Thankfully we only had one very brief, sharp shower otherwise it was a good day for golf with a brisk southerly wind.

A high-scoring and very close competition resulted in 3 of the 5 teams posting a score of 48 stableford points, with the other teams not far behind with 44 and 45 points – well played to all.

Countback determined that the team of Giles, Justin and Mike H. were the overall winners with a gross score of 67, including 3 birdies. In 2nd place were Brian, Colm and Adrian with a gross score of 68, including one birdie and an eagle on the 14th. The 3rd of the 48 pointers were Cheryl, Jeremy P., Rannesh and Richard O. with a gross score of 67 including 7 birdies – their bogey on the 14th, all missing a 2 foot putt, was the difference.

I had forgotten what a dry day at the park looks/feels like. Standing water at some places was a reminder of the heavy rain of the past days. Onto the order of the day.

Jeremy Ryan went +1 gross on the back. Over the last 9 holes he recorded a whopping 23pts. Combine to that to a solid front 9 and you end up with a score of 42pts and 1st place. 1st woman of the day was Hilary. She mirrored Jeremy’s score on the front 9. But her 22pts on the way in mean she has to settle for second place today. Peter Goodall as usual came out all guns blazing (21pts out). A decent back 9 and a total of 40ts earn him 3rd place. Clubhouse leader Naveed also scored 19pts on the front. But some trouble on the par 5’s set him back 2 points into 4th. Tamas, Brian and John all recoded 36pts. Countback rule decided that Tamas and Brian complete the Top 6.

Other highlights:

• Alastair scored a 5-pointer and 2 4-pointers
• the MW captain and Rick both recorded 3 birdies.

Results of the challenges:

• NTP 7th hole: Ned Shanklyn
• NTP 10th hole: the Midweek Captain himself (he birdied that hole)
• longest drive 11th hole (men): John Curry (Rick’s drive was longer but ended up in the rough)
• NTP 16th hole: Toby Hunt
• NTP in 2 18th hole (Women): N/A
• NTP in 18th hole (Men): Midweek Captain Henry

All winners will be contacted by the Midweek Captain.

Women

Well where to start! Last week seemed bad enough but today’s scores indicate that virtually everyone found it worse. Not helped of course by greens with standing water and at least one hole where there was no dry route to the hole, oh & of course the 5+ hours that we spent waiting on every shot on every hole.

The lowest score today belongs rightly to our 2021 Club Champ – Gina who fretted her way around the course, worried about the 7s on her card but sinking some very good putts along the way. Despite Sheena’s allegedly appalling golf, it was somehow good enough to retain the runner-up spot and these two were the only ones to not have an 8 or more on their cards.

In the end there were just 5 in each of the 2 divisions for the Handicap & Pembroke Cups.
Gina & Val ended on the same total of 153, but Val’s more balanced 2 rounds of 76 and 77 takes the Handicap Cup from Gina with the better back 18.

First week leader, Jenny, couldn’t hang on this week and was well beaten into 2nd spot by Ali who although rueing her visit to the bunker on the 16th takes the Pembroke Cup by 11 shots.

Someone suggested opening the fizz to get over the trauma, which seems like a good idea but Gina, Val & Ali can just celebrate.

Men

Showery conditions prevailed with a very heavy shower around 1pm.

Generally there was much casual water and of course the rough continued to wreak havoc with many rounds. Again the Junior Division had highest no. of NRs.

To the golf –

The overall and Senior Division resulted in a tie between Jay and George – both 147 for the 2 rounds; the winner is decided by an 18 hole play-off as results attached show. MS may show winner and runner-up incorrectly. Jay added 3 more birdies to his Sunday tally
Again tied forv3/4 position are Angus and Richard B – both 156.

The Junior Division had a clear winner – Paul Gre on 182 – 2 ahead of runner-up John Ahad and Louis 185

The Handicap (net) Trophy was tied – Rick K and George M both 138; I don’t think play-off needed but Peter H will confirm by Friday – . There were also ties for 3 & 4th Angus R and James P,
The Handicap (net) for round 2 doubles as the sweep report with Rick first of 8 sweep winners.

Finally, on a lighter note, a kestrel joined my 4-ball (last game) and can be seen in photo below atop my golf-bag.

photo courtesy of Marnix van Gelderen

It was an all too familiar Friday story weatherwise with very heavy rain showers drenching all but the two early starters. A number of players walked in on the back 9 and a few more of us should have! Notwithstanding the conditions, and the continuing long rough in front of the tees and away from the fairways on Dukes, Justin continued his recent good form posting a winning 35 points. Richard B. was second (33 points) including NRs on the 5th and 6th but 10 pars on the other 16 holes. Rannesh was third on 31 points, a steady round with two NRs.

After a 2 week delay the field did battle for our Claret Jug. The weather continued to remain volatile. I think it is a fair assumption every game faced a few showers today. Some were absolutely drenched but pressed on.

Ed: Confirmed by local Weather station report below

Richard Norden kept his composure en route to an excellent 63. 2 6’es on the back 9 are minor blemishes. Graham matched Richard’s score of 63 (net). But 2 6’s and an 8 on the back move him into 2nd (blame the countback rule). 3rd and 4th place go to a duo with scores of 64 (net). Darren takes 3rd place thanks to a score of level par on the way in. Countback rule had no other choice but to award 4th place to Caroline. Richard Back was in a group of 3 players with the best front 9 (+4  gross). He also managed to go -1 on all the par 3’s today. Jeremy also went +4 gross on the way out. But he finishes 6th today because of some untidy holes on the way in (+5 gross).

Women

So after the earlier postponement and then re-instatement of the comp., the main outcome of today was that we all got in before the klaxon went, not sure that for most of us golf deserves much of a mention! The one exception being Jenny whose net 68 was 3 ahead of Ali and thus the only one to record a score better than what used to be called SSS and having said earlier on that she only played well outside of competitions.

An indication of the trauma we encountered showed there were just 2 cards not recording an 8 or higher but on the plus side 3 people recorded birdies.

So after the first round Gina is leading by 2 shots from Sheena in the Gross and is also leading in the Handicap Cup (HI up to 19.4) by 3 from Val.
In the Pembroke Cup (HIs 19.5 and above), Jenny is naturally in the lead from Ali.

There is still all to play for next week.

Men

It was a game of 2 halves – dry for the Senior division and a lot of rain for most of Junior Division.

Jay leads the Senior Division scratch with an extremely competent gross 67 on back 9 from George Milton. 6 shots back but not out of contention over the 2 rounds is Ross H 73 from James P and Richard B 75s.
The Senior Division swept all honours in the Best Scores Analysis attached – well done George 4 birdies.
In a competitive vein latest birdie and eagle trees for Sundays reports are attached. Ant leading Richard I 29-23 for birdies.

Ben D leads the Junior Division 85 from Nigel G 88 and Louis D 89.

Large number of NRs in Junior Division compared with Junior reflects the timing of rain later in the day. So Handicap net Trophy and sweep dominated by George M 62, Jay 64 James P 65 with Toby and Ben D 66.

This was first Sunday where we went back to scorecards after Covid lockdowns/restrictions. Now mandatory and WHS updated under R.O.G. penalty of DQ for Handicap Index, Course Handicap and both marker’s and player’s signatures required. As before , responsibility rests on the player to certify all correct before dropping card in green box.

Finally as an aside I have recently acquired a Weather Station in back garden and attach what I hope are not too busy graph reports for wind, rain barometric pressure for the day – I hope you can relate to the timing of the weather on your round with esp. rainfall/rate of rain.

Five 3-ball teams competed in this 1,2,3 waltz competition in warm sunny weather with a refreshing breeze. A full 18 holes was possible after Glendale re-opened the Princes course following the Thames Water flood clean up (although the full pond on the 10th had an unnatural black colour and very unpleasant smell of sewage).

The ‘par’ score for this form of competition is 72 stableford points and most teams were in and around that score. However the outright winners were the Jansari, Wildman & Owen team with a team score of 81 points. All three players played to their handicaps and dovetailed well, including two birdies for Justin and one each for Rannesh and Richard. Sweep pay out to the winning team.

For the second midweek competition in a row the field was playing a reduced number of holes. A bit of confusion with a South-Korean society caused a delay for the 9.30am starters. The (very) early starters avoided most of the heat.

Rick was amongst those and made the most of the “cooler” conditions. Birdies on 17 and 18 teed him up for a score of 23pts on the last 9 holes (and a total score of 38pts). Brian matched that score of 38 but “only” scored 22pts on the back 9. Keith is keeping up his good form and came third with 35pts. Richard Smith had 3 birdies en route to 34pts and 4th place. Alan King came 5th. But 2 very unwelcome sh…ks of the tee on 6 and 18 are a blemish on an otherwise decent round of golf. Surprisingly the women didn’t fare too well today. Ronnie takes 6th place also with a score of 34pts. No birdies on any of the par 3’s today. But a “2” was recorded on the 6th hole.

The return to the old regime proved tricky for some. Playing out of the bunkers was not nice (just ask Gina. She reckons she visited every bunker on the course today …). The old regime also meant the return of paper scorecards. And this proved too much to ask for some. This needs to improve rapidly! 1 final reminder/notice about the scorecards will be added to next week’s start sheet.

Summer (golf) is finally back. The pace of play was not helped by PP playing their CC. This held up our first couple of games on (too) many occasions.

Since (most of) the men don’t have the precision & power of Colin Morikawa (winning 2 majors on your debut – what an achievement) the main message for the men was stay away from the rough. And if you look at the leaderboard you will understand quite quickly how many of them succeeded. Rhys had an excellent back 9 (21pts) to beat Donna Wilson on countback.

A group of 4 women finished on 34pts. 3rd place goes to Fiona Coombe who recorded an impressive 23pts on the last 9 holes. Ronnie “only” had 21pts on the last 9 holes so she finishes 4th. Julie and Caroline scored 20 and 19pts respectively on the last 9 holes so they finish 5th and 6th. Ray closes out the Top7 just beating out Val. But I think the Women’s Captain will have nightmares about holes 17 & 18. Looks like her golf is on the mend. Guess she is trying to peek around 7th August …