The weather was foul and autumnal – not cold but persistent spells of rain. A number understandably completed a few holes and walked in, The condition of the course was discussed by the Committee before agreeing to proceed to issue the results. The sun did finally come brilliantly out for the last game.

Well done to all who completed the 3 Clubs and putter Lissaman Cup competition and especially those below with less than 70 net.
Joe Go and Brian M both had 67s with Joe winner on countback rule – 36 on back 9 Brian 39. New member Iker L in his 5th qualifying round shot a commendable 68 with Paul K and Joseph Go 69s; next was best woman Bridget S 70.

A couple of ‘Twos’ – Kim 4th and Rannesh 11th.

For the men this was the final competition in the Top Dog and with the 2 matchplay Kos completed, divisional results are as attached.

In the Senior division we have a tie with Brian M’s 8 points awarded for this comp making him joint winner with Kerry S both 26; they were chased b today’s winner Joe Go 20 and Paul K 19.

In the Junior division Paul McG wins from Dilip 28 to 26 with Duncan T 24 and Gregory 20.

The field must have thought they were playing Round 1 of the Spring Stableford. The overnight rains were a distant memory and made way for mild temperatures and a lot sunshine. The geese were causing some drama/delay by picking apart the work of the green keepers on the 1st green. Scoring was more than acceptable.

Mike J went out in the first game. A solid round of golf translates into 20pts (front 9) and 19pts (back 9). Good enough to set the mark/become leader in the clubhouse. Ian B also went out in 20pts. But his snowman on the 17th means he finishes 1pt behind Mike. Peter G must really likes the current greens. Apparently he only had 15 putts through 12 holes. On top of that he had his usual salvo of birdies (3 to be precise). 2 of them occurred on the front 9 (21pts). His back 9 was solid until a brain freeze on the 18th tee. A blob on that hole limits his back 9 to 18pts. Unfortunately for the 3 of them (and the rest of the field) there was no match to day for Tom S: 18pts on the way out and a staggering 25pts (!!!) on the way in.  Enough to claim victory today by a margin of 4pts.

Tamas, Angus and Andre all finish on 37pts. But the countback rule decided that Tamas and Angus are the last players to receive “Purse Adjustments”. Tamas L missed out on 3rd spot. He was never on the right hole when playing the 6th. He still managed to get on the green in 3. But he then missed the par put sending him back to the group on 37pts.

A perfect autumnal day with plenty of sunshine for golf. Temps nudged 15C.

Greens were unevenly mown with quite a bit of growth showing.

Rannesh rose to the challenge and breezed to victory to win the Charity Cup; he excelled on the back 9 with birdies at 11 and 18 to give 22 points for a total of 41 ponts. 2 points behind again with 22 on front 9 was Mark L who in turn edged Sean who had 38. 4th was Charles H on 37 – Charles had a super front 9 with 23 pints.

Best woman was redoubtable Avi M with 33 points.

Autumn/Winter golf is back with a vengeance. May be that explains why no less than 26 snowmen were recorded today. 2 observations: 9 of those snowmen were recorded in Div1. Why are so many of you putting out for an 8 in stableford comp?

Hats off to Nick R who recorded an ok score of 33pts despite opening with an 8 on Hole 1. The temperatures were far less helpful than the previous weeks. The fairways still offered interesting amount of roll. But the winds swirled around quite a bit.

Div1
Kerry S recorded to 2 nice birdies. He went out with a solid 19pts. But he decided to notch things up a bit on the back 9. He managed to come home in Level Par gross. That translates to 23pts. His score of 42pts was proved too hard to beat for the rest of the field. To use a slogan familiar to the person question Richard’s round can be described as “bigin quality and LIDL on drama”. A birdie on SI1 set him on course for 22pts on the front 9. 2 DB stalted his progress on the back 9. And he recorded “only” 19pts. 2nd place is welcome change in form. Places 3-4 were a family affair. Thanks to 2 birdies youth prevailed. But a bit more experience may have prevented a 7-5 finish. The experienced member of the Dickey family scored 1pt less than LD on the front 9. That proved the tie-breaker between the 2 of them. CC Roger takes 5th. Pete N is the last on Div1 to get a “purse adjustment”.

Div2
Bridget S decided to take it slow on the front 9 (16pts). But she caught fire on the way in: 5*3pts and 4pts on the 18th. That helped her to record 24pts and finish just ahead of the rest of the field Goran had a solid round (20+19pts) to ctake 2nd. He may had a bit more competition but Iker L committed the cardinal sin by not signing his card (even though he too recorded 39pts).  Martin H’s excellent back 9 (22pts) takes him into 3rd. Paul G’s 36pts earn him 4th place.

Aggregate Results
Div1: Kerry S 81pts, Roger R 77pts, Paul K 77pts
Div2: P Green 74pts, Goran K 71pts, Suhail S 71pts

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.

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.

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)