A bitterly cold morning with a heavy frost on the ground made golf a whole new experience, with tremendous run on the ball and uncontrollable bounces. As the sun shone throughout the morning the course turned from white to green by around 11.30am, except for those areas within the shade, and there was hardly a breathe of wind. A view of the 3rd hole at around 10am is attached.

Most of the field struggled with the conditions on what was otherwise a beautiful winter’s day. Only 3 (of 37) players managed to beat the par score of 36 points. Today’s winner, Jonno McLean (43 points) was the only one to truly master the conditions – his front and back 9’s (20 & 23 points) outshone everyone else and he had 2 birdies and 5 pars. Some way behind Jonno, but 3 points ahead of everyone else, Elizabeth and Brian both had 37 points, Elizabeth beating Brian on countback. Elizabeth had 17 points out and 20 points in (including 3 blobs in her round!); Brian had 19 points out and 18 points in (no blobs).

For the last competition of 2025 the weather was frosty and hard and with one temporary green (11th). The Duke’s course was opened back up for us to a full 18 holes but was playing long which did not favour the women or the short hitters. Only 6 players made 30+ points in such conditions. The best lady on the day was Sheena Harrington.

After last week being disqualified for not signing his card, Billy Jackson came back and scored 36 points to win the competition with 20 out and 16 back. Four points behind was Dave Cato with a steady 19 out and 13 back which included a birdie 3 on hole 3; Julian James claimed third spot on countback from Angus Robertson with his superior back nine, 17 points to 15.

A significantly reduced field played for the December Plate in overcast, chilly, but thankfully dry conditions. The recent dry spell of weather made the course less ‘slippery’ underfoot and lessened the need for ball cleaning.

Scoring was pretty good with almost half the field scoring 20 points or more (compared to a ‘par score’ of 22 points on this shortened course). The winner Ged Quinn beat Olav Bridie, both 24 points, on last 6 countback (holes 6 -10, +2). Similarly, Alan Boyd beat Duncan Taylor, both 23 points, on last 9 countback.

Neither Olav nor Allan entered the Sweep, so the sweep payout goes to Ged, Duncan, Greg and Lee.

The temperature was down to about 6 degrees with a chill wind blowing from the East. However the Prince’s was otherwise in good condition. The top 11 players scored 30+ points with Charles Haines (35 points) winning his first Plate trophy, scoring 20 points on the back nine to push Richard Owen into second place and Duncan Taylor into third spot on 35 points countback. Angus had a good round off 6 handicap to take fourth place on 34 points just ahead of Andy Johnson on 33 points.

Women

With conditions as muddy as ever, the decision was just 3 tee shots apiece which gave another close result. Ali, Bella, Deb & Jenny, maximising their extra 6 shots over Cheryl, Jayne, Joan & Susan even allowing for a 7 & 6 on their card, gave them a 1 shot win.

Both teams had birdies one of them even managing it on the temp green on the 2nd hole.

Hopefully the January event will not be a repeat of the first 2 events when 11 were booked in but only 8 played!

Men

The weather forecast was correct: rain up until around 9.30am, a cloudy, dry interlude till midday, then more rain – challenging conditions for golf, especially with muddy conditions underfoot. We had hoped to have all 18 greens in play, but overnight rain caused the 1st and 2nd to be temporaries.

After a few late drop outs, 34 hardy souls played the December medal with surprisingly only one NR, although there were several double digit hole scores on a number of cards.

In Division 1, Suhail Salim takes home the monthly medal glass with an impressive net 68, just pipping Brian McMahon, Greg Wright and Paul Green (all on 69), and Oz, Paul Kamerling and Joe on 70. Joe had the lowest gross of the day (73) – for the 2nd week running! Chris Mellish could have equalled Suhail if he had par’d the 14th, instead of taking 3 tee shots and recording a 9!

In Division 2, Duncan Taylor was the clear winner, also with a net 68 and takes home the monthly medal glass. Jonno McLean, Dennis Keough and Gerard Ouattara took 2nd, 3rd and 4th places, all on 72. Gerard will be ruing his 9 on the 8th, which spoilt an otherwise impressive card.

It was a chilly and frosty morning with low winter sunshine which became a very pleasant day for golf. However, the soft ground conditions and lack of run on and off the fairways made the course long for most players, even off the yellow and red tees.

Only Joe Goncalves, our winner today on 38 points, ‘beat the course’. Joe had a 4-over-gross round of 74, comprising 14 pars and 4 bogeys – exceptional golf. He was obviously out to impress his two women playing partners ! In 2nd and 3rd places, both on 34 points were Lee Frost and Paul Kamerling, respectively. There was then a group of 4 players on 32 points. Because of the low scoring, WHS decided that there would be a PCC of 2 shots.

The leading women for the champagne prizes were Hilary Casey and Caroline Stillwell respectively, both on 26 points.

For the first time, both the men and women played from the yellow tees (all the tees were almost together anyway). Conditions were frosty to start but slowly improved after the sun came out. Scoring was not bad with over half of the field scoring 30+ points.

Today’s winner with 39 points was Andy Johnson 22 out and 17 back. He just pipped Toby Hunt who scored 38 points. Toby played very steady 19 out and 19 back. Iain Barbour was 3rd on countback also with 38 points 21 out and 17 back. Mitchell Cohen edged into 4th place on countback ahead of Tamas Ladacs with a superior back nine score of 21 to 17 by Tamas.

There is special mention to Charles Haines with his hole in one on the 4th par 3. Also, the only 2 was an Eagle, scored by Greg Wright on the 15th hole. Everyone enjoyed a free drink in the clubhouse thanks to Charles.

Women

Having entered Jenny’s score rather than her own it turned out that Bella managed to hold on to 1st place with her own score – but by just 1 point and not such a high one!

It turned out to be a lovely sunny day after the wet start and I think we all took layers off at one point. Hopefully the 11 who cancelled are regretting it.

Men

A much reduced field as many were put off by the rain on Saturday & overnight, but despite it being somewhat slippery underfoot most of us played in glorious sunshine, though the early guys will have had some rain.

As the course set-up was largely forward tees, with many mats, the tee of the day was yellow, which better reflects the scores going through to WHS.

In Div 1 Allan Boyd took 1st spot on the back 9 from Richard Owen both on 38, followed by Toby Hunt on 37 and Greg Wright on 36.
Div 2 was headed by Sean O’Sullivan with 37 points followed by Charles Haines and Mike Shabani on 36, with Charles taking 2nd spot on the back 9.

This was also the first round of the Prince’s eclectic & the scores can be seen on MS under the Results tab.

The weather was kinder than forecast earlier in the week, with no rain but chilly conditions. There were very slow rounds for some of the later groups, probably due to the ‘medal’ format and ball searching amongst the leaves. Thankfully the vast majority of the competitions over the next few months will be stableford.

In Division 1 there was a trio of players who played to their handicap (net 68) with Peppe winning the monthly medal spirits crystal glass on countback from Alan Treacy and Richard Smith, respectively. Richard had the best front and back 9s and the lowest gross score overall.

In Division 2 the winner was Chris Rudkin with the best net score of the day (net 65), followed by Stephen Philbin on net 68 and Kim Jabbour & Peter Harrington, both on net 71.

Duke’s generally in good condition and lots of good scoring.

Winner today with a terrific 41 points was Kevin Prendergast (17), 22 out and 19 in, piling on the points from hole to hole without pause. In second, Tamas Ladacs (13) went round in 18 out and 20 in, piping Andy Johnson (20), who went round in 21 out and 17 in, both compiling a considerable tally of 38 points each. In 4th was Mitchell Cohen, tied on points with Julian James in 5th, both making 35 points.