The weather was dull and overcast but some ‘sparkling’ golf was played by the leading teams.

Top of the pile were Peter, Pat, John and Uli with a massive 49 points, playing off 9. They had 25 points out and 24 points in, with 6 birdies and one bogey on the card. Not far behind (47 points) were Rannesh, James, Alex and Ian playing off 10, with 24 points out and 23 in; a Par front 9 and 1 birdie on the back 9. Two teams, Pralab’s (off 8) and Brian’s 3-ball (off 9), had 45 points, both with 23 points out and 22 points in.
The game was clearly ‘easier’ for the 4-balls, as they took the first 3 places.
Sweep payout to the top 2 teams (£16 & £8).

The field traded in frost, unpredictable bounces and miles of roll on the fairways for mild temperatures, mud, temporary greens and wind.

The saying goes that the early bird catches the worm. Chris N was one of the early starters and set a very high mark for the rest of the field. The stats of his round speak for themselves: 4 birdies, 20pts (front 9), 23pts (back 9), number 1 for the day. To put things into perspective: his round could’ve been even better had he not gone +3 on the par 3’s. PMM also recorded 4 birdies. He torched the front 9 for 24pts. He had 2 wobbles on holes 11 and 14. That explains that he “only” scored 18pts on the back 9. 2nd place is great reward for an excellent round. Pat is first woman today. Blobs on holes 6 and 16 were the only blemishes of her round. Thanks to an excellent back 9 (23pts) she takes 3rd place. Cuneyt started strong (22pts front 9) but lost his mojo on the back 9 (16pts) to finish 4th. Graham and Gina take the last “sweep places”.

Midweek Winter

Tamas 109, Alan 109 ,Cheryl 103, Pralab 102

Midweek Duke’s Eclectic

Chris N 68, Tamas (again …) 68, Uli 68, PMM 68  

Whilst there had been no real rain for a few days 2 temporary greens ( 5 & 11) meant non-WHS Handicapping competition conditions.

Women

There were as many of us playing as there were initially for the club AGM, a grand total of 7.

It was tight at the top today with 3 of us on 30 points, 2 of whom had18 points on the back 9, so it was the back 6 which gave it to Gina over Bridget whose comment on finishing was that she’d decided she was a spring/summer golfer rather than a winter one. Perhaps she’ll reconsider when looking at the results.

There were certainly opportunities to come in with a better score but those variable ground conditions along with varying amounts of run made for a fair bit of hit & hope. Probably one of the high points of the day was the speed of the round no doubt helped by the men being off the yellows. That drizzly rain was definitely not!

We can probably assume that the accompanying eclectic is a 2-horse race between Gina and Silvia. Both improved their scores this week and Silvia narrowed the gap to 1.1 between the pair of them with one round to go…. should be an interesting contest ladies!!

Men

Whilst off yellows and with 2 temp greens (so WHS NQ) there was still some truly exceptional golf played.
In the senior division Justin Wildman shot the lights out with a gross 77 (career best Duke’s?) to win with 45 points (24 out 21 back , 4 birdies); 2 behind was Jihum Kim level par 35 out with 26 points out 17 back. A further point behind on 42 was Russell 42 (17 out 25 back).
Class was further provided in the senior division by Alan King who started the year’s eagle tree with one at 6th.
Well done indeed to all above.

It was tight in the junior division with Gunnar edging Julian on countback to win division on 38; Giovanni and Alan followed with 37s. Alan followed his eagle 2 at 6th with a ‘Two’ at the next hole!

With 5 rounds now played of Winter Comp, Will B leads senior division 113 from Nigel W and Peter G 110; Junior division headed by Giovanni 117 9 ahead of Pierpaulo 108.

It was a rather chilly, overcast day but at least the Duke’s had re-opened and the ground had ‘softened up’, so the frozen fairways and greens were a past memory.

Almost half the field managed a ‘par score’ or better (20 points for a 10 holes course). The winner, Richard Norden (22 points), got away to a flying start with 13 points on the first 4 holes, including a birdie on the 3rd. In 2nd place, Pat Dalton (21 points), also got away to a great start, with 3 pars and 14 points on the first 5 holes. Steady play from Pralab, Adrian and Julian saw them all score 20 points, Pralab taking 3rd place on countback and probably ruing his 7 on the SI18 2nd hole.

Most players played the ‘Full 18 holes’ and it was good to see Paul Grand taking part in his first Friday competition.

Sweep payout to the top 2 (£8, £4).

Winter golf – It felt like links golf with frozen fairways, greens and fringes. Shots into the greens must have been very interesting (to use an understatement) for the early starters. The greens became trickier during the course of the day. All of this translates quite clearly into today’s scoring. PCC adjustment in the end was +2

Division 2

Honour where honour is due. Division 2 put up some excellent scoring. Cheryl did a “Rory”. She arrived just in time to tee off. But that sense of urgency drover her on the whole day. An outrageous chip-in on the 4th (has to be said that Tamas showed her the way) was the exclamation point for an excellent 23pts on the front 9. A “snowman” (very a propos for the time of the year) on the 10th was the only blemish of the day. 17pts on the back seal her victory in this division. “Speed golf” suits you very wel Cheryl … Ian recorded an outrageous 25pts on the back 9 to take 2nd. Julian is the 3rd and last player to beat his handicap today. Richard M would’ve taken 4th spot but unfortunately he forgot to sign his card.

Division 1

Alvaro did mention he had the worst warm-up ever on the driving range (I believe witnesses can only confirm that) …. Or may be he was a bit flustered teeing off in the 2nd “late” game. How else can you explain he had to pick up on the first hole? His front 9 (15pts) can certainly be qualified as volatile as Joao Felix’s debut at Chelsea. But he composed himself with a +4 gross back 9 (20pts) to win Division 1. Yours truly ended up in too many bunkers (really not the place to be in these conditions) to have any chance at challenging for the win today. Peter G struggled on the front 9. But once the “softer” conditions set in he lit up the back 9 for 21pts.

MW Winter Comp Leaders (report includes proviso that at least 1 round from each course is included in best 3 from a possible 8. Masterscoreboard can only show best 3 irrespective of course.

Seniors Tamas 107, Richard O 102, Richard 101;

Alan K 109, Tamas 107, Cheryl 102 , Juian 102 Pralab 102, Richard O 101

MW Princes eclectic

Peter G 62, Alvaro 66, Tamas 66 

Icy but sunny conditions prevail with Duke’s still closed.

Women

The winning team was Susan, Ali and Jenny who pipped Sheena, Caroline and Sali on the back 9 & courtesy of having one more shot to play with – 13 rather than 12.

There were 3 birdies across the teams, 2 shown on the results sheet as they were on par 3s and one on the 7th for the winning team. The other team failed on that score but were the only ones to have nothing higher than a 5 on the card.

It was definitely an interesting day to play, with memories of the summer run coming back as the ball skittered along over the ice. Certainly making club selection a challenge along with putting. But the blue skies were glorious once the sun had burned off the remnants of fog. Having teed off on the 5th by the time we reached and found our balls, the green had disappeared in the fog and we wondered if we’d be called off, but 5 minutes later the sun had done its work and it was sun the rest of the way round.

The results show that Bridget played with Katharina and Lia but they were in fact a 2-ball. On amending the info, HM gave them a mere 4 shots which hardly seemed fair, so the sheet has the result as them being in 3!

Men

There were a few drop-outs but attendance (42) was good for the icy conditions (nudged 3C) that created bounce and putting difficulties. Overall the PCC calculated was +3 – much more difficult than expected and first time on Prince’s since November 1 per attached.

Anyway, there was some really good golf played.

In the Senior division victory and medal for an excellent round went to in-form Richard Back 72 (but a 7 on 10th offset by 2 birdies on back 9).
Richard was chased by 4 37s from Pete M, Peter G, Russell and Joe G. For Pete and Peter it really was a game of 2 halves [Pete M 50 out 38 back, Peter G 43 out 38 back. Richard shared front/back honours and birdie scored with Ross Hood.

The Junior Division was dominated by a superb 60 from Paddy Stone – a WHS career best 84 (consistent 42s out and in) and an ESR of -1.0 resulting in a cut from 24.0 to 21.5. Gregory had a super 63 and Julian 66.
There were 13 NRs and I’m sure there was some excellent play therein nevertheless.

The frozen ground made the course much ‘shorter’ with summertime run on the fairways but it made pitching onto the (concrete) greens just about impossible. Bouncing balls and sideways kicks were the order of the day. Not really ‘proper golf’ but it was good to get back out on this sunny winter’s day, with no temporary greens.

In order of ‘fairness’, the two 3-ball teams had either Colin or Bill (who played as a 2-ball) added to their team, so everyone was in a 4-ball team. This made the result very close between four or the teams but still meant that the clear winners were the team of Julian James, Pralab Barua, Cuneyt Sazer and Adrian Wells, with an incredible 92 points (averaging more than 5 points/hole). The winning team takes the sweep money (£5 each).

Interestingly, it can be seen from the Competitions Scorecards (link below) that if all 4 scores had counted, the winning team of Julian, Pralab, Cuneyt and Adrian would have come 4th and the winners would have been Richard (O), Pete Goodall, Ian Burgess and Bill Jennings.

Course closed – sheet ice, safety reasons.

A ‘proper’ winter day – cold but sunny with a chill wind. Conditions underfoot could have been a lot worse and there were still 2 temporary greens in use rendering the comps as non-qualifiers. Rain clouds missing the Park brought out a rainbow mid-afternoon:

Women’s

The least said about the women’s scoring today the better! It looked like it would be won with 27 points, only for Silvia to be DQ’d as she forgot to sign her card. She had already expressed her chagrin at winning with such a score and has subsequently suggested it was an unconscious reaction!! So in the end the win was with a magnificent 25 points.

Expecting the course to be a complete mudbath, we took the shot below of our shoes before starting – they were all in fact black shoes already covered in mud (not offwhite), but although some holes were decidedly wet we finished with shoes in no worse state.

To add to this, Gina also managed to improve her eclectic score by 7.6 to leapfrog Silvia whose first round had seemed hard to beat. The rest of the pack are some way off.

Men

Peter Goodall’s excellent form continued with fresh clubs – winner of Senior division with 40 points; Peter started with a birdie, scrubbed 2 holes and finished back 9 level par. 23 points with par at SI 1 14th – super golf. Peter was chased by 38s from Oz, Paul K and James P.

Highest points went to Pierpaulo – 43, winner of Junior division from Giovanni with Gunnar and Gregory 34s

The associated Eclectic after 2 rounds on Dukes is headed by Raymond 66.9 off 5.1 from James P 68.1.

After 4 rounds of the Winter Comp, Will B leads Raymond 108 from 106 in Senior division whilst in Junior Giovanni 111 leads Pierpaulo 108.