A small field didn’t enjoy the best playing conditions. The rain of the last couple of days rendered the course really muddy. That mud, thicker air and changing winds reduced the carry on numerous holes. On top of that the greens were too wet to get cut. So judging the pace of the greens was delicate too.

The early starters take (most of) the honours today. Joe recorded a timely birdie on the 18th. That enabled him to record 20pts on the back 9. Add that to 19pts on the front 9 and you get today’s winning score. Ross, another early starter, had a solid front 9 (20pts). But an ugly bogey on the 18th prevented him from leapfrogging Joe. Pralab put together a solid round to claim 3rd (good thing the score of his 1st round was upheld – more on that later). PaulG is the last to earn some credits. Mayumi is first lady today. Believe that Peter Goodall managed the feat of recording more birdies than pars today …

Aggregate MW Spring Stableford

Pralab was the most consistent of the field over 2 rounds. 37pts today and 38pts last week make the winning score. Kim lost the plot over 4 holes on the back 9 and finishes 2nd. 

Conditions were fairly tricky. The field experienced little roll on the fairways and receptive greens. There was also quite a bit of casual water. And it looks like swirling winds became stronger during the course of the day. The early starters must have faced the occasional drizzle. Based on the scoring the late starters fared better in today’s conditions.

Richard N and Pralab were among the late starters. But both of them had solid rounds. Richard N’s back 9 was excellent (22pts). That score enabled him to squeeze out today’s win. Yours truly’s round was the mirror image of RN: 22pts (front 9) and 17pts (back 9). He had a huge slice of good luck on the 10th. But that was offset by a freak incident with the pin on the 16th. His bogey putt hit the bottom of the pin and bounced straight back to him. Russell had 3 birdies on the front 9 to take 4th place. Ian and Stephen complete the Top6. First lady/woman today is Gina.

All to play for in Round 2 next week.

Spring golf is edging closer but the field still faced swirling winds and chilly temperatures. At least the fairways offered occasional roll, but once off line you did run the risk of a plugged lie.

Run away winner today is Richard Marriott. Despite a blip on the 6th he recorded an outstanding score of 64 (Net). A duo finished 4 shots back. Leader in the clubhouse Joe posted an excellent 79 (gross – 68 Net). He was matched by his playing partner Darren. But Joe had the better back 9 (Darren’s back 9 was quite volatile).  Another duo finishes on 69 (Net). Richard Owen and Alex Braun claim the last of the payouts. First woman of the day is early bird Gina. Lowest gross score was posted by Jay, A word of sympathy for our Gordon Foster Captain Uli. He was humming along nicely. But disaster struck on the 14th.  He had a bit of good fortune finding his tee-shot. But his conservative approach to get his ball back into play backfired. Out of sympathy the report will not mention his score on that hole.

Below see Best Score Analysis and Competition Scoring Analysis (looks like our “Amen Corner” lived up to its reputation again).

A pleasant Spring day with some sunshine and temperature nudging 14C for the 3/4 player team Waltz where where best stableford points scored best 1 1st hole then best 2 2nd then 3 third and so on.

The team of Richard Inglis, Justin Wildman, Will Balakrishnan, Kevin Prendergast came out on top with 86 points – 44 on the back 9
Runners-up a point behind on 85 were Kerry Sargeant, Toby Hunt, Justin Bradford, Alan King
– 43 out and 42 back with a very useful 10 points on 18th.

It continued cold, grey and dry following driest February for 30 years.

Women

The last women’s team event of the winter saw a not unfamiliar number of just 9 taking part. As ever it was a close thing with the winning 3 doing so on the back 9 but as in the previous 2 months Ali managed to be in the winning team!

Men

In the first of 8 monthly medals comprising Grand Medal Trophy there was good scoring.
Will B taking the senior division with a super 64 inc. level back 9. Excellent 65s followed from Pete Malia and a late round from Tamas. Kerry took front 9 honours just 2 over and like Tamas Kerry was level par on the par 3s.

Dilip took the junior division 67 chased by 68s from Anthony Williams. Eliot and Duncan.

Anticyclonic conditions prevailed – mostly grey but wind chill and dry.

43 turned out for final round of Midweek Winter Comp – Raymond with inspired golf [ 1 over front 9 and 3 birdies total) winning with 42 points from Gina 39 (shame 2 blobs but great back 9 23) and 39 from Pat Dalton in last game.

Alan King is confirmed as overall winner of Midweek Winter Comp 114 from Richard Norden 113 and Paul Giles 112.
Alan also won Duke’s Eclectic 62.7 from Chris Newman 63.3 and Tamas 63.8.

Sunny to start but it clouded over; cold with wind chill but dry all day.

Women

The leaders in the eclectic were both in form today. Gina showing no after effects from a week of golfing, or perhaps she had in fact been honing her game, albeit in somewhat warmer weather in Portugal. Pat gsve them a good run for today’s stableford taking 2nd spot on the back 9 from Silvia with Gina 2 points ahead to win today with 35 points.

This last round of the eclectic was always going to be a 2 horse (or more appropriately, woman) race! Both started off by cutting a shot from their score with pars on the 1st hole. Gina then went 1 further ahead after the 5th but Silvia came back on the 6th – so still 1 shot in it from the 3rd round. They both then improved their scores by one further shot, but Silvia’s birdies were of no help to her as she’d already recorded them for the same holes in an earlier round. (Both Cheryl and Seema got birdies also – but theirs were of the feathered kind, who just waddled away unconcerned)..

So Gina not only wins today’s comp but also the eclectic by 1.3 from Silvia. Their scores were 71.1 and 72.4 respectively.

Men

In-form Peter Goodall shot the best score to win the last round of the winter competition – 40 points. Well done indeed but due WHS workings Peter replaced one good round with another so HI remains at 7.9. He was chased in the senior division by John Perkins 39 and Will B 38.

38 proved good for Alan K to take the junior division chased by Anthony Williams, Pat Dalton and Gunnar with 37s. Anthony’s HI is still in the throes of development and his 6th card attracted an ESR of -1.0 and an HI cut from 40.4 to 34.3.

Of course this was last round of Duke’s Eclectic with Will B edging Justin by a tenth of a shot to win 61.0 to 61.1; Oz and Peter G followed with 63s. Peter and Will managed with just the 3 of possible 4 rounds.

Overall Winter Comp Results from the 8 rounds played
Senior:
Peter G winner 119
Justin W runner-up 117
Will B third 113

Junior:
Giovanni winner 119
Alan K runner-up 112
Julian tied third 111
Gunnar tied third 111

The field faced a (dramatic) change in playing conditions compared to last week. Lower temperatures, drizzle and lots of mud negating any kind of roll on the fairways were a sharp reminder of winter/autumn golf at the park. The sting was in the tail (end of the playing order). The Top6 all teed off after 9.30am.

Brian ended front and back 9 with a birdie. 21 (way out) and 20pts (way in) are just enough to see off the challenge of Richard N and Adrian. Richard N “only” scored 20pts on the front 9 missing out on the top spot. Adrian matched Brian’s score on the front 9. But 2 blobs on the back 9 prevent him from finishing higher than 3rd. 22pts on the back 9 allow Seymour take 4th. Best score on the back 9 goes Richard M (lots of Richards in this report). He scores 24pts: blob on 14th and birdie on the 18th = 5pts.

MW Princes Eclectic

Adrian Wells 61, Peter Goodall 62,  Alvaro Garcia-Hoz 63, Tamas Ladacs 63

A pleasant early Spring day with sunshine and not much wind though what there was had a chill to it .

Women

The lovely sun didn’t seem to help most out there today, except for our new member, Sali, playing in her first official club comp she came out a mere 7 points ahead of both Deb & Cheryl with her 38 points which will be rewarded with a handicap reduction of just under 2 shots in the morning. Well played Sali and welcome onboard.

Special mention to Silvia for her eagle 3 on the 10th hole – amazing!!

This was the last round of the Prince’s eclectic and despite Cheryl knocking 5 off her score it was not enough to catch Pat who wins the eclectic by 0.2 on 72.3 from Cheryl.

Men

Sam Goodchild-Way led the way in the senior division with an even 38 points – chased by Justin W whose 37 included 2 ‘blobs’. Consistent 36s came from Will B and Peter G, Will recording the 3rd Sunday eagle on 14th – nice one.

The junior division was also won with 38 points with Martn Hay edging Adrian and Michael C on back 9.

9 divisional sweep prizes awarded – 5 senior 4 junior due to greater number of senior participants.

This was last round for the Prince’s Winter Eclectic which sees Roger Rojas the winner 60.6 after just 3 rounds of the 4 from Kerry on 61.5.

The overall Winter Comp has just 1 round left and after 7 played :
Senior division leaders
Justin W 117
Peter G 114

Junior division leaders
Givanni C 119
Julian J 111