A pleasant early Spring day with sunshine and not much wind though what there was had a chill to it .

Women

The lovely sun didn’t seem to help most out there today, except for our new member, Sali, playing in her first official club comp she came out a mere 7 points ahead of both Deb & Cheryl with her 38 points which will be rewarded with a handicap reduction of just under 2 shots in the morning. Well played Sali and welcome onboard.

Special mention to Silvia for her eagle 3 on the 10th hole – amazing!!

This was the last round of the Prince’s eclectic and despite Cheryl knocking 5 off her score it was not enough to catch Pat who wins the eclectic by 0.2 on 72.3 from Cheryl.

Men

Sam Goodchild-Way led the way in the senior division with an even 38 points – chased by Justin W whose 37 included 2 ‘blobs’. Consistent 36s came from Will B and Peter G, Will recording the 3rd Sunday eagle on 14th – nice one.

The junior division was also won with 38 points with Martn Hay edging Adrian and Michael C on back 9.

9 divisional sweep prizes awarded – 5 senior 4 junior due to greater number of senior participants.

This was last round for the Prince’s Winter Eclectic which sees Roger Rojas the winner 60.6 after just 3 rounds of the 4 from Kerry on 61.5.

The overall Winter Comp has just 1 round left and after 7 played :
Senior division leaders
Justin W 117
Peter G 114

Junior division leaders
Givanni C 119
Julian J 111

On a mild but cloudy day, the strong south-westerly winds from the effects of Storm Otto over Scotland were the most significant challenge (and assistance) during the round.

The ‘best 2 scores from 3 players’ proved difficult for all teams on some holes with all teams have the odd 2-pointer (or less !!). It turned out that there were only 2 teams that played ‘better than par (72 points)’, with the team of Pete Goodall, Justin Wildman and Seymour Laird (79 points) outscoring Pat Dalton, Bill Norman and Alex Braun (77 points).

As is so often the case, the story of winners and runners up came down to the closing few holes. Alex birdied both the 15th and 16th and his team scored 13 team points on those 2 holes, but then they only scored 7 team points on the 17th and 18th. Pete birdied the 15th and the 18th (on the green with his tee shot), giving his team 13 points on 17th and 18th, plus 9 team points on the 15th and 16th.

Sweep payout to the winning team (£6 each).

An early chill gradually morphed into very nice spring weather.

This didn’t prevent early starter Paul from setting (a very high) mark with 42pts.  His round was solid: 20pts + 22pts. Other way to look at his round: there were no 7’s on his scorecard. That goes a long way to winning a golf competition. Nobody else came close. Alan stuck to the golf law that every good round starts with a DB. Add 2 blobs and it’s no wonder he “only” recorded 16pts on the front 9. But he torched the back 9 for 23pts (5 3-pointers didn’t hurt). 2nd place also means he solidifies his position in this MW Winter Comp. Uli was still on a high after a close win an NAPGC comp last week. 20pts + 18pts earn him 3rd place. Adrian and Richard N also register 38pts but the countback awards them 4th and 5th place respectively.

MW Winter
Alan King (114), Tamas Ladacs (111) Chris Newman (110)

Midweek Duke’s Eclectic
Chris Newman 65, Tamas 65, Uli 66, Peter G 67

Mildish with grey skies and just faint spots of drizzle set the backdrop for the day.

Women

Two teams of three played the women’s favourite format – a Texas Scramble.  Both teams had 13 shots.   The winning team of Katharina, Alison and Pat scored a steady 38 points with no double bogeys and no birdies.    KK and AC felt they made good contributions to the scoring but the team largely owed the nine point victory to the good form of Pat!

Men

Some excellent individual scores were returned in the medal.
Senior Division
Peter Needham pulled out the stops to win with 67 and parring all 3 par3s. Club Champion Richard Back shot just 3 over par and claimed front and back 9 honours along with a snip from 4.1 to 3.9 which I believe to be his lowest HI.

Junior Division
Pat Dalton returned a fantastic 63 ( HI trimmed 23.9 to 23.1) to win junior medal leaving Anis and Sean 4 off the pace with highly commendable 67s.

A frosty start soon developed into a lovely sunny winter’s morning, with relatively dry and mud-free conditions and all 18 greens ‘in play’.

Good scoring proved difficult for almost all the field with only today’s winner, Bill Norman (39 points), scoring more than ‘par’. Bill par’d 6 of the first 13 holes, amassing 32 points by that stage, but wobbled with only 4 points on the last 4 holes (without which his score would have been well into the 40’s). In 2nd place was Bridget Stone (36 points); Bridget also found the front 9 easier with 22 points out but only 14 points in. Graham Cull, playing alongside Bridget, came in 3rd with 35 points; his was a steady round of 18 points out and 17 in. These top 3 were followed by a clutch of 6 players on 32 points.

The best scores analysis report shows that Bridget had the best front 9 (22 points) and Peter Flint had the best back 9 (19 points). Mayumi, Colin Price and Gary Simpson were best on the three par 3’s, all amassing 8 points, and Richard Back had 2 birdies (although he and Richard Inglis lost their side match against Kevin Prendergast and Richard Owen).

Congratulations to out our Top 3, who collect the sweep monies (£13, £8, £4).

Temperatures dropped dramatically overnight (-4C), so it was a nice round of winter golf for the field. Frozen greens/bunkers and bumpy fairways were all on the menu today. The later starters arguably enjoyed the “best” playing conditions.

Division 1

Pier Maria Micucci (PMM) was one of the later starters and the only player to record multiple birdies today. His gross score of 75 (39+36) translates to an excellent Nett score of 63. Someone once said: winning by a wide margin is boring … Today’s win for PMM must have been very boring. Julian, his closest rival, ended 3 shots behind him. Looks like the move into Div 1 suits Julian pretty well. Brian completes the Top 3. Best gross score goes to Richard Back (72).

Division 2

Even though he went out early (and probably faced the worse conditions) Pralab was able to take victory today. 3 players finished 2 strokes behind Pralab. First woman today in Div2 was Pat. She is also the last player to earn some cash today (Bill didn’t enter the sweep).

Sunny periods prevailed helping to raise the temperature.

Women

Another small but select turnout today. Sheena edged to the top by 1 point on 33 from Pat on 32.

It is all change at the top of the eclectic. After the first 2 rounds Susan was in the lead followed by Cheryl. Now they’ve both been leap-frogged by Pat, Gina and Sheena in that order. Pat & Gina both knocked 6.7 from their scores. Just one round to go now and it’s probably still anyone’s to win.

Men

Conditions on Prince’s were good generally for scoring in round 6 of the Winter Competition.

Kerry Sargeant shot a fine 38 to win the senior division from Julian James; Kerry picked up on 17^th so 20 scored on back 9 on 36 could have been even better. Will B was 3^rd whilst Julian was best overall on front 9 – 20 points.

In the junior division the long-time clubhouse leader was Cuneyt 39 points but he was eventually beaten on countback by Giovanni. 3 challenged with 36s – Gunnar (again), Onursal and Goran.

After 6 rounds the overall Winter Comp senior division leader following 45 on Prince’s last week is Justin114 from Will B and Peter N; Giovanni 119 leads Julian 111 in the junior division.

The penultimate Prince’s Eclectic sees Kerry 62.4 edge Roger 62.5.

Richard B added a branch to the eagle tree this year at 17^th whilst there were 12 ‘Twos’ recorded in the round overall.