Richmond Park won their National Semi-Final match by 2 to1 points against Wycombe Heights B at Thorney Park (neutral course) on a warm and sunny Sunday afternoon. The team will now play at the NAPGC National Finals at Thornbury Park golf course, near Bristol, on Saturday September 28th. The wins at Thorney Park in this round of the pairs matchplay competition came from Uli Katte & Adrian Wells (4&3) and Paul Green & Tamas Ladacs (1 up); Mark Bean & Richard Owen narrowly lost their game 2&1. A photo of the winning team at the 18th green after the match is pictured below.

Richmond Park won their Area Final match 2.5points : 0.5 points against Addington Court at The Oaks Golf Centre (neutral course) on a warm, cloudy then turning sunny day. The team will now play a National Semi-Final against Wycombe Heights B at another neutral course, with the winner going to the National Finals at Thornbury, near Bristol, towards the end of September. The wins at The Oaks in this pairs matchplay competition came from Paul Green & Tamas Ladacs (2&1) and Mark Bean & Richard Owen (4&3), with Richard Back & Adrian Wells claiming a half, after fighting back from 4 down.

In the previous round, on June 23rd, the team played at Portsmouth Golf Club and secured a 2:1 win, with Paul Green & Tamas Ladacs winning 6&5 and Mark Bean & Richard Owen winning 3&2. Richard Back & Uli Katte were our 3rd pair, going down 3&2.

In our first round, on May 26th, the team played at Tilgate Forest and secured a 2:1 win. Richard Back & Uli Katte won their match 4&3 and Paul Green & Adrian Wells finished 1up. Pete Goodall & Tamas Ladacs were our 3rd pair, going down 3&2.

On a very windy Sunday afternoon at Hoebridge (a neutral venue), the Richmond Park team played Easthampstead for a place in the national semi final of this men’s pairs matchplay competition. The course was in good condition and proved an excellent choice for the match. Our 3 pairs did the club proud by all winning their matches for a 3-0 result and we now look forward to a national semi-final against the Area 3 winners (either Huntswood or South Bucks).

With Uli away on holiday and Peter Goodall and Julian James unavailable, Roger Rojas and Mark Bean joined the team for the match. Our long hitting, low handicap pairing of Richard Back and Ross Hood were first to tee off and ground out a relatively comfortable 2&1 win (certainly more comfortable than their earlier, last-ditch 1up win at Birds Hill!). Richard Owen and Mark Bean were 2nd to go and, after halving the 1st hole, surged to strong position by winning the next 5 holes, and although Easthampstead fought back, the match was closed out with a 4&3 win on the 15th. Our final pairing of Roger Rojas and Tamas Ladacs had a close front 9 with both teams playing very well, however Easthampstead’s putting fell away on the back 9 and a comfortable 3&2 win was the result.

Richmond Park welcomed Hoebridge for their Round 3 match in this men’s 4BBB matchplay competition. In very hot weather conditions a 2:1 win was achieved with solid play on a bone dry Prince’s course and the team now moves to a Region final against Easthampstead.

Our first pair (Pete Goodall and Julian James) were up against two low handicappers, who played the course to an impressive 2 over par. They kept up with them till the 16th but were finally beaten ‘2 up’. Next up were Richard Back and Tamas Ladacs, who were up against two single figure handicappers from Hoebridge. After some back and forth, Richmond took command and closed the match out on the 16th with a 3 &2 win. Our final pair, Richard Owen and Uli Katte got off to a slow start, 2 down after 3 holes but clawed their way back to be 1 up at the turn. With Richard’s net birdies on the 10th and 13th, the lead was extended to 3 up and the match was closed out on the 16th hole, 4&2.

Three men’s pairs played away against Bird Hills Golf Club in this 4BBB NAPGC matchplay competition and were winners 2:1. Our 3rd round match will be against the winners of Hoebridge A and Tilgate Forest B.

It was an overcast and chilly 9am start but fortunately not raining, as the Bird Hills course was already extremely wet with County dispensation granted for Winter Rules to still be in force. Our first pairing of Peter Goodall and Julian James played well but could not overcome the ‘local knowledge’ of their opponents, who won 2&1 on the 16th hole. Our 2nd pair of Uli Katte and Richard Owen won their first hole but were one down after 3 holes; they then clawed their way back to 2 up at the end of the front 9. Their lead was extended with good interplay by Uli and Richard and they closed their match out for a 4&2 win on the 16th green. Our low handicappers, Richard Back and Ross Hood, represented us in Game 3, Richard giving 10 shots and 16 shots to their 2 opponents. Things were not looking good for them when they were 4 down with only 6 holes left and (knowing this) our first 2 pairs waited in the clubhouse for the seemingly inevitable team exit from the competition. However, Richard and Ross achieved ‘mission impossible’ by securing a 1up win with a combination of closing birdies and pars.