After an overcast start to the morning the sun soon came out and it was perfect weather for golf. Most of the field recorded respectable scores but nobody scorched the course, probably due to the long grass present beyond the fairways and semi.

Early leader in the clubhouse was Ann Gardner with 35 points, with a strong start to her round, a wobble on the middle and a steady and consistent final 7 holes. Richard Norden then overtook Ann, posting 36 points (18 points out and another 18 points back). Ben and Louis Dickey went out mid-afternoon and so it was early evening before their cards were submitted, Ben scoring 35 points and taking over 2nd place from Ann with a better back 9.

Although the BBC weather forecast early in the morning was mainly dry with a few occasional showers, this had changed by 9am to 80% rain and even that was an understatement – in fact the 18 hardy competitors and 2 players playing for handicap were subjected to incessant heavy rain. Seven players (and a dog) quite understandably ‘gave up’ part way round, however the rain didn’t seem to affect John Ahad’s golf with an impressive 37 points and was like ‘water off a duck’s back’ to Damber who posted 33 points but could quite easily have had 37 points too if regulation 2 putts hadn’t become 3s on several greens.

Our first Friday team competition was played in fine, mainly sunny early summer weather conditions and competitors seemed to enjoy playing as a ‘team’ for a change. With all the recent rain the fairways were softer than they will become and the semi-rough & rough have become ‘lush’. The only down side was the 4-ball of golf novices on a ‘day out’ in front of us, who caused a horrendous ‘back up’ of games over the front 9.

The winning team, with a total of 76 points, was the socially distanced Adrian Wells (who was card marking in an early game) together with Ann Gardner and Jeremy Prescott, playing towards the back of our main group. Together they went out in 37 points, mainly due to Ann’s personal 21 points, and then came back in an even stronger 39 points, this time mainly due to Adrian’s 22 points, but Jeremy pitched in with 2 and 3 points on the front and back 9s when needed to.

It was close between 2nd, 3rd and 4th places (73, 72 and 71 points respectively) with the team of Julian, Naveed and Tim clinching the runner’s up place with 39 out and 34 back, and Alvaro, Alan and Kevin posting 39 out and 33 back. So it seems both of these teams ran out of steam on the back 9, particularly by comparison with our winners.

The sweep monies will be shared by the winning team members.

We will have another team event in 3 weeks time.

The extremely high south-westerly winds and rain that fell after midday made playing golf very difficult and far from enjoyable. The scores reflected the conditions and just finishing was an achievement.

Long hitting Charlie Edwards, playing in his first Friday competition for a while, took the honours with 32 points (17 out, 15 in and 7 pars). In 2nd place, just one point back, was Uli Katte who seemed to relish the bad weather, going out in only 11 points but scoring 20 points on the back 9 (6 pars total). Brian, Graham and Colm all scored 29 points, with Brian taking 3rd place on countback. With the reduced field of 15 players the sweep pay out will be to 1st and 2nd only.

Next week the format changes to a stableford ‘1,2,3 waltz’ team competition, however anyone who wants to submit a card to WHS can still keep an individual card and submit as General Play.

On an overcast but thankfully dry day, the in-form Seymour posted an impressive 42 points to take top spot. Seymour’s round was the model of consistency, scoring on every hole, having 21 points out and 21 points in, and one birdie on the 11th. Richard N., in second place with 40 points, had a steady front 9 (17 points) but a very strong and consistent back 9 (23 points). Giles completes the top 3 places with a similar scorecard to Richard (16 points out and 23 points in) but notably birdies on both the 2nd and 4th holes. The sweep prizes will be credited to the top 3.

The rain showers of the past week has finally promoted the grass to grow and the fairway definition was much improved. However, the rough is also looking ‘healthy’ so over the coming weeks it will become much harder to ‘recover’ from errant shots (or even find your ball !).

It was a lovely sunny Spring day on our return to the Dukes course, which had benefited from some heavy rain showers over the preceding days – although the fairways continue to give lots of bounce and run.

Naveed was today’s winner (40 points, playing off of 9), just ahead of John A. with 39 points and and a brace of 38s by Keith and Graham S. Well played to all our leading players; I haven’t studied the scorecards this week but one exceptional score I did witness was Brian’s 5 points Eagle on the 17th. Sweep pay outs will be made to the purses of the top 3.

Thankyou to all 22 players who participated and special thanks to Ann G. for waving the flag for the ladies.