Golf is already complicated enough. It doesn’t help when the weather conditions are pretty miserable. The recent rains had taken away all roll on the fairways. The biggest obstacle were the strong winds. As usual the winds were swirling pretty heavily.  Standing on the tees of the 5th and 14th it was pretty obvious that there was a headwind. How in earth is it then possible that you also have headwind on the 15th and 16th? One of the many mysteries of the park I guess.

Peppe battled through a painful knee to claim victory today. 22pts on the way out was a solid basis for a good round. 1-pointers on 13 and 18 were the sole blemishes on his card. 17pts on the back 9 were enough keep him clear of the chasing pack. Neil was one of the early starters. It can be argued that the winds were not as strong as later in the day. Despite a blob on the 14th Neil had an excellent back 9 (20pts) to take 2nd. Stu used the best back 9 of the day (21pts) to finish 3rd 1pt behind Neil. Places 4-6 all go to early starters. Tom Simpkins had the score on the way out (23pts). This pretty good enabled him to take the last “money spot”.

Just 2 other bits:

– the headwind on 15 and 16 was real. The 15th played as SI3 today. And there were no birdies on the 16th today. Only 4 (!!!) players parred that hole.

– Even though the tees were moved forward and there was a strong tailwind there were “just” 2 birdies recorded on hole 17.

Rain was the order of the day with early games catching the worse. The sun eventually shone but just before dusk the heavens opened with thunderstorms. As a consequence the field was reduced.

Full credit to Jihum off 19 returning 42 points [22 out 20 back] to win the Charity Trophy. 3 behind was Raymond with Will B 37..
Best woman was Silvia 31 off 7 with special mention to Mark Bean for 3 birdies on back 9.

The last of the Saturday events on the calendar and the sole surviving pure foursomes event with awards at the annual dinner for both gross and net winners.

Don’t think we could have been luckier with the weather as it was drizzling by the time I left, but pity the bunkers were so compacted after the recent rain.
The sausage roll before we went out was very tasty and trust everyone else who had one of these or a bacon roll also enjoyed theirs. It was also good to be able to sit outside as we gathered afterwards for a drink. There was certainly a lot of laughs around the table which could have been down to discussing the worst or even best holes played – Justin and Susan’s 7th for example where Susan had to get out of the same bunker twice (sorry guys!!) or perhaps Avi deciding to jettison Patrick for Peter in the next foursomes comp!

But to the results…. a close run thing in both the net and gross competitions.
The net winners are Peter and Cheryl with a 71 beating Brendan and Sheena on the back 9 & this with both an 8 and 9 on their card but probably made up for these with a couple of birdies.

In the gross comp Brendan and Sheena had an 84 to beat Nick and Ronnie by 1

Prizes will be awarded at the annual dinner for the winners & runners-up in the nett comp and for the winners in the gross

It was a mild, autumnal day with strong, blustery winds from the south and occasional glimpses of the sun. Threatening dark skies appeared from time to time but luckily very little rain fell as the wind blew the showers by.

Although there were a few late cancellations, 5 teams competed and recorded good and very good scores. Only one stroke separated the first and second teams, with the 4-man team of Peters Goodall and Flint, Rannesh Jansari and Richard Owen coming out on top with a net 61 (67 gross which is 4 under par for the men’s card). Some amazingly good putting on the front 9 was the backbone of this scoring, with all the first 8 holes being 1-putted.

The runner-up 3-man team of Naveed Manazir, Richard Norden and Ian Burgess, with a net 62, had a 74 gross (3 over par for the men’s card). It’s always more difficult competing with just 3 in a team, so great scoring.

In 3rd place the team of Adrian Wells, Julian James, Brian Ransom and Seymour scored 66 net, 73 gross (which is just 2 over par for the men’s card – so solid scoring). A close thing for 4th and 5th places between Gary Simpson + Colin Price + Bob Kent on net 70 and the women’s team of Jayne Maxwell + Ann Gardner + Anya Toprak Zengin with a net 71.

Sweep payout to the winning team (just £4 each !)

The strong winds today must have caused a few headaches. How else explain the wide range of WITB (for the youtube neophytes WITB is an acronym for What’s in the bag)? The other most common remark after today’s round was: why do I carry 14 clubs in my bag? Think people overlook the fact we played Prince’s today. Playing this comp on Duke’s would be (even) more complicated.

Peppe put his brace on the correct knee today. He managed to record 26pts on the 12 par 4’s today (nobody matched that tally). His score on the 16th was not pretty (Triple Bogey). But it didn’t totally wreck his card. To his own surprise his score of 36pts (17+19) was the winning score today. Richard Owen recovered very well from 2 blobs on the front 9 (16pts out). His back nine was even better. A tap-in birdie more on the 18th more than made up for a blob on 12th (to be fair that was his only blemish on the back 9). Ian also recorded 35pts. But he had a softer back 9 to finish 3rd. Richard N and Brett finish 4/5th respectively. Brian was the best of the group on 32pts. His birdie on the 17th was a bit out of the ordinary: His tee-shot faded through the trees on the left and landed short of the road. That surgical precision was totally absent on his approach. His second shot went long (as Ross said to Rachel: really long). As karma would would have it he sank the mammoth birdie putt from off the green. This stroke (of luck) is not without importance: since one person ahead of Brian didn’t enter the sweep Brian slides into the last position that earns sweep money.

Shout-out to Gina and Ryan who finished their rounds this morning in 2h and 45 min.

A mild start with late autumn sunshine still having power to warm. Late games saw beginnings of a front.

Women

Unusually scores were generally better for the first round on Dukes, Julie was the only one with a higher score in her 2nd round. If Hilary had been keeping tabs on her score she might have harboured hopes of winning but late entrant Gina extended her first round lead to win the Committee Cup with Hilary in second spot.

Men

On the day, Ross Hood shot an exemplary 1 over par 69 (with 5 birdies) and his HI dropped to 4.5 -leading the Senior division on countback from Bernie McD ; Wil B completed firs 3 line-up in the division with 38.

Harrison Chesterton [4th WHS round ] and Suhail led Junior division 39 with trio of Tom Simpkins, Barry P and Robin T chasing with 36 points.

This was a 2 round competition and congratulations to Justin Bradford holding on to his first round lead to win Senior Division 76. Bernie McD and Richard B close behind with 75. In the Junior Division Suhail shot up the leader board with his 39 for a 2nd round72 from Sean O’Sullivan 71 with Michael Hackett 69.

It was a dull but mild day with just a few sprinkles of rain towards the end of our rounds.

As shown on the Best Scores Analysis report the team of Peter Goodall, Jeremy Prescott and Cheryl Woodhouse had the best front 9 (39 points); the best back 9 (41 points) was scored by the Graham Cull, Seymour Laird and Richard Owen team, and by the Pralab Barua, Peter Fisher and Richard Norden team. Unsurprisingly, the most points scored on the Par 5 holes was by the team with 2 women (Ann Gardner, Elizabeth Piner and Peppe). Commiserations to Rannesh and Uli Katte, who ‘lost’ their 3rd team member (Ed Robinson) after his first 9 holes and who had to play separately, rather than together.

When all the points were counted up, the clear winners (78 points) were the team of Graham, Seymour and Richard O. The 14 points they scored on the final 3 holes was probably the main difference and thanks to Graham for scoring 9 of them. Runners up, just 3 points behind were Pralab, Richard N. and Peter (75 points).

Sweep payout to the winning team.

Senior Division

Ryan Jones recorded the best front 9: +1 gross (translates to 31 Net). His back 9 was more volatile: 43 (gross) 2 pars on the par 3’s steadied the ship a bit after a couple of double bogeys. His biggest scare today non-golf related. A mistake in the set-up of the comp prevented him temporarily from recording his score (apologies for that). But in the end it all worked out. Peter Goodall’s birdie on 18th is the tie-braker between him and Ross.

Junior Division

Giles Rawlinson posted a stunning 65 Net to win the Junior Division. 43 out (32 Net) and 45 on the back represent an excellent day at the (golf) office. Mitch was another early starter who posted an excellent score. 42 (gross – out) and 42 (gross – in) are his magical number combination of the day. Richard Norden laid the base for 3rd place with an excellent front 9 (45 gross – 31 net). Chris had a steady round to take the last “Money Spot” in this division.

Midweek Grand Medal Trophy

A few players had chance of catching the leading duo. But Gina, Peppe and Seymour came up a bit short today. Tamas and yours truly finish in a tie. So the winner will have to be decided on countback.

A chill start but the sun came out to warm – nudging 19C per graph at bottom of results. This stimulated a stiff breeze affecting shots.

Women

What a glorious day it was to play golf. Hilary taking her cues from Spanish weather was dressed the most appropriately though I’m sure that most of us didn’t think so at the start when the autumn chill was definitely present. With the ball still running and only a slight wind scoring was good today and there is all to play for between you in the 2nd round next week.

Leading the way with a slender margin of 1 is Gina with 36 points closely followed by Avi and Hilary with a further 3 just 3 shots back – it could all change after next week’s round.

Impressive looking 2 from Gina on the 16th, a hole I rarely make the green on and definitely one from Seema, whose tee shot on the 10th was little more than a foot from the pin. Never quite sure why only birdie 2s are reported but Katharina had a nice birdie 3 to finish her round in style.

Men

Overall on the day Pierpaolo led the way 42 points but divisional results show:
Senior Division : Winner Justin B chased by Richard Back40 then Sal Goodchild-Way 38′
Junior Division: Winner Pierpaolo 42 from Michael H and Sean O’S 40.

Congrats to Richard Back and Goran for their eagles on 17th [per attached report that makes 19 so far this year]