Another hot, but not too hot, mid-summer’s day and the Duke’s course was there for the taking for many of the participants.

Unsurprisingly, it was a lady (Veronica) who beat allcomers, with 45 points (following on from Lia’s winning round on Wednesday – 50 points !) – it’s tough keeping up with the ladies in the summer and doesn’t bode well for the upcoming men vs ladies Bontor matchplay in 3 weeks’ time (Saturday Aug 6th).

Ronnie’s round was good on the front 9 (20 points with 1 blob) but really took off on the back 9 (25 points with a birdie and 5 pars). I believe Ronnie was playing with Rannesh and Rob Wilhelmson, who both scored 42 points and came in 2nd and 3rd, respectively. Rannesh ‘only’ had 18 points on the front 9 with 1 blob but super-charged the back 9 with 24 points, including a birdie 4 on the 12th. Rob had a more balanced round, 22 on the front and 20 on the back 9 – he was probably feeling the heat from Ronnie and Rannesh on the back 9.

Lowest gross score was 76, by Mike Horsthuis.

Sweep payout to top 3 (£6, £4, £2)

One of our team captains uses the following catch phrase quite often: “May the Bounce be with you” ; that was certainly the case for most of the field today. Few players will deny that the extra carry/roll provided by the super dry fairways helped out today (on the other hand it had to be said that if you caught a bad bounce you could end up recording a VERY high score on a hole). The greens proved to be trickier/slower than Sunday. All that being said today’s scoring was excellent.

Former Women’s Captain Lia Donath recorded a fantastic score of 56 (Nett) (or if you prefer to use Stableford terms: 50pts!!). That’s what scores of +5 gross (front 9) and +3 gross (back 9) will get you. Great result.

Four players in the Top6 went out early; 2nd and 3rd places go to 2 early birds. Normally a score of 60 (Nett) will seal the win, but today Peter Goodall and Richard Owen only get runner-up positions. Small consolation is that Lia didn’t enter the sweep. 

Jeremy Prescott was the 1st player of a group finishing on 61 (Nett). Quite a feat since he recorded double digits on the 6th hole and finished with a 7 on the last hole. Mike Jones had a solid front 9 but a few ugly scores on the back 9 prevented him from improving on 5th place. Mitch and Jeremy Ryan take the last “Money” positions. Richard Back had the lowest gross score today (71 strokes); he amazingly dropped 4 shots between holes 2-4. But he took the back 9 apart (-1 gross).

Conditions continued to be hot, sunny and dry with grass progressively browner with much run and sometimes random bounce.

Women

Some interesting numbers on various cards today. Lia started a sequence of scores going in the wrong direction from the 4th with a 3 and finishing on the 9th where she switched the 8 & 7 scores around, so was at least going back in the right direction for the start of the back 9. Gina meanwhile was in trickshot mode. She fired her 11th tee shot into the trees on the left, only for the ball to fly back out onto the fairway having smacked a tree trunk hard – & got her 3. Next par 3 her tee shot hit the concrete base for the mat and ricocheted back behind where she was standing (very fortunate it went at an angle and not straight back at her) – she made a 4 and only dropped 4 shots in total on the back 9.

But it was Jenny who came out top today with a net 68 which could have been a whole lot better without the nasty 9 on the 7th. Julie and Gina were 2 back on 70s in 2nd & 3rd place respectively.

Men

Colm Ivors opened his top drawer to pull out another class round to win with 61 points; just beaten on countback was Charlie Whiteman also 61 but could have been in the mid-fifties if not for finishing 7-7. An excellent consistent 62 placed Peter Goodall 3rd with 62 points grossing 37 out and in, doubling as best front and back 9 gross.

Congrats to Kim for clambering up the Eagle tree with eagle at 9th.

This was 5th (of 8) rounds in the Grand Medal Trophy and we find 3 tied on 345 -Julian James, Peter Harrington and Goran Kovacevic.

A large Friday field, 20 in the sweep, +4 playing pairs matchplay, +2 doing cards for handicap, endured blistering hot conditions with only a slight cooling wind. Apart from tees and greens, the course was brown and baked dry with players reporting “hitting further than they had ever done before” due to the endless bounce and run, however scoring remained modest (perhaps because Seymour was playing matchplay and not repeating the net 63 he scored on Duke’s on Wednesday).

Top of the leaderboard were 3 players all on 37 points. Continuing his recent good form, James Deissler was the countback winner, from Rannesh in 2nd place and a rarely seen (on a Friday!) Peter Harrington in 3rd. It could have been so different if Stephen Haworth (36points) hadn’t blobbed the last hole after taking 3 off the tee or if Peter Fisher had entered the sweep (as he scored 46 points off his full handicap).

Sweep payout to the top 3 (£10, £7, £3)

A decent turnout for a round of links golf in Central London. There is a saying in golf that goes like “Every good round starts with a double bogey”.

Peppe took that a little too literally; he DB’ed the 2nd and the 3rd holes. The rest of his front 9 was more peaceful, except for a DB on the 8th, which meant that he went out in 42 gross. 2 more DB’s followed on the back 9 but a miraculous par save on 17 (tee-shot in the rough, second barely advanced by a couple of feet, a third shot that landed in the rough left followed by a routine Up & Down) and steady par on the 18th allowed him to finish with an excellent round of 63 Nett (85 gross).

Uli must have grown a few more grey hairs ; quite remarkably Peppe needed the countback rule to win today’s comp. Seymour had an excellent front 9 (42 Gross – 29 Nett). A score of 48 Gross (34 Nett) meant he came just short today.

The Handicap Secretary Paul Grand finished 1 shot back in 3rd. Hawtree members Susan Smith and Lia Donath take 4th and 5th respectively with scores of 66 Nett (more concerns for the respective Hawtree Captains).

Early bird Mike Jones also finishes on 66 (Nett) but let a likely victory slip through his hands on the 17th. Despite an 8 Gina Jillett managed to finish her round with a 67 Nett. There was an incredible number of players putting up some very inflated scores on single holes. The club captain John Ahad was part of that gang (the 17th will give him nightmares).

Kim Chaffart’s round finished on the 6th hole with his ball up a tree. 

In the MW Grand Medal Trophy Peter Goodall takes the lead (he is the only player at the time being to have recorded 5 scores). He is followed by Tamas Ladacs and Gina.

Fair conditions greeted competitors for a reduced field (due NAPGC?) Diamond Jubilee.

Alex Braun excelled with a63 – well done Alex! Ben Dickey put in a strong 66 to edge out John Morris on countback. 2 women had 67s – Lia and Sheena along with Paul Kammerling. Paul , Sheena and Richard Inglis had 2 birdies apiece whilst last year’s captain Kim alone had best front 9 37.

This was 2nd (of 4) Jubilees in the Anniversary Cup and John Morris 135 edges the Richards Smith and Inglis.

With a number electing not to be in the sweep, payouts went down to 13th position.

It was a pretty reasonable day for golf, with perhaps an occasional few drops of rain. Playing off the yellow tees (for the men) didn’t prove as ‘easy’ as many may have thought, with only 1 of the 14 men scoring better than 36 points – perhaps the bounce and run was difficult to control.

Our winner, and the only man to tame the course, was James Deissler (42 points) who started the front 9 with 2 pars, started the back 9 par-birdie-par and overall had a very solid round. His only real challenger was Ann Gardner (41 points), who also had a very steady front 9 (18 points) and strong back 9 (23 points). In 3rd and 4th places were Seymour Laird and John Ahad both with 36 points. John excelled on his front 9 (22 points) but double bogeys on the 11th and 12th and blobs on the 14th and 15th really spoilt a good start. Seymour, on the other hand was a slow-burner on the front 9 but scored 21 on the back 9.

A good turnout of 77 was greeted by very breezy with sunny intervals conditions for the Shaw Cup.

Duncan Taylor emerged winner with a super 44 points that could have been better but for a 7 and 8; likewise for a very competent 42 from Pat Dalton who ‘blobbed’ a couple of holes. Countback distinguished Richard Owen from Charlie Whiteman and Susan Smith. Special mention to Susan Smith who had 27 points going out with 3 points at each hole! What happened on the back?

There were 2 eagle per attached report – Colm Ivors on 9th and (a truly remarkable achievement ) Richard Smith on par 4 SI 1 7th.

Needless to say with the 14th on a temporary tee at 186 yards to the pin (& therefore shorter than the previous par 3 hole) a shot to the green would be on most people’s mind, but it wasn’t quite so easy with a mere 11 birdies recorded!

Duncan heads men’s Top Dog with 24 points with Goran 12 and Charlie 10 nearest chasers.