27 brave golfers gathered at the park today for 18 holes of golf on ice. Conditions must have been really “icy” for the 7am starters.

As per usual Mike set the target to beat with 35pts. And his score help up for quite a while. Should come as no surprise that the 9am starters took advantage of the “softer” conditions. Peter F started his round with a sequence of 4 3-pointers on the first 4 holes (over 18 holes he managed to record 8 3-pointers). He ended the front 9 with 20pts (Best Score today). 18pts on the back 9 put him 2pts clear of the field. Julian was the better of the players on 36pts. His better back 9 (18pst v 17pts) gives him second place. Dave will regret the 10th and 16th hole (he only scored 1pt on those 2 holes combined). Leader in the clubhouse Mike J was the best of 6 players on 35pts. The Men’s Secretary takes the last “Money Spot. The MW Captain Brian R managed to record 33pts despite 3 PU’s on the back 9.

MW Standings (purely as FYI)
Julian J 109, Robert C 108, Mike J 102, Graham C 101

MW Princes Eclectic
Robert C 65.9, Julian J 66.4, Mike J 69.6

A bright and sunny start for round 3 of the winter comp. on Prince’s and first Sunday 2024; cold but dry after recent rains and with 6 temps.

Women

Doesn’t look like the 2 putt rule helped anyone much apart from Reiko who appears to have liked the mud and found no problems at all. Winning by some 6 points from Silvia.

Think the rest of us probably took heart from it being a sunny, if cold, day after all the rain and enjoyed that if we didn’t find too much to enjoy from the golf – though Doreen kicks off the birdie tree for the women with her 2 on the 2nd.

Despite not playing today, Gina remains 5 shots clear of everyone in the accompanying eclectic

Men

Best scoring points came from the junior division -Giovanni 41, Pat D 39, Oz 39 and Mark L 38; Giovanni scored a remarkable 23 on first 9 with Oz 22.
Senior division winner was Kerry 36 on countback from Richard Smith also 36 and Tamas 35.
2nd hole proved fruitful for ‘Twos’ from Peter N, Pat D and Oz.

The round constituted 3rd round of the Winter Competition showing Tamas the senior leader on 108, Kerry 106 and Paul Kamerling 104; the junior division is headed by Oz 109 7 clear from Suhail, Onursal and Gerard 102. The associated Prince’s Eclectic reveals Peter N in lead 65 with 4 on 67 – Umran, Richard Smith, Julian and Roger.

Weather conditions forced the field to play Princes. 7 temporary greens were a vivid memory of the amount of rain that has come our way the last couple of months.

Mike J seems pretty comfortable with the current conditions. He recorded 19pts on the temporary greens (perhaps the 2-putt rule helped – FYI 14pts would be a respectable result).  When zooming out it stands out that he torched the front 9 for 23pts (!!). 4 for 4pts on the 3rd didn’t hurt. An ugly PU on th 15th rbiefly halted his march to victory. Add 16pts on the back 9 to his score on the front 9 and you get a winning tally of 39pts. Chris R had a solid round (18+19pts). 3 1-pointers on the front 9 and a PU on the 11th limit his score to 37pts and 2nd place. Niel B and Adrian finish 1pt back. Niel records 19pts on the back 9. This allows him to take 3rd place. Adrian had an excellent front 9 (21pts). But his softer back 9 means he has to settle for 4th.

Competition Scoring Analysis revealed (surprisingly) the 10th played as SI1 today.

15 brave/mad golfers faced swirling/gusting winds, sleeze and mud.

 I think Stu will ask Santa Claus for a manual on how to play an opening hole. His round started with a 7 and a 4. But he recovered with a birdie on 5 to finish with 20pts on the front 9. His back 9 was rocked with a DB on the 10th. The bogey on 12 was cancelled by a birdie on 14. 19pts on the back 9 still make for a decent day at the office. Aidan matched Stu’s score. But he let victory slip away on the tricky 16th. A DB on that hole means Aidan loses out on countback. 17pts on the front and 19pts on the way in allow Pete F to finish 3rd. Charles and Chris R finish on the same score. But Pete’s last 6 holes were a little better than Charles’ scores. Chris finishes in 5th place since he  “only” scored 16pts on the back 9.

Happy New Year. See you in 2024.

Weather forced the field to move to the Princes course. The downpour of the last days/weeks/months still forced the greenkeepers to maintain a lot of temporary greens. All in all the field were pleasantly surprised to play a “competitive round of golf”. All things considered playing conditions were not as bad as feared. Turns out that a few competitors weren’t totally in sync with the correct SI’s.

Runaway winners today were Adrian and Julian. 22pts on the front was only matched by Pat/Andre. But they did create the difference with a stellar … 26pts on the back 9. A stableford score of 26pts looks as follows: 1*4pts, 6*3pts and 2*2pts. Dark horses Robert/Mike were the lone pair teeing off before 8am. Inevitably they would be leaders in the clubhouse. But they also did set to bar pretty high for the rest of the field. An 8 on the 9th limited their score on the front 9 to (just) 20pts. A birdie on 17 offset a 6 on the 10th. Their rally of 24pts on the back enables them to finish 2nd. As mentioned Pat/Andre demolished the front 9 with 26pts (they even PU’ed the 7th …) A 7 on the 12th halted their advance on the back 9. The Harringtons finish just off the podium.

It stayed dry and at times bright for the popular high-scoring American Greensomes Comp. and there were some festive outfits.

Team Kopczak/Rojas won with 45 and 22 on back 9 beating early clubhouse leaders Team Doyle/Smith on 44 points; Team Doyle/Smit took front 9 honours with 24 points. Team Haines/ (guest) Steve Ayling were placed 2nd on countback also with 44 points.
Teams Thomas/ Needham and Kammerling /Hanna followed with creditable 43 and 42 respectively.

Women were leaders on the 5 par 3s wth Team Dolby/Maxwell om 14 points. Team Bortoli/Woodhouse secured the only ‘Two’ of the day at par 3 16th.

Prizes awarded down to 5th place.

The weather forced the field do the battle on Princes rather than Dukes. Still plenty of temporary greens. Despite the tough conditions scoring proved very robust. Unfortunately today’s scores won’t count for WHS. Looks like the early starters struggled a bit more to adapt to the playing conditions. The sole 2 NR’s came from the 7.45 game.

Serhat is still on a tear. He managed to go out in 46 strokes Gross (30 Nett). He even improved on the back 9: 42 (Gross – 27 Nett). The best of the rest was Bill N. His numbers were: 43 (Gross – 34 Nett) and 39 (Gross – 30 Nett). But he will regret his 2 DB’s on the back 9 (14 & 16). Uli recorded the best gross scores on front and back 9 (39 & 37). So 3rd place seems a good return for his efforts. Alex B is a valiant 4th. But his round was fairly volatile: 1 DB, 2 Triple Bogeys and 1 Quad. 1st woman is outgoing WC Sheena.  

Women

Just 2 teams of 3 with a very close result. Being very generous only 4 tee shots each was required and we both finished up under par – net 72 & 73,
Susan, Cheryl & Sheena got 20 of their points on the front 9, courtesy of the eagle on the 8th which yielded 5 points, or they’d have been beaten on the back 9 if it were only a birdie. Amazingly another of the shots landed just 6″ from the hole which is where they expected to play from.

Vielen Dank Katharina for the stollen which as was evident we happily devoured as we had our Christmas drink on the club. The others missed out on a fun day and we even kept pretty much dry much to everyone’s surprise.

Men

Not as cold as recent freezing days and a reduced turnout for the December Medal.

Raymond triumphed in the senior division on 69 – 2 birdie on front 9 he was level par but after another birdie at 16 his only flaw came next with 7 at 17th; best gross came from 2nd in the division Aidan with gross 79 net 73 and best back 9. Paul Kammerling posted a very promising 76 which could have been better but for a couple of 8s on back 9.

In last game Charlie Whiteman shone to win junior with 69 but like Paul K above shot a couple of 8s on back 9. The earlier clubhouse winner Sean returned a solid 70 whilst the in-form Iker had 72 off 19.

Raymond and Charlie get medals.

The 5 (!) temporary greens and muddy conditions were almost offset by the abundant sunshine. The back white tees on  the 18th must have been a bit of shock for the men. 

 Looks like the early starters had a bit more trouble adjusting to the conditions. The exception was Mike Jones. A steady front 9 (19pts) was followed up by a better back 9 (20pts). 39pts proved to be a pretty lofty target for most of the field. Andre P mirrored Mike’s round. He almost let victory slip away by not scoring any points on the 16th hole. But he was still able to outscore Mike J by 1pt on the back 9. Serhat matched Mike’s score over front and back 9 (19+20Pts). But the countback rule awards 3rd place to Serhat. As usual Peppe had a strong front 9 (21pts – a birdie for 4pts on the 8th doesn’t hurt). An ugly triple on the 16th stymied his march to victory. But the upside is that he managed to hold it together on the way in.

A cold frosty start with temps only nudging 6C and mainly dry for the Champagne Chase.

A mixed event to enter but with separate prizes for the men and women, provided traditionally by the women’s section

Iker Lanzagorta uncorked a magnificent 48 points to win with just irons and won honours for front and back 9s : 23 and 25 respectively; close behind though was a bubbling 45 from Sushant Lall [24 on back]. Suhail followed with a sparkling 41 and then Paul Green with effervescent 40.

For the women Susan beat Gina on the back 9, both with 37 and Jayne took the 3rd spot with a 31.

Just 3 ‘Twos’ all at par 3s with most notable being Tamas at long 13th.