Competitions
Competitions
Surrey Fives – Final
On Sunday 15th October the Richmond Park B team made the journey to Clandon Regis to play West Surrey in order to determine the overall Surrey 5’s matchplay champions for 2023. The result was a convincing win for Richmond Park; a full report from captain Brendan Sullivan and photo of the team with the trophy is found below.
The day was bright and sunny but accompanied with a bitterly cold wind which made staying in the sun a priority. Clandon Regis had the course in excellent condition with beautiful fairways and fast undulating greens. Surrey County Golf provided a referee who with the use of a buggy moved between all five matches to answer any rules queries that may arise and also kept the teams well informed of how all the matches were progressing.
West Surrey had the honour and each match was announced on the tee by the Surrey County starter. George Taylor (Rookie) was out first for Richmond Park. This was George’s first appearance in the Surrey 5’s but his recent good competition form at Richmond Park justified his selection. George’s first tee nerves where his opening tee shot resulted in a lost ball was not a sign of things to come. With some outstanding play and excellent putting from both players it was clearly evident that this was going to be a close match but nobody was prepared for the drama that unfolded. The match was all square after 17 holes. Two good fairway drives followed by approach shots which found the 18th green (albeit with West Surrey 2ft from the pin and Richmond Park 20ft+ away) made it look as though West Surrey with draw first blood in the match. But in a true matchplay scenario George somehow sank his 20ft+ which had about 2ft of break to put the pressure back on West Surrey to hole his 2ft foot which seemed a formality. Somehow West Surrey missed and Richmond Park won the match to establish a 1-0 lead.
Out second was Pete Malla and again this proved to be yet another close encounter. In a match that was always either 1 up or level throughout also came down to the 18th with West Surrey edging a close 1 up victory to make the overall score 1 – 1.
Match 3 had the ever reliable John Perkins and again this proved to be very close with the score either 1 up or level throughout. John has been extremely consistent for the team all summer and today was no exception. John established a 1 up advantage after 17 holes and with a comfortable par on 18th gave Richmond Park a 2 – 1 lead in the match. Cometh the hour cometh the man.
Brendan Sullivan (Team captain) was out 4th and having lost the first hole to a birdie 3 soon established a stronghold on the match and ran out a 7 & 6 winner to give Richmond Park a 3 – 1 lead and overall victory.
In the anchor match we had Bernie McDermott who to-date had a 100% victory record in the Surrey 5’s for Richmond Park. Bernie some weeks ago was tidying his garage and came across a Ping G2 driver (not a misprint, it really is a G2) and decided to replace his trusty 25 year old Ben Hogan driver with this modern up to date newer model. The result was never in doubt and Bernie as always throughout this years campaign didn’t let the team down. With his straight driving, approach play and steady putting Bernie gradually wore the opposition down and shook hands with his opponent on the 16th green for a 3 & 2 victory to make the overall result 4 – 1 in favour of Richmond Park.
This year’s Surrey 5’s competition started at home on the 18th March against Kingswood and continued with the following:
29th April against Woodcote Park @ home
24th June against Wimbledon Common @ home
16th July against Reigate Hill @ home
26th August against Epsom ‘A’ @ Epsom
16th September against Epsom ‘B’ @ Hindhead
As team captain I would like to thank the following for representing Richmond Park at short notice when asked throughout this year’s competition:
Will Balakrishnan
Kevin Prendergast
Russell Stewart
Toby Hunt
Ryan Wilson
Naveed Manazir
I would also like to thank Peter Harrington, Richard Owen and Roger Rojas for suggesting and recommending various members for selection and supplying contact details for those members.
Lastly I would like to thank George Taylor, Pete Malla, John Perkins and Bernie Mcdermott for turning up to play a practice round at Clandon Regis. As team captain of this Surrey 5’s team their dedication and support to both myself and the team has been really appreciated. Their play in the final was exceptional and what they have achieved has put Richmond Park GC in the limelight and hopefully will inspire the club and it’s members to repeat what they have done in the coming years.
Kind regards
Brendan
Team Captain
Autumn Stableford R2/2 (& Barton Bowl final for Women)
Autumn/Winter golf is back with a vengeance. May be that explains why no less than 26 snowmen were recorded today. 2 observations: 9 of those snowmen were recorded in Div1. Why are so many of you putting out for an 8 in stableford comp?
Hats off to Nick R who recorded an ok score of 33pts despite opening with an 8 on Hole 1. The temperatures were far less helpful than the previous weeks. The fairways still offered interesting amount of roll. But the winds swirled around quite a bit.
Div1
Kerry S recorded to 2 nice birdies. He went out with a solid 19pts. But he decided to notch things up a bit on the back 9. He managed to come home in Level Par gross. That translates to 23pts. His score of 42pts was proved too hard to beat for the rest of the field. To use a slogan familiar to the person question Richard’s round can be described as “bigin quality and LIDL on drama”. A birdie on SI1 set him on course for 22pts on the front 9. 2 DB stalted his progress on the back 9. And he recorded “only” 19pts. 2nd place is welcome change in form. Places 3-4 were a family affair. Thanks to 2 birdies youth prevailed. But a bit more experience may have prevented a 7-5 finish. The experienced member of the Dickey family scored 1pt less than LD on the front 9. That proved the tie-breaker between the 2 of them. CC Roger takes 5th. Pete N is the last on Div1 to get a “purse adjustment”.
Div2
Bridget S decided to take it slow on the front 9 (16pts). But she caught fire on the way in: 5*3pts and 4pts on the 18th. That helped her to record 24pts and finish just ahead of the rest of the field Goran had a solid round (20+19pts) to ctake 2nd. He may had a bit more competition but Iker L committed the cardinal sin by not signing his card (even though he too recorded 39pts). Martin H’s excellent back 9 (22pts) takes him into 3rd. Paul G’s 36pts earn him 4th place.
Aggregate Results
Div1: Kerry S 81pts, Roger R 77pts, Paul K 77pts
Div2: P Green 74pts, Goran K 71pts, Suhail S 71pts
Midweek October Medal (MGMT R8/8)
Much cooler/more reasonable temperatures to walk 18 holes today. Greens were fairly receptive. There was still plenty of roll on the fairways. But the wind made life pretty tricky on a lot of holes.
The early starters didn’t set the bar too high for the 9am starters. But one player went under the bar by some margin. Colin’s birdie on the 2nd set him on route for a score of 40 gross (29 Nett) on the front 9. He was solid as a rock on the back 9. But just as we went on 59 watch he had his sole bad hole of the day on the 18th (Competition Scoring Analysis will show that other players struggled on that hole too). Nonetheless Colin finishes with a Nett score of … 63. His HI will drop faster than the temperatures this weekend. Best of the rest was Dave. Just look at how small the final margins were: Dave’s front 9 40 (30 Nett) and back 9 = 47 (36 Nett). Oliver K was the best of a group of 4 finishing on 68 (Nett). Countback is the tie-breaker between him, Seymour, Peter H and yours truly. 1st woman is steady Doreen. Best gross score is the fruit of yours truly’s labour.
What the results don’t show:
– The woman’s captain, Sheena, makes an entrance on the eagle tree with a 3 on the 8th
– Peter G and Richard B thought that today’s format was 4 Ball Better Ball and decided to have 6 birdies amongst them
– Gina actually played 35 holes today. She first tried to leapfrog a few people ahead of her in the MW Medal standings. She then rushed out to play the final of the Women’s Challenge Cup. That should take care of today’s step count.
MW Grand Medal standings
Colin P 354, Pralab B 356, Chris R 357, Bill N 359, Alex B/Kim C 360
Autumn Stableford R1/2
Another week/weekend/day of summer golf at the park. And the field took advantage of the playing conditions.
Div1
CC Roger recorded an excellent score of 40pts (21+19) to take the clubhouse lead. A DB on the front 9 and a snowman on the back 9 were his only blemishes of the day. Those one-offs allowd Paul K to leapfrog our Men’s CC and clain vitocry in Div1. Paul tallied an excellent score of 22pts (out) and 20pts (in). Suppose that Paul never enters the sweep softens the blow a bit for Roger. Kerry proved again that every good round starts with a DB (or worse). His PU on the 1st hole softened his score on the front 9 to 17pts. But an excellent 22pts onn the back 9 make up for that. Richard S had a solid round (20+18). Tamas is the last player to earn “a purse adjustment”. The Women’s CC recorded no less than 4 birdies today. No price for that unfortunately.
Div2
Women rule the world in Div2. Seema’s round started “slowly” with 17pts on the way out. But she caught fire on the back 9. 25pts on the back 9 allow her hold off the rest of the field. Joan M only finishes 1pt back. Gerard’s balance round (20pts on front and back 9) is good enough for 3rd (and claim the sweep money of this division). Tom and Ducan both finish on 39pts. As per usual the countback rule is the tie-breaker.
All to play for in R2 next week.
Friday Sweep
After a slightly chilly start it turned out to be another sunny, warm autumn day, Still plenty of bounce and run on the fairways but the grass on the greens was in need of a cut.
An outstanding round of golf by Richard Norden (46 points) makes him the clear winner and earns him a 2 strokes cut in his handicap index (including an ESR of 1.0) – he’s now back down to 22.4, where he was 2 years ago. Richard started with a blob (tree trouble) but then didn’t look back with a consistency and driving, approach shots and putting display of a low teens handicapper. Perhaps the most surprising thing about his round (and score) were that there were no birdies.
Early starter Ed Robinson bags 2nd place with a fine 43 points, achieved over 16 holes, as he blobbed the 5th and 16th holes. In 3rd place, with a similarly steady round (just 1 blob) was Richard Hodgkinson (40 points).
Special mentions also go to Poria Alinia (35 points) who had 3 birdies on the front 9, including consecutively on the 7th and 8th holes, but then rather fell apart on the back 9 with 3 blobs, and to Graham Cull (39 points) who had an outstanding front 9 (24 points) – even beating Richard Nordon’s front 9.
To win the sweep money on a Friday it helps to have a high handicap (!!!); the monies go to the top 3 (£12, £8 & £5). However, there were also some good gross scores by the lower handicappers: Richard O. 80, Pralab 82 and Brian 84.
President Prize
Summer golf almost seems like a distant memory. There was quite a chill in the air when the 7am and early 9am games teed off. Still no excuse for the Glendale staff to already leave winter greens on the course. There was still more than enough roll on the fairways. But I suppose less is said about the greens the better …
All this doesn’t take away any credit from Bill’s score of 41pts today. An excellent 23pts out were followed up with a solid 18tpts on the way home. Peter M had 20pts on front and back 9. But he will rue his PU on the 15th hole. Great second place finish today though. Another week another mention for Kevin P. 17pts out (with a PU on the 8th) were handily compensated by a very solid 22pts on the back 9. Andre P matched Kevin’s score. But unfortunately his back 9 was a bit softer than KP’s (20pts v 22). So 4th place is his reward. Poria torched the course with 3 birdies (matched in that department by Tamas). Even though he birdied 2 holes on the front 9 he “only” recorded 16pts on the front 9. His 21pts on the way in were excellent. Graham C keeps up his good form with a 6th place. First lady today is the Women’s Captain, Sheena.
Results of the challenges
NTP 2nd: Colin Price
NTP 4th: Mike Horsthuis
NTP 11th: Poria Alinia
NTP 16th: Tamas Ladacs
NTP in 2 13th: Will Balakrishnan
NTP in 2 18th: MW Captain Brian Ransom
A Committee member will be in touch re the prize
Monthly Medals
Women
Don’t really need to do a report since we were all in the same game & know what went on. If Deb had done the back 9 the same way as she did the front then she would have walked it. In stableford terms it was 20 out and 9 back. As it was we finished in handicap order, though we can’t get excited about the scores since 69 is playing to par.
Men
Today’s competition also served as the final round counting towards the Grand Medal Trophy. Scoring was excellent today.
Senior Division
Michael H went round in 37&36 (gross). This translates into a score of 61 Nett. The 2 birdies on the back allowed him to stay 1 clear of John P. 2 facts of John P’s round describe amateur golf at its best: opening with a triple bogey on the 1st hole but then managing to birdie the SI1. What a silly game. Sunny L recovered from a soft front 9 to come home in 36 (Gross). This allows him to finish 3rd. Pete N recorded birdies on 16 & 18 to beat Richard O on countback for 4th place. Aidan recorded a 2 on the 14th. Jay also recorded an eagle. But he accomplished that feat on the 9th.
Junior Division
Is there anything stopping Kevin P? Out in 42 and home 37 gross. The nett numbers are staggering: 33 (out) and …. 29 (in). Well done on another win. Shockingly KP needed the countback rule to take victory today. Paul McG. Also recorded a 62. But he needed a score of 30 (Nett) on the back 9 to record the same feat. Charlie W and Tom S both finish 2 shots back. Tom S recorded the 3rd eagle of the day (also on the 9th). Gunnar S completes the Top5 with an excellent 65.
Grand Medal Trophy
Looks like there is a tie between Will Balakrishnan and Tamas L on 328. Paul Kamerling (340) and Michael H finish distant 3rd and 4th. Duncan T won junior dvision 345 from Dilip349.
Friday Sweep
It was a relatively warm and sunny autumn day and the course was in good condition, although the greens needed cutting (very slow).
Regular Bill Jennings recorded his first ‘win’ with the club, 38 points and the strongest back 9 of anyone in the field (23 points). Well Done Bill !!
In 2nd place, just one point behind was Adrian Norris; a remarkable result with 4 blobs on his card. 3rd and 4th places, both on 35 points were Adrian Wells and Ed Robinson, respectively. Most players found the back 9 easier than the front 9; best front 9 was by Seymour (20 points). Rannesh birdied 2 of the par 3s. The surprise pairing of Gerald and Seymour easily saw off Uli and Richard Owen in their pairs matchplay side competition, 3&2.
Sweep payout to the top 4 (£10, £7, £3 & £2)
Midweek September Plate
The fairways still offered plenty of roll. But to use an understatement: the greens have seen better days. They were very receptive. But unfortunately that also meant that the putts had a harder time to hold their lines (still no excuse for what happened to yours truly – see below). The swirling winds made club selection tricky. That being said scoring proved excellent for the players with higher HI’s.
Graham C’s comment about his round was: I am pretty chuffed. He damn well should be: 21pts (out with a PU on the 3rd) and 23pts in (birdie on 11 didn’t hurt). On paper nobody came close. Expect an ESR and a massive drop in your HI. On paper Richard N seemed a distant second. But he torched the front 9 for 23pts. A couple of bad holes brutally ended his rally on the back 9. Dave C and Brett C both ended on 39pts. But Dave had the stronger back 9. So he finishes 3rd. Our Glendale Liaison Officers PDH and Richard O matched each other scores (Richard birdied the 5th – aka SI2). But 1pt difference on the back 9 breaks the tie in PDH’s favour.
Other bits:
– yours truly topped/knife/held his tee-shot below the wind (last description is quite a reach) on the 7th hole to land his ball to 1 foot of the cup. I then managed to gloriously miss the putt. A par never felt more hollow than today.
– Jeremy P recorded 17pts on the front 9. Not really worth the mention right? The amazing thing is that recorded those points even though he PU’ed on 3 holes!
Silver Jubilee (25yrs 1924-1949)
Scoring proved excellent in the Silver Jubilee – final round of the Anniversary Cup.
Ed Hall’s extra practice last Wednesday paid dividends today. He went round in 41 and 45 (gross – 31+34 Nett). That proved just enough to hold enough Kevin P. KP recorded 2 birdies on the front 9. But he softened a bit on the last 9. Alan K’s good run of form continues. After a solid front 9 (40 gross) his progress was halted momentarily by a lost ball on 12. But he still managed to be the sole player with a score of 66 (Nett). The Men’s secretary played a solid round of 69 (Nett) to claim 4th. Jim D finished 1 shot further back. But he’d do anything to be able to just play the last 2 holes again. Let’s just say that more respectable scores on 17/18 would’ve moved him a lot closer to the Top2. Michael H and Sean O’S are the last to finish “In the Money”. George T had the best gross score. Deborah P carded the best woman’s score.
Anniversary Cup Standings
Cheryl W (210), Katharina K (215), Lia D (217) , Michael H (217), Ian B (217), John P (219)