For the second midweek competition in a row the field was playing a reduced number of holes. A bit of confusion with a South-Korean society caused a delay for the 9.30am starters. The (very) early starters avoided most of the heat.

Rick was amongst those and made the most of the “cooler” conditions. Birdies on 17 and 18 teed him up for a score of 23pts on the last 9 holes (and a total score of 38pts). Brian matched that score of 38 but “only” scored 22pts on the back 9. Keith is keeping up his good form and came third with 35pts. Richard Smith had 3 birdies en route to 34pts and 4th place. Alan King came 5th. But 2 very unwelcome sh…ks of the tee on 6 and 18 are a blemish on an otherwise decent round of golf. Surprisingly the women didn’t fare too well today. Ronnie takes 6th place also with a score of 34pts. No birdies on any of the par 3’s today. But a “2” was recorded on the 6th hole.

The return to the old regime proved tricky for some. Playing out of the bunkers was not nice (just ask Gina. She reckons she visited every bunker on the course today …). The old regime also meant the return of paper scorecards. And this proved too much to ask for some. This needs to improve rapidly! 1 final reminder/notice about the scorecards will be added to next week’s start sheet.

Summer (golf) is finally back. The pace of play was not helped by PP playing their CC. This held up our first couple of games on (too) many occasions.

Since (most of) the men don’t have the precision & power of Colin Morikawa (winning 2 majors on your debut – what an achievement) the main message for the men was stay away from the rough. And if you look at the leaderboard you will understand quite quickly how many of them succeeded. Rhys had an excellent back 9 (21pts) to beat Donna Wilson on countback.

A group of 4 women finished on 34pts. 3rd place goes to Fiona Coombe who recorded an impressive 23pts on the last 9 holes. Ronnie “only” had 21pts on the last 9 holes so she finishes 4th. Julie and Caroline scored 20 and 19pts respectively on the last 9 holes so they finish 5th and 6th. Ray closes out the Top7 just beating out Val. But I think the Women’s Captain will have nightmares about holes 17 & 18. Looks like her golf is on the mend. Guess she is trying to peek around 7th August …

The field entered a stableford competition on an improvised 14 hole course layout. But it’s fair to say that most of the players handled conditions pretty well.

Keith posted a very tidy score of 32pts to become leader in the clubhouse (19pts on the front 9 and 13pts on the last 5 holes). Colm matched Keith’s sore on the front 9. But 2 birdies on the last 5 holes set him en route to 15pts and a nice win. That score of 15pts on the “last 5 holes” was only matched by Jeremy Prescot. 2 players finished with 31pts. Joe takes 3rd place since he had the better score over the last “9 holes”. Julie is the first woman at 5th. Brett Colley completes the Top6. Best “front 9 score” goes to Paul Green with his 21pts.

Let’s hope the weather helps Glendale a bit so we can play 18 holes next week.

Women

Another day where staying out of the rough was a good idea. Something today’s winner managed with ease. Perhaps she was inspired after her Double C win in the rain during the week, or perhaps it was her playing partners (Sheena & Deb in case you wondered). She started off with great gusto and much better than them, just fading a bit on the longer 7-9 holes, but her back 9 gave her the equivalent of 22 stableford points giving Avi a 3 shot margin in her victory on 66.

Patrick says this is an omen for tonight as 66 was when England last won an international tournament so let’s hope he is right & it is all down to Avi.

Our recent recruit, Hilary continues her good form with a 69 to take 2nd spot. As tends to be the case whilst a full handicap is being built, Hilary’s HI will drop to 27.2 tomorrow a drop of 1.5 compared to Avi’s 0.1 change – the vagaries of WHS.

Men

56 competed for the July medal. Conditions were ideal for golf except again for the punishing rough.

Captain Kim steered the field avoiding the rough for another captain’s innings of 65 to win. Snapping at his heels with 66s were Pierpaulo Rhys Mark B and Raymond. Jay led a group of 67s with lowest gross and 4 birdies.
Kim again won the senior divisional medal and Colm th junior – results attached in divisional format.

The round constituted round 4 of the Grand Medal Trophy (best 4 from 7 this year) and sees Cuneyt 280 leading from Richard O with Brian M and Russell 284s.
1st 8 sweep winners per attached report.

Finally the increase in wildlife engendered by increase in rough etc. was captured with the brutality of nature – a heron picking off moorhen chicks for a snack by the clubhouse waters.

Conditions were pretty tricky: thick air and gusting winds limited carry on a lot of shots. Playing into the wind on the 12th was especially brutal. That hole played as SI 1 today (cf. attached report). Keeping the ball out of the rough (not necessarily on the fairway) was a step in the right direction. The women keep showing the men how to play in these conditions.

Alison came home in 32 (net). A birdie on the 18th didn’t hurt. That strong streak allowed her to finish on 67 net. With a little help of the countback rule she claims victory today. Keith came second. He had 2 birdies on the front 9 en route to a 37 (gross). Double bogeys on 13 and 14 were the only negatives of the day. 78 (lowest gross of the day) translates to an excellent 67 (Net). Charlie Edwards had the best front 9 on his way a 68 net and 3rd place (he will regret his scores on holes 12-14). 2nd woman of the day was Cheryl with a commendable score of 70 (net). Rick, Jeremy and Brett also recorded scores of 70. But some of them would like to have (a couple of) hole(s) back.  

Angus takes the lead in the MW Grand Medal ranking. Chris Jones and Cheryl are the closest competitors.

Below are a PDF report of the results, score analysis reports (for the geeks/stat lovers .

The course seemend in pretty decent condition: enough roll on the fairways and receptive greens. There was the occasional shower but nothing near the apocalyptic conditions forecast by the mainstream media (fake media …) . 1st conclusion from today’s comp: cherry picking the perfect time/day to play the comp is of little use. Final conclusion: avoid the rough at all costs (but I guess you should try to do that all year round). 3 women managed to stay clear of the rough in a very efficient way (I assume that other parts of their game were on song too but the women in general tend to avoid the rough). 18 NR’s today. That’s 28% of the total field … Clearly a lot of the RPGC members disagree with the great Seve Ballesteros (“El Rough es mi amigo”).

Sheena Harrington posted a very decent 68. That score enabled her to hold off all but 2 opponents. Chris Saloway sailed to victory thanks to an excellent back 9 (38 gross) to record a total score of 78 gross (64 Net). Paul Green’s score could have been a lot better had it not been for a  …. 9 on the  12th (he was outdone on that hole by the MC – more on that below). George Milton posted the lowest gross score to claim 4th place. 2 women take the next spots: Monique had a solid round to record a net 69. Ronnie matched that score 60 but lost out on the countback. John Ahad rounds out the Top 7. Nick Rogers manged to record a … 10 on the 18th (I guess that means 3 tee-shots went OB?). The best first 11 holes (is there a prize for that?) belonged to the MC. He birdied the 1st hole then scrambled his way to a score of +2 gross walking off the the 11th hole. He then managed to hit his only really bad drive of the day and walked of the 12th with a … 10. He steadied the ship with bogeys on 13 and 14. But he then NR’ed on the 15th …

Richard Inglis takes the lead in the Jubilee standings (137) closely followed by Cheryl (138), Mark Bean, Sheena and Patrick remain in the hunt.  

The field were greeted by overcast skies and milder/cooler temperatures. The rough at the park grows longer and thicker just by looking at it. So keeping the ball on the fairway seemed like a good course of action. The other theme of the day was shredding the back 9 to pieces (see below for details). The greens were fairly receptive (take some time to repair your and other players’ pitch marks). For the second comp in a row the women showed how it is done.

 Late afternoon starter Ronnie Mitchell overcame a snowman on the 8th to record 19pts on the front 9. 24pts on the back 9 allow her to leapfrog leader in the clubhouse Thierry by 1pt. Thierry had a very solid round of golf (20pts out and 22pts in). Wonil, another early starter, used an excellent back 9 (24pts) to take 3rd place. Brett (also an early starter) – don’t mean to repeat myself – had an excellent last 9 holes (22pts). Special mention has to go to new(er) member Hilary who recorded …. 25pts on the way in (5pts x1, 4pts x 2 and 3pts x3). Jeremy Ryan was the only one in the Top6  to have a better front than back 9. Alan King overcame a small disaster on the first hole (he repeated the feat on the 10th) to score a respectable 38pts. Mrs 57 managed to add 2 more birdies to her tally.

Weather conditions were perfect for golf but thick rough continued to annoy competitors and wreck some cards.

Sheena sailed past early clubhouse leader Cuneyt 61 with an astounding 57 – a back 9 just 2 over par and birdie at 2nd. But for 7s at 6& 7, Cuneyt’s score could have been even better.; there followed a quartet of 63s from new member John C., James A with French representatives Thierry and Denis.

Sheena had a Score Differential less than Handicap Index of 9.6 and earned what I think is RPGCs first WHS Exceptional Score Reduction. Congratulations! If it had been 10.0 or more than an additional handicap cut would have resulted. PCC for the field remained at zero.

Forecast rain held off and players celebrated Captains’Day with drinks and pizza.
Novelty prizes:
Women:
NTP 2nd: Maureen Slade
NTP in 3 10th: no one
NTP 16th: Lia Donath

Men:
NTP 2nd: Rannesh Jansari
NTP in 3 9th: R Esin
NTP 16th: Joe Goncalves

For the men this was3rd comp in the Order of Merit Top Dog comp attached with Rhys just a nose ahead on 12 ots from Sean and Cuneyt.

Scorching temperatures were a distant memory yesterday. Thick rough and receptive greens are now a firm part of the Duke’s course layout.

Looks like the men did well on the front 9 (Pete had 23pts and Keith scored 22pts). But some of the women were excellent on the back 9 (Susan and Cheryl to name a few). The poorer form of most of the men on the back 9 can in large be explained to the 17th and 18th hole (the MC teed off on the 17th on 32pts. He walked off the 18th green on … 32pts).

The winner, Susan Smith, lit up the back 9 for 24pts. Add that to a solid front 9 and she becomes the run-away winner. Best of the rest was Rick on 37pts (but he will rue the 18th hole). Alan King surprised everybody (even himself ?) by taking 3rd (he too NR’d the … 18th hole). Jeremy Ryan had 34pts teeing off on the 17th. Unfortunately he recorded just 1pt on the last 2 holes to finish on 35pts and 4th place. As mentioned above Keith used an excellent front 9 to take 5th place. Luke takes 6th place. But only 2pts on the last 2 holes (recognize the pattern) is something he will like to put behind him sooner rather than later. Cheryl Woodhouse managed just 9pts on the way out. But a blinding back 9 (24pts) earn her 7th place.

Coolish conditions prevailed allowing full concentration but rough still took its toll in the Shaw Cup.

A glance at https://www.richmondparkgolfclub.org.uk/the-golf-club/captains/
confirms A. Shaw was last Captain in 1953 when I think the club changed its name from The Priory Golf Club.

The winner on the day was Sean on 41 points by 1 from James S and George M. There was strong representation from the women with Joan 5th 39, Captain Val 38 and Julie R;

Shaun had best front 9 and James S best back 9 – both 22 points; Julie R had 10 points alone on the par 3s.

For the men this counted as round 2 of the Order of Merit ‘Top Dog’ Trophy – Rhys and Sean leading on 12 points each from Mike H and James S 8: