A significantly reduced field braved the muddy (?) Dukes course in mild, overcast conditions – one can only imagine what it will be like this weekend after the promised rain tonight.

Julian continued his recent good form to win with 42 points (19 out and 23 points in), with late entry Uli taking 2nd place with 37 points (20 out and 17 in) and comfortably the lowest gross score. Ann beat the remainder of the men with a steady 30 points.

Julian wins £5 with Uli getting £1 to cover his entry fee.

Going out early seemed like the way to go. 5 players in the Top 6 went out before 8am.

Rob Dykes followed a solid front 9 (44 gross) with an excellent back 9 (38 gross). With a playing handicap of 22 his final score results in a nett score of … 60. 2nd place goes to Allan. He managed to birdie 2 par 3’s. But the rest of his round was a bit more volatile than Rob’s (a snowman and a 7 didn’t help). A group of players with a nett score 64 comes next. 3rd and 4th place go to early birds Mike and Joe: the first had a solid round but got held back by a few ugly 7’s. The 16th hole was Joe’s undoing. A 5 prevented him from improving on 4th place. 5th place goes to the only “late starter”: Peter G. He had a good day at the office except for 2 double bogeys. Seymour – you guessed it: he went out before 9AM – completes the Top6.

Below are attached PDF reports of the results, Scoring Analysis and Best Scores.

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.