A small field faced tough conditions. Autumn/Winter golf was back with a bang at the park. Even though the rain was less present the last 36h mud and casual water were ever present. There were still 3 temporary greens (3rd, 11th and 12th). Avoiding the rain today proved impossible. Even though the rain wasn’t very hard it was very persistent during the whole day.

Early starter Brett Colley put up a valiant effort to come home with 35pts (17+18). But the day belonged to the late morning starters. Arguably the weather was worse for them. 3 players finished on 36pts. Julian had the best back 9 of the three. The last 6 holes of Julian James and Bill Norman were the tie-breaker: Julian had 12pts over those holes . Bill scored 1pt less. José-Manuel Gomez scored 16pts on the back 9 so he finishes 4th. Mike Jones was the only player “to beat his HI”. 38pts (20pts out and 18pts in) make him the clear winner. For 1 week at least he leads the MW Winter Comp standings. 

Breezy and bright but dry after recent storm/rains for the November Medals. With 3 temporary greens the competitions became non-qualifying for handicap.

Women

Silvia made it look pretty easy but am assuming conditions were pretty much as muddy and horrible as they were today and possibly raining as well? Your author was enjoying some sun in Spain!

So congratulations to Silvia who wins the last of the 2023 women’s medals – on to team games next month.

Men

Pete Malla led the way in the Senior division with net 70 just 1 from Paul Kamerling; with 73s came Umran Ali, Aidan Hurley and Joe Goncalves; Aidan had lowest gross of the day.

With a glorious 65 Charles Haines won the Junior medal from early leader Alan King 67. Mark Laverty teed off with a birdie for his 68 whilst Richard Hanna shot 70 with a promising front 9 gross 41 net 31.

The course was muddy after more recent rain.

The winner of the Medal was Serhat with an amazng 63 with Graham C 2nd 65 on countback from Robert C.

With the 2 Matchplay KOs finished and now the final competition – Lissaman Cup, final Senior and Junior positions are shown below:

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.