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

Another hot, but not too hot, mid-summer’s day and the Duke’s course was there for the taking for many of the participants.

Unsurprisingly, it was a lady (Veronica) who beat allcomers, with 45 points (following on from Lia’s winning round on Wednesday – 50 points !) – it’s tough keeping up with the ladies in the summer and doesn’t bode well for the upcoming men vs ladies Bontor matchplay in 3 weeks’ time (Saturday Aug 6th).

Ronnie’s round was good on the front 9 (20 points with 1 blob) but really took off on the back 9 (25 points with a birdie and 5 pars). I believe Ronnie was playing with Rannesh and Rob Wilhelmson, who both scored 42 points and came in 2nd and 3rd, respectively. Rannesh ‘only’ had 18 points on the front 9 with 1 blob but super-charged the back 9 with 24 points, including a birdie 4 on the 12th. Rob had a more balanced round, 22 on the front and 20 on the back 9 – he was probably feeling the heat from Ronnie and Rannesh on the back 9.

Lowest gross score was 76, by Mike Horsthuis.

Sweep payout to top 3 (£6, £4, £2)

One of our team captains uses the following catch phrase quite often: “May the Bounce be with you” ; that was certainly the case for most of the field today. Few players will deny that the extra carry/roll provided by the super dry fairways helped out today (on the other hand it had to be said that if you caught a bad bounce you could end up recording a VERY high score on a hole). The greens proved to be trickier/slower than Sunday. All that being said today’s scoring was excellent.

Former Women’s Captain Lia Donath recorded a fantastic score of 56 (Nett) (or if you prefer to use Stableford terms: 50pts!!). That’s what scores of +5 gross (front 9) and +3 gross (back 9) will get you. Great result.

Four players in the Top6 went out early; 2nd and 3rd places go to 2 early birds. Normally a score of 60 (Nett) will seal the win, but today Peter Goodall and Richard Owen only get runner-up positions. Small consolation is that Lia didn’t enter the sweep. 

Jeremy Prescott was the 1st player of a group finishing on 61 (Nett). Quite a feat since he recorded double digits on the 6th hole and finished with a 7 on the last hole. Mike Jones had a solid front 9 but a few ugly scores on the back 9 prevented him from improving on 5th place. Mitch and Jeremy Ryan take the last “Money” positions. Richard Back had the lowest gross score today (71 strokes); he amazingly dropped 4 shots between holes 2-4. But he took the back 9 apart (-1 gross).