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.

The remnants of the recent rain were still visible on the course. Add to that cooler temperatures [slight air frost 5:00am below?, the usual swirling winds and even some fog for the early starters and you have all the ingredients for a round of autumn golf at the park. But it has to be said that most of the field (correction: that should read the 9am starters) made the most of today’s conditions.

Making the most of the conditions is probably an understatement for Angus’ round of golf: +4 gross out and -1 gross set him up for a round of 69 gross (60 !!! Net). This is even more remarkable since he started the round with a double bogey 6. May be this had the merit of relaxing him. Here is some more perspective of his round: 4 birdies and 13 putts over the … last 11 holes. 2 players came pretty close. Stephen and Mark both recorded scores of 62 Net. The countback rule awards 2nd place to Stephen. Peppe proved that last week’s victory was no fluke and finishes 4th with an excellent score of 63 Net. An unlucky day on the greens prevented the MC from finishing higher than 5th. Uli rounds out the Top6 with a score of 65.

Cheryl had a near hole in 1, a near birdie and a solid par 3 all on one hole (i.e. the 16th).

The day started with atrocious weather but the course was open for the Lissaman Cup ( 3 clubs & putter); local weather station (not as exposed as RP) reveal screenshot below:
Peak rainfall of .92 in per hour around 10:30 with rain stopping at 11ish;

Peak wind of 14mph but think this was in fact well beaten by gusts as I gazed out of my warm dry lounge.

Some remarkable golf was played, most notably by those setting out later.

Jay shot a faultless net 68 to win – no 6 on the card for him oh no and birdies on [SI 3] 8th and 9th. Nick followed closely behind 69 with Sean T 71 and Cuneyt , Ben and Sean O 72s. Gina best woman 75.
It never ceases to amaze me that scoring not materially different to if full 14 clubs allowance.

For the men this was the last comp in the hotly contested Top Dog. Only Cuneyt and Louis could topple Rhs from winning and the final 1-2-3-4 points are:
Rhys 25, Cuneyt 24, Louis 16 and (late charge) Sean O 14.

Mild temperatures and swirling winds helped the dry out process at the Park (unfortunately the weather forecast calls more rain the coming days). 2 players separated themselves from the pack today.

Both of them enjoyed excellent front 9’s. New member Pep scored 1pt less on the front 9 than John Perkins (23pts vs 24). As a consequence he had the better back 9 and wins today’s comp. Even though John Perkins still managed 2 birdies on the back 9 he “only” recorded 17pts on the way in. MW Captain HLB was probably a bit hung over from successfully defending the Men’s Pairs KO . He dropped no less than 8 (!) shots over the first 5 holes. But he managed to go +2 over the next 13 holes (with a 6 on the 18th …). Usually Richard records his good scores on Prince’s. But today was an exception. 39pts and the countback rule send him into 4th place. The MC had another of “What could’ve been” day. 6th place goes to Adrian Wells with 37pts. Birdman of the day was Alvaro who recorded 3 birdies. First woman of the day was late starter Gina on 33pts.

A mild autumn day greeted competitors for the Charity Cup and a couple of holes10 & 11 still showed large puddles. The round was the first played under the recent re-rating of the courses by Surrey Golf. Red and white tees received 2 (previously 1) shot for the comp. An extract WHS guidance document attached explains (Medal simple – diff CRs) and there’s a table below which I trust is correct!

Fresh from the Autumn Mixed 4 somes on Saturday, Justin W put in an amazing 44 points to win. He had 17 going out and 27 coming back!!! -well done indeed. Pedro shot 1 behind for 43, still terrific golf. Louis D and Saturday entrant Onursal returned glorious 41s
Best woman was Gina 39.

On Saturday we held our Autumn Mixed Foursomes competition .  A good turnout of 12 pairs competed for the trophy. On the day, although low level clouds stopped the sun getting out we thankfully had a dry day.  However the  beginnings of the muddy golf days ahead were evident- the ball was definitely not running and extra club lengths were required.   As usual these events whilst competitive are great fun and offered us the chance to gather socially  afterwards  and enjoy Glendale’s finest pizzas and drinks on the house (RPGC!) and a good chat.

So the winning pairs of the net competition:

Congratulations to  Jayne Maxwell and Richard Owen who won the trophy ? with a  net 63 followed in 2nd place by Jane Fraser & Ned Shanklyn with a net 67 . 

Whilst both net winners played off 18 handicaps our Gross Winners- Gina Jillett and Jay Barker -playing  with only a 9 handicap, finished with a fantastic gross score of 78.  I watched them play a very relaxed game  together with some beautiful shots and great supportive teamwork . Well done to them.

Captain Val

Winter seemed to have arrived with a chilly north westerly wind and the heavy rain earlier in the week had left parts of the Dukes course extremely wet, with standing water in places. The 8th and 9th holes were closed making the competition over 16 holes only.

The best score of the day was posted by Adrian Wells (34 points), continuing his recent good form, with Justin Wildman (on half term holidays) 3 points back on 31 points. Richard Back was the best of a trio of players on 30 points, beating Teddy Holt and Rannesh Jansari, respectively, on countback. Sweep pay out to the top two players.

Autumn is back with a vengeance. Today offered a taste of what lies in store over the coming months. Quite a bit of standing water, no roll on the fairways, greens that were a tad slower and lots of swirling winds.

Colm added another trophy to his cupboard. 19pts out and 21pts in put him 1pt clear of today’s runner-up.

Alan C was flying on the first 9 holes: 25pts. 5 5’s and 2 7’s on the back 9 limited his inward score to 14pts. Jeremy Prescot left his driver home and this choice worked wonders. Finding a lot of fairways enabled him to record 19pts on front and back 9 to take 3rd place. Adrian W finishes 1pt back (18+19pts) in 4th. The MC had a volatile round (3 birdies, 3 Double Bogeys) to claim 5th place with 37pts. 6th place goes to Robin. Jeremy R could’ve jumped quite a few players but 2 ugly 6’s on the last 2 holes halted his charge. Brett managed to go -2 over the first 3 par 3’s. Unfortunately he went +4 over the last 2 par 3’s.

The best player over the par 3’s today was Peter H (14pts). Ronnie had the best score over the par 5’s.

Please find attached a PDF report of the results, Scoring Analysis and Best Score Overview.