Richard Owen
Richard Owen
Friday Sweep
A dry, humid, sunny morning becoming more cloudy and windy as the day progressed.
Scoring was good with 80% of the field scoring points in the 30s. A group of three 38s were looking like taking the honours till Charlie Haines stepped up and entered his score of 40 points, his first ‘win’ with the club. Charlie’s round started with a blob and suffered another blob on the 14th but otherwise was extremely solid. Paul McGrath and Craig Johnstone’s 38s, both ‘early birds’, took 2nd and 3rd places respectively and Seymour Laird followed up his 2nd place on Wednesday with a countback 4th today.
Best front 9 was Seymour’s 21 points and Charlie had the best back 9, also 21 points. James was tops on the three Par 3s (9 points). Richard Owen was within inches of an Eagle 2 on the 9th and Rob Wilhelmsson joins Richard Back at the top of the Friday Birdie Tree.
Sweep payout to the top 4 (£10, £6, £4, £2).
![](https://www.richmondparkgolfclub.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/Nearly-Eagle-9th.jpg)
Friday Sweep
A somewhat cloudy but dry day with not much wind and receptive greens led to some good scoring.
Top of the leaderboard was Rob Wilhelmsson with an excellent 43 points and a gross score of 72. Rob had the best front 9 (20 points), the best back 9 (23 points) and 3 birdies along the way. In 2nd place with 40 points was Justin Wildman, playing alongside Rob in the first group, and just pipping 3 players on 39 points: Peter Miller, Richard Norden and Naveed Manazir. Naveed had 3 birdies in his round but it was Peter Miller who grabs 3rd place on countback and scoops a small sweep payout. (£11, £7, & £4 to the top 3 respectively)
Friday team competition
A mild, slightly humid day with just a 10 minutes spell of very light rain and very occasional sunshine. Recent rain earlier in the week provided softer fairways and more receptive greens.
The clear winners in the 2 best scores/hole team competition were the team comprising Veronica, Joan, Rannesh & Richard with 89 points. All team members played their part with individual scores ranging between 29 and 36 points, a very impressive 48 points on the front 9 (never less than 5 points/hole) but then a falling away on the back 9. Tied on 85 points in 2nd and 3rd places were two all-men teams, with Rob, Justin, John and Tom beating Bill, Colin, Barry and Bob on a back 9 countback.
Not far behind, on 82 points, were the team of Bill, Hilary, John and Adrian – they are mentioned in that order because Bill and Hilary scored 79 of the 82 points alone! Bill had the best individual stableford score in the competition (41 points) and Hilary came 2nd with 38 points. The Bill, Hilary, John and Adrian team also had the best back 9 (45 points). Sweep payout to the winning team and to Bill & Hilary.
Friday Sweep
A sunny morning clouded over with a strengthening breeze but fortunately it stayed dry.
The early morning two ball of Paul McGrath and Naveed Manazir set the pace, Paul posting an impressive 43 points and Naveed posting the best gross score of the day (77 strokes). It looked as though Paul had held off all challengers, until the final group submitted their scores and Colin Price entered his 44 points. Then there were three very creditable 39 pointers, Julian, Lia and Gerard in that countback order. The Best Scores Analysis report shows that both Paul and Gerard had great front 9s (25 points each), whereas Colin had the best back 9 (24 points). Richard Owen had birdies on the 3rd, 17th and 18th but too many putts on the other holes. Sweep payout to the top 4 (£3, £5, £8, £10).
Ballantyne Trophy, round 4 (Area 2 final)
On a very windy Sunday afternoon at Hoebridge (a neutral venue), the Richmond Park team played Easthampstead for a place in the national semi final of this men’s pairs matchplay competition. The course was in good condition and proved an excellent choice for the match. Our 3 pairs did the club proud by all winning their matches for a 3-0 result and we now look forward to a national semi-final against the Area 3 winners (either Huntswood or South Bucks).
With Uli away on holiday and Peter Goodall and Julian James unavailable, Roger Rojas and Mark Bean joined the team for the match. Our long hitting, low handicap pairing of Richard Back and Ross Hood were first to tee off and ground out a relatively comfortable 2&1 win (certainly more comfortable than their earlier, last-ditch 1up win at Birds Hill!). Richard Owen and Mark Bean were 2nd to go and, after halving the 1st hole, surged to strong position by winning the next 5 holes, and although Easthampstead fought back, the match was closed out with a 4&3 win on the 15th. Our final pairing of Roger Rojas and Tamas Ladacs had a close front 9 with both teams playing very well, however Easthampstead’s putting fell away on the back 9 and a comfortable 3&2 win was the result.
Surrey Fives East, Round 4
On a beautiful but very windy Sunday morning our Richmond Park Surrey 5’s B team welcomed Reigate Hill to the Park for their quarter final match in the Surrey 5s. The chosen course (Prince’s) was in magnificent condition with fast greens, penial rough and fairways firm and running. Strong winds made club selection extremely difficult with a premium on tee shots. An excellent performance by our team saw a resounding 5 – 0 victory, with Richmond Park progressing to the semi finals where we will meet the winners of Epsom v Surrey National. More details on the match below.
Will Balakrishnan led the team off and went into an early lead which he never relinquished before finishing his match with a effortless 2 & 1 victory to give the hosts a 1 – 0 lead in the match.
Brendan Sullivan’s 3 & 2 victory was quickly followed by Richmond’s super sub and first time participant in this year’s competition Toby Hunt, who produced some short game wizardry to dispatch the Reigate Hill player with a commanding 4 & 3 scoreline, to give the hosts a 3 – 0 lead and send them into the semi finals.
The evergreen Bernie McDermott with his trusty 25 year old Ben Hogan driver was demoralising his playing partner with fairway-finding drives and a short game to envy, before dismantling his opponent 4 & 3 to put the host 4 – 0 ahead.
Kevin Prendergast who was 3 down after 10 quickly got in on the action and birdied his way back into contention and finished his match with a 3 & 2 victory.
Friday Sweep
Those that believed the weather forecast and decided to cancel were not disappointed – it really did rain almost the whole time we were playing, making it all rather unpleasant, although the bonhomie over drinks in the clubhouse afterwards was up to the usual high standards.
Our winner today, Brian Ransom (40 points), continued his recent good form and this time is ‘in the money’. Runner up, just one point behind, was Justin Wildman making the most of his school holidays. Bill Norman came with a strategy today – use a 6 iron instead of the driver – and his strategy paid off, as he came in 3rd with 37 points. Sweep payout to these top three (£9, £6, £3).
Clapham Common Round 3
It was a close match between Richmond Park and Wexham Park ‘C’, with RPGC posting 218 stableford points to Wexham Park’s 221 points. Our 3 home team pairs scored a combined 114 points, 10 more than Wexham’s away team managed on the Prince’s course; however our away team were outscored by 13 points at a shortened, tight Wexham course, which wouldn’t have suited the ‘long hitters’ that we sent there. Wexham admitted that they brought all their long hitters to Richmond Park and it looks like their strategy paid off. So we’ll try again next year.
Friday Sweep
It was a swealteringly hot and humid day with temperatures peaking around 30 deg. C, so well done to all those who finished 18 holes. The SLOW PLAY by one of the early groups made it a frustrating day for those that followed and this must not become a trend – if you are not keeping up with the game in front, you must stand aside and let the group(s) behind play through.
It was tight at the top with Uli and Pete playing together and both scoring 37 points, Uli winning out on countback. 3rd and 4th places went to Russell (36 points) and Mitch (35 points), both playing in the cooler early morning conditions. Best front 9 (21 points) recorded by James and Lia and best back 9 (22 points) scored by Graham Swindells. George Taylor and Pete Goodall both had 2 birdies.
Sweeep payout to top 4 (£10, £8, £5, £3)
Friday Sweep
It felt like winter had returned with much colder temperatures, a strong south-westerly wind and occasional light rain. The significant rain on Wednesday night had soften the fairways and greens and there was less bounce and run than recently.
The unpleasant conditions kept the scoring to modest levels, except for our winner Richard Norden who posted 41 points, with an outstanding 24 points on the front 9, including a birdie on the 9th. In 2nd place (38 points) was Paul McGrath; a steady round with 20 out and 18 points in. Uli Katte and James Deissler both got 36 points to take 3rd and 4th places, respectively; Uli started slowly but got stronger as his round progressed, whereas James was the opposite, except for his birdie on the 16th.
It was great to have Teddy Holt back playing with us again and to have Pralab, Graham and Ed ‘in the mix’, rather than 2 hours ahead.
Sweep pay out to top 4 (£10, £8, £5, £3)