Another beautifully sunny day to lull everyone into the idea of removing a few layers – not a good one if playing early with ice on the author’s windscreen this morning. However, the sun did it’s job and things warmed up considerably before the cold wind started to pick up again in the afternoon. Increasing temperature lagged slightly behind solar radiation per bottom of main men’s results. There was a little run and with the sun now noticeably higher in sky balls were easier to follow in flight.

Women

Perhaps I shouldn’t have told everyone ahead of playing how far behind the leader we were in the eclectic!! Still the weather went a long way to compensate. There was an interesting mix of conditions, with slightly firmer ground allowing for a bit of run, but in what direction – hard bits of mud/wormcasts lying around could certainly send the ball off course.
The largest field in the 4 rounds of Duke’s eclectic saw Ronnie take 1st place with a 32, 2 clear of Doreen in 2nd spot.

But as indicated in the start sheet there was little chance of catching Gina in the eclectic who improved her score by 2 to win on 76.4 from Sheena, just a few shots back on 81.8. However that was a 10 shot improvement on her previous score.

Both eclectics thus having the same outcome – 1st Gina, 2nd Sheena

Men

Continuing his Midweek winning streak Julian James was victorious with a late 42pts thwarting hitherto clubhouse leaders Mike Shabani and Pat Dalton (Pat if only those putts….). There were very spirited 38s from James P, Richard O and Colm.

Holes 8 and 9 were out of action for Saturday entrants but Dilip had 2 birdies on 7th and15th (4 and 5 points respectively).

This was final round for the Winter Comp so congrats to winner Colm 121 from Julian and Richard O 118.

Richard I is confirmed Duke’s Eclectic Champ 60.2 from Richard O. 63.4.

The storms of Dudley & Eunice did not appear to have caused too many fallen trees on the courses although sadly the rain has brought a return to the very wet conditions underfoot. Luckily the rain kept off as umbrellas would not have survived in what were still very windy conditions. Those with long memories will recall the October 1987 Hurricane – outcome more esp. with trees in full leaf multiplying the wind force.

Women

The scores don’t seem to have been unduly affected by the weather.

Susan is today’s winner, 4 clear of Sheena in 2nd and would have been more had she not book-ended her round with 7s. Interestingly, only 1 person scored on the 18th today.

It was also the last round of Prince’s eclectic (winter must be coming to an end!!) and we actually completed all 4 rounds which has become something of a rarity. The result of this never seemed in doubt from the first round, but in the end was a close result but Gina hung on in, winning by the slender margin of .5 on 68.4. Susan’s score improved by 1 but Sheena overtook her with a 2 shot change.

Congrats to both Susan and Gina

Men

A leprechaun provided a lucky tee to Sean O’Sullivan who smashed the back 9 – 25 and a ‘blob’ at 7th for 43 points; separated by countback on 41 were Saturday entrant Suhail and Colm. Marnix and Richard O put in strong 40pts performances.

Colm ensured winning of the Prince’s Eclectic on 55.1 from Paul K and Richard O 58.5s


Colm seems to have the Winter Comp sewn up on 118 from Roger R 115 with 5 on 114 – Secretary Peter, Sean, Richard O, Brian and Julian. With just 1 round left to play results are no longer on MS since misleading since software ignores the minimum of 1 round on each course.

Winter comps well underway now, with the first round now played on both courses. First real cold morning of the season- sunshine morphing into cloud and increasingly windy; passage of cold front showing in main men’s results with min 5C at 08:30 .

Women

Well what can I say! Pre-WHS this would have been a reduction only round since no one managed to reach the heady heights of 30 points, let alone 36. Nowadays of course it just means that it is highly unlikely that this will count as one of your best 8 rounds in WHS.
Seems the combination of the first really cold day, the leaves all over the place and heavy underfoot conditions caught us all out. So today’s winner was Monique with 28 points.
It was also the first round of the Eclectic, but if you look on the report for it, only 2 have a score as everyone else picked up once they’d run out of shots (or enthusiasm for the hole), so all that can be said for this is that there is room for improvement from everyone!!

Men

Play was off yellows and it was muddy despite no recent rain; some might have expected better scores but PCC was unchanged at zero. Maybe WHS handicaps settling down with less very recent joiners in early volatile WHS handicap timeframe.

Anyway, Tim Ash Vie emerged from the pack to win on 39 points with 3 followin 37 – Barry, Roger and Russell.

This was round 2 of the Winter Competition and fresh from holiday golf, Secretary Peter H took advantage to share lead with Julian and Roger 73; Russell just behind 72.

In the associated first Duke’s Eclectic round, Russell has the advantage 76.5 from Mark B 76.6.

Last of the Sunday medals for the women until April, but the men carry on!!

The best thing to say about the day was that it didn’t rain and the sun shone – but that wind was cutting and pretty gusty at times

Women

I can’t imagine that anyone except Cheryl isn’t pleased to see the end of medals for the women on a Sunday until April. She seems to have played a different game from the rest of us, finishing 9 shots ahead of the rest of the field and proving that the newly reduced slope is fine if you can hit your ball well. Well played Cheryl – guess all those lessons are paying off.
Of the 12 who played, only half have an actual result with 5 NRs and Fiona signing for a 5 on the 13th but her entry on the computer and on the card she marked both showed a 6.

Men

White tees received 3 shots from the yellows and the overall winner with an extremely tidy 61 was John Perkins, 2nd on back 9 countback was Kevin P from Saturday entrant Nick R. Captain Kim followed 4th 65.

Divisional results also attached confirm John P winning Senior Division with Nafeez the Junior on 69.

On Saturday we held our Autumn Mixed Foursomes competition .  A good turnout of 12 pairs competed for the trophy. On the day, although low level clouds stopped the sun getting out we thankfully had a dry day.  However the  beginnings of the muddy golf days ahead were evident- the ball was definitely not running and extra club lengths were required.   As usual these events whilst competitive are great fun and offered us the chance to gather socially  afterwards  and enjoy Glendale’s finest pizzas and drinks on the house (RPGC!) and a good chat.

So the winning pairs of the net competition:

Congratulations to  Jayne Maxwell and Richard Owen who won the trophy ? with a  net 63 followed in 2nd place by Jane Fraser & Ned Shanklyn with a net 67 . 

Whilst both net winners played off 18 handicaps our Gross Winners- Gina Jillett and Jay Barker -playing  with only a 9 handicap, finished with a fantastic gross score of 78.  I watched them play a very relaxed game  together with some beautiful shots and great supportive teamwork . Well done to them.

Captain Val

Forecast rain persuaded a number not to play esp. after waterlogging from downpour on Saturday. Hopefully, one day soon there will be a report through that extols the combination of wonderful weather and play. Sadly today follows pretty much along the same lines as the last 2 weeks with pretty gusty conditions adding to the heavy showers, although at least we didn’t have flooded greens to contend with today – just flooded bunkers.

Women

Yet another small field, which was a combination of many booking to play the previous day’s Bontor (called off due to waterlogging) and a pairs match.

Ali is today’s winner, 4 clear of Gina in 2nd spot, but even they managed a little old 8 on their cards. Think Ronnie kept one off hers by NR’ing! Deborah was so thrilled with her par on the 18th that she’s decided she’s not playing any more until autumn (which we decided probably means next week) and Fiona’s highlight was her chip in 4 on the 5th…… sorry there are only highlights from this one game.

Ali gets a little HI reduction tomorrow which still feels strange when 69 is par so she was 3 over but this round replaces one of her previous best 8.

Men

At bottom of main net results are weather recordings locally in colour.

There was some truly exceptional and excellent scoring – Brian R returned a net 58!! 37 out, 36 back for 5 over par 73 and lowest gross score.. Well done Brian – your reward is an ESR taking your handicap index down from 15.2 to 12.8.
Rick K was second, 8 shots behind 66 just nipping Brian M on back 9; Kerry S was in form with 4 birdies and only stumbled @ 7& 8. Further stats. in the best scores analysis reports – and also latest eagle/ birdies by hole.

The round was 5th of 7 Grand Medal Trophy [best of 4 to count] and this sers Colm on top 268, 4 from Cpt. Kim and Brian M 272.

The Divisional results show Brian winning the Senior Division medal whilst Sean won the Junior 68.

Women

Perhaps it was all those years being toughened up in the army, but unlike the rest of us the wind and rain of today seemed only to enhance Donna’s play. Finishing a mere 6 points ahead of Julie with 39 and 33 points respectively. In our game, mud balls and the rough certainly played its part. With a 10 point difference between her score today and the first week’s leader, Donna is the well-deserved winner of the Committee Cup overturning a 5 point deficit with ease. Her total score was 72

Donna was left to rue her decision not to confirm entry into the UKPCC letting Julie, in 2nd spot, win through to be our qualifier. Others may qualify if scores from other clubs are as low as ours today!!

Men

Cool conditions with odd shower were inappropriate for The Summer Cup.
Compared with recent weeks scoring was subdued but Uli came out on top with 38 points from Rhys, Alan and Kevin.

Unusually no ‘Twos’ were recorded.

Resu;ts below depict UKPCC entrants with a tick.

Women

Can’t imagine for one moment that Donna, on her first round back with the club for some time, thought her 74 would be good enough to win today, especially as she didn’t rush to enter her score!
We didn’t exactly set the course on fire with our scores today, in the old days it would have been a reduction only round, but of course such things no longer exist. Following Donna, 4 of us fought it out for 2nd spot with 75s with Gina taking the place deservedly so with 2 birdies on her card.
Let’s blame the speed or rather the lack of it for putting us off our games. Three balls don’t seem to be making the rounds much shorter/quicker at all. But it was a good day weatherwise although the wind kept its bite. The lack of recent rain could be seen by how much the pond on the 10th had dried up from our last visit to Prince’s 2 weeks ago.

Men

A gorgeous spring day greeted competitors with that nagging nor’easter from arctic having gone.
Greens seemed watered but we still need natural rain.

Louis Dickey shot an astoinishing net 60 and but for a 7 at 18 we would be saluting him as ‘Mr 59’!

From the back of the field, Julian shot the lights out for 62; Mitch won 3rd on countback from father Ben D 65; Ant and Rannesh returned 66s.

This time it was Ned’s turn for an eagle at 9 – well done!
The results double as first of the Grand Medal Trophy.

The first mixed medal round on Duke’s since the introduction of WHS caused a few surprises. With both yellow and white tees in operation, the women received an additional 5.1 shots for their competition handicap (men off white’s got 2.1). With slope adjustment as well, both Sheena & Veronica were playing off 23 and they made good use of all those shots to finish 1st and 3rd respectively. Neither had recorded good scores since the return to play until today when 19 or one third of the field recorded No Returns and this before the grass has started to grow with any vigour.

Sheena’s net 67 was a card of double bogeys or pars, not total consistency! Also on a 67 is new joiner MikeH, possibly benefiting from a lockdown spent playing golf on the IoM but perhaps ruing the 7 on the 17th to allow my back 9 to beat his. For Veronica and Russell both on 68s there was a similar situation with Russell’s snowman on the 12th giving Veronica the better back 9.

Initial reports were of another eagle sighted in the Park, but unfortunately correct identification provided only a birdie. It would have been very unusual to record eagles in 3 consecutive weeks.

The redeeming feature of the day for those behind the leaders was that neither Sheena nor Veronica were in the sweep, but with 51 people in it payment is down to 9th place (excluding Sheena & Veronica):

The associated Grand Medal table will show the same results as today, so will be included after the next medal.

What a difference a week makes! Last Wednesday shorts and tee-shirts were the order of the day which could be where some of the non-finishers went wrong. To compound things, many of us experienced a wait on many of the tees which is never good but especially when there is a biting wind. A combination no doubt of this and the fact that it was a medal round in the second week back since lockdown gave rise to 18 of the field ‘No Returning’.
Of course, none of this affected some people with early starter Ewan posting an unassailable 63 making him the winner of The Master Bowl. JohnA will be pleased that I checked he hadn’t in fact played off the yellow tee (in which case he would have been DQ’d with his HI). The additional shot allowance for the white tee elevated him to the runner-up spot with a better back 9 than RichardS, both on 65s. Alvaro pipped Julie for 4th place with 66s and I made up the top 6 topping the 4 on 68s, no doubt because my back 9 was 11 shots better than the front!

Another week and another eagle – with apologies to MikeS for not spotting that his 2 last week wasn’t on a par 3, but the 18th. This week was Alvaro’s turn with a 2 on the 15th.