June 2023
June 2023
Friday Sweep
It was another swealteringly hot day with little breeze early on, although freshening as the day progressed. Fairways were rock hard giving lots of extra roll, which was helpful if the ball stayed on the fairway but not if it ran or bounced into the penal rough. Greens showed signs of response to the now daily irrigation but were still hard, making it very difficult to ‘hold the green’, and some could also have done with a cut.
Scoring was pretty good for most of the field, the men being helped by playing from the yellow tees which made some of the longer holes (4th, 5th, 10th, 15th and 17th) considerably easier. Alex Braun was the clear winner (42 points), with a great front 9 (24 points), keeping up his recent run of good scores. He even had 2 blobs on the back 9 ! As a result of yesterday’s round, Alex’s Handicap Index reduced from 27.0 to 26.0, his lowest ever HI.
Michael Porter grabbed 2nd place (39 points) in only his 6th handicap qualifying round; his new (lower) HI is 23.9 (3.8 below his starting handicap just a few weeks ago). Michael had a shaky start, especially off the tee and was 9 shots over par for the first 4 holes, but then a run of 3 pars and 4 bogeys over the next 7 holes and a further 2 pars coming in showed that there is even better to come in the future.
In 3rd and 4th places, with 38 points, were Pralab and Pat respectively, with very little in the countback. Pralab had his usual steady round with only one blob, whereas Pat birdied the 2nd hole but had 2 blobs on the back 9. Pat’s round sees her HI drop by a further 0.5 to 18.9, her lowest ever index and I’m sure she’s not finished yet.
Best front 9 was by Richard Back (2 under gross: 2 birdies and 7 pars), however he couldn’t keep it up on the back 9. His 3 birdies yesterday did leapfrog him to to top of the ‘Friday Birdie Tree’ though.
Sweep payout to the top 4 (£12, £8, £6, £4)
June Midweek Plate
The drought and the high(er) temperatures are starting to take its toll on the course. The extra distance gained from the roll and bounce on the fairways very welcome for most of the field. The greens seemed more receptive too. However the penalty from bouncing/rolling off the fairway was steep since the rough is becoming more and more punishing.
None of this bothered the Top5 today. All of them had +40pts.
Russell changed his tactics. He abandoned the 7am starters. A bit of traffic drama made him show up just in time to tee off. The rest of his round was drama free. Even better: he probably would’ve been able to walk on water today. He could not be faulted. 8/10 he had an Up & Down from 70yds and shorter. Numbers speak for themselves: 24pts (front 9) and 20pts (back 9 – largely due to an ugly DB on the 17th – his sole 1-pointer of the day – he had 0 PU’s). ESR on its way …
Chris J played an excellent back 9 (25pts – 5*3pts, 1*4pts). Unfortunately he finishes just 1pt behind Russell. Peter G also torched the last 9 holes. A score of Level par gross awards him 23pts and 3rd place. 1st lady of the day was in form Cheryl. 19+22pts are her competition stats today. She must have some serious regrets over her PU on 8. Dave C is the last of +40 gang. Spare a thought for Alex B. He stood on the 15th with 34pts … Tommy H birdied the 2 par 3’s on the front 9 and parred the 13th.
June Monthly Medals
Hot and humid conditions prevailed although rain and thunder arrived – but after cards returned.
Women
Perhaps Katharina has found the secret to playing well – send Uli away so no pressure on who is cooking dinner! A net 65 which would have been considerably lower without a 10 on the 17th has resulted in an ESR being applied – most unlike WHS which often seems to gift those who play well with either no change or an increase as older scores drop off. Katharina sees a drop from 20.5 to 18.4.
If realisation of how her game was going suddenly hit on that hole, it didn’t harm the last which resulted in a birdie finish (1 of 2 with Bridget also finishing well).
Bridget in fact finished 2nd, 5 shots behind and she got a much smaller .5 cut
Men
Tamas won the senior division with a well-crafted and consistent 64. He was chased by Michael Hayden 66 and best Mark Bean 67(also best gross 78 on countback).
In the junior division Richard Young shot an astonishing 60 proving the value of technique and practice. Onursal followed with a fine consistent 64 and Julian J 65; Julian’s round was superb except for the SI 1 7th where he recorded 12.
In 4th round aggregate of the GMT both divisions headed by only 3 players to complete the 4 rounds to date:
Senior: Tamas 278, Oz 294, Richard B 299
Junior: Dilip 277, Tom Simp 286, Tony K 286
Rickmansworth match, 1st leg
After last year’s narrow victory , predicated on a first leg “sweep” of all six pairs matches, the Rickmansworth team turned up early for the first leg of this year’s match, kitted out for the occasion with royal blue club jerseys and black shorts/trousers seemingly intent on a much improved performance to the previous year. Our team was a mix of grizzled veterans of previous matches and welcome ‘newbies’ to team competitions.
On the hottest day of the year so far, Richard Owen and Seymour Laird led off the team and secured pars on the first two holes to take a quick lead, however the Ricky pair kept ‘bouncing back’ and it was all square after 9 holes. Seymour’s par on the 10th again put Richmond ahead, a lead which they never relinquished, ultimately prevailing by a comfortable 4 and 3 score and taking the internal sweep first spot with 43 points. Our second rookie pair, Naveed Manazir and Richard Norden, were next out and ran out to a comfortable 5 and 4 win and finished third in the sweep with a creditable 40 points. Out third were the experienced pair of Nigel Ward and Tony Kopczak who eked out a 1 up victory in a closely contested matchup. So the first three Richmond pairs had run up a 3-0 lead but things were about to turn in Rickmansworth’s favour. Two more rookies in John Perkins and Paul Green performed well enough to finish with a very laudable 41 points for second place in the internal sweep but ran into determined opponents who closed out a 3 and 2 victory to put Rickmansworth on the scoreboard. John produced a salutary reminder of the importance of reading Club communications by turning up dressed in a blue shirt, much to his embarrassment! Our fifth pair, Roger Rojas and Justin Wildman, enjoyed a strong front 9 scoring 21 stableford points but wilted in the extreme heat on the back 9 and ended up succumbing to their opponents on the 17th hole in a 2 and 1 defeat. Out last were an experienced pair in captain-for-the-day Nigel Gaymond and Angus Robertson. After a promising beginning for Richmond in the first few holes, Rickmansworth were 3 up after 6 holes and despite best efforts, Angus and Nigel were never able to get back on competitive terms, largely as the result of a stunning performance by their high handicapper, playing off 17, who ground our intrepid pair into the dust with a relentless barrage of outstanding play shooting an 80 on his own ball on a tough Duke’s course. Clearly, Nigel brings out the best in that particular player who performed in a similarly spectacular fashion before in a previous leg at Rickmansworth for a 79 playing off a 24 handicap! I will be requesting that I do not face him in future matches!
As always, an enjoyable match with great company, but at 3-3 the return leg at Rickmansworth in September will be a huge challenge. But maybe it is time for us to go over there and give a better account of ourselves. Remember, we only need six points in total to retain the cup as the holders, so let’s go over and fight for those three points!
MW June Monthly Medal (MW GMT R4/8)
As with recent days it warmed up with the sun melting clouds but still a chilly wind.
Like Sunday, a third of the field NR’d but the PCC calculation was +1.
Winner of the medal was Toby H wit a very fine 70; just one shot behind was Cheryl 1 – had Cheryl’s birdie at 16 been repeated then she would have won by a margin. Pat B and Alex B followed with 71s.
Jay took best gross 80 and both front and back nine honours.
Graham C leads the Midweek Grand Medal (best 5 from 8 rounds) but are only players to have completed 4 rounds.
Clapham Common Shield & Ellis Cup
After a bye in the 1st round, the club played this 2nd round men’s greensomes match home & away against Hoebridge on a lovely warm and sunny day. The overall result was a narrow victory for Richmond Park 220 points : 218 points but it took over 4 hours after play finished for the result to be confirmed/agreed! Next round is against Wexham Park.
The 3 pairs at Richmond Park (Brendan Sullivan & Bernie McDermott, Kerry Sargeant & Alan King and Uli Katte & Richard Owen) teed off an hour earlier than those at Hoebridge. All of the Richmond Park pairs outscored their Hoebridge playing partners on the Prince’s course and together amassed what we believed to be a 16 points advantage. Was this enough ? There was a long wait to see how our away team (Roger Rojas & Mike Shabani, Ross Hood & Pete Malla and Kim Chaffart & Tamas Ladacs) had got on. News trickled through from team captain Roger that “it might be a draw” and copies of the RP cards and back 9 countback scores were requested. Together all the information was ‘audited’ by Roger and the Hoebridge captain and it was found that Hoebridge had mis-calculated some of their team handicaps both home and away, resulting in a 2 points swing to Richmond Park, who won by 18 points at home and lost by only 16 points away. Phew!
Platinum Jubilee (70yrs 1924-1994)
Another brilliantly ‘blazing’ June day with glorious sunshine. The NE wind kept temps down.
With a third of the field NR’ing you might think a positive PCC would arise – but it didn’t and remained at zero.
Anyway, there was still some very good golf – from ‘in-form’ players. Cheryl took the honours with a glorious 65 after an inspiring win in the Women’s Invite the day before. Such is the nature of WHS that her HI remained the same because she ‘lost’ a good counting score from January. An amazing round with birdie at 17th – well done! Another recent winner Richard Young challenged with a 66 for second place ahead of Raymond 68; wrt WHS again, Richard’s HI actually increased 0.3 since he ‘lost’ a better score from last August in the best 8 averaging.
Many no doubt NR’d due to still thick rough.
Spare a thought for Raymond – he stood on 13th tee level par and recent birdies at 11 & 12. Raymond returned best grossof the day 81 but dropped all the shots 13-18.
This was first Jubilee of 4 in the Anniversary Cup.
Friday Sweep
It was a chilly start but those of us who chose to wear shorts were not disappointed when the sun broke though about 11.30am. Glendale has extended their mowing of fairways and semi-rough but woe-betide anyone who went into the rough beyond, which was penal. There was evidence that Glendale has ‘found’ the sprinklers around the greens and tees but no evidence of them having used them yet – unfortunately !
Perpetual front runner and early starter Pralab posted a score (39 points) which none of us could overtake. His front 9 (23 points) was the foundation of his score, with a birdie on the 2nd and 3 other pars before the turn. Richard Owen played a steady round (18 out and 20 back) to take second place and playing partner Uli Katte was 3rd on 37 points; impressive golf on the front 9 considering he scored 19 points with blobs on the 5th and 8th. Graham Cull’s 36 points sneaked 4th place from Seymour on countback due to his ‘Best Back 9’ score of 23 points, although Seymour recorded ‘Most Birdies’ , one on the 9th and the other on the 11th. Sweep payout to the top 3 ( £10, £7, £4).