Competitions
Competitions
Ballantyne Trophy, round 3
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.
Surrey Fives East, Round 3
On a beautiful Saturday morning our Surrey 5’s B team welcomed the Wimbledon Common A team to the Park for their 3rd round match. The result was a 3.5:1.5 win for Richmond Park, who are now in the Quarter Finals.
The match was played on Prince’s which had fast greens and fairways but the rough was penial if your tee shot strayed off line a fraction.
Will Balakrishnan let the team off and went down fighting to a narrow 2 & 1 loss to give the visitors a 1 – 0 lead in the match. Brendan Sullivan got things back level with a 2 & 1 victory which was quickly followed by Richmond’s john Perkins commanding winning 4 & 3 to give the hosts a 2 – 1 lead. As Richmond’s Bernie McDermott was putting out on 18 to finish all square, news filtered through that new debutant Kevin Prendergast had demolished the Wimbledon Common club captain 4 & 3 to put Richmond Park over the winning line and into the quarter finals where we will meet either Reigate Heath or Reigate Hill.
Friday Sweep
It was another ‘hot day in the sun’ on hard fairways and fast greens (if you were fortunate enough to stay out of the rough)!
After his success the day before on Glendale’s Airlinks course (45 points), Brian Ransom cruised to another victory with 38 points (16 points out and 22 points in). One would think that this ‘return to form’ by Brian would see his handicap reduce, but in fact WHS has increased his index from 18.3 to 18.6 overnight. Brian only won by countback from the ever steady Colin Price, who had 20 points out and 18 points in, with a birdie 2 on the 16th. In 3rd place was Pat Barbour, with her first ever gross score under 90 (88 in fact). Pat had 37 points and WHS has rewarded her with a 0.2 Index cut from 18.6 to 18.4 (she’s now lower than Brian !!!).
There were also some other good scoring performances as shown on the report attached. Rob Wilhelmsson 3 birdies, George Parker best front 9 (22 points) and Veronica Mitchell best back 9 (23 points).
Sweep payout to top 3 (£10, £7, £4)
Airlinks Awayday
On a blisteringly hot day, a group of 12 Richmond Park golfers went to Glendale’s London Airlinks course for an exploratory away day, supported by the fact that annual Glendale subscribers can play one free round per month on any of their 7 golf courses.
After some last minute changes to the team set up, due to traffic problems hitting two of the players, three teams of 4 players teed off, playing
- an individual stableford competition, and
- a team comp, counting the best two stableford scores per hole.
The course was links-like (as its name promises), short but tricky, with a few hard, blind doglegs and with greens at least twice the size of those at Richmond Park, but rather forgiving rough. Very enjoyable!
The teams were named the Lions, Tigers and Panthers and came in like this:
Brian Ransom won with a whopping 46 points, not bad after a month-long scoring slump and considering that he didn’t even like the course 🙂
The Lions took the team price, with a convincing 100 points, narrowly beating The Panthers with their 99 points.
Thanks everyone for joining and see you all soon!
Founders Cup – Mrs Millidge (5/6)
Founders Cup – Mrs Millidge (5/6)
The day belonged to the 9am starters. Just like last week the winner played with the duo of Alan K and yours truly. Alvaro had an excellent front 9. But the middle of the front 9 was really interesting: birdie on 5, a double digit score on 6 followed by … a birdie on 7. That roller coaster returned 21pts going out. His last last 9 holes were less volatile. But the 18pts on the back 9 and the fact that he was awarded 13 (!) shots today were the perfect assist to today’s win. Chris R was the best of the rest. He seems to thrive in the MW Founders Cup (more on that later). 37pts are enough for 2nd today (he will regret his scores on holes 17-18 though). First woman of the day is Pat. Her 19pts on the way in edge her past the Men’s Secretary (who will have regrets about the 17th …). Seymour is a deserving 5th today. 6th place belongs to the person who was expected to show up in orange today. What happened to the Rickie Fowler trend Cheryl? Due to some people opting out of the sweep the payouts reached out to Richard Y and Chris N respectively.
MW Founders Cup Standings (TBC)
Chris R (142), Gina (140 – doens’t hurt when your previous low score of 20pts drops off today), KSC, RIchard Y and Peter H (all 132). So it’s a 2 horse race.
J Q Robertson (Top Dog Event 2/7)
Humid conditions for the JQ Robertson but predicted rain didn’t arrive until after play.
Well done indeed to the overall winner Raymond who shot an amazing 44 pts – 22 out and 22 in with one ‘blob’. WHS applied an ESR of -1.0 and he now 10.0 from 12.4.
Two women followed – Jenny 41 [front 23] and Alison 38 [22 back with 3 4 pointers inc 17th and 18th]. Dilip beaten on back 9 also 38pts.
For the men this was 2nd competition in the ‘Top Dog’ order of merit. In the senior division Raymond shares lead 12points Ross Hood ahead of Joe G and Toby each with 8. The junior has clear leader Dilip 14 from Onursal. See attached report.
Friday Sweep
It was another swealteringly hot day with little breeze early on, although freshening as the day progressed. Fairways were rock hard giving lots of extra roll, which was helpful if the ball stayed on the fairway but not if it ran or bounced into the penal rough. Greens showed signs of response to the now daily irrigation but were still hard, making it very difficult to ‘hold the green’, and some could also have done with a cut.
Scoring was pretty good for most of the field, the men being helped by playing from the yellow tees which made some of the longer holes (4th, 5th, 10th, 15th and 17th) considerably easier. Alex Braun was the clear winner (42 points), with a great front 9 (24 points), keeping up his recent run of good scores. He even had 2 blobs on the back 9 ! As a result of yesterday’s round, Alex’s Handicap Index reduced from 27.0 to 26.0, his lowest ever HI.
Michael Porter grabbed 2nd place (39 points) in only his 6th handicap qualifying round; his new (lower) HI is 23.9 (3.8 below his starting handicap just a few weeks ago). Michael had a shaky start, especially off the tee and was 9 shots over par for the first 4 holes, but then a run of 3 pars and 4 bogeys over the next 7 holes and a further 2 pars coming in showed that there is even better to come in the future.
In 3rd and 4th places, with 38 points, were Pralab and Pat respectively, with very little in the countback. Pralab had his usual steady round with only one blob, whereas Pat birdied the 2nd hole but had 2 blobs on the back 9. Pat’s round sees her HI drop by a further 0.5 to 18.9, her lowest ever index and I’m sure she’s not finished yet.
Best front 9 was by Richard Back (2 under gross: 2 birdies and 7 pars), however he couldn’t keep it up on the back 9. His 3 birdies yesterday did leapfrog him to to top of the ‘Friday Birdie Tree’ though.
Sweep payout to the top 4 (£12, £8, £6, £4)
June Midweek Plate
The drought and the high(er) temperatures are starting to take its toll on the course. The extra distance gained from the roll and bounce on the fairways very welcome for most of the field. The greens seemed more receptive too. However the penalty from bouncing/rolling off the fairway was steep since the rough is becoming more and more punishing.
None of this bothered the Top5 today. All of them had +40pts.
Russell changed his tactics. He abandoned the 7am starters. A bit of traffic drama made him show up just in time to tee off. The rest of his round was drama free. Even better: he probably would’ve been able to walk on water today. He could not be faulted. 8/10 he had an Up & Down from 70yds and shorter. Numbers speak for themselves: 24pts (front 9) and 20pts (back 9 – largely due to an ugly DB on the 17th – his sole 1-pointer of the day – he had 0 PU’s). ESR on its way …
Chris J played an excellent back 9 (25pts – 5*3pts, 1*4pts). Unfortunately he finishes just 1pt behind Russell. Peter G also torched the last 9 holes. A score of Level par gross awards him 23pts and 3rd place. 1st lady of the day was in form Cheryl. 19+22pts are her competition stats today. She must have some serious regrets over her PU on 8. Dave C is the last of +40 gang. Spare a thought for Alex B. He stood on the 15th with 34pts … Tommy H birdied the 2 par 3’s on the front 9 and parred the 13th.
June Monthly Medals
Hot and humid conditions prevailed although rain and thunder arrived – but after cards returned.
Women
Perhaps Katharina has found the secret to playing well – send Uli away so no pressure on who is cooking dinner! A net 65 which would have been considerably lower without a 10 on the 17th has resulted in an ESR being applied – most unlike WHS which often seems to gift those who play well with either no change or an increase as older scores drop off. Katharina sees a drop from 20.5 to 18.4.
If realisation of how her game was going suddenly hit on that hole, it didn’t harm the last which resulted in a birdie finish (1 of 2 with Bridget also finishing well).
Bridget in fact finished 2nd, 5 shots behind and she got a much smaller .5 cut
Men
Tamas won the senior division with a well-crafted and consistent 64. He was chased by Michael Hayden 66 and best Mark Bean 67(also best gross 78 on countback).
In the junior division Richard Young shot an astonishing 60 proving the value of technique and practice. Onursal followed with a fine consistent 64 and Julian J 65; Julian’s round was superb except for the SI 1 7th where he recorded 12.
In 4th round aggregate of the GMT both divisions headed by only 3 players to complete the 4 rounds to date:
Senior: Tamas 278, Oz 294, Richard B 299
Junior: Dilip 277, Tom Simp 286, Tony K 286
Rickmansworth match, 1st leg
After last year’s narrow victory , predicated on a first leg “sweep” of all six pairs matches, the Rickmansworth team turned up early for the first leg of this year’s match, kitted out for the occasion with royal blue club jerseys and black shorts/trousers seemingly intent on a much improved performance to the previous year. Our team was a mix of grizzled veterans of previous matches and welcome ‘newbies’ to team competitions.
On the hottest day of the year so far, Richard Owen and Seymour Laird led off the team and secured pars on the first two holes to take a quick lead, however the Ricky pair kept ‘bouncing back’ and it was all square after 9 holes. Seymour’s par on the 10th again put Richmond ahead, a lead which they never relinquished, ultimately prevailing by a comfortable 4 and 3 score and taking the internal sweep first spot with 43 points. Our second rookie pair, Naveed Manazir and Richard Norden, were next out and ran out to a comfortable 5 and 4 win and finished third in the sweep with a creditable 40 points. Out third were the experienced pair of Nigel Ward and Tony Kopczak who eked out a 1 up victory in a closely contested matchup. So the first three Richmond pairs had run up a 3-0 lead but things were about to turn in Rickmansworth’s favour. Two more rookies in John Perkins and Paul Green performed well enough to finish with a very laudable 41 points for second place in the internal sweep but ran into determined opponents who closed out a 3 and 2 victory to put Rickmansworth on the scoreboard. John produced a salutary reminder of the importance of reading Club communications by turning up dressed in a blue shirt, much to his embarrassment! Our fifth pair, Roger Rojas and Justin Wildman, enjoyed a strong front 9 scoring 21 stableford points but wilted in the extreme heat on the back 9 and ended up succumbing to their opponents on the 17th hole in a 2 and 1 defeat. Out last were an experienced pair in captain-for-the-day Nigel Gaymond and Angus Robertson. After a promising beginning for Richmond in the first few holes, Rickmansworth were 3 up after 6 holes and despite best efforts, Angus and Nigel were never able to get back on competitive terms, largely as the result of a stunning performance by their high handicapper, playing off 17, who ground our intrepid pair into the dust with a relentless barrage of outstanding play shooting an 80 on his own ball on a tough Duke’s course. Clearly, Nigel brings out the best in that particular player who performed in a similarly spectacular fashion before in a previous leg at Rickmansworth for a 79 playing off a 24 handicap! I will be requesting that I do not face him in future matches!
As always, an enjoyable match with great company, but at 3-3 the return leg at Rickmansworth in September will be a huge challenge. But maybe it is time for us to go over there and give a better account of ourselves. Remember, we only need six points in total to retain the cup as the holders, so let’s go over and fight for those three points!