Men

White tees received 3 shots from the yellows and the overall winner with an extremely tidy 61 was John Perkins, 2nd on back 9 countback was Kevin P from Saturday entrant Nick R. Captain Kim followed 4th 65.

Divisional results also attached confirm John P winning Senior Division with Nafeez the Junior on 69.