Course conditions were muddy but unseasonably warm with a light breeze coming up from time to time.

The highlight of the day was not the winners but a hole in one by Chris Rudkin at the second hole par 3.
A wonderful straight shot that bounced a few times before nestling at the bottom of the cup. His first ever hole in one.
We all enjoyed a drink on his success in the clubhouse afterwards.

The overall standard of scoring was very high, everyone seems to have got used to layout now.

The sweep winner was Peter Harrington with 43 points (23 out and 20 back). Sweep second is Richard Norden with 40 points and third in the sweep was Brian Ransom with 39.

A diminished field met a watery course, wet and windy conditions, but was rewarded with some dry spells eventually. Huge puddles in bunkers etc made play difficult.

Winner with a cosmic 53 points was new member Gerrard Q playing off a recently gained handicap of 36. His round comprised 8 pars and 30 points on the front nine. He put in a general play score and can expect a handicap reduction overnight. Second place goes to Richard N with a commendable 38 points playing off 22, with six pars. 1st place £7; 2nd place £4.

The course conditions were rather wet underfoot after the overnight rain and the temperature had dropped by a degree or two with a cool breeze.

However the division 2 players showed that scoring was not a problem. Richard Marriott birdied the 18th to record his net62 pushing Peter Fisher who only parred it into 2nd place. in 3rd place by bogeying the 18th was Mike Jones. They were followed by Dave Cato and Pat Dalton for the money places. Julian James was the only Division 1 player to break par and Bill Norman took the 2nd place money. The division 1 players I think knew that the higher handicap players would have the edge today.
It was pleasing to note that the real 6th Green was back in play and hopefully other temps will disappear shortly.

Women

Another huge field for the comp today!
Although we had the same number of temps that we’ve had for the last few weeks, it was encouraging to see some of the roped off areas being re-opened, an indication that perhaps at long last it is starting to dry up a bit.
Cheryl decided to have a drive-in on her first singles event since taking over the reins as women’s captain. Her artistic skills added to our challenge of deciding where we thought her shot would end up, but the consensus view was that Doreen got the closest. Well judged Doreen.

Perhaps with both the AGM and club dinner out of the way, Sheena was inspired. With her best round since August & recording 8 pars along the way she finished with 38 points. Jayne was just 2 points behind with 36, helped by her 4 points on the 18th.

Both made good inroads into Gina’s 5 shot lead in the Eclectic and now head it up with 1 round to go. So it looks like the result might end up being a close run thing in the end.

Men

A mild and dry day and a good turnout for another round of the Winter Competition.

Good golf and scoring. Kerry led division 1 on 42 points – 2 birdies and 23 on front 9; a point behind was Aidan with 23 on back 9. and 3rd was Tamas on 40 points.

The junior division saw a tie of 43 points between Gregory and Gunnar who just won on countback last 6 holes. Well done to both! Another tie for 3rd with Paul F just countback winner on the back 9 from Ashley = both 41 points.
The Prince’s Eclectic after 3 rounds gives Peter N the lead 61 from Tamas and Umran 62.

The round was 4th played in the Winter Comp and the senior division is headed by Tamas and Kerry tied 116 from Peter N 110 whilst in the junior Oz leads 113 from Gunnar and Onursal both 111.

Overall good scoring on a fine winter day with some run on the fairways and six all too familiar temporary greens.

Graham C (playing off 25) was the outright winner by 1 point with a stellar 44 points, which included 5 pars on the front nine for a total of 25 points and another 4 on the back nine for a total of 19 points. One behind was Andrew P (playing off 31) with a hardly less impressive 43 points, and another point behind was Brian (playing off 17) for the last money place, on 42 points with birdies on 3 and 18.

1st place £12: 2nd place £8; 3rd place £4

Round6 of the Midweek Winter Comp played on Princes.

Another comp another clubhouse lead for Mike J. And he’s getting pretty good at it too. 22pts on front and back 9 in these conditions are quite remarkable. And it could’ve been better had he not scored “only” 6pts on the first 4 holes. He also reinforced the golf rule that a good round starts with a DB. Only one player bettered that mark. After a strong 2nd place last week Peter F went one better this week. He managed to beat Mike by 2pts: 25pts (out) + 21pts (in). Best of the rest was Ian B. The countback rule separates him from the 2 other players on 37pts. 

MW Winter Comp Rankings (Indicative)
P Fisher 124, M Jones 120, S Gokbayrak 113, R Carlile 112

MW Princes Eclectic
J James 60.9, M Jones 62.6, P Giles 64.4, R Carlile 65

With the course still closed to the public, Glendale again allowed the club to play on a restricted number of holes. This time to give us 18 we added a repeat of holes 4 & 5 to give 1-10, 7-10, 14, 4, 5, 18.

Hopefully the full course will be back in 2 weeks as there was a considerable hold up for everyone on the repeat loop and all rounds were extremely slow – but with no other players on the course can only blame ourselves!

Women – Texas Scramble

A repeat of the composite course allowed the women to vote for another team scramble between the 6 who played.

As ever a close result and had Jayne, Lia & Sheena not managed a birdie on the last would have been even closer. They scored a very balanced 18 points out and back whereas Cheryl, Elisabeth and Pat got 19 on the back 9 as unlike the other team they learned & played the second loop of 7-10 3 shots better. The others were 3 worse but in the end won by 2 points.

Men – Duke’s Stableford – 18 holes composite loop

There was some congestion causing delays for the playing twice loop holes 7=10 but there were 18 holes played this time with some good scoring.

In the senior division Peter Needham nipped Joe G on countback 38 points; another consistent round inc. 2 birdies from Richard S gave 3rd place with 36.
in the junior division there were 3 40s including again from new member James W , Tom S and Alan K; James having 25 on back 9, Alan 22 on front. O 37 came Gerard.

Divisional prizes were awarded.

After a chilly start, winter sunshine was the order of the day for another round on Prince’s with 6 temps on the first 8 holes. Hopefully Glendale will release a few of the closed greens, as the 1st, 2nd, 6th and 8th are ‘looking ready’.

A sparkling 6-over-gross 74 (46 stableford points ) by Julian made him the clear winner. Julian had three birdie 2s on the 2nd, 4th and 16th holes and his HI drops from 16.8 to 16.1. Because Julian was in the last game, for a long time the leaderboard suggested that 37 points would be the winning score, carded by Rannesh and Rob Carlile. However, when Pat Dalton’s signed card was inspected and compared to his score entry, it was found that he too had 37 (not 36) points and had pipped Rannesh to take 2nd place.

Great to have Ann Gardner playing with us again, 4 months after her fall, as well as Jeremy after his back operation and the new women’s captain Cheryl, after her holiday in Portugal. Sweep payout to the top 3 (£9, £6, £3)

Looks like the field is getting used to the temporary greens. Scoring was very tidy again. Suppose that the shrinking number of 3-putts doesn’t hurt (thank you local rule).

Another week and another occasion for Mike Jones to set the mark. 19pts on front and back 9 is a very decent marker. In the end he proved of the best of a group of no less than 5 players on 38pts. Julian J had an incredible start: he already totalled 18pts after  just … 6 holes. Alan K had a decent outing until he decided to forego any sweep credit by recording a DB on 12,13 and 14. Richard M trumped Mike by a single point on the way out and in. He was joined by in form Peter F. PF’s back 9 was 1pt better than Richard. So he takes 2nd place. Clear winner today is Serhat. A decent front 9 (19pts) was followed by an excellent back 9 (23pts). More than enough to take the honours today.

MW Winter Comp Standings (indicative only)
Julian J 147, Robert C 146, Mike J 140, Peter F 136

MW Princes Eclectic
Julian 61.6, Robert C 65, Alan K 67.2,

Milder than of late with surface frost melted but wind increasing as storm ‘Isha’ approached. 6 ‘temps’.

Women

Interestingly all 3 teams scored better on the front 9, which perhaps we can put down to all the temporaries which shortened all but the 2nd and possibly helped by the 2 putt rule.
We definitely got the best of the weather today with a super speedy round despite following 5 games of men playing medal.

As ever with this format, despite the pressure of having to use 5 tee shots each, everyone enjoyed themselves and the winning team was as mentioned Doreen, Pat & Silvia with their 42 points with both the other teams on 38.

Men

Some very fine scoring with new member James Withers (still developing handicap) headlining with 61.

Winner of the senior division medal with a late 62 was Richard Smith playing off 10, 36 out & 36 in for a 4 over par 72 – well done indeed! 5 behind was Richard I 67 just nipping Michael H on countback 67s; 3 followed with creditable 68s – Richard B, Brian M and Kerry; congrats to Richard B lowest gross [on countback from Richard S!] 72.
The junior division medal was won with a feisty 64 from Tony K on countback from Gunnar (but who recorded a 10 at 10th so could have been much better) in another excellent round. Early clubhouse leader Oz just pipped Mel with a glorious 65.