General consensus was that the course should either have had 18 temps or be closed. On the first green footprints went several inches below the surface leaving it in an appalling condition which is likely to render it out of action for some months.

Women

Hmmm what to say! Last week Joan made it look easy. She still managed to come out on top today but it wasn’t quite the master class of last week. In fact it was her 17 points on the back 9 that made the difference, started with her birdie on the 10th.
Susan was just one point behind but she kept alternating great shots with ones she’d rather forget.
Our second game today are all currently shown as NRs in the eclectic as they all recorded rahter a number of blobs.

As with last week, handicapping affects the order in the eclectic with Susan & Joan swapping places but it’s only the first round.

Men

Tamas shot a consistent 41 points [inc. 2 birdie ‘Twos’ at 7 and 16 ] to lead Senior division for the day ahead of Kerry 38; Kerry’s round showed scope for improvement with a couple of ‘blobs’ but had a fine birdie at 12th. Paul Kammerling’s 35 showed much promise. In the cumulative Winter comp Tamas leads after 2 rounds 73 from Paul’s 71 and Kerry’s 70.
The stats show Kerry had most holes under par [so birdies since no eagles today] – 3.

The Junior division for the day was headed by Robin T with a fine 40 points [21 on back 9] 3 ahead of Gerard O’s 37 [which was 21 out but with 3 ‘blobs’ on back 9]. Suhail led the rest of challenge on with 36 on countback from Rannesh and Tony K. Sean ties the cumulative Winter comp after 2 rounds with Onursal both 75 points.

It was a cold and thankfully dry start becoming increasingly warm (relatively !) as the sun shone down. The course was very wet and muddy, so no run on the ball. Three temporary greens (3rd, 11th and 12th) which didn’t seem to have seen a mower for quite a few days. The 1st hole should also have had a temporary green and was in a dreadful state.

Nothing seemed to stop today’s winner Richard Norden though. His impressive 42 points included 6 pars and a birdie on the final hole. Clear 2nd place (38 points) went to Rannesh, who had one of those rounds with his putter producing 3 birdies on the 7th, 10th and 18th (two of which were putted from distance off the greens). This raises Rannesh to 3rd in the 2023 Friday Birdie Tree (attached). 3rd and 4th places in the competition (36 points) were decided on countback, with Pat Dalton squeezing out Charlie Haines. Pat’s score could have been even better if he hadn’t blobbed 2 holes because his ball was “lost in the sun”. Sweep payout to top two (£11, £6).

 Nowhere to hide from the casual water and mud (all of us took their fair share home …). The 2 temporary greens and forward tees on a lot of holes rendered the course fairly short.

So you could argue the above offset each other. Gerard O recorded 5 3-pointers and 2 4-pointers. That translated into 19pts on the front 9 and 21pts on the back 9. Pretty impressive in these conditions. Another early starter Robert C finished 1 point back of Gerard. He may regret the 3 5’s to start his back 9. 5 players scored 38pts. Chris J and Richard O matched Gerard’s score on the back 9 (21pts). But Chris’ last 6 holes were marginally better than Richard’s. Adrian W and Mike J had a softer back (20pts). But it was enough to claim the last “money spots”.  Pepe M had the best front 9 (21pts).

MW Winter Standings
Julian J, Robert C 73pts, JM Gomez 72, Serhat G 71

MW Princes Eclectic
Richard O 71.9, Robert C 72.1, Adrian W 73.6

Cool and grey with the odd spell of light rain. 2 temps & a non-qualifier for handicap.

Women

It was Joan’s turn to make it look easy this week with 35 but she was closely followed by 3 on 34. Think Katharina and Sheena were playing in a parallel universe but it gives us plenty of room for improvement in the next rounds of the eclectic.
In the eclectic, Gina tops it followed by Jayne & Joan courtesy of the half handicap allowance- you can check the holes you need to improve from the report on MS

Men

The senior division was headed by Peter Needham who started with a welcome birdie and against normal form had a better front 9 (22pts) than back (17pts) for 39 total; in a similar vein Thierry Andretta had 21 out 16 back for his 37. Paul Kamerling finished 3rd with steady 35 then club champion Roger Rojas 35.

The junior division returned higher points scores with Onursal Soyer 42 [best front 9, 23pts ], Paul Green 41, Sean O’Sullivan 3rd 40 on countback from Julian James and Paul McGrath .

The first round of [8] for Winter Comp. reflects the above whilst in first [of 4] Prince’s Eclectic is headed by Peter Needham 70.1 from Julian James 72.2.

Light rain showers were evident over the first few holes and the weather forecast promised dry sunny conditions from about 11am, however the clouds kept rolling in and, with the wind becoming more northerly, it was decidedly ‘cold’ by mid afternoon.

It seemed for a long time that early starter Russell Stewart’s 38 points would easily win the day, however in the penultimate game Peter Miller came in with 40 points ( 23 points on the back 9) and Julian James equalled Stewart’s 38 points, but missed out on countback. Russell had birdies on the 11th and 14th, while Peter birdied the 4th and Julian birdied the 17th. Sweep pay-out to these top 3 (£9, £6, £3).

A small field faced tough conditions. Autumn/Winter golf was back with a bang at the park. Even though the rain was less present the last 36h mud and casual water were ever present. There were still 3 temporary greens (3rd, 11th and 12th). Avoiding the rain today proved impossible. Even though the rain wasn’t very hard it was very persistent during the whole day.

Early starter Brett Colley put up a valiant effort to come home with 35pts (17+18). But the day belonged to the late morning starters. Arguably the weather was worse for them. 3 players finished on 36pts. Julian had the best back 9 of the three. The last 6 holes of Julian James and Bill Norman were the tie-breaker: Julian had 12pts over those holes . Bill scored 1pt less. José-Manuel Gomez scored 16pts on the back 9 so he finishes 4th. Mike Jones was the only player “to beat his HI”. 38pts (20pts out and 18pts in) make him the clear winner. For 1 week at least he leads the MW Winter Comp standings. 

Breezy and bright but dry after recent storm/rains for the November Medals. With 3 temporary greens the competitions became non-qualifying for handicap.

Women

Silvia made it look pretty easy but am assuming conditions were pretty much as muddy and horrible as they were today and possibly raining as well? Your author was enjoying some sun in Spain!

So congratulations to Silvia who wins the last of the 2023 women’s medals – on to team games next month.

Men

Pete Malla led the way in the Senior division with net 70 just 1 from Paul Kamerling; with 73s came Umran Ali, Aidan Hurley and Joe Goncalves; Aidan had lowest gross of the day.

With a glorious 65 Charles Haines won the Junior medal from early leader Alan King 67. Mark Laverty teed off with a birdie for his 68 whilst Richard Hanna shot 70 with a promising front 9 gross 41 net 31.

This week it was ‘5 Clubs and a Putter’, which is a good deal ‘easier’ than 3 clubs and a putter and playing off the yellow tees also helped. Due to the heavy rain over the preceding days, there were 3 ‘temporary greens’, although these were simply holes in the fairway with no additional mowing or boundary marking.

The top 3 of Alex Braun (37 points), Andre Pelser (37 points) and Richard Norden (36 points) all put in very solid and consistent rounds, although Alex equalled Pralab with a best back 9 of 23 points and Andre had the best front 9 (20 points). Andre also scored 6 on all of the last 8 holes, which is highly unusual.

Mention must be made of Pralab’s round. Although finishing with a ‘middle-of-the-road’ 32 points, he only had 4 points after 8 holes. He then eagled the 9th, birdied the 10th and then went on to also birdie the 15th and 18th holes. What a change in form!

Events on the SI 1 14th hole in the game involving Tamas and Richard Norden also deserves a mention, as 2 balls were holed with one shot. Richard played his 6th shot to just a few inches from the hole before Tamas played his 3rd (approach) shot onto the green – Tamas’s ball knocked Richard’s ball into the hole, and then followed it in. A great birdie for Tamas, but Richard had to replace his ball and putt for a 7. Sweep payout to top 3 (£9, £5, £3).

The course was muddy after more recent rain.

The winner of the Medal was Serhat with an amazng 63 with Graham C 2nd 65 on countback from Robert C.

With the 2 Matchplay KOs finished and now the final competition – Lissaman Cup, final Senior and Junior positions are shown below: