It was a cold, overcast Spring day requiring extra layers. The course was ‘looking good’ but not playing that easily due to the prolonged dry spell and it was the final chance for players to take advantage of pick-and-place winter rules.

Our winner was James Deissler (40 points) who, like others returning from Turkey, found the conditions ‘particularly nippy’. James’s round was the model of consistency, apart from the 3rd hole, but nowhere near as good as the 44 points he recorded today for the club’s weekend competition. In 2nd place was Ryan Jones (38 points) who played very well but missed out on 3 or 4 putts. Veronica came in 3rd (37 points) with 18 points out and 19 points in – shame about the blobs on the 8th and 10 holes but well done on the others. Sweep payout to the top 3 (£7, £5, £3).

The weather was pretty good although the dry, hard fairways and greens made good scoring difficult for most of the field.

The clear winner, Ryan Jones (40 points), never missed a fairway (or green) with his tee shots on the first 16 holes but then rather made a mess of the 17th and 18th holes (7 on each). Ryan had 19 points out and 21 points back in. In 2nd and 3rd places, both with 36 points, were Juho Lim and Jeremy Prescott, respectively. Both also had 19 points out and both had 17 points back in (so very close). Sweep payout goes to these top 3 (£8, £5, £3).

Excellent scoring was achieved by all 6 teams on this sunny, warm (23 deg C) Spring day. The recent dry weather had produced very firm fairways with lots of run; however stopping the ball on the greens was difficult, as they didn’t appear to have been watered.

The final 3-ball team of Paul Green, Marnix and Peter Goodhall posted the winning score of 55 net (51 stableford points). They had 4 birdies on the front 9 and an eagle and 1 birdie on the back 9 – their only blemish being a bogie on the 18th hole. In second place, on countback, with 57 net (49 stableford points) was the team of Adrian, Chris, Shaun and Julian, who had 5 birdies and one bogie in their round. In 3rd place, pipped on countback, were Kevin, Justin and Ryan who had 4 birdies and one bogie on the front 9 and an eagle, one birdie and one bogey on the back 9.

Sweep payout goes to the winning team (£7 each) – some small consolation for missing out on the club-sponsored post match drink.

Good playing conditions with Spring sunshine, firm fairways and greens and the rough not yet ‘up’ led to generally good scoring from the white tees on Duke’s, with all white tees back on their correct teeing areas except the 17th.

It seemed as though Brian Ransom’s 36 points would be enough to win, just ahead of 4 players on 35 points (Adrian Wells and 3 Richards – Owen, Back and Norden). However, when the final 4-ball ‘finally’ came in, 40 minutes ‘late’ and 3 holes behind, they scooped the top 3 places (although I was tempted to DQ them or apply a 3 point penalty for not keeping up with play).

So the winner was Peppe Monterosso (40 Points) with 5 pars going out and 3 pars coming in. In 2nd place (38 points) was Julian James, who only managed 1 par but had 3 birdies – on the 3rd, 7th and 17th. And in 3rd place (37 points) was the 4th Richard in the competition (Richard Hanna) with 3 pars.

Sweep payout goes to the top 3 as usual (£9, £5 & £3)

Richard

Well, we had all 4 seasons during the round and a ‘lake incident’ beyond the 18th – Jeremy will think twice about playing the Prince’s 18th, as it’s not long since his gosling kill on the same hole.

A blustery north wind and cold temperatures greeted our early starters and the wind prevailed all day. When the sun came out, it almost felt warm but within a couple of minutes a snow shower blew through. You would think that with these difficult conditions, playing off the white tees set right back on all holes and un-watered, un-receptive greens that the scores would poor – however this was not the case. As well as loads of Pars, there were 6 birdies and 1 eagle – see Best Scores Analysis report.

Our winner, Mat Grove, came in with 43 points (1 birdie and 7 pars) and runner-up, just behind on 42 points, was leading lady Cheryl Woodhouse, with a 5-points birdie on the 14th and 5 pars. Not to be outdone, Brian Ransom eagled the 14th for 5 points and had 6 pars, for 3rd place on 38 points. Adrian Wells was in 4th place, but only on countback, and played a very solid round. Sweep payout goes to these top 4 (£9, £6, £4, £3).

Thanks goes to Pralab Barua for his gift of ‘Indian sweets’, enjoyed by many.

Finally, it was good to see Glendale planting grass seed on the fairways – I have played the courses for more than 25 years and I have never seen fairway seeding before – let’s hope that the seed germinates and that Glendale will be moving on to sorting out the bunkers.

Richard

50 players decided to get 18 holes under their belt just before winter makes an unwelcome return. Maybe the forecast rain can help a course that is drying up really fast. The greens are still in recovery mode and it was near impossible to go pin seeking. Holding the greens proved very tricky.

Justin Wildman and Fhorkan Uddin’s rounds were mirror images of each other. Saffie Justin took apart the front 9 with 23pts. Fhorkan managed to score 24pts (!) on the back 9. Justin managed to hold it together on the last 9 holes (21pts). That was just enough to take victory today (Thank Goodness he didn’t play last week …). Peter Flint loses out to Fhorkan on countback. So 3rd place is his share today. Stephen Haworth is the first of the “late” starters. He also is the only player who managed to record 2 birdies today (a bit of bragging rights vs Jeremy over the coming weeks ). Ryan and Juho complete the Top6 and are the last players to receive some “Purse Adjustments”. Cheryl is first lady today. A shoutout has to go to Tony Barnett for an excellent round with 38pts. Ronnie proved that you can improve your golf as long as you play 5 rounds in 7 days. She even claims she fixed her putting!

Toby wins the aggregate Midweek Spring Stableford with 77pts ahead of Ryan Jones (74) and Ronnie (74).

It was a lovely warm and sunny Spring day and the Duke’s course was transformed from the last time we played it. The mowers had been to work on a firm, dry course and fairway definition was finally clear to see. For a change the white tees were used by the men, although they were still on the yellow teeing areas on the 5th, 10th, 15th, 17th and 18th holes.

The early leader in the clubhouse, Pralab Barua (38 points) was looking good until the final group came in and Julian James pipped Pralab on countback. There was more bad news for Pralab when his card was checked and found to have been incorrectly filled out. As usual, Julian’s card displayed a very consistent round, 20 points out and 18 points in, with 5 pars and one blob.

Second and third places were taken by playing partners Veronica Mitchell and Richard Owen, respectively, both 37 points and separated only by countback on the last 6 holes. Both had 21 points out and 16 points in, Ronnie notching up 4 pars and just one blob and Richard had 3 birdies (on the front 9), 3 pars and two blobs.

Sweep payout to top 3 (£9, £6, £3)

After a chilly start, it was a lovely sunny Spring day but with a nagging (but drying) breeze. There are now significant signs of the grass growing and the Prince’s course was no longer wet and muddy.

Our winner Stephen Haworth (37 points) made a slowish start with 16 points on his outward 9 holes, which included 2 blobs, however he made light work of the back 9 with 5 pars and 21 points. 2nd, and beaten only on countback, was Peter Flint with a birdie start and a very steady round of 18 points out and 19 points in. Just behind on 36 points were yours truly and Mat Grove with my steady 18 points out and back just beating Mat’s 19 points out and 17 back.

Sweep payout goes to the top 3 as usual (£8, £5, £3)