Nowhere to hide from the casual water and mud (all of us took their fair share home …). The 2 temporary greens and forward tees on a lot of holes rendered the course fairly short.

So you could argue the above offset each other. Gerard O recorded 5 3-pointers and 2 4-pointers. That translated into 19pts on the front 9 and 21pts on the back 9. Pretty impressive in these conditions. Another early starter Robert C finished 1 point back of Gerard. He may regret the 3 5’s to start his back 9. 5 players scored 38pts. Chris J and Richard O matched Gerard’s score on the back 9 (21pts). But Chris’ last 6 holes were marginally better than Richard’s. Adrian W and Mike J had a softer back (20pts). But it was enough to claim the last “money spots”.  Pepe M had the best front 9 (21pts).

MW Winter Standings
Julian J, Robert C 73pts, JM Gomez 72, Serhat G 71

MW Princes Eclectic
Richard O 71.9, Robert C 72.1, Adrian W 73.6

Cool and grey with the odd spell of light rain. 2 temps & a non-qualifier for handicap.

Women

It was Joan’s turn to make it look easy this week with 35 but she was closely followed by 3 on 34. Think Katharina and Sheena were playing in a parallel universe but it gives us plenty of room for improvement in the next rounds of the eclectic.
In the eclectic, Gina tops it followed by Jayne & Joan courtesy of the half handicap allowance- you can check the holes you need to improve from the report on MS

Men

The senior division was headed by Peter Needham who started with a welcome birdie and against normal form had a better front 9 (22pts) than back (17pts) for 39 total; in a similar vein Thierry Andretta had 21 out 16 back for his 37. Paul Kamerling finished 3rd with steady 35 then club champion Roger Rojas 35.

The junior division returned higher points scores with Onursal Soyer 42 [best front 9, 23pts ], Paul Green 41, Sean O’Sullivan 3rd 40 on countback from Julian James and Paul McGrath .

The first round of [8] for Winter Comp. reflects the above whilst in first [of 4] Prince’s Eclectic is headed by Peter Needham 70.1 from Julian James 72.2.

Light rain showers were evident over the first few holes and the weather forecast promised dry sunny conditions from about 11am, however the clouds kept rolling in and, with the wind becoming more northerly, it was decidedly ‘cold’ by mid afternoon.

It seemed for a long time that early starter Russell Stewart’s 38 points would easily win the day, however in the penultimate game Peter Miller came in with 40 points ( 23 points on the back 9) and Julian James equalled Stewart’s 38 points, but missed out on countback. Russell had birdies on the 11th and 14th, while Peter birdied the 4th and Julian birdied the 17th. Sweep pay-out to these top 3 (£9, £6, £3).

A small field faced tough conditions. Autumn/Winter golf was back with a bang at the park. Even though the rain was less present the last 36h mud and casual water were ever present. There were still 3 temporary greens (3rd, 11th and 12th). Avoiding the rain today proved impossible. Even though the rain wasn’t very hard it was very persistent during the whole day.

Early starter Brett Colley put up a valiant effort to come home with 35pts (17+18). But the day belonged to the late morning starters. Arguably the weather was worse for them. 3 players finished on 36pts. Julian had the best back 9 of the three. The last 6 holes of Julian James and Bill Norman were the tie-breaker: Julian had 12pts over those holes . Bill scored 1pt less. José-Manuel Gomez scored 16pts on the back 9 so he finishes 4th. Mike Jones was the only player “to beat his HI”. 38pts (20pts out and 18pts in) make him the clear winner. For 1 week at least he leads the MW Winter Comp standings. 

Breezy and bright but dry after recent storm/rains for the November Medals. With 3 temporary greens the competitions became non-qualifying for handicap.

Women

Silvia made it look pretty easy but am assuming conditions were pretty much as muddy and horrible as they were today and possibly raining as well? Your author was enjoying some sun in Spain!

So congratulations to Silvia who wins the last of the 2023 women’s medals – on to team games next month.

Men

Pete Malla led the way in the Senior division with net 70 just 1 from Paul Kamerling; with 73s came Umran Ali, Aidan Hurley and Joe Goncalves; Aidan had lowest gross of the day.

With a glorious 65 Charles Haines won the Junior medal from early leader Alan King 67. Mark Laverty teed off with a birdie for his 68 whilst Richard Hanna shot 70 with a promising front 9 gross 41 net 31.

This week it was ‘5 Clubs and a Putter’, which is a good deal ‘easier’ than 3 clubs and a putter and playing off the yellow tees also helped. Due to the heavy rain over the preceding days, there were 3 ‘temporary greens’, although these were simply holes in the fairway with no additional mowing or boundary marking.

The top 3 of Alex Braun (37 points), Andre Pelser (37 points) and Richard Norden (36 points) all put in very solid and consistent rounds, although Alex equalled Pralab with a best back 9 of 23 points and Andre had the best front 9 (20 points). Andre also scored 6 on all of the last 8 holes, which is highly unusual.

Mention must be made of Pralab’s round. Although finishing with a ‘middle-of-the-road’ 32 points, he only had 4 points after 8 holes. He then eagled the 9th, birdied the 10th and then went on to also birdie the 15th and 18th holes. What a change in form!

Events on the SI 1 14th hole in the game involving Tamas and Richard Norden also deserves a mention, as 2 balls were holed with one shot. Richard played his 6th shot to just a few inches from the hole before Tamas played his 3rd (approach) shot onto the green – Tamas’s ball knocked Richard’s ball into the hole, and then followed it in. A great birdie for Tamas, but Richard had to replace his ball and putt for a 7. Sweep payout to top 3 (£9, £5, £3).

The course was muddy after more recent rain.

The winner of the Medal was Serhat with an amazng 63 with Graham C 2nd 65 on countback from Robert C.

With the 2 Matchplay KOs finished and now the final competition – Lissaman Cup, final Senior and Junior positions are shown below:

The weather was foul and autumnal – not cold but persistent spells of rain. A number understandably completed a few holes and walked in, The condition of the course was discussed by the Committee before agreeing to proceed to issue the results. The sun did finally come brilliantly out for the last game.

Well done to all who completed the 3 Clubs and putter Lissaman Cup competition and especially those below with less than 70 net.
Joe Go and Brian M both had 67s with Joe winner on countback rule – 36 on back 9 Brian 39. New member Iker L in his 5th qualifying round shot a commendable 68 with Paul K and Joseph Go 69s; next was best woman Bridget S 70.

A couple of ‘Twos’ – Kim 4th and Rannesh 11th.

For the men this was the final competition in the Top Dog and with the 2 matchplay Kos completed, divisional results are as attached.

In the Senior division we have a tie with Brian M’s 8 points awarded for this comp making him joint winner with Kerry S both 26; they were chased b today’s winner Joe Go 20 and Paul K 19.

In the Junior division Paul McG wins from Dilip 28 to 26 with Duncan T 24 and Gregory 20.

The early morning rain showers quickly subsided for the 10am starters and the sun then appeared to make it a pleasant Autumn day, at least for a few hours. At around 2.30 pm however, black shower clouds appeared and Games 3 to 7 had to endure around 15 to 20 mins of heavy rain, which was unfortunate.

Our winner, Peppe (40 points), was in Game 1 so missed the late downpour and, apart from the 4th hole, put in a very solid round (18 points out and 22 points in). Second place goes to Poria Alinia (39 points) who had an average front 9 (17 points) but a back 9 (22 points) super-charged by consecutive birdies on the 14th and 15th holes. Rannesh takes 3rd place with 37 points, thanks to some excellent 4 iron tee shots (no driver or 3 wood in his bag !), surprisingly good approach shots and a steady putting display. Gary Simpson and Colin Price both scored 36 points for 4th and 5th places. Best front 9 was Tom Simpkins (21 points) and best back 9 was Andre Pelser (23 points). Sweep payout to top 3 (£14, £9, £5).