A cold and frosty morning greeted all players with the early greens hard as ice, making approach shots extremely difficult. With heavy cloud cover, it never really warmed up but at least nearly all the standing water was gone from the Princes course, the muddy areas were largely frozen and there was bounce and run on offer occasionally.

These tricky conditions were seemingly no problem for Richard Norden (42 points) who continued his recent good form with 22 points out and 20 points in. Runner Up was Chris Rudkin (40 points) who also had a very steady round (19 out, 21 back) – shame about the triple bogey 16th and double bogey 17th. In 3rd and 4th places, both with 38 points were Jeremy Prescot and Julian James, respectively.

Frost early melted and eventually the sun came out. Men’s results report shows an interesting double temp. peak -2:30 and 8:00 in the evening. Mud, some mats and bobbly greens persisted. Holes 8 and 9 were out of action.

Women

Looking at the scores it seems no one was too keen on the conditions out there today and most would have been finishing by the time the sun came out in force. Late starter Gina appears to have taken advantage and was the winner on 27 with Katharina and Monique 2 back on 25.

Recording ‘hole not played’ rather than no score is still causing some confusion but fortunately for those concerned the scorecard is still king!

Men

Brian Ransom shot a stonking 38 points [with 23 back 9], 3 ahead of folllowing35s divided by countback : Nigel Ward, Kim, Colm and Ryan. Captain Kim leads the birdies tree with 3 YTD. Kerry mastered the par 5 with birdie.

In the associated Winter Competition Roger Rojas on 115 has the advantage from Secretary Peter .

In the Duke’s Eclectic Richard Inglis is our leader 67.3 from Brian and Russell 69.1s.

A very cold and frosty morning turned into a lovely sunny winter’s day, no doubt softening the frozen mud as the rounds progressed.

Today’s clear winner was Oz Doyle (36 points) amassed from the 16 playable holes, 4 ahead of Dave Chilvers and Seymour Laird, who both ‘played to handicap’ with 32 points. All of the top 3 had very similar front 9s (13 or 14 points), but Oz’s better back 9 (22 points) with 3 pars and a birdie was the difference.

Sweep payout to the top 3 (£7, £4, £3)

Even though you could qualify the last few days as “drier” there was still an abundance of mud and standing water. Add to that icy temperatures at the start of the comp and course was not really there for the taking.

Peter Goodall took full advantage of his distance to tame the course. He combined 20pts on the way out with 22pts on the back 9. His round could even have been out of this world had he not recorded 3 bogeys in the last 4 holes.

Best score on the back 9 goes to Julian. He recorded 23pts on the way home to take 2nd place. The men’s secretary had a consistent round of golf (19+20pts). But the countback rule awards him “only” 3rd place. None of the players in the Top3 recorded a “blob”.

Alan Cobb, Uli and Mike Jones all “played to their handicap” and recorded 36pts. Tamas’ flurry on the back 9 (22pts after only 13pts on the front 9) landed him just shy of the Top6.

As a consolation Tamas takes the lead in the Midweek Winter Comp (110pts). Mike Jones (108) and Peter Harrington (107) are the closest competitors at present. Peter Goodall takes the lead in the Midweek Prince’s eclectic (nett score of 62).

After Saturday’s rain it was good to have the sunshine., but this coupled with mud caused a number of balls to be lost – either in flight or on the ground. Most greens were very bobbly and some mats in play had just a large rubber tee/ no hole to insert tee; it is hope that Glendale will pay attention to these important details.

Women

Reiko who scored a very good 30 thought she might have won today, little knowing that the first game had gone directly to drinking without passing the computer, but the mud didn’t seem to have affected either Susan or Gina which could be the reason for celebrating. Susan posting a score we more expect to see in the men’s comps in winter rather than the women’s and with 40 points is today’s winner.
5 points back is Gina who is consistently good these days and got 35 off her playing handicap of 10, birdieing 2 of the par 3s.

For most of us today, it was just good to be out on a gloriously sunny January Sunday, such a contrast to yesterday!

Suffice to say that these 2 are top of the eclectic, but in reverse order – Gina’s highest score is now a 5, so good luck to the rest of us in the last 2 rounds in attempting to catch her.

Scores were all allowed today despite some using ‘winter rules’ in the rough forgetting that in a qualifier this is not permitted – a result of generosity from the Christmas NQ events causing confusion

Men

Scoring was pretty good with three 42s – separation by countback placed Pierpaolo from Colm from Roger; 4 41s followed from John P, Leo, Adrian and Secretary Peter [again in the frame].

Peirpaolo had a consistent 20 out, 22 back whilst Colm started with 2 birdies and Roger shot level par front 9 and had just 1 blob on card. More stats in best scores report.

The 3rd Winter Comp round shows Roger in the lead 115 from Peter 114 and Adrian 112.

The 2nd Eclectic on Prince’s shows Roger leading 63.1 from Colm 64.3 and Kerry 64.7. As always, an eventual winner might emerge from the large numbers in the ‘NR’s’ pack, after subsequent rounds are played.

Morning sunshine prevailed for the early holes, although the cold temperatures and areas of standing water on parts of the fairways and surrounds on the Princes course made it a typical winter round at Richmond Park. The clouds rolled in around midday but everyone completed their rounds in the dry.

Richard Owen had ‘one of those rounds’ (total 42 points) especially on the greens on the front 9, which was completed with 1 birdie and 6 pars for 23 points. The back 9 was more routine (19 points), with just 4 pars.

2nd and 3rd places, both with 40 points, were Richard Norden and Peppe Monterosso respectively. Richard had a great back 9 (23 points) and it was only the blob on the 9th that held him back from winning overall. Peppe had a steady 19 points out and 21 points in with 6 pars overall – a good result for someone who hasn’t played for several weeks.

Brian Ransom (39 points) was 4th with a very steady round which included 6 pars and a birdie on the 3rd hole – shame about the blob on the 1st hole.

Sweep payout (£7, £4, £3) to the top 3.

A shortened round of Winter golf for the field today. Luckily the rain held off a bit start of the week. Add that to the reduced (very) low temperatures and the field played a course with substantially less standing water. But the mud was ever present and the greens were tricky (bumpy and slow).

Allan Cobb recorded decent score going out (15pts – that result was matched by 4 other players – curiously most of them were also early starters). He then continued his strong performance by recording the best score on the back 9 (17pts). So quite logically he wins today’s competition. Richard Norden and Angus finished 2pts behind Allan. Countback rule awards 2nd place to Richard (the birdie on the 16th didn’t hurt). Notwithstanding 2 birdies Angus has to settle for 3rd. Julian had a solid round (15 + 14) to take 4th place. 5th place goes to Brian. The women didn’t quite enjoy today’s conditions. 1st woman today was Cheryl in 12th place.

The first competition of 2022 took place in mild but very muddy conditions; late in the round there were spits and spots of rain and the Handicap Secretary’s umbrella bust in a zephr! 4 holes were out of play but some signed in for and entered General Play Scores to qualify for handicap.

Colm put in another convincing score to win by a mile, 34 points.

There were five 29s, separated on countback: Pat Dalton, Duncan, Kerry, Sean O’S and Joe G.

Colm and Julie dominated the scoring analysis stats attached.

Six won sweep .

Meanwhile, on Prince’s James Anslow shot gross 72 with first ESR of the year and a hcap cut from 15 to 12.

Happy New Year!

A healthy field of 21 players enjoyed the warmest Christmas Eve temperatures on record in England and there were even short periods of sunshine. As expected, conditions were muddy on the 14 holes available for play, however the grass could be seen growing on the fairways.

Colm put in another unbeatable round (35 points), 20 points on the front 7, 15 points on the back 7, 3 birdies and no blobs. In 2nd place was Sean O’Sullivan (31 points), with 16 points from 6 holes in the front 7 and 15 points on the back 7. Uli came in 3rd with 29 points, a very steady round finished off with an unlikely chip-in on the last and a successful first outing for his new driver. Purse pay out to top 3 (£10, £7, £4 respectively).

Finally, well done to everyone who entered holes 8 – 11 as “Did Not Play” – there were only two who entered NR instead, so Colm and Seema please note for next time.

Playing conditions were not very welcoming. But standing water, lots of mud and the occasional showers didn’t scare off 43 players. The absence of roll on the fairways and limited carry were more than compensated by the forward tees.

Jim Deissler was steady as a rock today: 22pts on front and back 9. A well deserved win. Kevin was gaming a new putter and it worked its magic. Any putt within 6 feet was drained. 21pts on the way in and out allowed him to finish in 2nd place. Brian finished 3rd 1pt behind KP. Richard S had an excellent front 9. 20pts on the way in allowed him to match Brian. But the countback rule breaks the tie in favour of Brian. Jeremy P also recorded 41pts. But his 19pts on the way in send him into 5th place. Julian recorded the best overall score on the back 9 to take 6th (FYI: Roger had the best overall score on the front 9 – also 23pts).