Someone above seems to have it in for Richmond Park Golf Club as it rained yet again on our competition day. Despite this it was a mostly pleasant event and temporary greens were down to three for the course with the green on the second hole finally open for business – though many players were spotted hitting their tee shots short and right – muscle memory.

Some good scoring and winner is Andrew Pelser with a huge 47 points. A general play score has gone in and his handicap of 31 should see some movement overnight. Second was Ian Burgess with a hardly less impressive 41 points and Brian Ransom came in third with a very solid 40 points.

It was a good turnout for the 1st day of Spring with nice warm weather for a change and only 4 temp greens. The Princes course was not quite so wet and muddy and it seems to have caught some players unaware as scores were not quite as high overall as in earlier weeks.
However Tamas Ladacs found things very much to his liking with massive 48 points (24 out and 24 back). Peter Fisher took 2nd place with 42 points (17 out and 25 back). then there were a group of 5 who each scored 40 points. It took countback calculations by the computer to place in order.

A couple of extra reports for perusal.

Women

In what seems to have become a common event, our field of 11 had shrunk to just 6 by the time we ventured forth with the rain taking the blame for 4 of the defaulters, who by 1030 may have been regretting their decision. If we ignore that first part then overhead turned out to be rather pleasant, so much so that we didn’t need our winter layers as even the sun tried to join us.
A slightly different setup today with the real green back in action on the 1st but the 12th had one instead.
Jayne certainly took advantage of all the temps, putting with real aggression that generally worked and helped her amass 20 points on the front 9. The back 9 wasn’t quite as good with ‘only’ 17, but suffice to say was plenty to give her a comfortable win by 3 from Sheena on 34.

Men

A good turnout of 35 considering the rain after a few dry days; it eventually died out and last games had drizzle for a while.

Separate results for medal (1st Grand Medal 2024) and Stableford (Rnd 1 of Spring Stableford and also Rnd 5 of Winter Comp) attached. Both in divisions.

Medal results show Tamas Ladacs shooting the lights out with a net 60 off 14 scoring 2 birdies – good golf indeed Tamas. The early clubhouse leader Richard Smith followed with an excellent 64 with 3 birdies and incorporating a level par front 9. In the last game Paul Kamerling had a glorious 65 with 1 over par 34 on back 9. Star of the junior division was Andre Pelser who shot 57 off 31 – well done indeed. Nigel Ward followed net 64 dropping just 5 on back 9. Next were Mel Dunn and Ian Burgess both 65s.
The same scores but in stableford points were applied to the first round of the Spring Stablefrord doubling as 5th Winter Comp round ‘Best scores analysis confirms Andre Pelser best back 9 26 points and Tamas and Richard sharing 23 each on front 9.

After 5 rounds of the Winter Competition in the senior division Tamas shoots ahead of Kerry Sargeant with 125 points from Kerry’s 116 whilst Tom Simpkins and Gunnar Sundberg share the junior division lead 115 from Julian James 114.

With 4 rounds completed on Prince’s the associated Prince’s Eclectic goes to Richard Smith 58.6 from Tamas Ladacs 59.8.

A mild springlike morning with a moderate breeze and occasional short unpleasant showers. The 1st and 6th greens were open; ‘only’ the 2nd, 3rd, 5th and 8th were temporaries. Scoring was predicably good among the 25 participants. Peter Fisher and Brian Ransom were neck and neck on 43 points with Peter winning the competition on countback. Bill Norman was third with a good 38 points. Sweep payout to the top 3.

The weather today was more kind than earlier this week and we all stayed dry although the ground was still very muddy in many places. There were 6 temp greens where putting was a lottery, thank goodness for the 2 putt rule.
However, scoring was fairly good and for some very good.
One can only hope that the conditions will continue to improve over the coming weeks.

A damp grey start for the March Plate on the composite Duke’s course with 6 holes played twice; conditions deteriorated with rain becoming heavier and a few came in early.

Gerard O had an amazing front 9 with 25 points in his total 43 to win from James W who shot a consistent 37 ahead of the early clubhouse leader Joe having another fine 36 points nipping Justin 35. There were 5 birdies with Kerry scoring 2 .

Competition played on a drier course than of late with a bit of run on the fairways. Dry overhead and some sunshine while remaining cool with a strong wind. The green on the 1st was open for the first time in 2024. 1st, 2nd and 3rd all finished with a creditable 38 points, with Niel Barbour winning and Pat Dalton coming in second in front of Ed Robinson.

A cold and sunny start but although clouding over the forecast rain kept off. 8 temp greens with 4 played twice; rain in the week again meant some lying water with mud. Finding a dry spot to move the ball to was a challenge!

Women

As predicted the numbers fell away again with the news on the course being wetter than 2 weeks ago to just 2 teams of 3 both playing off 10. The winning team of Angela, Katharina and Sali had no double bogeys and a birdie on the 7th to beat Cheryl, Sheena and Susan by 3 shots with their net 73

Men

A good turnout of 37 for the 2nd iteration of the 12 holes plus 6 played twice on Duke’s.

Robert C won the senior division with 20 points out and in with 2 birdies. 2 behind was Joe G with a consistent 38 and then a fine round from Chris M on 35.

The junior division was clinched by Charlie W – an even 18 out 18 in 36 points with 2 ‘4-pointers’. Just second on countback over last 6 holes was Duncan T 35 from Alan K.

Well, it was a rainy day! 🙂
And it was forecasted as such, so a good number of players chose to drop out / cancel their participation beforehand. Another handful of players, yours truly amongst them, decided mid-course that enough is enough …

Richard N came in first, with another stellar round: 42 points (23 on the first 9!). Very consistent play the last few weeks, congratulations!
Runner-up, with quite some points distance (38) was Ian B, followed by Richard M (36), who beat Mike Jones via countback of the last 9 holes.

The Sweep money got distributed like this:
1st place £13
2nd place £9
3rd place £4

Resultsheet

The courses were closed today after the rain overnight left standing water on many of the fairways