It was a warm sunny day (20⁰C) with a refreshing breeze.  There was bounce and run on the fairways but it’s becoming more difficult to ‘hold’ the ball on the greens and there is real trouble in the rough, which is deep and at it’s most punishing this time of year.  Glendale had extended their 1^st cut mowing since the last club competition 2 weeks ago, which was some relief.

Scoring proved difficult for most of the field with more than two thirds of the entrants failing to score 30+ points.  Two of last Friday’s top 3 were again in the winner’s circle – Seymour Laird 2^nd with 36 points and Colin Price 3^rd with 35 points.  However, this week’s winner was early bird Mitch Cohen with 37 points.  Mitch’s round wasn’t looking too good after 6 holes – he only had 6 points, but he par’d 7 of the final 11 holes and had 22 points on the back 9. Sweep payout to the top four (£12, £8, £4, £2).

The field enjoyed links like conditions on a parkland course. The extra roll on the fairways was a welcome sight to a lot of people. But the thick/high rough and unpredictable bounces on the fairways caused a lot of problems.

To state the obvious: this wasn’t even close. Gina was the only player in the field to play better than her HI. She used an excellent back 9 (+2 gross – 22pts) to race to victory. Back to back birdies on holes 13 & 14 sure helped. 41pts and a ticket to UKPCC regionals represent a nice day at the office. Early starters also take places 2&3. Alan and Naveed both recorded 35pts. Alan had the better back 9 (21pts). Naveed had more birdies. An ugly DB on 12 dented Naveed’s chances. The first 9am starter comes in at 4th. Toby had a good front 9 (20pts). But 5 1-pointers on the back 9 were his undoing. Another early bird claimed 5th. Russell will regret the PU’s on holes 5,9 & 13. Final money spot goes to Jeremy P. His round could’ve been more rewarding had the unpredictable bounce/rolls from the fairways not made him lose tee-shots on 4 (!) holes.

MW Founder Standings: KSC (98), PDH (96), Toby (91), Gina (91)

It started bright and breezy but cloud grew and it became grey and not as warm as forecast, just nudging 20C.

Women

It’s strange how the back 9 on Duke’s which on paper looks tougher often yields good results & whilst not so for everyone most scored better on that half.
Scoring looks to be a little hard going which is fairly normal for this time of year, but very frustrating nonetheless.
It’s pretty much all to play for next week though Cheryl does hold a 2 shot lead on the rest of the field.

Men

John Morris shot an outstanding front 9 of 27 points [avg 3 per hole] to win the Summer Cup on 41 points. Overall conditions proved tough and PCC was + 2 meaning John was cut from 21.2 to 20.0. 4 shots behind was Suhail 37, Giovanni 36 and Charlie W 35.
Suhail started off with 6 bogey 5s whilst Giovani had a cracking start – 12 points after 3 having birdies at 1 and 3 (each worth 5 points). Charlie picked up honours for the more difficult back 9.

A fine, warm sunny day with bounce and run on the fairways and much faster greens due to the recent dry spell. The rough and 1st/2nd cut were very penal though and ‘to be avoided’ as much as possible.

It was tight at the top with Colin Price taking his first ever 1st place in a singles competition with the club – well played Colin. He pipped early bird Russell Stewart on countback, both with 34 points. Close behind on 33 points were 3 players, Seymour, Peppe and Will, with Seymour taking 3rd place with his 19 points back 9 countback (the best of anyone in the field). Sweep payout to top 3 (£8, £5, £4).

Another week but the bottom line remains the same: scoring proved to be tough. The rough was lush and very long. Quite surprisingly the 16th played as SI18 today. The 5th was the 3rd most difficult hole today. And quite a few dreams were shattered on holes 17 & 18 (SI 6/7 respectively).

Hip surgery seems like a distant memory now for Angus. His golf game is starting to click quite nicely. 4 birdies today are no mean feat. Despite a chip-in birdie on the 2nd he had 4 1-pointers on the front 9. That resulted in “only” 16pts. But birdies on 11,14 & 15 (note that he lost a bit of momentum with a bogey on 16) set him up for 22pts on the back 9. Darren’s round was the mirror image of Angus’ 18 holes. 22pts going out (thank to a nice birdie on the 7th) and 16pts on the way home. So the countback rule sides with Angus. Graham had the best back 9 of the entire field (23pts). That was needed to hold off Richard Norden. Early starter Pralab takes 5th. 1st woman of the day is Cheryl.

Just as the grass gets ever longer on both fairway and in the rough with the rain, the first monthly medal of the year to be played with no winter rules

Women

Seems a long time since the last women’s medal, & indeed it was with the November one being cancelled due to flooding on the course. Judging from the results it doesn’t look to have been an easy day for anyone apart from Sali who won by 4 shots on 67 from Silvia.

With a PCC of 1 for yesterday – the men found it no easier, and the way WHS changes, Sali’s handicap has dropped to 23.6

Men

The continuing thick rough made ball-finding/striking difficult esp. for short hitters off the tee and PCC of +1 reflected this.

But there was some very good scoring. In the senior division John Perkins shot a net 63 to win medal – with a finishing 35 (John earns full hcaps hot cut); he was followed by 68s from Hieu and Kerry who could both have had much better but for trouble at a few holes.
In the junior division Seymour’s consistent 64 won the medal from Duncan 68 and Dilip 69.

Lowest gross came from Pete Harrison making a welcome appearance (76).

This was 3rd round in the Grand Medal Trophy which now sees Kerry 212 the leader in senior division from Tamas 214; in the junior Duncan 202 leads from Dilip 207.

It was a chilly and overcast morning, which then got wet and windy and by early afternoon it was pretty miserable conditions for golf – no wonder some players ‘went home early’ and well done to those who stuck it out.

Richard Norden was our winner (36 points, 20 on the back 9) separated only by countback from Bill Norman (also 36 points but 19 on the back 9). Pralab came in 3rd (34 points) and will have had the ‘best’ of the weather – his round only really got going towards the end, with 4 pars on the final 5 holes. Rumour has it that Seymour beat Rannesh comfortably in their ‘friendly’ matchplay, helped by a couple of chip-ins. Sweep payout to the top 3 (£10, £7, £3)

As the scores indicate: that was hard work today. Even though the green keeping staff (to be more precise 1 Glendale staffer) was trying hard to upgrade the course it was a rough day for most of the field. For starters: the carry of the tee on a lot of holes was very long for the short(er) hitters. It was crazy to see what effect the recent rain had on the rough. Drift off the fairways and you were bound to start looking for balls in long, thick and lush grass. A recipe for disaster.

Only 2 players managed to play to their respective HI’s. Paul G went out early and a set decent marker with 37pts. He used an excellent front 9 (21pts) to become leader in the clubhouse. That score proved too much for about 99% of the field. 1 player in the very last game managed to better 37pts. The men’s secretary also recorded 21pts going out. But a steady back 9 (18pts) set him up nicely for victory.  Think that Paul G will have massive regrets about his scores on holes 11/17. Yours truly had a disappointing front 9. A chip-in birdie on 17 was partly offset by an ugly 5 on the 18th. But that didn’t prevent me from recording the best back 9 (21pts). Brett was the best of 5 players on 33pts (thank you count back rule). Tamas and Alvaro both had good front 9’s. But don’t ask them about their back 9’s.

Ranking after 2 rounds in the MW Founders Cup: Paul Green (70pts), Peter H (67), KSC (66), Peter G (64)

The day gradually warmed up and the thickness of rough grew – encouraged by the light but persistent rain from Coronation Saturday.

Women

There was no doubt the usual refrain about a 4 person team always winning from 3, which in this case was true – but this team had to play the ‘stand aside’ version, the idea being to make it more equal. It didn’t seem to have had any effect on them as a team as they romped home 5 shots clear of the team in 2nd place

Men

Scoring was similar to the same format team event played on Friday but an improvement – Brendan, Bernie, Peter M and Will B returning 92 points [more than 5 per hole] with best front 9 47 and back 9 45. 2nd and 8 behind were Paul McG, Rob S, Giovanni and Raymond 84; 3 teams returned 80 with Onursal, Hieu Van, Paul R and Ian H the better on the countback rule.

Most scored on a particular hole was 7 on par 4 6th with Paul K returning a birdie and Tommy H a par.

First 4 teams awarded prizes.