Rain and forecasts of more discouraged many potential competitors, but the weather did not deteriorate as expected.

A sparkling 40 points earned Jeremy Thompson the midweek Champagne Chase fending off Kim Chaffart’s 38 (still with some fizz on back nine 20 points) and David Vines’ 36. Well done to Jeremy who is cut to 14. Results…

The event was postponed due to poor course conditions. See two photos taken from the club house. Photo 1… | Photo 2…

Mild conditions prevailed with an increasingly moderate breeze. Despite recent dry conditions, mowing machines seemed to have created some mud on fairways which will only be exacerbated with rain predicted from storm ‘Caroline’.

Steady play was the order of the day for the December medal. Congratulations to Chris Philip-Jones for a fine 66 and a cut to 12. Tidy 67s from Jeremy Prescot and Brett Colley earned 2nd and 3rd positions. Results…

CSS: 67 (Men) – 69 (Ladies)

Ladies

After a drizzly start 3 teams of 3 enjoyed a mild day and a fun team competition of ‘Pink Ball’. Players took it in turns to play the pink ball with points for that ball being doubled. The best ball of the other two players also contributed to the team score. The two best pink ball holes of the day were Jayne’s birdie for 8 points on the 11th and Susan’s birdie for 8 points on the 14th. The runaway winners were Sheena, Lia and Caroline S who didn’t have a birdie but scored consistently well over all 18 holes. MVP of the day was Sheena who had 8 pars and an individual score that would have seen her handicap cut had we been playing a qualifier. The winning total was 115, second place 105 and third place 100. No pink balls were lost so the threatened points penalties were avoided. Results…

Men

The monthly medal competitions ended with a bang. The field (or at least a very big part of it) took full advantage of the milder weather and tore Prince’s apart. The early starters had some trouble to get going. After the initial tee-shots there were no less than 8 players together on the 1st fairway! Neither of them could mount any real challenge.

On another note. If you want to know what it feels like to play golf: check Jon Cooper’s scores on the 15th and 16th hole. Numbers speak for themselves (Kerry Sargeant made a valiant effort too on the 7th and 8th hole).

The late morning starters were on fire. Eric Lit had every reason to be happy with his score of 64 (77 gross). Unfortunately for him his score was bettered by the very next group. Oliver Maskell eagled the 14th on route to a 63 (76 gross). But the best was yet to come. Chris Lordan and Alex Kransnenkov were in the same game and pushed each other the whole way round. End result: 61 (70 gross) for Chris and 63 (79 gross) for Alexander. Phil Flanagan’s excellent 64 earns him 4th spot. Habib Amir (79 Gross) completes the Top6. In the same process Alexander and Oliver earn ESRs of 0.5 strokes. Results…

CSS: 67

Golfing conditions remained pretty grim (I don’t think I was the only one who couldn’t grip my clubs “properly” at the start of the round). On top of that the fairways were fairly muddy. This was partly offset by a) (cold) winds helping (slightly) on the 5th, 9th and 12th and 14th hole and b) the men teeing off from the yellow tees (should’ve read the notice board Jay …).

Chris Phillips-Jones was in a league of his own today: 3 birdies (2nd, 12th and 18th), points scored on all 18 holes and 23pts on the back 9 allowed him to finish on 42pts. CPJ’s handicap gets cut by a very impressive 1.5 strokes. From now on his stroke allowance will be 13. Mark Andrews gave CPJ a serious run for his money. Unfortunately he scored no points on 2 holes. Still 40pts (21pts out and 19pts in) is a very good result. Mark’s handicap drops to 17. Jack Evans started out slowly (16pts out) but came alive on the back 9 (21pts) to finish 3rd. Jon Cooper sprinted around the course (he was finishing his 3rd pint when the next games came in) to match Jack’s score. Countback pushed him into 4th. Charlie Renton and Jeremy Ryan complete the Top6. Results…

CSS: 37pts (Men) – 36pts (Ladies)

Team event

Team Blue (alphabetically ranging from Mark Andrews to Peter Jagger – average stableford score 29) beat Team Red (CPJ to Cheryl Woodhouse – average stableford score 28.71). Winners of the team event will be contacted individually.

Ladies

Winter is definitely doing its best to hamper good scoring from the ladies, starting as we did today with frozen ground and ice on the greens. It was at least another beautiful sunny day overhead and we had some internal warming on the 7th tee as the ladies’ committee, and more particularly Habe Crocker, supplied us with mulled wine and mince pies. Several scores improved from the 7th onwards!

It was nearly another QRO, but with 33 points, Sheena Harrington managed to play in her buffer zone and CSS went up 2 to 34 points. Susan Smith and Doreen Dolby both scored 30 points, with Susan taking 2nd spot with the better back 9. Results…

Men

The field didn’t enjoy the best golfing conditions. The early starters faced some frozen greens (the 3rd to name just one) and icy temperatures. Starting late(r) clearly proved to be the better course of action. Darren Enthoven went out really early and set the pace with 33pts. How tough were the early morning conditions? When the first couple of games finished around 1.45pm Lee Marshall was the only player who had actually played to his handicap (36pts). CSS at that time was estimated to be 33! A whole list of players struggled to score double digits points (on either front or back 9). Damian Hackett finishes in the Top6 with just 33pts. Today’s comp would’ve been reduction only had it not been for the late morning starters. Three of the 10.00 am starters Tony Kopczak, Alexander Krasnenkov and Stephen Mason managed to stay within their respective buffer zones and sneak into the Top6. The only player to play better than his handicap was Chris Lordan. His score of 37pts earns him victory and a handicap cut of 0.6 strokes. His new handicap now stands at 9. Well done. Results… 

CSS: 34pts

Mild but very windy conditions prevailed with mud in places. A ‘Waltzing’ team competition was complemented by an individual non-qualifying competition. All players played from the men’s par & SI for the team event but (due to the software) with ladies receiving 2 shots whilst the individual comp was as normal with no such shot allowance.

Due to the incidence of playing numbers Peter Osgood and Toby Hunt were selected at random to partner Jeremy Ryan & Paul House and Michael Choo & Peter Harrington respectively.

In the team event, two teams each had 79 points with Paul House, Jeremy Ryan and Peter Osgood winning on countback from Kim Chaffart, Alexander Krsnenkov and Tamas Ladacs. Team results…

Peter Osgood won the individual comp on countback from John Curry – both 39 points with three birdies – and John being level par at the turn. Results… | Analysis…

Ladies

The cold, crisp and sunny overhead conditions of the day did nothing to inspire the ladies unfortunately. There was a lot of good scoring on individual holes, which will help in the Eclectic, but not in the stableford event for today. Habe Crocker came alive on the back 9 to score 20 points and win the competition with a total of 34. Two points back was Elaine Elborn who looks to be back to form after her injury layoff. Results…

The positions are the same in the accompanying 1st round of the Eclectic. R1 Leader board…

Men

Eric Lit seemed to enjoy today’s muddy conditions. A solid front 9 (20pts) was followed by an excellent birdie on the 10th. Looks like Eric got a bit carried away because he didn’t finish the 11th hole. He recovered quite well to finish the back 9 with 19pts. A total score of 39pts earns him victory and a new handicap of 13. Gefeliciteerd! Kerry Sargeant had an even better front 9 (with birdies the 6th and the 8th). His 22pts on the way out are even more impressive since he didn’t score a point on the 9th! 17pts on the back 9 prevented Kerry from overtaking Eric. Midweek transfer Chris Jones enjoyed an excellent round (38pts – 20pts on the way in) to finish 3rd. Oliver Maskell played consistent golf (19pts out & in – he even had 3 birdies) to finish 4th. Our secretary Peter Harrington and Michael Choo complete the Top6. Results…

Two factoids:
– no shortage of birdies today (Dennis Pellerin chipped in from off the green on the 4th for his birdie)
– Also note that the last Putney Park game was able to pull 3 holes away from the 1st RPGC game (the source is a highly unreliable though …).

CSS: 37pts

Alan King retains the lead in the 2017/18 Winter Competition (76pts). Kerry Sargent moves into 2nd (73pts) and Eric is now 3rd (69pts). R2 Leader board…

In the associated Prince’s Eclectic – report due soon. R1 Leader board…

A still late autumn day albeit with pestering gnats allowed players to focus their game. Play for the men moved to the yellow tees and first signs of inevitable winter mud appeared.

Eelco Snijders shrugged off any distractions and for the 2nd week running won with 41 points. Well done to Eelco who also had an ESR of one shot so now plays off 9. Chris Phillips-Jones came second on 40 with Richard Owen and John Curry following with 39. Results…

In the 2nd round of the associated Winter Competition Eelco on 82 points leads John and Darren Enthoven by 10. R2 Leader board…

Eelco is also one shot clear on 71.5 from John in the Duke’s Eclectic. R1 Leader board…

Ladies

We thought last week was cold, until we stepped out today into the arctic winds. The one plus was the way the sunlight lit up the autumn leaves. Something certainly lit up Susan Smith, who having played 12 or so holes well in many recent weeks, finally managed it for 18, scoring a whopping 44 points to beat the rest of the small field by some 8 points. Reportedly, she didn’t need her putter for the first few pars and continued to chip and putt well for the remainder of the round. In 2nd place was Habe on 36 points. CSS went to 37 points. Results…

In the accompanying 1st round of the Eclectic, the half-handicap allowance moved Habe into a 1/2 shot lead over Susan. R1 Leader board…

Men

A big field (45 players) didn’t enjoy the best weather conditions. Rain the previous day made the fairways very muddy and the greens too receptive. Add to that icy temperatures and swirling winds and you’ll agree that the best word to describe today’s conditions is: Brutal.

All of the above brought the best and the worst of the field. Let’s start with the worst. Only 7 (!) players managed to remain within their buffer zone. Peter Osgood took out his driver on the 2nd hole to have a shot at the green (wind was helping – so you could excuse his hubris). A full shoulder turn and complete weight transfer later he realised that his tee-shot ended just past … the ladies tee (that’s what you get when you study videos of Damian Hackett’s swing for too long). Quite stunningly he managed to par the hole! Mike Shabani had a brain freeze and mixed up the greens of the 7th and 11th hole. To use the words of a long serving member: I have never in the x years at the club seen anybody go that far left.

On to the good. Kerry Sargeant and Alan Cinnamond used excellent ball striking control to score 34pts. Michele Prencipe was totally at ease in today’s weather. His score of 39pts earns him 2nd spot and new handicap of 19. Auguri! While a lot of players struggled to score 26pts over 18h holes (yours truly included) Alan King reached that target after just 9 holes! A no-score on the 18th forced him to settle for “just” 16pts on the back 9. Alan gets a massive handicap cut of 2.4 strokes and will now play off 18. James Anslow and Gunnar Sundberg complete the Top6. Results…

CSS: 34pts (I told you it was brutal out there).

The positions in the Winter Competition are the same as the results in Rd 1. R1 Leader board…

In the associated Duke’s Eclectic – report due soon. R1 Leader board…