Another week but the bottom line remains the same: scoring proved to be tough. The rough was lush and very long. Quite surprisingly the 16th played as SI18 today. The 5th was the 3rd most difficult hole today. And quite a few dreams were shattered on holes 17 & 18 (SI 6/7 respectively).

Hip surgery seems like a distant memory now for Angus. His golf game is starting to click quite nicely. 4 birdies today are no mean feat. Despite a chip-in birdie on the 2nd he had 4 1-pointers on the front 9. That resulted in “only” 16pts. But birdies on 11,14 & 15 (note that he lost a bit of momentum with a bogey on 16) set him up for 22pts on the back 9. Darren’s round was the mirror image of Angus’ 18 holes. 22pts going out (thank to a nice birdie on the 7th) and 16pts on the way home. So the countback rule sides with Angus. Graham had the best back 9 of the entire field (23pts). That was needed to hold off Richard Norden. Early starter Pralab takes 5th. 1st woman of the day is Cheryl.

Just as the grass gets ever longer on both fairway and in the rough with the rain, the first monthly medal of the year to be played with no winter rules

Women

Seems a long time since the last women’s medal, & indeed it was with the November one being cancelled due to flooding on the course. Judging from the results it doesn’t look to have been an easy day for anyone apart from Sali who won by 4 shots on 67 from Silvia.

With a PCC of 1 for yesterday – the men found it no easier, and the way WHS changes, Sali’s handicap has dropped to 23.6

Men

The continuing thick rough made ball-finding/striking difficult esp. for short hitters off the tee and PCC of +1 reflected this.

But there was some very good scoring. In the senior division John Perkins shot a net 63 to win medal – with a finishing 35 (John earns full hcaps hot cut); he was followed by 68s from Hieu and Kerry who could both have had much better but for trouble at a few holes.
In the junior division Seymour’s consistent 64 won the medal from Duncan 68 and Dilip 69.

Lowest gross came from Pete Harrison making a welcome appearance (76).

This was 3rd round in the Grand Medal Trophy which now sees Kerry 212 the leader in senior division from Tamas 214; in the junior Duncan 202 leads from Dilip 207.

It was a chilly and overcast morning, which then got wet and windy and by early afternoon it was pretty miserable conditions for golf – no wonder some players ‘went home early’ and well done to those who stuck it out.

Richard Norden was our winner (36 points, 20 on the back 9) separated only by countback from Bill Norman (also 36 points but 19 on the back 9). Pralab came in 3rd (34 points) and will have had the ‘best’ of the weather – his round only really got going towards the end, with 4 pars on the final 5 holes. Rumour has it that Seymour beat Rannesh comfortably in their ‘friendly’ matchplay, helped by a couple of chip-ins. Sweep payout to the top 3 (£10, £7, £3)

As the scores indicate: that was hard work today. Even though the green keeping staff (to be more precise 1 Glendale staffer) was trying hard to upgrade the course it was a rough day for most of the field. For starters: the carry of the tee on a lot of holes was very long for the short(er) hitters. It was crazy to see what effect the recent rain had on the rough. Drift off the fairways and you were bound to start looking for balls in long, thick and lush grass. A recipe for disaster.

Only 2 players managed to play to their respective HI’s. Paul G went out early and a set decent marker with 37pts. He used an excellent front 9 (21pts) to become leader in the clubhouse. That score proved too much for about 99% of the field. 1 player in the very last game managed to better 37pts. The men’s secretary also recorded 21pts going out. But a steady back 9 (18pts) set him up nicely for victory.  Think that Paul G will have massive regrets about his scores on holes 11/17. Yours truly had a disappointing front 9. A chip-in birdie on 17 was partly offset by an ugly 5 on the 18th. But that didn’t prevent me from recording the best back 9 (21pts). Brett was the best of 5 players on 33pts (thank you count back rule). Tamas and Alvaro both had good front 9’s. But don’t ask them about their back 9’s.

Ranking after 2 rounds in the MW Founders Cup: Paul Green (70pts), Peter H (67), KSC (66), Peter G (64)

The day gradually warmed up and the thickness of rough grew – encouraged by the light but persistent rain from Coronation Saturday.

Women

There was no doubt the usual refrain about a 4 person team always winning from 3, which in this case was true – but this team had to play the ‘stand aside’ version, the idea being to make it more equal. It didn’t seem to have had any effect on them as a team as they romped home 5 shots clear of the team in 2nd place

Men

Scoring was similar to the same format team event played on Friday but an improvement – Brendan, Bernie, Peter M and Will B returning 92 points [more than 5 per hole] with best front 9 47 and back 9 45. 2nd and 8 behind were Paul McG, Rob S, Giovanni and Raymond 84; 3 teams returned 80 with Onursal, Hieu Van, Paul R and Ian H the better on the countback rule.

Most scored on a particular hole was 7 on par 4 6th with Paul K returning a birdie and Tommy H a par.

First 4 teams awarded prizes.

We were fortunate to very largely dodge the heavy showers and it turned out to be a warm and sunny Spring day. The recent drier weather has allowed Glendale to extend their fairway and 1st cut mowing and the Duke’s course was in good condition for golf, with decent run.

The clear winners with 90 points were the team of Bill Norman, Brian Ransom, Richard Norden and Graham Cull (in order of points contribution !). In 2nd place, and not too far behind (85 points) were the team of Julian James, Seymour Laird, Alex Braun and Adrian Wells, and in 3rd place (82 points) were John Ahad, Mayumi, Ian Burgess and Charles Haines.

Sweep payout to the winning team but if it had been an individual competition today the leading scores were:
39 points : Bill & Cuneyt (with Bill winning on countback)
37 points : Julian & Brian
34 points : Richard Norden, Seymour and John Ahad.

Best front 9 was John Ahad (22 points); John par’d five of the first 6 holes and at that stage the team must have felt they were in with a real chance.

To put it mildly: that was tough. The field finally experienced spring weather. Milder temperatures created some welcome additional carry. The roll on the (freshly mown – the 9am starters could’ve done without the stalking of the Glendale staff …) fairways was a feature we had all but given up on. The greens could’ve run smoother. A bit of extra zip wouldn’t have hurt either. As you can tell from the results: only one player managed to play to his handicap,

Pralab wins today thanks to a score of 68 Net (+8 gross on front and back 9). His score could’ve been a lot better had disaster not struck on the 13th. 2 players called Chris finish on 69 Net. Chris R had the slightly better back 9 based on countback. Chris S “only” finishes 3rd despite 2 birdies on the back 9 (3 birdies over 18 holes). The 7 on the 6th will haunt him though … Another early bird Rob S is the lone player on 70 Net. Bill N takes 5th (the last “Money spot”) thanks to a 71 Net. Good to see 3 cripple (V, P and A) making their return to the park. Shout-out to Angus for finishing as the best of the “Returning Cripple”.

MW Grand Medal
Pralab (212), Richard M (215), Gina (219)

Playing conditions encouraged a good turnout of 65 for the May Bank Holiday Plate. Whilst dry, rough grass growth made it longer looking for balls and overall PCC was +1 – more difficult conditions. Last day for preferred lies.

A countback on back 9 determined the winner as Anthony Williams from Duncan T both 40 points; both had exceptional back 9s – Anthony 26 [inc. blob at par 3 11th], Duncan 25. Alone 3rd with 9 was Onursal (who also blob at 11th).
5 followed with 37s – Richard B (level back 9 33), Peter N, Robin T, Alex B and best woman Ali C who shared best front 9 21 points with Onursal.

Both Alan K and Richard B had 3 birdies.