Cooler temperatures and much softer ground after yesterday’s heavy rain greeted today’ competitors. These conditions were not conducive to good scoring, as nobody played to their handicap and 34 points was the best that was achieved.

Winner by 1 point was Rannesh Jansari, 17 out and 17 back – it could have been better if he hadn’t missed a short birdie chance on the 17th and put balls OOB and then in the ditch on the 18th.

Countback separated Uli Katte and Pat Dalton (both on 33 points), Uli’s 17 points on the back 9 pipping Pat’s 15 points.

Payout to top 3 (£9, £6, £3)

Although quite a few of the Friday regulars were away playing golf or on holiday, there was still a good turnout with most members playing to scores around their handicap and the top 6 separated by only 3 points.

Top of the pile with 40 points was Uli Katte, playing his usual very steady round with 11 pars and only one double bogey (on the 18th). Tied on 39 points were Richard Young (following up on his excellent winning round on Wednesday) and Julian James, with Richard just winning on countback. In 4th place (38 points) was Pralab, who had a very ‘ordinary’ front 9, but a good final few holes which included 2 birdies.

The Best Scores Analysis show that Bridget had the best front 9 (21 points), Pralab and Giles had the best back 9s (21 points) and that Tim Rose matched Pralab’s 2 birdies.

Sweep payout to the top 4 (£9, £6, £4, £2)

Another lovely summer’s day for golf, although possibly a bit too warm for some. The rain on Thursday had further encouraged the fairway grass to green up and grow.

There was good scoring with a tie at the top on 41 points. As Fridays are non-trophy sweep competitions, players are now allowed to play off 95% of their Course Handicaps, with no cap of 32 for men or 38 for women, and Tony Barnett took full advantage, beating Justin Wildman on countback. Tony’s 20 points out & 21 in pipped Justin’s 21 points out and 20 in – Justin’s double bogey 7 on the 17th was his downfall from a very sound round including 8 pars.

Recent new member Bill Jennings takes 3rd place with 39 points, 21 out (a birdie and 2 pars) but only 18 points in (2 pars); 7s on the 17th and 18th spoilt a very tidy card.

Toby Hunt and Teddy Holt both had 38 points and both had a birdie on the front 9, Toby beating Teddy on countback.

The Best Scores Analysis shows Teddy had the best front 9 (23 points), Adrian had the best back 9 (22 points) and 3 players had 2 birdies each : John Curry, Rannesh and Richard Back.

Sweep pay out to top 3 : £12, £8, £3

It was a very pleasant, mainly sunny summer’s day with a slight south-westerly breeze and it was good to see a tinge of green on the fairways after the torrential downpours earlier in the week.

Our winner Teddy Holt, with 39 points, played consistent bogey-golf for the first 13 holes, interspersed with a birdie and 3 pars (33 points over 13 holes !) but struggled slightly to finish it off with just 6 points over the final 5 holes. Anyway, good to see Teddy back in the winner’s circle.

Rannesh finished 2nd (38 points) with 8 pars and a birdie on the difficult 8th hole. He could probably have beaten Teddy if he hadn’t needed 2 shots to get out of the greenside bunker on the 18th hole.

A further point back, 3rd place went to Martin Hay, a steady round with 3 pars and just one blob.

The best scores analysis shows Pat Dalton had the best front 9 (22 points) – similar to his front 9 on Duke’s last Sunday – and he was one of 5 players to get a birdie, the others not already mentioned being Andrew Brown and Naveed.

Sweep payout to top 3 ( £12, £8 & £3)

An excellent turnout considering the blisteringly hot conditions, where the sensible choice was to be in a buggy. Scoring was good, particularly by the women, who took 4 of the top 5 places.

Our winner, Ann Gardner (42 points), played an even better round than her best ever winning score on Wednesday and her HI (handicap index) has dropped from 32.7 to 30.4 as a result of those 2 rounds – her comment was “I couldn’t have done it without the buggy”.

Occasional Friday player Jayne Maxwell (39 points) took 2nd place with her usual very steady round, scoring on every hole, 19 points out, 20 points in, 8 pars (and no buggy !!). Brian Ransom was 3rd (38 points) “best of the men” and being the best on countback from 4 players on 38 points, the others being Sheena, Mayumi and Rannesh. Brian and Sheena both had 19 points out and 19 points back but his two late pars on the 15th and 16th clinched it. On the other hand, Mayumi and Rannesh both had great front 9s (23 and 24 points respectively) but ‘fell away’ on the back 9.

Results and Best Scores Analysis reports linked below; sweep went to top 4 (£12, £8, £4, £2)

Another warm, sunny summer’s day with plenty of extra run on the bone hard fairways and we have a “New Winner”!

It’s not often that Graham Babington-Smith enters the competition and I can’t see any record of a previous win on his scoring record, however his intuition was good this morning (or did he enter the competition ‘by mistake’ ……… ?). Anyway, a very solid round, scoring on every hole resulted in a winning total of 41 points (20 out; 21 in).

The 3 players in 2nd, 3rd and 4th places all scored 39 points and, based on countback were Sheena, Peter Flint and Pralab.

Sheena’s round was pretty faultless, with 10 pars, except for the opening blob and the finishing double bogey. John Ahad will certainly have his work cut out tomorrow playing matchplay against Sheena in the annual men versus women competition.

It’s good to see Peter posting a good score again after a bit of a barren patch; he too could have challenged Graham B-S if he hadn’t blobbed the last hole.

Another steady round from Pralab (the best front 9 and the best overall on the par 4’s) – however blobs on the par 3 2nd and par 3 11th were his undoing.

A mention must be made of Andrew Brown’s round: a good looking 24 points after 11 holes and then only one more point on the remaining 7 holes – looks like a nightmare.

And finally, after his round Richard Norden (see picture attached) declared “I just don’t seem to be able to play golf anymore” – I’m sure his next win is just around the corner.

Sweep payout to top 4 : £9, £6, £4, £3

It was another hot summer’s day, hardly a breathe of wind, and incredible distances achievable on the hard dry fairways.

Fresh from his win on Wednesday on Prince’s, Justin Wildman was again on the winner’s podium, with a very solid 41 points, 22 points out, 19 back, 5 pars and a birdie on the 12th. Justin has trimmed 3 shots on his Handicap Index in the past 2 months – well done to him.

It was good to have Cheryl back playing with us again, after her recent operation, and the ‘rest’ certainly hasn’t done her golf any harm, as she came in 2nd with 40 points (17 out and 23 in). 3rd and 4th places, both 39 points, were Pralab and Ann Gardner, respectively. Going out earlier, Pralab certainly had the cooler conditions and as usual played a very solid round, 19 out and 20 in, with 6 pars. Ann started both the front 9 and the back 9 with 4-pointers, had just the one blob, and kept it going well considering she was suffering with the heat (and had to withstand Rannesh’s barracking).

Sweep payout to the top 4 (£8, £6, £4, £3)

The promised ‘heavy showers’ did not materialise and it was a very pleasant summer’s day with a light breeze. Scoring was pretty good and you had to be well off-line to get into significant trouble.

The clear winner was James Deissler (43 points) with an impressive round which included no less than 11 pars, 21 points out and 22 points in. The round caused James’s HI to reduce by 1 shot – a new ‘Low Index’ for him of 18.2, but I’m sure it will soon be even lower. Runner up was Veronica Mitchell (40 points), a very steady round 20 points out and 20 points back and the comment “I didn’t used to like Prince’s but I quite like it now”.

In 3rd and 4th places were Adrian Wells and Pralab Barua, both 38 points, with Adrian winning out on countback and also the only one in the sweep to record a 2 (although in Richard Owen’s singles matchplay with Uli Katte, Uli had a birdie 2 the 2nd and Richard had a birdie 2 the 16th). Pralab’s front 9 was very good, 5 pars and 21 points but only 2 pars on the back 9 were his demise.

Sweep payout to top 4 : £7, £5, £3, £1