A rather cold and windy day, but at least dry. Scoring was pretty good for most of the field. Rannesh and Julian led the field, tied on 39 points, with Rannesh sealing the countback win with a birdie on the 18th. Adrian and Aiden took 3rd and 4th places respectively, both on 37 points. Sweep payout to the top two £10 & £6.

15 brave/mad golfers faced swirling/gusting winds, sleeze and mud.

 I think Stu will ask Santa Claus for a manual on how to play an opening hole. His round started with a 7 and a 4. But he recovered with a birdie on 5 to finish with 20pts on the front 9. His back 9 was rocked with a DB on the 10th. The bogey on 12 was cancelled by a birdie on 14. 19pts on the back 9 still make for a decent day at the office. Aidan matched Stu’s score. But he let victory slip away on the tricky 16th. A DB on that hole means Aidan loses out on countback. 17pts on the front and 19pts on the way in allow Pete F to finish 3rd. Charles and Chris R finish on the same score. But Pete’s last 6 holes were a little better than Charles’ scores. Chris finishes in 5th place since he  “only” scored 16pts on the back 9.

Happy New Year. See you in 2024.

A dry, cloudy and increasingly breezy shortest day of the year, with the usual 5 temporary greens in play on Prince’s.

Scoring was incredibly good by all 3 teams and very close in terms of gross scores (66, 67 & 67), so the result was down to the handicap allowances.

The winning team of Charles, Julian, Peter and Richard Norden had a nett 57 (3-under gross 67) with 4 birdies and just one bogey. Team Rannesh, James, Adrian and Neil, in 2nd place, had a nett 58 (4-under gross 66) with a more exciting (erratic ?) round which included 7 birdies and 3 bogeys. Cheryl, Brian, Justin and Richard Owen had the most consistent round, 3 birdies and 15 pars for a nett 60 (gross 67). All 3 teams birdied the 4th hole. Purse payout to the winning team (just £3 each ! ).

Weather forced the field to move to the Princes course. The downpour of the last days/weeks/months still forced the greenkeepers to maintain a lot of temporary greens. All in all the field were pleasantly surprised to play a “competitive round of golf”. All things considered playing conditions were not as bad as feared. Turns out that a few competitors weren’t totally in sync with the correct SI’s.

Runaway winners today were Adrian and Julian. 22pts on the front was only matched by Pat/Andre. But they did create the difference with a stellar … 26pts on the back 9. A stableford score of 26pts looks as follows: 1*4pts, 6*3pts and 2*2pts. Dark horses Robert/Mike were the lone pair teeing off before 8am. Inevitably they would be leaders in the clubhouse. But they also did set to bar pretty high for the rest of the field. An 8 on the 9th limited their score on the front 9 to (just) 20pts. A birdie on 17 offset a 6 on the 10th. Their rally of 24pts on the back enables them to finish 2nd. As mentioned Pat/Andre demolished the front 9 with 26pts (they even PU’ed the 7th …) A 7 on the 12th halted their advance on the back 9. The Harringtons finish just off the podium.

It stayed dry and at times bright for the popular high-scoring American Greensomes Comp. and there were some festive outfits.

Team Kopczak/Rojas won with 45 and 22 on back 9 beating early clubhouse leaders Team Doyle/Smith on 44 points; Team Doyle/Smit took front 9 honours with 24 points. Team Haines/ (guest) Steve Ayling were placed 2nd on countback also with 44 points.
Teams Thomas/ Needham and Kammerling /Hanna followed with creditable 43 and 42 respectively.

Women were leaders on the 5 par 3s wth Team Dolby/Maxwell om 14 points. Team Bortoli/Woodhouse secured the only ‘Two’ of the day at par 3 16th.

Prizes awarded down to 5th place.

It was a still, dry day and chilly rather than cold. The course was wet but no significant standing water. The temporary greens on 1,2,3, 5 and 8 hadn’t been mowed due the the past several days of rain but hopefully we are in for a few days respite from the rain and they will get a ‘trim’.

On a shorter course (yellow tees, 6 mats and 5 temp greens) the scoring was generally good and Richard Norden again proved unbeatable (41 points). Rannesh pipped Julian (both 40 points) to 2nd place and no doubt rues his blob on the 2nd hole. Graham’s 39 makes him 4th, one ahead of Chris, Charles, Tamas and Uli (all on 38 points). Best front 9 (21 points) was Julian, Uli and Richard Norden; best back 9, also 21 points, was Rannesh and Brian. Uli has now almost caught Pralab on the Friday Birdie Tree but as they are now both away for the rest of the year, there’s still a chance for Rannesh to overtake them. Sweep payout to top 3 (£9, £5, £3).

Although the course was wet and muddy in places, it was a lovely sunny day to play golf with no wind and milder temperatures.
The leaderboard kept changing as more players finished their rounds. Firstly it was Russell (33 points), then Julian (36 points), then Charlie Haines (37 points), then Joe Goncalves (38 points) and then the final group finished their rounds and Pat Dalton (44 points) smashed the rest and grabbed top spot. Pat’s round was ‘consistently good’, gross 85, only two 6s on his card, a best front 9 (24 points) and all 4s and 5s on the back 9 (20 points).

Joe doesn’t play Friday’s very often and had some trouble with his time-keeping, however his golf was immaculate as ever with a gross 76. Charlie’s good golf continues and his 37, beat the same score by Bill Norman and Peter Miller on countback – Bill had an unfortunate 6 on the 17th and Peter blobbed the 18th. Other highlights were Julian’s consecutive birdies on the 15th and 16th holes (and best back 9 – 21 points) and Uli’s unlikely birdie 2 on the 13th following his tee shot finishing on the 10th tee! Sweep payout to top 3 (£10, £6, £3).

The weather forced the field do the battle on Princes rather than Dukes. Still plenty of temporary greens. Despite the tough conditions scoring proved very robust. Unfortunately today’s scores won’t count for WHS. Looks like the early starters struggled a bit more to adapt to the playing conditions. The sole 2 NR’s came from the 7.45 game.

Serhat is still on a tear. He managed to go out in 46 strokes Gross (30 Nett). He even improved on the back 9: 42 (Gross – 27 Nett). The best of the rest was Bill N. His numbers were: 43 (Gross – 34 Nett) and 39 (Gross – 30 Nett). But he will regret his 2 DB’s on the back 9 (14 & 16). Uli recorded the best gross scores on front and back 9 (39 & 37). So 3rd place seems a good return for his efforts. Alex B is a valiant 4th. But his round was fairly volatile: 1 DB, 2 Triple Bogeys and 1 Quad. 1st woman is outgoing WC Sheena.  

Women

Just 2 teams of 3 with a very close result. Being very generous only 4 tee shots each was required and we both finished up under par – net 72 & 73,
Susan, Cheryl & Sheena got 20 of their points on the front 9, courtesy of the eagle on the 8th which yielded 5 points, or they’d have been beaten on the back 9 if it were only a birdie. Amazingly another of the shots landed just 6″ from the hole which is where they expected to play from.

Vielen Dank Katharina for the stollen which as was evident we happily devoured as we had our Christmas drink on the club. The others missed out on a fun day and we even kept pretty much dry much to everyone’s surprise.

Men

Not as cold as recent freezing days and a reduced turnout for the December Medal.

Raymond triumphed in the senior division on 69 – 2 birdie on front 9 he was level par but after another birdie at 16 his only flaw came next with 7 at 17th; best gross came from 2nd in the division Aidan with gross 79 net 73 and best back 9. Paul Kammerling posted a very promising 76 which could have been better but for a couple of 8s on back 9.

In last game Charlie Whiteman shone to win junior with 69 but like Paul K above shot a couple of 8s on back 9. The earlier clubhouse winner Sean returned a solid 70 whilst the in-form Iker had 72 off 19.

Raymond and Charlie get medals.

A very cold morning with frozen fairways and greens greeted the smallest Friday field of the year. The ‘solid’ ground provided plenty of bounce and roll – a real change from the recent muddy conditions and it took some getting used to with approaches to the greens. Given the cold weather conditions (there were even flurries of light snow before midday) and the knowledge that there were 5 temporary greens over the final 8 holes of the course, the competition was reduced Holes 1 to 10 only. Some players continued to play the full 18 holes and were treated to some weak winter sun.

High handicapper Richard Norden was the clear winner (23 points) with a very solid display of driving, pitching and putting. By back-analysis, Richard should have been one of the lowest handicappers in the field! In 2nd place Julian James (20 points) played to his handicap; the rest of the field were also-rans.

Sweep payout to Richard N. (£7)