Richard Owen
Richard Owen
Friday Sweep
The early morning rain showers quickly subsided for the 10am starters and the sun then appeared to make it a pleasant Autumn day, at least for a few hours. At around 2.30 pm however, black shower clouds appeared and Games 3 to 7 had to endure around 15 to 20 mins of heavy rain, which was unfortunate.
Our winner, Peppe (40 points), was in Game 1 so missed the late downpour and, apart from the 4th hole, put in a very solid round (18 points out and 22 points in). Second place goes to Poria Alinia (39 points) who had an average front 9 (17 points) but a back 9 (22 points) super-charged by consecutive birdies on the 14th and 15th holes. Rannesh takes 3rd place with 37 points, thanks to some excellent 4 iron tee shots (no driver or 3 wood in his bag !), surprisingly good approach shots and a steady putting display. Gary Simpson and Colin Price both scored 36 points for 4th and 5th places. Best front 9 was Tom Simpkins (21 points) and best back 9 was Andre Pelser (23 points). Sweep payout to top 3 (£14, £9, £5).
Surrey Fives – Final
On Sunday 15th October the Richmond Park B team made the journey to Clandon Regis to play West Surrey in order to determine the overall Surrey 5’s matchplay champions for 2023. The result was a convincing win for Richmond Park; a full report from captain Brendan Sullivan and photo of the team with the trophy is found below.
The day was bright and sunny but accompanied with a bitterly cold wind which made staying in the sun a priority. Clandon Regis had the course in excellent condition with beautiful fairways and fast undulating greens. Surrey County Golf provided a referee who with the use of a buggy moved between all five matches to answer any rules queries that may arise and also kept the teams well informed of how all the matches were progressing.
West Surrey had the honour and each match was announced on the tee by the Surrey County starter. George Taylor (Rookie) was out first for Richmond Park. This was George’s first appearance in the Surrey 5’s but his recent good competition form at Richmond Park justified his selection. George’s first tee nerves where his opening tee shot resulted in a lost ball was not a sign of things to come. With some outstanding play and excellent putting from both players it was clearly evident that this was going to be a close match but nobody was prepared for the drama that unfolded. The match was all square after 17 holes. Two good fairway drives followed by approach shots which found the 18th green (albeit with West Surrey 2ft from the pin and Richmond Park 20ft+ away) made it look as though West Surrey with draw first blood in the match. But in a true matchplay scenario George somehow sank his 20ft+ which had about 2ft of break to put the pressure back on West Surrey to hole his 2ft foot which seemed a formality. Somehow West Surrey missed and Richmond Park won the match to establish a 1-0 lead.
Out second was Pete Malla and again this proved to be yet another close encounter. In a match that was always either 1 up or level throughout also came down to the 18th with West Surrey edging a close 1 up victory to make the overall score 1 – 1.
Match 3 had the ever reliable John Perkins and again this proved to be very close with the score either 1 up or level throughout. John has been extremely consistent for the team all summer and today was no exception. John established a 1 up advantage after 17 holes and with a comfortable par on 18th gave Richmond Park a 2 – 1 lead in the match. Cometh the hour cometh the man.
Brendan Sullivan (Team captain) was out 4th and having lost the first hole to a birdie 3 soon established a stronghold on the match and ran out a 7 & 6 winner to give Richmond Park a 3 – 1 lead and overall victory.
In the anchor match we had Bernie McDermott who to-date had a 100% victory record in the Surrey 5’s for Richmond Park. Bernie some weeks ago was tidying his garage and came across a Ping G2 driver (not a misprint, it really is a G2) and decided to replace his trusty 25 year old Ben Hogan driver with this modern up to date newer model. The result was never in doubt and Bernie as always throughout this years campaign didn’t let the team down. With his straight driving, approach play and steady putting Bernie gradually wore the opposition down and shook hands with his opponent on the 16th green for a 3 & 2 victory to make the overall result 4 – 1 in favour of Richmond Park.
This year’s Surrey 5’s competition started at home on the 18th March against Kingswood and continued with the following:
29th April against Woodcote Park @ home
24th June against Wimbledon Common @ home
16th July against Reigate Hill @ home
26th August against Epsom ‘A’ @ Epsom
16th September against Epsom ‘B’ @ Hindhead
As team captain I would like to thank the following for representing Richmond Park at short notice when asked throughout this year’s competition:
Will Balakrishnan
Kevin Prendergast
Russell Stewart
Toby Hunt
Ryan Wilson
Naveed Manazir
I would also like to thank Peter Harrington, Richard Owen and Roger Rojas for suggesting and recommending various members for selection and supplying contact details for those members.
Lastly I would like to thank George Taylor, Pete Malla, John Perkins and Bernie Mcdermott for turning up to play a practice round at Clandon Regis. As team captain of this Surrey 5’s team their dedication and support to both myself and the team has been really appreciated. Their play in the final was exceptional and what they have achieved has put Richmond Park GC in the limelight and hopefully will inspire the club and it’s members to repeat what they have done in the coming years.
Kind regards
Brendan
Team Captain
Friday Sweep
After a slightly chilly start it turned out to be another sunny, warm autumn day, Still plenty of bounce and run on the fairways but the grass on the greens was in need of a cut.
An outstanding round of golf by Richard Norden (46 points) makes him the clear winner and earns him a 2 strokes cut in his handicap index (including an ESR of 1.0) – he’s now back down to 22.4, where he was 2 years ago. Richard started with a blob (tree trouble) but then didn’t look back with a consistency and driving, approach shots and putting display of a low teens handicapper. Perhaps the most surprising thing about his round (and score) were that there were no birdies.
Early starter Ed Robinson bags 2nd place with a fine 43 points, achieved over 16 holes, as he blobbed the 5th and 16th holes. In 3rd place, with a similarly steady round (just 1 blob) was Richard Hodgkinson (40 points).
Special mentions also go to Poria Alinia (35 points) who had 3 birdies on the front 9, including consecutively on the 7th and 8th holes, but then rather fell apart on the back 9 with 3 blobs, and to Graham Cull (39 points) who had an outstanding front 9 (24 points) – even beating Richard Nordon’s front 9.
To win the sweep money on a Friday it helps to have a high handicap (!!!); the monies go to the top 3 (£12, £8 & £5). However, there were also some good gross scores by the lower handicappers: Richard O. 80, Pralab 82 and Brian 84.
Friday Sweep
It was a relatively warm and sunny autumn day and the course was in good condition, although the greens needed cutting (very slow).
Regular Bill Jennings recorded his first ‘win’ with the club, 38 points and the strongest back 9 of anyone in the field (23 points). Well Done Bill !!
In 2nd place, just one point behind was Adrian Norris; a remarkable result with 4 blobs on his card. 3rd and 4th places, both on 35 points were Adrian Wells and Ed Robinson, respectively. Most players found the back 9 easier than the front 9; best front 9 was by Seymour (20 points). Rannesh birdied 2 of the par 3s. The surprise pairing of Gerald and Seymour easily saw off Uli and Richard Owen in their pairs matchplay side competition, 3&2.
Sweep payout to the top 4 (£10, £7, £3 & £2)
Friday Sweep
A thankfully dry day following the heavy rain earlier in the week.
Late entrant Jose Manuel Gomez had a another good round and was the clear winner with 43 points, three clear of George Taylor in 2nd place (40 points) and with Gerard Ouattara 3rd (39 points). George had the best front 9 (22 points) and Jose & Gerard the best back 9 (23 points). Jose’s handicap was trimmed by just over a shot to a new Low Index of 22.1.
Uli Katte and James Deissler (recently returned, like Gerard, from warm weather golfing in Spain) were 3 shots back on 36 points. Only 3 birdies were scored, by Brian, George and Mitch.
Sweep payout to top 3 (£14, £9, £5)
Surrey Fives, East Final
The Richmond Park team, captained by Brendan O’Sullivan, beat Epsom 4 – 1 in the 2023 Surrey 5’s East Section knockout final. More details below.
Having defeated one Epsom team in the semi finals, the Richmond Park ‘B’ team faced another Epsom team in the East section final. The match was played at Hindhead golf course, which had beautiful fairways and perfectly manicured greens that were exceptionally fast with lots of slopes and subtle breaks.
Our team was led off by Naveed Manazir (a last minute sub. for Pete Malla) who ran into a 12 handicapper who shot -2 gross for 12 holes to give Epsom the first point with a 7 & 6 victory.
Brendan Sullivan restored the deficit winning 8 & 7 to square the match at 1 – 1
The ever-reliable John Perkins was never behind and ran out an easy 6 & 5 winner to put Richmond Park 2 – 1 up in the match.
Russell Stewart was selected for the final following some impressive play over the past few weeks and justified his selection with a 4 & 3 victory to put Richmond Park 3 – 1 up in the match.
Bernie McDermott was never behind in the last match and also saw off his opponent with a 4 & 3 victory to record an overall result of 4 – 1 to Richmond Park and the Surrey 5’s East section title.
Richmond Park now await the winners of West Surrey v Hindhead to determine the overall Surrey 5’s champions for 2023. This match is scheduled to take at Clandon Regis on Sunday 15th October.
Friday Sweep
Assuming the work on the greens was done prior to Friday the field would have had to contend with the diamond crossings and bumping along the greens that was experienced on the following Sunday. It obviously didn’t bother all of the field with Leigh taking 1st spot on 41 closely followed by Russell on 40 and Bill taking 3rd spot on countback from Ian on 39s.
Sweep payout goes to those 4 (£10, £6, £3, £2)
Rickmansworth match, 2nd leg
With Rickmansworth having “outperformed” in the first leg at the Park to the tune of a 3-3 tie, the return leg at their course was always going to be a prodigious feat. Despite a stern challenge to the assembled team by captain-for-the-day Nigel Gaymond , delivered in the style of his former rugby playing days, full of expletives and a call to arms, and the valiant efforts of all those assembled, the result had a depressingly inevitable feel about it. On the day it was a 5-1 defeat leaving an overall score of 8-4 to Rickmansworth who thus returned the cup ‘Home” to their clubhouse.
In Game 1 the familiar pairing of Richard Owen and Uli Katte quickly went 2 down in the first two holes and despite keeping it that way at the turn eventually succumbed to a 5 & 3 defeat. In Game 2 Naveed Manazir and Paul Green endured the same experience of being two down after two, trailed by 4 at the turn and also similarly endured a 5 & 3 defeat. In Game 3 the experienced pair of Nigel Ward and Tony Kopczak fought valiantly but ultimately succumbed 2 & 1. In Game 4 Tamas Ladacs and Justin Wildman ceded a number of shots to their opponents and despite keeping it close on the front nine ultimately succumbed 4 & 2. In Game 5 Jon Cooper and Peter Needham kept it close throughout but ultimately slipped to a 2 & 1 defeat on the 17th Hole. The last game of the day featured Nigel Gaymond and Aidan Hurley who bucked the trend and won the two opening holes and led by as many as 3 holes and went dormie with 3 holes to go only for the Rickmansworth pair to make a serious charge taking the match to the 18th hole. Nigel had basically overheated by the 14th hole leaving Aidan to steer the team home on his own. He played the last five holes in 1 under and coolly sank the 7 foot par putt to seal the win and prevent the whitewash. In the associated sweep, Nigel/Aidan came first with 40 points, Tamas/Justin second with 39 and Uli/Richard third with 37. There’s always next year!
Friday Sweep
Another blistering hot day with temperatures topping 30 degrees C but fortunately no-one was overcome by the heat.
It was another good round by Charlie Haines, who tops the leaderboard with 40 points (including one blob), 2 ahead of Graham with a commendable 38 points. Every steady Colin takes 3rd place with 37 points, just one in front of dog-walker Rannesh (who reportly let Yangu off the lead to collect opponents balls!!).
Best front 9 was 21 points by both Graham and Jose and best back 9 by Tamas (22 points). Uli didn’t win any sweep money this week (for a change) but did record 4 birdies in his round for the first time.
Sweep monies to the top 3 (£11, £7 , £4)
Surrey Fives, Semi-Final
On a beautiful sunny Saturday morning our Richmond Park B team made the journey to Epsom to play the Epsom ‘A’ team in the semi-final of the East Section of the Surrey 5s. In their first ‘away’ fixture of the competition, our B team were victorious and now progress to meet the Epsom ‘B’ team in the East Section Final.
The Epsom course was in beautiful condition with perfectly manicured fairways and greens and with more slopes than an Austrian ski resort. An excellent performance by our team saw a resounding 3.5 – 1.5 victory for Richmond Park. The venue and date for the finals match against Epsom ‘B’ is to be confirmed by Surrey County Golf.
Will Balakrishnan led the team off and went down fighting for a 4 & 3 loss to give Epsom an early lead.
Word quickly came through that John Perkins was doing a demolition job on his opponent and levelled the overall score to 1 – 1 with a 7 & 6 victory.
Brendan Sullivan’s 5 & 4 victory established the overall lead in Richmond’s favour to 2 – 1.
Match 4 saw Bernie McDermott relinquish a lead of 3 up with 3 to play to give Epsom a glimmer of hope of winning the point and levelling the overall score to 2 – 2. Before Bernie and his opponent went down the 19th it was agreed to wait and see how match 5 was progressing.
Richmond’s smiling assassin Kevin Prendergast, who should be a ‘postman’ because he always delivers a winning point for the team, didn’t let he team down. His effortless 2 & 1 victory made Bernie McDermott a very happy man and sent Richmond Park into the finals.
Well done and well played everyone.