A slightly chilly start turned into a lovely warm Spring day, with players progressively ‘stripping off’ during their rounds. The course was packed with ‘weekend golfers’ and Glendale finally had their new Halfway House open for business.

Scoring conditions proved difficult for most of the field, with not much run on the course, due to yesterday’s heavy rain, and small fairways reducing the benefit of ‘pick and place’. Also, for the men, playing off the white tees made the course considerably longer.

Our winner, John Ahad (36 points), coped best with 16 out and 20 points in, finishing strongly with 3 pars and blobs on the 8th and 12th. Sam Williams (35 points) was second playing a very steady round, 20 points out and 15 in, with just one blob on the 10th. Uli was third (33 points), 17 out and 16 points in – could have challenged more strongly but for 2 blobs in the last 5 holes. It was good to have the men’s and women’s club champions, Richard Back and Sylvia Bortoli, playing with us – both had 2 birdies.

Sweep payout to the top 3 (£13, £8, £4)

The weather forecast was pretty much spot on and the early starters had the best of the day. Morning sunshine gave way to heavy rain showers blown through on a strong south-westerly wind. After about 2 hours rain, rounds finished in the dry (just about), with dark stormy skies of rain, hail and thunder all around.

Last-minute entrant Cuneyt Sazer stole the day with a stunning 43 points, 22 out and 21 in, in fact he had 29 points after the first 11 holes. Consistent throughout but his one-putting from distance on 5 or 6 holes was the backbone to his score – a priviledge to behold. Rannesh (37 points) came 2nd with birdies on the first 2 holes and an unlikely ‘blob’ on the 18th. Pralab had the best of the weather and probably finished before it even started to rain, his 35 points makes him 3rd and last of the sweep winners.

Payout £9, £5, £3

The first few holes were played in a very light misty rain, then we had over 2 hours of serious rain, and at about 1pm the sun came out, although by then there were puddles on fairways, paths and some of the early greens – a typical early Spring day at Richmond Park.

Five teams competed in the Texas Scramble competition, all teams scored well and the result was very close, with only 3 stableford points separating all 5 teams.

Top spot, on a 49 points countback, was the team of Jayne Maxwell, Susan Smith, Brian Ransom and Cuneyt Sazer. They had a total of 6 birdies, including a stretch of 3 consecutive birdies on the 15th, 16th and 17th, and just one bogey (on the 8th). Apparently Cuneyt really found his touch with the putter, which wasn’t behaving for him 2 days earlier on Duke’s.

Also with 49 points, in 2nd place, was the team of Cheryl Woodhouse, Uli katte, James Deissler and Seymour Laird, who had 4 birdies and no bogeys, but a weaker back 9 than the winning team.

Everyone seemed to enjoy the format and sweep payout to the winning team (£4.50 each).

Heavy overnight rain gave way to brighter conditions as the day went on and the Duke’s course was back to its muddy self.

The clear winner (35 points) was Rannesh Jansari, out in Game 1 with James Deissler, who came 2nd (32 points). Rannesh had the best back 9 (20 points) and best scores on the Par 4s. Pralab Barua had the best front 9 (16 points) and was the best on the Par 3s (paring them all). Uli Katte had the only Birdie of the day, on the 10th.
Sweep to top 2 (£6 & £2)

It was a chilly and cloudy day but dry and with very little wind. Fairway mowing was underway as well as construction of the new ditch which will eventually run all the way down the slope from the ‘wet area’ (now a pond) adjacent to the Prince’s 5th teeing area to the pond by the 5th green.

The clear winners of the team sweep were the team of James Deissler, Rannesh Jansari, Seymour Laird and Adrian Wells with an excellent 90 points (18 points more than a ‘par’ 72 points score). This team had the ‘Best Front 9’, the ‘Best back 9’, most points on the ‘Par 4s’ and on the ‘Par 5s’, and equal best score on the ‘Par 3s’ (with the team of Cheryl Woodhouse, Cuneyt Sazer, Richard Owen and Colin Price). Star of the team was James, with an individual General Play score of 42 stableford points.

There was only 1 point between the 2nd and 3rd placed teams, with Cheryl, Cuneyt, Richard and Colin (83 points) pipping Graham, John, Adrian and Ian (82 points) because of a much stronger back 9.

Play by the later 2 games was much slower than it should have been and everyone should read, and make every effort to adhere to, the club’s Fast Play Guidance (attached). As the season progresses the course will become busier and we do not want our competition to cause any ‘blockage’.

Sweep payout to the winning team (£5 each).