Wind persisted with ground almost parched and heat slowly built for The Midweek Captain’s Day.

Jay shot an impressive level par 71 (one under on harder back 9) to claim first place and lowest gross. The Murphy household too 2nd and 3rd prizes with Avi overall runner-up on 67 and Patrick third 68. Improver Jon W 4th on countback 68. New members Mark F and Peter G also shot 68s. Julie took 7th place and sixth sweep prize. Results..

Novelty prizes as below:

• Teddy’s 2nd shot at 2nd finishing within a foot of hole
• Hole 2: Nearest the pin after 2 shots (mixed) – Teddy
• Hole 7: Nearest the pin (mixed) – Darren
• Hole 10: Nearest the pin (men only) – Joe G
• Hole 10: Nearest the pin (ladies only) – Alison
• Hole 14: Longest drive – Mark

Putting comp – some unresolved queries at present.

CSS was unchanged from SSS with 20 NRs but five escaped 0.1 increases due to the max double net bogey handicapping rule. Ladies receive 5 shots from yellows and whites 2 due to SSS differences.

12 handicap change. Jay now down to 3, Elisabeth chopped a massive 8 shots to 35 (her net 69 was off a limit of 36 in the comp but would have been 105-43=62 off natural h’cap, a significant personal achievement for Elisabeth-well done.

Hard to recall those days BC (before Covid) when we waded our way around the course with the bone hard conditions underfoot now and the ball bouncing in many and varied ways.

However, it looks like it didn’t fare too well today and got beaten up by almost half of the field. Jay, starting as the sun rose posted a 4 up before many had teed off on 1 maintaining the lead for several hours before Adrian recorded his 6 up. Jay then dropped back to 3rd place on the back 9 when Jayne Fraser also beat the course by 4. Results…

Quite a few cuts to handicaps, but only 5 people reduce their playing handicaps. Handicaps were adjusted for play off yellow, white & red with CSS reducing by 1 for all.

Conditions were perfect for golf -not too hot and a gentle breeze. Most greens played to a higher stimp rating and all tees and greens had a whiff of fertiliser. Random bounce continued.

62% of players were within buffer zone and CSS was reduced by 1.

There were some exceedingly good scores and it was nip and tuck countback-wise with Joe G nudging Richard O to win. Joe was 2 over gross 35 on back 9 . Well done to both with handicap cuts to 11 and 12 respectively. Results…

Charlie burnt up the back 9 with 35 to finish 3rd on magnificent 62. Richard H and Pete Hs had 64s – Pete having 3-3-3 for 3 through 5 on his one under par 34 front 9. Warm congrats to Pete being cut to 5 a Category 1 handicap. Jay characteristically shot best gross – 71.

Ladies

Not quite the weather that a medal round in July might expect to be played in with everyone getting a bit of a soaking when the rain suddenly descended and disappeared almost as quickly to leave sauna like conditions for a few minutes.

Congratulations to Caroline for her net 63 winning by a comfortable four shot margin from Tenesi in her last competition with the club. Somehow with a 1.5 cut, Caroline has managed to hold on to just a one shot playing cut to her handicap. Tenesi also drops to 13, but will be putting three new cards in for a new handicap in the Czech Republic. Results…

CSS dropped by a shot to 68

Men

Interesting conditions out there with a bit of sun, a fair breeze and then for probably most of the field a bit of a soaking for all of 5 mins before the sauna kicked in for a bit.

No one played off the yellow tees today, so just the whites wereused in the results and CSS went down one to 66.

As a result of the lack of monthly medals, or golf in total, for some time we have glasses to award from these events so for the next few months two medal glasses are being awarded, one to the first placed player in each of the Senior & Junior Divisions.

The winner of today’s medal in the Senior Division, and overall winner, is Brian M with a 63 and receiving a cut to 11.9 on his handicap. Two shots behind and recording the lowest gross was Ryan. Adrian W in 3rd place overall is the winner of the Junior Division medal with a 66. Results…

In the Grand Medal Trophy after 4 rounds tbc. R4 leader board…

Weather was ideal for golf but random bounce persisted. White tees were forward and Glendale being reminded again.

Early clubhouse leader (with 2 ‘blobs’) was Cosmo with a seemingly unassailable 43 points but late player Luke rose like cream to the top with 45 points. Luke had an ESR earlier this month and is now cut to playing off a single figure – 9. Well done! Cosmo is cut a full 2 shots to 22. Damber continues to delight with 42 points with Mike J 4th 41 points. Jay returned best gross @ 40 whilst Aung continues to improve with 39 and a 1.5 cut to 30.5. Results…

Colm recorded another eagle at 17 and heads the tree. Midweek Eagle Tree…

Summer conditions made way for spring like weather: light but persistent rain, swirling winds and fairways that remain as hard as concrete.

For the second week running Top Honours go to a lady. Susan started her back 9 with a nice birdie on the 10th. She kept racking up the points on the way in (24pts). That back 9 made up for more subdued front 9 (16pts). 40pts is an impressive winning score. Susan’s handicap drops 0.9 strokes down 19. Well done! Luke and Damber missed out on 1st place by just 1pt. John P and a quite controlled performance by Crocodile Rogers earn them 4th and 5th place respectively. Another lady, Jayne, closes out the Top6. Last week’s heroes (Cheryl and the LC had a tougher time today). Results..

CSS: 36pts (Men/Ladies)

After five rounds of the Top Dog Trophy Jay retains his lead over Rick Kimber. R5 Leader board…

After 3 rounds of the Anniversary Trophy Kerry (107) leads over Susan (106), Roger (105), Tenesi (102), Jayne (102) and Toby (100). R3 leader board…

Mostly cloudy conditions prevailed with random bounce and associated variable lies for the coveted Claret Jug for the 62 competitors.

The early clubhouse leader seemed to be Angus with 6 but many good scores flowed in and it was Rick K who took the Jug on 61. Extremely tidy play helped Rick keep a six off his card resulting in a cut to 10. There were no fewer than four 62s – Tenesi, Angus, new member Edd M and last years Most Improved Golfer Richard N. All superb and special mention to Tenesi who came back in 36 just 2 over par. There were dream starts for Tenesi – birdie and Paul P – birdie, birdie. Results…

White tees men received 1 and red tees ladies 3 shots from men’s yellow tees. CSS adjustment was again down 1 from SSS. 10 ‘Twos’ recorded and 8 playing handicap changes.

A chill July wind shivered players tarrying outside the clubhouse.

On behalf of both Captains I would like to thank you all for the big turnout. It was really nice to see of many of you today. Oh and by the way the golf wasn’t too shabby either.

The LC showed a bit of nerves on the first tee. She did end up recording a 6 on that hole. A solid par on the 2nd was then followed by an ugly 7 on the 3rd hole. But by the looks of things she had used up all her bad shots by that point (or did she do that yesterday at the Ladies Invite? Sorry John). The LC put the MC and Ladies VC to shame by recording 22pts on the front 9. A nice back 9 (How on earth did her tee-shot not find any of the bunkers on the 16th?) netted 21pts. A total score of 43pts made her leader in the clubhouse. Joe R somehow upstaged the LC (more on that below). Birdies on 4, 9 and 15 allowed him to match the LC’s score. But his better back 9 (22pts) give him 2nd place (and he even finished with a 6 on the last hole!).

Tamas claims his putter was ice cold today but a lot of players would swap their round for his 42pts and cold putter. Mark F’s strong back 9 lands him 5th place. Rick K closes out the Top6 with another 40+ score.

But nobody was a match today for Cheryl: she scored 3pts on all but 2 holes on the front 9 (on each of those holes she still walked away with 2pts). 25pts on the front 9 would make some people nervous. But quite remarkably she kept her composure. Despite some wobbly knees on the 16th and 17th (she “only” recorded 1pt on each of those holes) she managed to close out the back 9 with 21pts. Congratulations on a great win. Results..

Goes without saying that Cheryl (so close to the Hawtree – bad timing), Joe, the LC and Tamas all earn sizeable handicap cuts. Paul B’s good round could’ve been better had it not been for a bit of drama on the … 16th.

Captain’s Day Challenges:

• Ladies NTP on the 2nd was won by Angela
• Men NTP in 2 on the 5th was won by Lee
• Ladies longest drive on the 9th was won by Jane
• Men longest drive on the 12th was won by Joe R
• Men or Lady NTP on the 16th was won by Joe R

The Captains shared some photos: Pic1 | Pic2 | Pic3

After four rounds of the Top Dog Trophy Jay retains his lead over Rick. R4 Leader board…

It was a sunny Saturday for the 2020 Ladies Invitation. We had 9 games and 18 pairs for the American Greensomes competition played on the Prince’s Course.

We started the day with tea/coffee and bacon/egg/vegan sausage in a roll to sustain energy across the round. Everyone appreciated to be playing in 4 balls and in a fun format, with socially distanced drinks after the competition.

There were many good scores, we had 5 pairs on 42 points. Joint second place on 43 points was Avi/Patrick & Elisabeth /Angus. First place and prize-winners for the day were Sheena/Damber with an excellent 45 points. A thoroughly enjoyable day.

Intermittent rain affected all competitors. Whilst it softened the ground, random bounce still featured.

Totally unphased, Ray and Luke fought it out with astonishing scores of 6 up – Ray winning The Priory Cup on back 9 countback. Ray finished the back 9 in level par with 2 birdies. Luke ‘blobbed’ 12th but earned an ESR of -0.5 so now plays off 11. Well done to both. Gina continued recent good form 3rd 4 up and John C 3 up. Results…

With 29 (53%) competitors within ‘buffer’ of SSS CSS was reduced 1 from SSS (or in bogey terms elevated to 1 up for white and red tees, to 2 up for yellow).