A mild, cloudy morning turned into a glorious warm sunny day for golf on the Prince’s course. This seemed to suit the lower handicappers in the field. At the moment, the greens and fairways are in the best condition that they will be all year but finding your ball in the rough, or getting out of it if you are lucky enough to find it, is becoming a major problem.

Late entrant Peter Goodall, who decided to ‘play’ rather than spend time on the driving range with his new driver, was our winner with 40 points, playing off 11. Peter’s 3 birdies on the 6th, 8th and 10th were the highlights of another very solid round from him.

In 2nd place was even later entrant, Naveed Manazir, who went out in the afternoon with Peter Flint and scored 39 points, playing off 8. Naveed birdied the 3rd, 5th and 11th holes and his 19 points out and 20 points in round was a welcome return to form for him.

In 3rd and 4th places, both with 38 points were Pralab Barua and Richard Owen, Pralab winning on countback. Pralab, playing off 16, had 21 points on the back 9 with a birdie on the 16th and it’s good to see him back in the winner’s circle. Richard’s highlights, playing off 12, were birdies on the 4th, 12th and 14th with ‘only’ 20 points on the back 9.

Sweep payout to top 4 (£8, £5, £3, £2).

Summer golf was a distant memory today at the Park. Sub 20 degrees temperatures, occasional rain showers and swirling/strong winds had more similarities with golf in October/November. 4 players dealt rather well with the conditions and recorded at least 40pts. A further 12 players managed to record at least 36pts. The rest of the field fared not as well.

Richard Owen went out in +2 gross. A nice birdie on the 9th hole brought his points total on the way out to 24pts! He recorded 3 more 3-pointers on the first 4 holes of the back 9. Holes 14-16 were a blip, 1 point on each, but better than what happened on the 16th tee. Richard managed to lose his first ball in the jungle on the right … after bouncing off the ladies’ tee-marker. He recovered with two 5’s on the last 2 holes. This enabled him to close the back 9 with 18pts.

A group of 3 players finished with 40pts. Another Richard (Hodgkinson) took 2nd place, thanks to a better back 9. Kim Chaffart managed to repeat Sunday’s horror show by recording another blob on the 15th hole, however a timely eagle on the 17th allowed him to hold of Angus. Uli will regret the 7 on the 12th and bogey on the 16th. Tamas was one-putting nearly every green on the front 9 on his way to 23pts. But an 8 on the 12th and blob on the 15th dented his charge on the back 9. Shout-out to the club captain John Ahad for recording the only “2” of the day. Richard H takes the lead in the Founders Cup (114) ahead of Juho (107), Richard O (104), Gina (103) and Kim (101).

Incessant heavy rain made it miserable weather for golf and only 5 hardy souls, of the 10 that signed in, completed their rounds.

Winner was Andrew Watson with an excellent 35 points; runner-up on 33 points was Phil Martin, but all those who finished scored well, considering the conditions. Sweep payout to top 2.

Irrespective at what time players teed off, everybody enjoyed near perfect golfing conditions. Very mild temperatures and gently swirling winds (except may be on the 16th). A large proportion of the field must have enjoyed the extra roll on the fairways. The better players probably appreciated the fact that the greens seemed to become more receptive.

1st place today goes to Oliver Khan. He combined a steady front 9 (18pts) with an excellent back 9 (23pts – matched by Paul Green and only bettered by Tony Barnett. Early bird Gina is first woman today, runner-up with 41pts. Sheena, the Woman’s Captain, matched Gina’s score but “only” had 20pts on the back 9. Richard Owen had multiple birdie putts on the front 9. He still recorded 22pts on the way out. He then finally birdied a hole on the back 9 (the 14th). Unfortunately for him  he lost out to Gina and Sheena on countback. Richard Young is the last player to record 40pts. Chris Jones looked like a lock-in to match/beat that target but an ugly NR on the 18th prevented him from finishing higher than 8th. Michael Gallagher and Phil Martin complete the Top7 and take the last Sweep positions. 

Paul Giles would’ve finished 2nd today but he committed the cardinal sin of not signing his card.

A smaller than usual field played in today’s sweep, for a combination of reasons – regulars on holiday or playing elsewhere, late cancellations due to work and doctor’s appointment, Spring Matchplay matches taking place and unfortunately Chris Rudkin had to ‘retire hurt’ after 6 holes. Nevertheless those who did play enjoyed a fine sunny day with a strong westerly wind.

The ‘Richards’ won the day with Richard Owen scoring 38 points and Richard Norden with 33 points. From reports of the matchplay between Peter Goodall and Peppe, they would have taken 1st and 2nd slots if they had played equally well in the sweep. Sweep payout to top 2 (£6, £3).

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).