Ladies

The weather for the last ladies’ medal of the year was glorious and encouraged some good scores – & some not so good! Fresh from her victory in the singles knock-out on Saturday, Val Riziotis continued in the same vein coming in with a net 66 to beat the rest of the field by three shots and earn herself a 0.9 cut to 15.7. As yesterday, Lia Donath was the runner-up. Results…

CSS remained at 69.

Men

Golfing conditions proved ok. And the field delivered. Prince’s was ripped apart today (7 birdies on the 4th hole!). Lee Marshall kept up his good recent form. A score of 62 (72 gross) made him leader in the clubhouse. To his (and a lot of other people’s) amazement this wasn’t enough to claim victory today. Mike Shabani played the round of his life. Solid ball striking, more than a few good bounces and steady nerves allowed him to return an unbelievable score of 58 (72 gross). Par golf was the way to go. His score was made up of just (!) one birdie and 12 pars. Mike sees his handicap cut to 11. Well done. Lee Marshall’s good form gets rewarded with an ESR: his new handicap now stands at 8. Julian James finished 3rd but probably missed a chance to finish higher on the last two holes. Tony Bergqvist’s score of 65 (net) has a positive (4th place today) and a negative (one shot less to play with in his upcoming pairs final vs Team GB). Seong Lim (5th) and Nigel Gaymond (6th – but he also loses a shot on his handicap – a negative for the pairs final vs Team Sweden) complete the Top6. Results…

CSS: 67

Thanks to his heroics today Mike Shabani was able to overtake Keith Cassidy and win the Grand Medal Trophy (best 5 out of 8 scores):

1  Mike Shabani  331
2  Keith Cassidy  334
3  Toby Hunt  339

Competitors faced some nasty conditions today. Temperatures felt really cold because of the gusting winds. Because of those winds some holes played really long (I have never ever played the 15th hole with the wind in the back …). The fact that the greens were more unpredictable than normal didn’t help either.

All those factors didn’t bother Jeremy Ryan one bit. A steady front 9 was followed up by a superb back 9. Birdies on the two par 3’s set him on route to gross score of 37! Jeremy’s final tally finishes at 64 (76 gross) – a whopping 7 strokes better than CSS. His new handicap drops to 10 (potentially setting himself up for an ESR over the last two months of the year). 2nd place goes to Jack Evans with an excellent score of 68 net. Jack’s consistent round (44 out and 43 in – gross) earns him a new handicap of 18. 1st lady today is the back-up treasurer Lesley Mason with a score of 69 net. Kim Chaffart’s decent front 9 was offset by a disappointing inward 9. Jay Barker used up 3/4 of his handicap on the front 9 but still managed to record a net 71. Early starter Darren Enthoven completes the Top6. Also note that none of the players in the 3-ball that went out at 2.00pm returned a score. Results…

CSS: 71 (Men) – 73 (Ladies)

In the final standings of the Midweek Grand Medal Trophy Jay Barker managed to hold onto 1st place. But thanks to his score of 64 today Jeremy Ryan finished just one stroke behind!

Golfing conditions proved tricky today. The rain of the last couple of days negated any roll on the fairways. Greens had a bit more zip. So good lag putting and short game control were required. Finally the wind and the light showers required extra ball flight control. So it shouldn’t come as a big surprise that the single figure players did well today.

Mike Assender proved again that playing a medal round on Duke’s is no challenge for him. Consistent golf (38 out and back) result in a net score of 67. More than enough for 1st place today. His solid golf gets rewarded with a handicap cut of 0.8 strokes and an ESR of 0.5 Mike’s new exact handicap stands at 7.9. Very well done. James Barker finishes 2nd with a net score of 68 (73 gross). The only blemish on his scorecard was the double bogey on the 4th. 2nd place and a new handicap (exact handicap 4.4) should make up for that. Dennis Pellerin had an excellent day: a net score of 69 drops his handicap to 21. Roger Rojas came into this round defending his lead in the Anniversary Cup. Looks like the pressure got to him a bit on the front 9 (+7 gross). But the assurance that his closest followers (Peter Osgood and Tamas Ladacs) couldn’t mount any serious challenge helped steady the ship. An excellent back 9 (highlighted by a pitch/chip-in from 50 yards for birdie on the 14th) helps him into 4th place. Peter Osgood even went so far as to walk from the 7th tee over to the 10th green to (hastily) concede defeat to Roger. Liam Bridger and Henry L-B complete the Top6. 1st lady is Susan Smith with a net score of 73. Results…

CSS: 71 (Men) – 73 (Ladies)

Final Standings Anniversary Cup

1  Roger Rojas 207
2  Tamas Ladacs 210
3  Peter Osgood 212

The field enjoyed mainly decent conditions to finish their round. Although the late afternoon starters arguably faced the worst conditions (threats of rain and a wind that became stronger during the course of the afternoon).

The day’s winners were Elaine Elborn and Jon Curry. Their consistent round of golf sees them take 1st place with 45pts (22pts out and 23pts in). Well done to them! Ronnie Mitchell and Brett Colley matched Jon & Elaine on the front 9 with 22pts. But it looks like they missed their chance with a softer start on the back 9. That means that they finish 2nd (just 1pt behind the winners). Richard Owen and Chris Jones saw their strong outward 9 (22pts) offset by a softer return on the 16th. Their score of 43pts puts them in 3rd place. Peter Osgood and Henry L-B did deliver on their promise that they would score at least 40pts. But it was quite clear that they were expecting to finish at least on the podium with 42pts. Peter was so desperate to get a birdie on the last hole that he 1) took forever to line up the putt and 2) went flat on his belly (Google Camillo Villegas to you get the idea) to try and read the line of his putt (BTW: he did miss the birdie putt). Four other pairs managed to score 40pts but missed out on the Top3. Results…

Ladies

Report due soon. Results…

Men

Hard to believe that summer came to an official end this week. The field enjoyed some nice weather (minus the wind) for the September Monthly Medal round on Prince’s. As usual Greg Saunders went out (very) early. His net score of 68 (his score on the 7th hole will haunt him though) made him leader in the clubhouse. Nigel Ward overtook Greg with a net score of 66. His score was matched by Charlie Whiteman. But the countback rule means that Nigel edges out Charlie. Peter Harrington came in with the very last game. He managed to record a fantastic net score of 61 (85 gross). Peter’s handicap gets a massive 2.8 stroke cut and he now plays off 21. Looks like marking all these cards for handicap does improve your golf after all … If you take into consideration that his better half may have won today’s Ladies Better Ball comp (with an unconfirmed stableford score of 48pts!) it is safe to say that today represented a good day at the office for the Harrington household. Simon Malin (net 67) and Alan Cinnamond (net 67 – lowest gross score 73) complete the Top6. Well done to Rick Smith for his birdie on the 16th hole! Results…

CSS: 68

Keith Cassidy retains the lead in the Grand Medal Trophy (best 5 out of 8 scores):

1  Keith Cassidy  338
2  Nigel Ward  341
3  Toby Hunt  343
4= James Barker  347
4= Mike Shabani  347
4= Brian McMahon  347

The Autumn Mixed Foursomes was played on the Duke’s course, another fine day. The format for the Autumn event is medal and the winners were Susan Smith partnering Nick Rogers with a net 72.5. Runners up were Sheena Harrington with Tamas Ladacs who returned a net 74. For the Autumn event we also have the Stratford trophy for the best gross and on a countback the lowest gross winners were Sheena and Tamas.

The iffy weather didn’t inspire today’s field to great golf. David Vines was the only competitor shooting below his handicap. Only the Top6 managed to play their handicap (aka remain within the buffer zone). Two Birdies on the front 9 set David up for a good round of golf (39 strokes in & out). A net score of 68 is more than enough to win today’s comp. David’s handicap gets cut 0.8 strokes to 9.5. John Curry recovered from a slow front 9 and came back in 39 strokes. His score of 72 (81 gross) puts him in 2nd. Jon Cooper matched John C’s round but is pushed into 3rd by virtue of the countback rule. Ronnie Mitchell didn’t ace the 10th today. But she put up a valiant effort to topple Gina Jillett, the leader in the Midweek Anniversary Accumulator Competition after 3 rounds. In the end she came a bit short (see below) but 4th place today will serve as some sort of consolation. Eelco Snijders and Chris Phillips-Jones complete the Top6. Results…

CSS: 72 (Men) – 74 (Ladies)

Finally congratulations to Gina Jillett for winning the overall Midweek Anniversary Accumulator Competition. Her lead over Ronnie Mitchell was large enough that today’s sub par round didn’t dent her chances. Final standings are as follows:

1  Gina Jillett  211
2  Veronica Mitchell  213
3  Eelco Snijders  220
4  Jeremy Ryan  220
5  Richard Owen  223
6  Chris Phillips-Jones  224

Ladies

Most unusually, this month’s medal was played on Duke’s rather than Prince’s, but despite the definite autumnal conditions it didn’t seem to cause too many problems if we discount holes 12-14 where there were some rather large scores recorded!

At the 10th hole, Alison Chadwick was bemoaning the fact that she couldn’t get the ball off the tee but omitted to mention her 1-putt holes that can’t have all been on the back 8 holes. She romped home with a net 70 and is awarded a 1.2 cut to her handicap taking it to 21.2. The first game was the winners game, with Habe Crocker seemingly cutting her handicap every time she plays, in 2nd place with a net 72, she gets a 0.2 cut to 8.6. Results…

There was one additional noteworthy event today – a second hole-in-one for Veronica Mitchell at the 10th hole. It was, according to an eye-witness, a lovely shot which hit the green on the left side and ran up and across the green to fall into the hole.

Men

A relatively small field entered this greensomes competition, and this was reduced still further by the 5 games who were disqualified for not recording their actual handicaps on their cards.

Seeing them on the tee, Pete Harrison & Roger Rojas looked to be in trouble on the 11th (& indeed they didn’t score on this hole). Just shows how wrong you can be. In the first game, they led from start to finish, beating Richard Owen & Phil Flanagan on the back 9. Richard & Phil had 20 out & 18 back, with Pete & Roger doing the reverse, even with that blob on the 11th. It was tight at the top, with a further 3 pairs just one point back. Results…

I guess this is the closest we’ll get to links golf at RPGC (minus the sea of course). A big field (40 players) faced gusting winds and thick clouds. The self called “Dream Team” of Peter “Top Dog” Osgood, Habe “2017 Ladies Club Champion” Crocker and Darren ‘shank” Enthoven went out first. They probably enjoyed some of the better weather but couldn’t seize their opportunity. When the other early starters had finished their round the leading score was 3Down!

The 10am starters did capitalize and started posting some decent scores. Tore Burman kept up his excellent form by recording a score of 2up. In the end he was beaten by Jeremy Ryan’s excellent score of 4up. Jeremy’s handicap gets cut by 0.6 strokes and his playing handicap now stands at 11. Well done. Chris Jones (1up) and Jon Cooper (AllSquare) were also among the 10am starters and claimed Top6 finishes. The afternoon starters arguably experienced the worst weather conditions. They faced the additional challenge of some serious rain showers on the front 9. Richard Owen (1up) and Jay Barker (AllSquare) did manage to finish in the Top6. Results…

CSS: 1UP (Men & Ladies)