Most Improved Golfer Since 01 January 2021

A small field dealt with mild temperatures but muddy fairways (let’s hope the aeration work by the greenkeepers will work their magic).

Chris Jones’ round was solid on the front 9 (17pts) but downright outstanding on the back 9 (25pts). He needed this tally to stay ahead of Julian who had a very balanced round of golf (20 + 21pts). FYI: both players birdied the 16th hole. 3rd place goes to the in form player of the moment: the men’s secretary Peter. His strong back 9 ( (22pts) allowed him better Jeremy (“only” 20pts on the back 9). Richard Owen let loose on the back 9 (22pts) to claim 5th place. Sheena is the first lady (thanks in part to a very strong front 9 – an honour shared with Andrew Watson). Final note: Peter Goodall recorded an eagle on the 9th.

Very mild conditions prevailed with temp over 13C and soil warming up per results report.

The Harrington and Ivors households will be celebrating Christmas with bespoke hampers – Peter just on top after countback. Both superb 43s. James Deissler shot 42 for 3rd with Paddy Stone and Richard Hanna 41s. All will get Xmas prizesand sweep.

Kevin Prendergast shot the only Eagle 2 at par 4 15th – well done Kevin!
Best woman Sheena 37.

Winter Golf at its best/worst (pick your poison) at the park today. Or as I would’ve said in my previous role as banker: when we play winter golf it is like low correlation between financial assets. Summer golf on the other hand is as if correlation between financial assets were high.

Overall winner (and subsequently winner of the Junior Division) is the Men’s Secretary. 22pts on the back 9 more than made up for a sub-par front 9. Early starter Angus is keeping up his good form. He started his round with a birdie. He kept up some sort of similarity by repeating that feat on the 18th hole. Brett matched Angus’ score but his back 9 was just a bit softer. So the countback rule puts another early starter in 3rd place. Both players are the best of the Senior Division. Mike Jones – yet another early starter – takes 4th place. So may be playing in cold(er) weather does offer a certain advantage.

Weather forecast calls for a few dry days. This would give the course(s) an opportunity to dry up.

A very chilly day with a biting wind for wind chill and passing showers/drizzle. All depicted in busy graph plot at bottom of men’s results. Mud accumulated esp. towards end of round and metal spikes on shoes would have been the practical choice to avoid slithering. PCC was 1 – more difficult than normal.

Women

After yesterday’s AGM, Sheena had her drive-in as the women’s captain for 2022. Usual rules were followed with the women putting their X on a photo of the hole to guess where it would end up. It was a close run thing, but the decision was given to Avi from Katherina, who were presented with some Lindt chocs as we gathered for mulled wine & mince pies after the games.

It was the first team event of winter and conditions underfoot reminded us why we’d done away with medals at this time of year. The two 3-ball teams both finished on net 72s but the new captain’s team of Sheena, Ali & Hilary took the honours with the best back 9. Numbers were down because of those waiting on PCR results after the rules changed during the week.

Men

Sam Way shot an extremely tidy round of 66 from Rojer Rojas with Ross Hood 70 and Jay and Peter H 71s.

Sam duly won the Senior Division medal and Secretary Peter the Junior – see report.

Going out early seemed like the way to go. 5 players in the Top 6 went out before 8am.

Rob Dykes followed a solid front 9 (44 gross) with an excellent back 9 (38 gross). With a playing handicap of 22 his final score results in a nett score of … 60. 2nd place goes to Allan. He managed to birdie 2 par 3’s. But the rest of his round was a bit more volatile than Rob’s (a snowman and a 7 didn’t help). A group of players with a nett score 64 comes next. 3rd and 4th place go to early birds Mike and Joe: the first had a solid round but got held back by a few ugly 7’s. The 16th hole was Joe’s undoing. A 5 prevented him from improving on 4th place. 5th place goes to the only “late starter”: Peter G. He had a good day at the office except for 2 double bogeys. Seymour – you guessed it: he went out before 9AM – completes the Top6.

Below are attached PDF reports of the results, Scoring Analysis and Best Scores.

Overnight frost ( air temp 0.0C on main results page) started a very cold day but the sun shone early and winds abated.

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Colm uncorked anther great round to win with 41 points, 2 clear from a sparkling round from Gunnar – a relatively mild day for the Swede. Peter Needham a creditable 38 with 1 of just 5 ‘TWOs’

A bubbly 35 from Gina won the women’s prize [separate additional report] from Captain Val 34.

Whilst the author did not play, 8th turned out to be easiest hole overall per attached Competition Scoring Analysis Report maybe shortened hole? Ed – yes to a par 3.

To put it mildly: there was little roll on the fairways today. If you want any proof have a look at the Scoring Analysis of today’s comp: even though a par 4 for the men the average score on the 17th was 6.14. Making it the 3rd most difficult hole of the day.  Further proof: even though the 15th played 70yds shorter for the men it still ended up as SI 11 today.

How do you post a good score then? By mastering the greens: Angus had another good round in a brief period of time. His own unofficial stats measurements indicate that he 1-putted no less than … 10 greens. No wonder you post a score of 39pts. Richard H posted the best score on the first 9 holes (23pts). Reality sunk in a bit on the back 9. His 16pts on the way in mean he only reaches 2nd place today. Jim Deissler used a Brady-esque comeback on the last 9 holes (22pts) to finish 3rd. Julian played a consistent round of golf (17+19pts) to claim 4th. Jeremy and JM Gomez also score 36pts to complete the Top6. Kevin and Peter matched those scores. But especially Kevin will have regrets over his 17th hole. The countback rule sets them back just outside of the Top6.

Please find below a PDF report of the results, Competition Scoring Analysis and Best Score Analysis.

The field enjoyed some surprisingly mild temperatures. That made up a bit for the expected mud. Ball hunting was made more complicated (especially near trees …).

Chris Jones used an excellent back 9 (22pts) to claim victory today. His win will still have tasted a bit bitter sweet because of an untidy 6 on the 18th. Early starter Pralab recorded a very solid score of 39pts to finish 2nd. Julian had the best back 9 (23pts). Peter Goodall used 3 birdies to match Julian’ score of 38pts. But the countback rules awards 3rd place to Julian. A group of 4 players finished on 37pts. First woman of the day, Gina, was the best of this group (the birdie on 14 didn’t hurt). The Men’s Secretary has to settle for 6th (blame the countback rule again …). Stephen could’ve avoided the crowd had it not been for a … 6 on the 18th.

Midweek Winter Rankings: Tamas (37pts), Brett (74pts), Rob (73pts)

Midweek Eclectic Princes: Jay (71), Brett (72), Richard S/Pralab (73)

Please see below a PDF report of the results, Scoring Analysis.

Mild and grey conditions prevailed . Not as muddy as Wednesday.

Women

At least it wasn’t too wet underfoot today, even if we’re back to needing a trusty stick with which to dig out the mud from our trolley wheels for those of us unable to carry. But probably the best thing was that our round finished in less than 4 1/4 hours which hasn’t happened on a Sunday for some time.

After last week’s runaway victory today’s was a much closer affair with Katharina & Alison both on 36 points missing out by 2 to Jayne with 38 – a steady round of 19 out & 19 back. Alison might have thought her back 9 of 19 would be good enough for a 2nd place, but Katharina’s contrasting round of 13 out & 23 back ensured that she takes 2nd spot.

Needless to say Jayne is leading the eclectic, but only just & there are 3 more rounds to go (weather & Covid willing).

Men

Playing Prince’s with new flags showed inaccuracy – course established 1923 not 1924 although Duke’s course was added and RPGC formed 1924.

First place was hotly contested between James A and Secretary Peter H on 40 points with James leadng on countback – despite Peter recording a net albatross 3 on`15th. Julian shot a consistent 39 ahead of Adrian, Gunnar, Tony K and Kerry with 38s.

The 16th was the scene of yet another nearly hole in one for Richard O- see picture below. Previous was 6 October on 2nd Prince’s. Next time Richard….

The Prince’s Eclectic which favours low handicapppers is led by Ant 71.2 just .1 from Armi with Kerry 3rd 72.0 after the first round.

Overcast weather, light drizzle but mild temperatures gave the park a real autumn feeling.

Early starter Mike Jones posted an excellent score of 43pts (22+21) to become leader in the clubhouse. He would hold on to that spot until midday. It took an outrageous score of 49pts to beat Mike. New member Lamont matched Mike and John Ahad with 22pts on the front 9. But he caught fire on the way home: birdie on 18 for 5pts, par on 11 for 4pts. Add to that 3 points on holes 12, 13, 15, 16 and 17. Only blemish was a 1 pointer on the 14th hole. End result: 27 (!!!!) pts on the back 9. Tamas “frozen” Ladacs can you give me a prescription of your medication? May be it will soothe my back? Whatever the medication was it worked wonders (suppose it would be a stretch to ask the Glendale to perform drug tests after each round). 3rd place is yours thanks to your great score of 42pts. John used an excellent front 9 (22pts) as launchpad to 4th place (total score: 41pts). Rob Dykes is the final player to reach 40pts. Richard B closes out the Top6.

Needless to say that Lamont takes the lead in the Midweek Winter Comp. Ed -later chopped 19 shots to 14.3. He also leads in the Duke’s Eclectic just ahead of Richard Back.

Below PDF report of the results, Scoring Analysis and Sweep payouts.