A large field enjoyed dry and very warm, sunny conditions and the course looked more like a links than a parkland course, with bone dry fairways. The greens had been watered and were slightly receptive, although landing the ball short and rolling it onto the green was the better strategy.

A lot of players recorded scores of 23pts or more on the easier front 9, however our winner, Mark Bean, took full advantage of the conditions to record 4 birdies on the back 9 (over the stretch of just 7 holes – 12th to 18th) recording 24pts on the way in. That strong back 9 helped him to beat a Saturday starter, Dilip Mailvaganam, who’s round was a mirror image of Mark’s: 23pts out and 20pts in. He would probably like to play the 18th again – an untidy 7 was one of the very rare blemishes on his card. Martin Hay also recorded a very strong front 9 (23pts) but he too stumbled on the 18th. Dave Chilvers and Richard Owen take 4th and 5th respectively with very decent scores of 40pts. Nigel Ward and James Anslow are the last players finishing “In The Money”. Suhail was in a very good position to leapfrog Nigel/James (he had 36pts teeing off on the 17th), unfortunately for him he walked of the 18th with a scorecard still on 36pts.

It was a lovely warm, sunny May day, reminiscent of the weather that we had in the first lockdown in May 2020 and definitely ‘shorts weather’.

Peppe continued his recent good form and was today’s winner on 38 points. The foundation to Peppe’s score was his front 9 (22 points with a birdie on the 6th); late round nerves must have crept in with blobs on 16 and 18, so just 16 points on the back 9 – or did Sheena remind him he was playing in the Hawtree on Sunday and not to overdo it today (?). 2nd and 3rd places were decided on countback; both Richard Hanna and Sheena had 36 points with 20 points out and 16 back but Richard really torched the final 3 holes (9 points), with an eagle 5 on the 17th. Sweep payount to the top 3 (£8, £6, £4).

The highlight was Gina scoring her first ever hole-in-one on the 16th – hope everyone enjoyed their complimentary drink. That was only the start of quite an eventful day with 40% of the field playing better than their HI and Richard H, a late joiner to the competition, posting a stunning nett score of 59, which proved too much to beat for the rest of the field.

John Ahad, the club Captain, rounded up 10 very successful days: positive results in 2 NAPGC competitions now followed by individual success – 2nd place with a nett 62. Alvaro in 3rd had the best front and back 9, nothing spectacular (0 birdies) but solid golf over 18 holes. First Woman today is Ronnie; she was the best of large group with scores of 64 (Nett). She could’ve done better had it not been for an ugly 7 on the 1st hole. Toby ends up in the money again. Chris Rough is the last to receive some sweep money. A few players missed eagle putts on the 9th. Tamas recorded 3 birdies.

Peter Goodall takes the lead in the MW Grand Medal Trophy (207).

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.