2023
2023
Burgess Cup/Women’s Scramble
Looks like we struck lucky as the golf at Wentworth had a rain delay of an hour. Presumably there was a lightning threat.
Women
Not the Autumn meeting that we expected but a Texas scramble is always a fun format – ignoring the stress of having to take a set number of tee shots. and the lack of players overall no doubt contributed to our sub 4 hour rounds.
The greens were certainly trickier than usual with all the criss-crossing and work on them. Am sure both games had putts bouncing there way across the greens, but Reiko (having run up the path to make the tee in time) knocked in a long putt on the 1st for an opening birdie for our team, so perhaps they helped here. Good birdie 2 on the 11th for the team of 3 – not sure anyone in the other team made a green on any of the par 3s.
The team of 4 played the step-aside version, meaning that whoever’s shot was taken, although playing a ball for the next one, could not have the outcome used when deciding on the following shot until the green was reached, finished with a nett 63, playing the back 9 to par to beat the other team by 3.
A token prize will be awarded in due course!
Men
Yet another competition on Prince’s and some exceedingly good scores.
The winners of the greensomes format Burgess Cup are Giovanni & Alex J with 49 points – 26 points on the back! They obviously gelled well together in Alex’s first comp with the club; a late challenge came from Gunnar & Charlie with 46 points [25 on back 9]. An excellent 43 came 3rd from the team of Gregory & treasurer Peter.
Surrey Fives, East Final
The Richmond Park team, captained by Brendan O’Sullivan, beat Epsom 4 – 1 in the 2023 Surrey 5’s East Section knockout final. More details below.
Having defeated one Epsom team in the semi finals, the Richmond Park ‘B’ team faced another Epsom team in the East section final. The match was played at Hindhead golf course, which had beautiful fairways and perfectly manicured greens that were exceptionally fast with lots of slopes and subtle breaks.
Our team was led off by Naveed Manazir (a last minute sub. for Pete Malla) who ran into a 12 handicapper who shot -2 gross for 12 holes to give Epsom the first point with a 7 & 6 victory.
Brendan Sullivan restored the deficit winning 8 & 7 to square the match at 1 – 1
The ever-reliable John Perkins was never behind and ran out an easy 6 & 5 winner to put Richmond Park 2 – 1 up in the match.
Russell Stewart was selected for the final following some impressive play over the past few weeks and justified his selection with a 4 & 3 victory to put Richmond Park 3 – 1 up in the match.
Bernie McDermott was never behind in the last match and also saw off his opponent with a 4 & 3 victory to record an overall result of 4 – 1 to Richmond Park and the Surrey 5’s East section title.
Richmond Park now await the winners of West Surrey v Hindhead to determine the overall Surrey 5’s champions for 2023. This match is scheduled to take at Clandon Regis on Sunday 15th October.
Friday Sweep
Assuming the work on the greens was done prior to Friday the field would have had to contend with the diamond crossings and bumping along the greens that was experienced on the following Sunday. It obviously didn’t bother all of the field with Leigh taking 1st spot on 41 closely followed by Russell on 40 and Bill taking 3rd spot on countback from Ian on 39s.
Sweep payout goes to those 4 (£10, £6, £3, £2)
Midweek September Medal (MGMT R7/8)
Before we get to the order of the day: what in heaven’s name was the Glendale staff thinking? ….
But is much more enjoyable to talk about today’s golfing highlights.
Richard B’s round can be stripped down to its raw numbers: 4 birdies – 1 Hole In One (our reporter first erroneously mentioned that RB aced the … 17th – Now that would’ve made it to Skysports/Golfchannel and the youtube golfing celebrities channels – That reporter who also played today’s comp won’t be named/shamed. But her first name starts with a G …). Back (no pun intended there …) to Richard’s round: 34 (gross – out) and 35 (gross – in) is pretty hard to beat. Well done RB. Sweep money has been credited. Expect an ESR this night. Colin Price’s excellent round of 66 earns him a well deserved 2nd place. Another Richard (Richard S in this case) overcame 2 DB’s on the front 9 with a solid back 9 to take 3rd. Alex B had an excellent day. But his scores on the last 2 holes prevented him from bettering his 4th place finish.
MW Grand Medal (TBC):
Chris R (357), Bill N (362), Gina J (366), Colin P (370)
Autumn Plate
Another hot and sunny day for the Autumn Plate; indeed a week in the 30cs – a record apparently.
Again excellent scoring on Prince’s. Ashley Stephens being first with 47 points and after 11 WHS qualifying rounds and ESR adj -2.0 HI cut from 31 to 24.5 .Cedric came a close second with excellebt 45 and sees his HI reduce after 9 WHS rounds and an ESR adj of -1.0 from 22.3 to18.6.
Mark B played some excellent golf also with 45 points. Mark had 1 over par back 9 and 25 points – and also had an ESR of -1.0 bringing his HI from11.0 9.0. Adran and ED sj=hot some super golf with44s.
Caroline was best woman 43 and Jenny scored 25 points front 9.
Rickmansworth match, 2nd leg
With Rickmansworth having “outperformed” in the first leg at the Park to the tune of a 3-3 tie, the return leg at their course was always going to be a prodigious feat. Despite a stern challenge to the assembled team by captain-for-the-day Nigel Gaymond , delivered in the style of his former rugby playing days, full of expletives and a call to arms, and the valiant efforts of all those assembled, the result had a depressingly inevitable feel about it. On the day it was a 5-1 defeat leaving an overall score of 8-4 to Rickmansworth who thus returned the cup ‘Home” to their clubhouse.
In Game 1 the familiar pairing of Richard Owen and Uli Katte quickly went 2 down in the first two holes and despite keeping it that way at the turn eventually succumbed to a 5 & 3 defeat. In Game 2 Naveed Manazir and Paul Green endured the same experience of being two down after two, trailed by 4 at the turn and also similarly endured a 5 & 3 defeat. In Game 3 the experienced pair of Nigel Ward and Tony Kopczak fought valiantly but ultimately succumbed 2 & 1. In Game 4 Tamas Ladacs and Justin Wildman ceded a number of shots to their opponents and despite keeping it close on the front nine ultimately succumbed 4 & 2. In Game 5 Jon Cooper and Peter Needham kept it close throughout but ultimately slipped to a 2 & 1 defeat on the 17th Hole. The last game of the day featured Nigel Gaymond and Aidan Hurley who bucked the trend and won the two opening holes and led by as many as 3 holes and went dormie with 3 holes to go only for the Rickmansworth pair to make a serious charge taking the match to the 18th hole. Nigel had basically overheated by the 14th hole leaving Aidan to steer the team home on his own. He played the last five holes in 1 under and coolly sank the 7 foot par putt to seal the win and prevent the whitewash. In the associated sweep, Nigel/Aidan came first with 40 points, Tamas/Justin second with 39 and Uli/Richard third with 37. There’s always next year!
Friday Sweep
Another blistering hot day with temperatures topping 30 degrees C but fortunately no-one was overcome by the heat.
It was another good round by Charlie Haines, who tops the leaderboard with 40 points (including one blob), 2 ahead of Graham with a commendable 38 points. Every steady Colin takes 3rd place with 37 points, just one in front of dog-walker Rannesh (who reportly let Yangu off the lead to collect opponents balls!!).
Best front 9 was 21 points by both Graham and Jose and best back 9 by Tamas (22 points). Uli didn’t win any sweep money this week (for a change) but did record 4 birdies in his round for the first time.
Sweep monies to the top 3 (£11, £7 , £4)
The Fred Hawtree Cup
A scorching day in September for the difficult format bogey Fred Hawtree competition.
The winner Mtch Cohen was the very early clubhouse leader being 7up; but he was actually 9up on back 9 and 2 over for front 9. Seymour was runner-up 6up whilst Club Champ Richard B was third 5 up – all on front 9 with 2 under par 33
September Monthly Medal (GMT R7/8)
Glorious sunshine with increasing heat for the September Monthly Medal. Conditions were excellent for scoring.
Women (Autumn Meeting Medal round)
What a lovely sunny day for a round of golf & it looks to have suited Silvia to a tee or more appropriately to par. Her gross score of 73 looks more like a nett to many of us & despite already having a low handicap is getting a 0.6 cut tomorrow down to 6.4…. the rest of us can only dream of such a score. So well played Silvia who finished with a nett 66.
Just 2 behind was Jenny with a 68 but with an identical score dropping off the back of WHS there is no change to her handicap.
Men
Exceptional golf from Jim ‘Mr 59’ Matthews with 1 over par front 9 gave Jim a 59 – well done! Jim had an ESR of -1.0 applied after his early 8th WHS score to reduce his handicap from 14.8 to 9.0. he was followed by in-form Jim D 61 – again normally exceptional Oz re turned 62, Charlie W 63 , Paul K 64 Paul G 64 and indeed there were 18 scores in the 60s.
Jay returned 2 over par 66 for best gross and his HI reduced to 3.6.
This was 7th of 8 rounds for the Grand Medal Trophy and order is little chaged from rond 6 –
Will B leads senior 328 from Tamas 329 whilst Duncan leads junior 345 from Dilp 349.
MW Club Championship/Hcap Trophy R2
A fair day for final round of Midweek Club championship; dry and bright.
Fine 65s from Naveed and Peter G won the nett for the day with Naveed 158 winner with a birdie at last hole. Russell followed with a lighting 66.
In the Men’s scratch senior division Jay shot an exemplary 73 gross with 3 birdies and 2 under par back 9; this built on his lead from first round to win with 145 from nearest rival Richard B 151. There were notable performances from Peter G 152, and Naveed 158..
Full credit to Patrick M winning with 2nd round 93 to give overall 180 from Adrian 182 and Julian 184.
The Handicap Trophy ( next 2 rounds) shows a 3-way tie on 135 – Peer G, Jay and Uli. Congrats to all.
And it’s congratulations to Gina for again winning the women’s gross 163 from Sheena 176.