Much cooler/more reasonable temperatures to walk 18 holes today. Greens were fairly receptive. There was still plenty of roll on the fairways. But the wind made life pretty tricky on a lot of holes.

The early starters didn’t set the bar too high for the 9am starters. But one player went under the bar by some margin. Colin’s birdie on the 2nd set him on route for a score of 40 gross (29 Nett) on the front 9. He was solid as a rock on the back 9. But just as we went on 59 watch he had his sole bad hole of the day on the 18th (Competition Scoring Analysis will show that other players struggled on that hole too). Nonetheless Colin finishes with a Nett score of … 63. His HI will drop faster than the temperatures this weekend. Best of the rest was Dave. Just look at how small the final margins were: Dave’s front 9 40 (30 Nett) and back 9 = 47 (36 Nett).  Oliver K was the best of a group of 4 finishing on 68 (Nett). Countback is the tie-breaker between him, Seymour, Peter H and yours truly. 1st woman is steady Doreen. Best gross score is the fruit of yours truly’s labour.

What the results don’t show:
– The woman’s captain, Sheena, makes an entrance on the eagle tree with a 3 on the 8th
– Peter G and Richard B thought that today’s format was 4 Ball Better Ball and decided to have 6 birdies amongst them
– Gina actually played 35 holes today. She first tried to leapfrog a few people ahead of her in the MW Medal standings. She then rushed out to play the final of the Women’s Challenge Cup. That should take care of today’s step count.

MW Grand Medal standings
Colin P 354, Pralab B 356, Chris R 357, Bill N 359, Alex B/Kim C 360

Another week/weekend/day of summer golf at the park. And the field took advantage of the playing conditions.

Div1
CC Roger recorded an excellent score of 40pts (21+19) to take the clubhouse lead. A DB on the front 9 and a snowman on the back 9 were his only blemishes of the day. Those one-offs allowd Paul K to leapfrog our Men’s CC and clain vitocry in Div1. Paul tallied an excellent score of 22pts (out) and 20pts (in). Suppose that Paul never enters the sweep softens the blow a bit for Roger. Kerry proved again that every good round starts with a DB (or worse). His PU on the 1st hole softened his score on the front 9 to 17pts. But an excellent 22pts onn the back 9 make up for that. Richard S had a solid round (20+18). Tamas is the last player to earn “a purse adjustment”. The Women’s CC recorded no less than 4 birdies today. No price for that unfortunately.

Div2
Women rule the world in Div2. Seema’s round started “slowly” with 17pts on the way out. But she caught fire on the back 9. 25pts on the back 9 allow her hold off the rest of the field. Joan M only finishes 1pt back. Gerard’s balance round (20pts on front and back 9) is good enough for 3rd (and claim the sweep money of this division). Tom and Ducan both finish on 39pts. As per usual the countback rule is the tie-breaker.

All to play for in R2 next week.

After a slightly chilly start it turned out to be another sunny, warm autumn day, Still plenty of bounce and run on the fairways but the grass on the greens was in need of a cut.

An outstanding round of golf by Richard Norden (46 points) makes him the clear winner and earns him a 2 strokes cut in his handicap index (including an ESR of 1.0) – he’s now back down to 22.4, where he was 2 years ago. Richard started with a blob (tree trouble) but then didn’t look back with a consistency and driving, approach shots and putting display of a low teens handicapper. Perhaps the most surprising thing about his round (and score) were that there were no birdies.

Early starter Ed Robinson bags 2nd place with a fine 43 points, achieved over 16 holes, as he blobbed the 5th and 16th holes. In 3rd place, with a similarly steady round (just 1 blob) was Richard Hodgkinson (40 points).

Special mentions also go to Poria Alinia (35 points) who had 3 birdies on the front 9, including consecutively on the 7th and 8th holes, but then rather fell apart on the back 9 with 3 blobs, and to Graham Cull (39 points) who had an outstanding front 9 (24 points) – even beating Richard Nordon’s front 9.

To win the sweep money on a Friday it helps to have a high handicap (!!!); the monies go to the top 3 (£12, £8 & £5). However, there were also some good gross scores by the lower handicappers: Richard O. 80, Pralab 82 and Brian 84.

Summer golf almost seems like a distant memory. There was quite a chill in the air when the 7am and early 9am games teed off. Still no excuse for the Glendale staff to already leave winter greens on the course. There was still more than enough roll on the fairways. But I suppose less is said about the greens the better …

All this doesn’t take away any credit from Bill’s score of 41pts today. An excellent 23pts out were followed up with a solid 18tpts on the way home. Peter M had 20pts on front and back 9. But he will rue his PU on the 15th hole. Great second place finish today though. Another week another mention for Kevin P. 17pts out (with a PU on the 8th) were handily compensated by a very solid 22pts on the back 9. Andre P matched Kevin’s score. But unfortunately his back 9 was a bit softer than KP’s (20pts v 22). So 4th place is his reward. Poria torched the course with 3 birdies (matched in that department by Tamas). Even though he birdied 2 holes on the front 9 he “only” recorded 16pts on the front 9. His 21pts on the way in were excellent. Graham C keeps up his good form with a 6th place. First lady today is the Women’s Captain, Sheena.

Results of the challenges
NTP 2nd: Colin Price
NTP 4th: Mike Horsthuis
NTP 11th: Poria Alinia
NTP 16th: Tamas Ladacs
NTP in 2 13th: Will Balakrishnan
NTP in 2 18th: MW Captain Brian Ransom
A Committee member will be in touch re the prize

Women

Don’t really need to do a report since we were all in the same game & know what went on. If Deb had done the back 9 the same way as she did the front then she would have walked it. In stableford terms it was 20 out and 9 back. As it was we finished in handicap order, though we can’t get excited about the scores since 69 is playing to par.

Men

Today’s competition also served as the final round counting towards the Grand Medal Trophy. Scoring was excellent today.

Senior Division
Michael H went round in 37&36 (gross). This translates into a score of 61 Nett. The 2 birdies on the back allowed him to stay 1 clear of John P. 2 facts of John P’s round describe amateur golf at its best: opening with a triple bogey on the 1st hole but then managing to birdie the SI1. What a silly game. Sunny L recovered from a soft front 9 to come home in 36 (Gross). This allows him to finish 3rd. Pete N recorded birdies on 16 & 18 to beat Richard O on countback for 4th place. Aidan recorded a 2 on the 14th. Jay also recorded an eagle. But he accomplished that feat on the 9th.

Junior Division
Is there anything stopping Kevin P? Out in 42 and home 37 gross. The nett numbers are staggering: 33 (out) and ….  29 (in). Well done on another win. Shockingly KP needed the countback rule to take victory today. Paul McG. Also recorded a 62. But he needed a score of 30 (Nett) on the back 9 to record the same feat. Charlie W and Tom S both finish 2 shots back. Tom S recorded the 3rd eagle of the day (also on the 9th). Gunnar S completes the Top5 with an excellent 65.

Grand Medal Trophy
Looks like there is a tie between Will Balakrishnan and Tamas L on 328. Paul Kamerling (340) and Michael H finish distant 3rd and 4th. Duncan T won junior dvision 345 from Dilip349.

It was a relatively warm and sunny autumn day and the course was in good condition, although the greens needed cutting (very slow).

Regular Bill Jennings recorded his first ‘win’ with the club, 38 points and the strongest back 9 of anyone in the field (23 points). Well Done Bill !!
In 2nd place, just one point behind was Adrian Norris; a remarkable result with 4 blobs on his card. 3rd and 4th places, both on 35 points were Adrian Wells and Ed Robinson, respectively. Most players found the back 9 easier than the front 9; best front 9 was by Seymour (20 points). Rannesh birdied 2 of the par 3s. The surprise pairing of Gerald and Seymour easily saw off Uli and Richard Owen in their pairs matchplay side competition, 3&2.

Sweep payout to the top 4 (£10, £7, £3 & £2)

The fairways still offered plenty of roll. But to use an understatement: the greens have seen better days. They were very receptive. But unfortunately that also meant that the putts had a harder time to hold their lines (still no excuse for what happened to yours truly – see below). The swirling winds made club selection tricky. That being said scoring proved excellent for the players with higher HI’s.

Graham C’s comment about his round was: I am pretty chuffed. He damn well should be: 21pts (out with a PU on the 3rd) and 23pts in (birdie on 11 didn’t hurt). On paper nobody came close. Expect an ESR and a massive drop in your HI. On paper Richard N seemed a distant second. But he torched the front 9 for 23pts. A couple of bad holes brutally ended his rally on the back 9. Dave C and Brett C both ended on 39pts. But Dave had the stronger back 9. So he finishes 3rd. Our Glendale Liaison Officers PDH and Richard O matched each other scores (Richard birdied the 5th – aka SI2). But 1pt difference on the back 9 breaks the tie in PDH’s favour.

Other bits:
– yours truly topped/knife/held his tee-shot below the wind (last description is quite a reach) on the 7th hole  to land his ball to 1 foot of the cup. I then managed to gloriously miss the putt. A par never felt more hollow than today.
– Jeremy P recorded 17pts on the front 9. Not really worth the mention right? The amazing thing is that recorded those points even though he PU’ed on 3 holes!

Scoring proved excellent in the Silver Jubilee – final round of the Anniversary Cup.

Ed Hall’s extra practice last Wednesday paid dividends today. He went round in 41 and 45 (gross – 31+34 Nett). That proved just enough to hold enough Kevin P. KP recorded 2 birdies on the front 9. But he softened a bit on the last 9. Alan K’s good run of form continues. After a solid front 9 (40 gross) his progress was halted momentarily by a lost ball on 12. But he still managed to be the sole player with a score of 66 (Nett). The Men’s secretary played a solid round of 69 (Nett) to claim 4th. Jim D finished 1 shot further back. But he’d do anything to be able to just play the last 2 holes again. Let’s just say that more respectable scores on 17/18 would’ve moved him a lot closer to the Top2. Michael H and Sean O’S are the last to finish “In the Money”. George T had the best gross score. Deborah P carded the best woman’s score.

Anniversary Cup Standings
Cheryl W (210), Katharina K (215), Lia D (217) , Michael H (217), Ian B (217), John P (219)

A thankfully dry day following the heavy rain earlier in the week.

Late entrant Jose Manuel Gomez had a another good round and was the clear winner with 43 points, three clear of George Taylor in 2nd place (40 points) and with Gerard Ouattara 3rd (39 points). George had the best front 9 (22 points) and Jose & Gerard the best back 9 (23 points). Jose’s handicap was trimmed by just over a shot to a new Low Index of 22.1.

Uli Katte and James Deissler (recently returned, like Gerard, from warm weather golfing in Spain) were 3 shots back on 36 points. Only 3 birdies were scored, by Brian, George and Mitch.

Sweep payout to top 3 (£14, £9, £5)

Summer golf looked like a distant memory today. The floodgates opened when most of the players were on the home stretch. Scoring was a bit different today since the ladies SI’s were used. Note: some players served double duties and showed up in a couple of pairings.

Alex B and Ian B torched the course. A birdie on 6 set them up for a great score of 25pts on the front 9. The back 9 of 23pts assured them victory. Richard N and Bill N (and not Matt H as indicated in the report) finshed just 1pt behind Alex/Ian. Bill N also teamed up with Richard H to record 23pts on the front 9 and 24pts on the back 9 to take 3rd place. 2 birdies for Brett C/Mike J on the back 9 were just not enough to crack the Top3.