The field enjoyed pretty decent golfing conditions. Still plenty of roll on the fairway. Looks like some greens on the front 9 were cut. The rough remains enemy number 1 for most players. But all in all the course seemed there for the taking. And that is what a lot of players did. Prime example was the 18th hole. On that hole in particular players did take full advantage of the white tees being (temporarily) moved up. 

Best of the class today was Julian. He enjoyed a decent start. But he then went on to record birdies on 11 and 17. That was part of a 35 gross back 9 (aka 26 net). Just enough to finish as the best of 3 players on 62 (net). Today’s Runner-Up was on a Headingley high. Alison copied the JJ method: solid on the front 9 (48 gross – 33 net) and excellent on the back 9 (42 gross – 29 net). Last member of the 62 gang is Chris Rudkin. He finishes 46 (gross – 31 net) and 45 (gross – again 31 net). Very well played all 3.

Early starter Pralab was leader in the ckubhouse for a quite a while. The highlight of his 64 net was an eagle 2 on the 15th. Angus recovered in time from a demanding golf trip on Monday to shoot 74 gross (65 net). He probably could’ve challenged the group on 62 had it not been for 3 3-putts in the first 5 holes. PCC adjustment looks likely. So the HI adjustments could be more muted than anticipated.

Early rain dissipated to give a sometmes breezy day.

Women

A select group of 6 today and seems the women found it a touch tougher than Joe G who has recorded a gross 70 (as per below), to match Lia’s net score today. A fair number of matches both internal and external reduced both fields, but the effect seemed to help the speed of play!

Pretty pleasant conditions for golf though think the rain of yesterday had softened things up a bit.

Congrats to Lia on her win by 1 shot today.

Men

Joe G (aka Mr. 59) shot a lifetime best net 59 to win the July Medal by 3 shots – well done Joe. Joe was 35 out and 35 in coming on top of a win at Coombe Wood yesterday and is set for an overnight WHS ESR of -1.0 to take his HI from11.2 to 9.2 and back to single figures.

Tamas shot an amazing net 62 [34 gross on back 9] for second place whist Jay shot level par 68 (net 63) and best gross of the day. Well done indeed – Joe, Tamas and Jay get the senior division sweep.

4^th overall and junior division leader is Sean with excellent 64 with James Cridland and new member Craig. Most encouraging.

This was the 5^th round from a possible 8 for the Grand Medal Trophy and Tamas is leader of senior division by himself being only player to have played all 5 rounds. In the junior division Duncan T leads with from Dilip 277 and Anthony W 279 – all after 4 rounds.

It was a swealteringly hot and humid day with temperatures peaking around 30 deg. C, so well done to all those who finished 18 holes. The SLOW PLAY by one of the early groups made it a frustrating day for those that followed and this must not become a trend – if you are not keeping up with the game in front, you must stand aside and let the group(s) behind play through.

It was tight at the top with Uli and Pete playing together and both scoring 37 points, Uli winning out on countback. 3rd and 4th places went to Russell (36 points) and Mitch (35 points), both playing in the cooler early morning conditions. Best front 9 (21 points) recorded by James and Lia and best back 9 (22 points) scored by Graham Swindells. George Taylor and Pete Goodall both had 2 birdies.

Sweeep payout to top 4 (£10, £8, £5, £3)

Yesterday’s rain made the greens a bit more receptive. But there was still plenty of roll & bounce on the fairways. The rough in certain places is just getting ridiculous. So staying on the fairways “doesn’t hurt”.

Winner of the day and 1st woman is Cheryl. She went steady on the front 9. But totally let it go (no reference to Frozen the movie) on the back 9. She managed to record a nett score of 30 (!) strokes on the way in. Nothing you can do against that. Yours truly’s round was a mirror image of Cheryl’s. I scrambled my way to a gross score of Level Par (30 nett) on the front 9. But I lost the plot on holes 13-16 (where I went +5). So a nett score of 36 on the back 9 means I finish second (but I do win the sweep – small consolation). Toby only finished 1 stroke back on 67 (Nett). The first early bird was Peppe (looks like the morning hour suits your golf game PM). Peter G had his 3rd eagle in the last month. He managed to chip in from 40yds on the 3rd. But surprisingly he lost his way on the 2 par 5’s today. Otherwise he would’ve challenged for the top prizes.

There are no more certainties at RPGC. “Ballantyne” Captain Richard O recorded another good score on Duke’s (his allegiance was clearly with Princes the last couple of years). Last year’s Women’s CC, Silvia, finishes in the last “Money Spot”.

Cool and blustery conditions for the second Jubilee (of 4 ) in the Anniversary Cup.

Doreen shot a glorious round of 65 and had the equivalent of 25 points on the back 9 to win on countback from John M whose round was consistently excellent.
A super 69 from Reiko gained Reiko 3rd place from Ian B.
Only 2 ‘Twos’ were recorded – Richard S 7th and Paul K 16th;again reflecting conditions for medal a third of the field NRd.

Women dominate places in this round and also in 2nd of Anniversary Cup where Cheryl’s 65 in the Platinum sees her leader on 139 from Lia 143. 4 further behind is leading man John P 147.

It felt like winter had returned with much colder temperatures, a strong south-westerly wind and occasional light rain. The significant rain on Wednesday night had soften the fairways and greens and there was less bounce and run than recently.

The unpleasant conditions kept the scoring to modest levels, except for our winner Richard Norden who posted 41 points, with an outstanding 24 points on the front 9, including a birdie on the 9th. In 2nd place (38 points) was Paul McGrath; a steady round with 20 out and 18 points in. Uli Katte and James Deissler both got 36 points to take 3rd and 4th places, respectively; Uli started slowly but got stronger as his round progressed, whereas James was the opposite, except for his birdie on the 16th.

It was great to have Teddy Holt back playing with us again and to have Pralab, Graham and Ed ‘in the mix’, rather than 2 hours ahead.

Sweep pay out to top 4 (£10, £8, £5, £3)

A buggy tour of most of the holes on The Duke’s and Prince’s courses was undertaken by Peter Harrington and Richard Owen as part of the club’s ongoing liaison with Glendale’s greenkeeping staff.

The distances from tees to the start of fairways were measured, the extent of the ‘rough’ was inspected, together with the state of the bunkers, the course marking of out-of-bounds and no-play areas and other hole-specific features.

To state the obvious: players made things look (very)easy today. Nearly 20% of the field recorded 40pts or more. Suppose a PCC adjustment is on the cards. [Ed : 0]

Jim D birdied 9 and 11 today. He had 23pts on the first 9. His score of 22pts on the back 9 would even have been better had he not PU’ed on the last (!) hole. Victory and an ESR are well deserved. Jim is also the first winner in 3 weeks not to have been accompanied by Alan K or yours truly. But I suppose both of them were with Russel S in spirit.  He is keeping up his good form. Another +40pts score  is in the books. Thanks to 24pts on the back 9 he edges Terry into 3rd place (Terry recorded 19/23pts on front and back 9 respectively). Colin had another steady round to claim 4th with 42pts (20+22pts). The bionic man Peppe choose an early tee-time. Turned out to be very clever choice: 41pts and 5th place. Yours truly is the last player finishing “in the Money” (the score on the 16th still hurts …). 1st woman today is the incoming Women’s Captain: Cheryl. Peter G’s tee shot on the 6th finished 30yds short of the green. He then managed to chip in for an unexpected eagle.  

A hot sunny and humid day for the Shaw Cup on Prince’s.

Mark Bean shot a convincing 42 points to win with 22 on back 9 – 2 birdies inc long par 3 13th. Well done Mark!
Earlier, Dilip was the clubhouse leader on 41 with 23 on front 9 including a ‘blob’ but offset with 2 4 pointers. Best woman Susan Smith just edged Charlie Whiteman on back 9 – both 39 points Susan’s back 9 was excellent – 22 points 5 over par.
PCC remained at 0 but Mark enjoyed a full shot cut with HI down from 11.6 to 10.6.

For men this was 3rd comp in the ‘Top Dog’; per attached a new leader has emerged – Toby. He leads on 14 from Dilip, Raymond and Ross all 12 with points from JQR and Shaw.
The junior sees Dilip now in a strong lead on 26 points from Onursal 12 and Gregory 11.