The day on Prince’s started sunny and became clouded, but dry – perfect conditions for good results, if it were not for the treacherous high grass ‘eating’ balls, which led to a number of unfortunate NRs. 😉

The competition was held in 2 Divisions, with the majority of players starting in the higher handicap Division 2.

Gina, playing off 11, came in first in Division 1, with a net result of 67, which could have been even better if she hadn’t run into problems with the par3s on the second 9.

Peter Miller won Division 2 with an even better result of net 66, playing off 29.

Women

A sunnier day than forecast and so much quicker than last Sunday’s round. All we needed was some good rounds of golf. to complete it. As is normal, the cards tend to show one or two holes being the undoing of several potentially good scores
Bridget won by 4 shots on a net 67 from Doreen on 71 (on countback). All of us, bar Reiko, were there when she decried her abilities, ignoring her 3 pars and 3 bogeys which based on her handicap gave her 8 shots to use up elsewhere. WHS agrees she played very well and is awarding a 1.1 cut tomorrow to her handicap.

Holes 7 & 8 as may be expected came out as the hardest holes today.

Men

A glorious 65 earned Kerry Sargeant the winning score for the senior division; Kerry started as he finished with birdies and kept a six off his card. A remarkable and consistent 66 earned Richard Smith second place – including an eagle at 14th (the 4th by men on Sundays this year per attached). George Taylor and Michael Hayden followed wit excellent 66s. The in-form Richard Inglis NRd but alaso eagled the 14th – well done!

A fine 64 in late game by Charlie Whiteman won the junior division. A skilful back 9 37 placed Peter Harrison 2nd on 66; a super back 9 from Ian Burgess earned a countback 67 win from Alan King who also had super back 9.

This was 6th round od the Grand Medal (5th in July abandoned) and we see in the senior division Kerry leading 277 just 1 ahead of Richard both 4 rounds played; in the junior division Nigel Ward has a 21 shot lead on 354 from Ian Burgess 375; Nigel built solid foundation with early 3 rounds in the 60s.

On an initially rainy, but then rapidly improving Saturday, 10 women and 10 men met to fight for the Bontor women vs. men trophy, which was last year won by the women.

The format is always singles matchplay and, after starting with the ladies’ and the gentlemen’s respective captains against each other in the first group, the other 9 pairs followed in handicap order.

Here are the results in the order the pairs came in:

• Cheryl Woodhouse (20 shots) vs. Uli Katte : Cheryl won on the last hole
• Sheena Harrington (7 shots) vs. Mike Assender: Mike won 2&1
• Katharina Katte (7 shots) vs. Robert Carlyle: Rob won 6&5
• Jayne Maxwell (7 shots) vs. Richard Inglis: Jayne won 2&1
• Susan Smith (4 shots) vs. Rannesh Jansari: draw
• Lia Donath (6 shots) vs. Gerard Ouattara: Lia won
• Joan Mulcahy (6 shots) vs. Sean O’Sullivan: Sean won
• Alison Chadwick vs. Alex Braun: Alex won
• Sali Davies vs. Tom Laybourn: Sali won 4&2
• Deborah Potter (6 shots) vs. Cliff Morgan: Deborah won 3&1

This gives the women an 5.5 / 4.5 win over the men!
Congratulations to Cheryl and her team!!

After the match there was pizza and chips and drinks and chat and gossip and banter … 🙂

Thanks everyone for this very enjoyable, yet competitive, golf day around the ‘battle of the sexes’!

Cheers,
Uli & Cheryl

A sunny day, around 30 degrees, perfect conditions for the Midweek Captain’s Day … sadly without the presence of the midweek captain, who had to travel abroad!

Sheena made best use of the weather and the course conditions, with a fabulous 23 points on her back nine and the best score on par5s (12 points), 40 points overall! 🙂

Tee distribution today, as we played with a choice between Whites and Yellows for men again:
White: 7
Yellow: 27
Red: 5

There were a few extra challenges – ‘Nearest to the Pin’ and ‘Nearest to the Pin in 2’, and they were won by:

• Uli (NTP in 2 on hole 2)
• George (NTP on hole 7)
• Brett (NTP in 2 on hole 9)
• Jose (NTP on hole 10)
• Brett again 😉 (NTP in 2 on hole 15)
• Cheryl (NTP on hole 16)
• Jose again 😉 (NTP in 2 on hole 18)

Post-round drinks followed and closed a beautiful day on the golf course! 🙂

The forecast wasn’t great and no doubt everyone had rain at some point. Unfortunately as the women played the 18th there was an ominous clap of thunder. Shortly after they finished there was a cloudburst followed by some fierce thunder & lightning. Glendale then closed the course (the klaxon sounded) and as the men would have been unable to mark their balls to restart from the same place, their medal had to be abandoned.

Women

That was an interesting day on the course and perfect timing for our 2 games – we saw quite a few drowned rats eventually making their way into the clubhouse after the klaxon went. Undoubtedly the wind played a part in some of the scores recorded today and it certainly wasn’t what we’ve come to expect from conditions underfoot in July at the Park.

Congratulations to Sali who recorded a net 69 to win from Silvia with the comfortable margin of 4 shots and will get a small cut in her handicap tomorrow – as we know, not a given with WHS.

There were 2 birdies on the 16th par 3, 1 for Sali and 1 for Elisabeth whose shot your author saw and what a good one it was. Barely a 6″ putt required to slot away her 2, which had it been a stableford comp would have given her 5 points!! Sali’s may have been just as close but unfortunately I didn’t see yours.

Women

After many years of this event, the women of RP decided to participate in England Golf’s Ping 4BBB who award prizes to each club’s winners and runners-up.

Congratulations to the 2 random pairs put together for today’s competition who both finished on 42 points but with a pretty impressive 25 points on the back 9 Doreen & Katharina easily took it from Elisabeth & Reiko.
It’s not the easiest format to look at individual play but Katharina only dropped 4 shots on the back 9 and Doreen’s birdie on the 16th just added to their total.

Men

A sunny start but it clouded over and there was a noticeable cool northerly.

Tough conditions for the June Medal with thick rough just off fairway leading to lost balls and 17 NRs. Again a significant WHS PCC overnight expected as a result.
But there was still some very good golf.
In the senior division Kerry Sargeant carded an impressive 67 – starting with a birdie and with 2 more on back 9 for 38 out 36 back. Kerry had a convincing 5 shot lead from Joe Gonclaves and Wonil Son on 72. ,Paul Kamerling and Louis Dickey were a shot further behind with 73s – Paul with an impressive 38 back 9.

In the junior division the leading light was Dilip Mailvaganam with an incredible 64 chased by Bernie McDermott on 66 – including an eagle at 14 (only 4 Sunday eagles to date this year per attached)=well done! 5 behind was Gerard Outtara with 71. Special mention to Ben Fisher who had a purple patch of birdies on back 9 -3,3,2 at 14-16!

This was 4th in the Grand 1medal series and currently leading senior division is Tamas Ladacs with 4 rounds completed 286 from Paul Kamerling 207 (just 3). The junior division sees Nigel Ward the leader 285 from Tony Kopczack 28 (both 4 rounds).

Definitely a case of girls on top today! With Gina taking the Div 1 honours and Sheena the Div 2 with Jayne in 2nd spot in Div 2. The men had been moved forward to the yellow tees to help alleviate some of the pain of the rough on Duke’s, but it doesn’t appear to have helped much!

Looking at both Gina & Jayne’s cards it is evident that they kept out of the rough and hence their scores, but Sheena’s win included a hole matching 12 on the 12th courtesy of the rough.

Of the 43 entrants there were no fewer than 20 NRs since finding a ball was definitely more luck and stepping in the right spot than being able to see it. Not only did we have to deal with the rough but that cold wind didn’t help – there will no doubt be a PCC adjustment at midnight tonight on the handicaps (it was 2 shots)

After 4 rounds of the MW Grand Medal, Chris Jones leads the way by 3 (287) from Uli.

Someone said: A bad day on the golf course is still better than a good day at the office. The members who attended our Away Day at Coombe Hill probably agreed. They enjoyed a course in excellent condition. 2 things stood out: 1) the club is called Hill for a reason and 2) as advertised the greens are the best defence of the course. Placement of tee-shots/approaches was fairly important. If this event were to be repeated a course planner would be welcome. Although Richard N made some very thorough preparations.
Secondly the weather turned out be more than decent. Special thanks go to Caroline. She never took off her waterproofs out of fear that this would have a very adverse effect on the weather. She definitely took one for the club …
Finally let’s talk numbers:
Overall winner is Paul G. He managed to stay just clear of Caroline. Rannesh came 3rd. But he will rue the last 2-3 holes. A certain victory slipped away on that stretch.
NTP 6th: Sean O’S
Longest Drive 11th: Ed H

Special thanks to Kim as well, for coming up with the idea of a social event at Coombe Hill in the first place, for helping to organise the whole thing and for taking over command after Uli dropped off last minute due to illness!

It was beautiful golf day today, with just enough sunshine, no recognizable wind and a Prince’s course in conditions we have not seen for more than half a year: the fairways had been freshly cut and widened, the rough cut down to manageable hights and the greens a pleasure to putt on! 🙂

RichardO took the most advantage and came back with unbeatable 42 points, including 3 birdies.
Late starter JustinW began his round with 2 blobs, but scrambled to 18 points on the front 9 and came back with 21 points, with 3 birdies on his card as well.

RichardO, RichardB and UliK share best gross score results with 75 shots.

After a predominantly good week weatherwise, we were down to just 1 temporary on Prince’s today.

Women

Congratulations to Caroline who is today’s winner by 1 shot from Sheena. Had she not recorded a 10 on the 7th it could have been by a much bigger margin. Good to see our injury stricken members back playing 18 holes again. Conditions remain tough if you stray from the fairway with the sun just encouraging grass growth at this time of year after all that rain.

Men

Conditions were tough with long grass in the rough just off the fairway and easy to lose a ball. But there was some good scoring in the May Medal.
An excellent 67 from Mark Bean secured the senior division (37 shots out and in) with Umran Ali just a shot behind 68 keeping a 6 well and truly off his card. With a strong back 9 Richard Owen was the best 69 on countback from Paul Kamerling and Captain Uli Katte; special mention to Paul Kamerling for securing 4 birdies in his round.

The junior division medal saw a convincing win for James Withers 64 from Gunnar Sundberg followed by Suhail Salim 67 and Charles Haines 68; all excellent scores in the 60s.

Well done to John Perkins for his eagle 2 on 17th!

This was 3rd round in the Grand Medal [best 5 from 8] and is dominated in both divisions by players with 3 rounds under their belts:

Seniors
Tamas Ladacs 212
Justin Wildman 242

Juniors
Tony Kopczak 210
Nigel Ward 211