Competition Reports
Competition Reports
June Monthly Medals
Hot and humid conditions prevailed although rain and thunder arrived – but after cards returned.
Women
Perhaps Katharina has found the secret to playing well – send Uli away so no pressure on who is cooking dinner! A net 65 which would have been considerably lower without a 10 on the 17th has resulted in an ESR being applied – most unlike WHS which often seems to gift those who play well with either no change or an increase as older scores drop off. Katharina sees a drop from 20.5 to 18.4.
If realisation of how her game was going suddenly hit on that hole, it didn’t harm the last which resulted in a birdie finish (1 of 2 with Bridget also finishing well).
Bridget in fact finished 2nd, 5 shots behind and she got a much smaller .5 cut
Men
Tamas won the senior division with a well-crafted and consistent 64. He was chased by Michael Hayden 66 and best Mark Bean 67(also best gross 78 on countback).
In the junior division Richard Young shot an astonishing 60 proving the value of technique and practice. Onursal followed with a fine consistent 64 and Julian J 65; Julian’s round was superb except for the SI 1 7th where he recorded 12.
In 4th round aggregate of the GMT both divisions headed by only 3 players to complete the 4 rounds to date:
Senior: Tamas 278, Oz 294, Richard B 299
Junior: Dilip 277, Tom Simp 286, Tony K 286
Rickmansworth match, 1st leg
After last year’s narrow victory , predicated on a first leg “sweep” of all six pairs matches, the Rickmansworth team turned up early for the first leg of this year’s match, kitted out for the occasion with royal blue club jerseys and black shorts/trousers seemingly intent on a much improved performance to the previous year. Our team was a mix of grizzled veterans of previous matches and welcome ‘newbies’ to team competitions.
On the hottest day of the year so far, Richard Owen and Seymour Laird led off the team and secured pars on the first two holes to take a quick lead, however the Ricky pair kept ‘bouncing back’ and it was all square after 9 holes. Seymour’s par on the 10th again put Richmond ahead, a lead which they never relinquished, ultimately prevailing by a comfortable 4 and 3 score and taking the internal sweep first spot with 43 points. Our second rookie pair, Naveed Manazir and Richard Norden, were next out and ran out to a comfortable 5 and 4 win and finished third in the sweep with a creditable 40 points. Out third were the experienced pair of Nigel Ward and Tony Kopczak who eked out a 1 up victory in a closely contested matchup. So the first three Richmond pairs had run up a 3-0 lead but things were about to turn in Rickmansworth’s favour. Two more rookies in John Perkins and Paul Green performed well enough to finish with a very laudable 41 points for second place in the internal sweep but ran into determined opponents who closed out a 3 and 2 victory to put Rickmansworth on the scoreboard. John produced a salutary reminder of the importance of reading Club communications by turning up dressed in a blue shirt, much to his embarrassment! Our fifth pair, Roger Rojas and Justin Wildman, enjoyed a strong front 9 scoring 21 stableford points but wilted in the extreme heat on the back 9 and ended up succumbing to their opponents on the 17th hole in a 2 and 1 defeat. Out last were an experienced pair in captain-for-the-day Nigel Gaymond and Angus Robertson. After a promising beginning for Richmond in the first few holes, Rickmansworth were 3 up after 6 holes and despite best efforts, Angus and Nigel were never able to get back on competitive terms, largely as the result of a stunning performance by their high handicapper, playing off 17, who ground our intrepid pair into the dust with a relentless barrage of outstanding play shooting an 80 on his own ball on a tough Duke’s course. Clearly, Nigel brings out the best in that particular player who performed in a similarly spectacular fashion before in a previous leg at Rickmansworth for a 79 playing off a 24 handicap! I will be requesting that I do not face him in future matches!
As always, an enjoyable match with great company, but at 3-3 the return leg at Rickmansworth in September will be a huge challenge. But maybe it is time for us to go over there and give a better account of ourselves. Remember, we only need six points in total to retain the cup as the holders, so let’s go over and fight for those three points!
MW June Monthly Medal (MW GMT R4/8)
As with recent days it warmed up with the sun melting clouds but still a chilly wind.
Like Sunday, a third of the field NR’d but the PCC calculation was +1.
Winner of the medal was Toby H wit a very fine 70; just one shot behind was Cheryl 1 – had Cheryl’s birdie at 16 been repeated then she would have won by a margin. Pat B and Alex B followed with 71s.
Jay took best gross 80 and both front and back nine honours.
Graham C leads the Midweek Grand Medal (best 5 from 8 rounds) but are only players to have completed 4 rounds.
Clapham Common Shield & Ellis Cup
After a bye in the 1st round, the club played this 2nd round men’s greensomes match home & away against Hoebridge on a lovely warm and sunny day. The overall result was a narrow victory for Richmond Park 220 points : 218 points but it took over 4 hours after play finished for the result to be confirmed/agreed! Next round is against Wexham Park.
The 3 pairs at Richmond Park (Brendan Sullivan & Bernie McDermott, Kerry Sargeant & Alan King and Uli Katte & Richard Owen) teed off an hour earlier than those at Hoebridge. All of the Richmond Park pairs outscored their Hoebridge playing partners on the Prince’s course and together amassed what we believed to be a 16 points advantage. Was this enough ? There was a long wait to see how our away team (Roger Rojas & Mike Shabani, Ross Hood & Pete Malla and Kim Chaffart & Tamas Ladacs) had got on. News trickled through from team captain Roger that “it might be a draw” and copies of the RP cards and back 9 countback scores were requested. Together all the information was ‘audited’ by Roger and the Hoebridge captain and it was found that Hoebridge had mis-calculated some of their team handicaps both home and away, resulting in a 2 points swing to Richmond Park, who won by 18 points at home and lost by only 16 points away. Phew!
Platinum Jubilee (70yrs 1924-1994)
Another brilliantly ‘blazing’ June day with glorious sunshine. The NE wind kept temps down.
With a third of the field NR’ing you might think a positive PCC would arise – but it didn’t and remained at zero.
Anyway, there was still some very good golf – from ‘in-form’ players. Cheryl took the honours with a glorious 65 after an inspiring win in the Women’s Invite the day before. Such is the nature of WHS that her HI remained the same because she ‘lost’ a good counting score from January. An amazing round with birdie at 17th – well done! Another recent winner Richard Young challenged with a 66 for second place ahead of Raymond 68; wrt WHS again, Richard’s HI actually increased 0.3 since he ‘lost’ a better score from last August in the best 8 averaging.
Many no doubt NR’d due to still thick rough.
Spare a thought for Raymond – he stood on 13th tee level par and recent birdies at 11 & 12. Raymond returned best grossof the day 81 but dropped all the shots 13-18.
This was first Jubilee of 4 in the Anniversary Cup.
Friday Sweep
It was a chilly start but those of us who chose to wear shorts were not disappointed when the sun broke though about 11.30am. Glendale has extended their mowing of fairways and semi-rough but woe-betide anyone who went into the rough beyond, which was penal. There was evidence that Glendale has ‘found’ the sprinklers around the greens and tees but no evidence of them having used them yet – unfortunately !
Perpetual front runner and early starter Pralab posted a score (39 points) which none of us could overtake. His front 9 (23 points) was the foundation of his score, with a birdie on the 2nd and 3 other pars before the turn. Richard Owen played a steady round (18 out and 20 back) to take second place and playing partner Uli Katte was 3rd on 37 points; impressive golf on the front 9 considering he scored 19 points with blobs on the 5th and 8th. Graham Cull’s 36 points sneaked 4th place from Seymour on countback due to his ‘Best Back 9’ score of 23 points, although Seymour recorded ‘Most Birdies’ , one on the 9th and the other on the 11th. Sweep payout to the top 3 ( £10, £7, £4).
Founders Cup – H Prendergast (4/6)
If Karma played golf it would’ve made Kevin Prendergast winner today. But that script never materialised. After underwhelming scoring last Sunday on Princes things looked rather ominous for today’s field. The rough was still stupidly high. And the bounces on the fairway/fringes were extremely unpredictable. But it has to be said that the field outperformed (and that is putting it mildly). 3 of the players finishing in the Top 5 went out at the crack of dawn.
Gina’s brisk pace of play (she and Ross finished 18 holes in 2h37) translated into an excellent score of 37pts. But her mark was bettered by Vinny (39pts). Alan T had a remarkable eagle on the 5th. 18pts out and 24pts in are his final numbers. The 9am starters did have the final laugh. Richard Y picked up on 3 holes on the front 9 (17pts). But he blew everyone away with 25pts on the back to snatch victory from Alan. Chris R had an excellent round (19+22pts). But he will have regrets about the 18th hole (recorded a DB). It has to be said that the tee-shot on the 18th from the white tees is becoming quite daunting. In a couple of years you will either have to use an 8 iron to just get on the fairway or (as Sam W does) bend/slice it around the trees. Finally Ross has to thank Gina for not entering the sweep. He is the last player to get a “positive purse adjustment”.
MW Founders Cup Standings
Chris Rudkin (132), KSC (131), Gina (128 – but she has a great opportunity to make up ground the coming weeks), PDH (124).
Committee Cup Rd 2 / Spring Bank Holiday Plate
Similar conditions of late prevailed but warmth 23 C from sunshine was abated by wind.
Women
Men
The rough was not a place to be in, ruining a hole’s score; run on fairway sometimes ran unexpectedly into bunker and hard greens needing water wouldn’t hold pitches and were ‘fast’.
Additionally loose plastic liners at top of holes annoyingly lifted and needed replacing for next player. Greens having dried out since placing of liners.
Unsurprisingly PCC was again lifted to +1.
But there was some good golf. Winner by one point was Luke R 38 pts with good front 9 21 pts and a birdie at first. Chasing one point behind were Alan K and Duncan T. Duncan with an inspired back 9 24pts.
Sam Williams recorded 3rd men’s Sunday eagle of year at 17 [total eagles 5] – well done!.
Friday Sweep
It was a warm sunny day (200C) with a refreshing breeze. There was bounce and run on the fairways but it’s becoming more difficult to ‘hold’ the ball on the greens and there is real trouble in the rough, which is deep and at it’s most punishing this time of year. Glendale had extended their 1st cut mowing since the last club competition 2 weeks ago, which was some relief.
Scoring proved difficult for most of the field with more than two thirds of the entrants failing to score 30+ points. Two of last Friday’s top 3 were again in the winner’s circle – Seymour Laird 2nd with 36 points and Colin Price 3rd with 35 points. However, this week’s winner was early bird Mitch Cohen with 37 points. Mitch’s round wasn’t looking too good after 6 holes – he only had 6 points, but he par’d 7 of the final 11 holes and had 22 points on the back 9. Sweep payout to the top four (£12, £8, £4, £2).
Founders Cup – J Hume (3/6) – UKPCC Qualifier
The field enjoyed links like conditions on a parkland course. The extra roll on the fairways was a welcome sight to a lot of people. But the thick/high rough and unpredictable bounces on the fairways caused a lot of problems.
To state the obvious: this wasn’t even close. Gina was the only player in the field to play better than her HI. She used an excellent back 9 (+2 gross – 22pts) to race to victory. Back to back birdies on holes 13 & 14 sure helped. 41pts and a ticket to UKPCC regionals represent a nice day at the office. Early starters also take places 2&3. Alan and Naveed both recorded 35pts. Alan had the better back 9 (21pts). Naveed had more birdies. An ugly DB on 12 dented Naveed’s chances. The first 9am starter comes in at 4th. Toby had a good front 9 (20pts). But 5 1-pointers on the back 9 were his undoing. Another early bird claimed 5th. Russell will regret the PU’s on holes 5,9 & 13. Final money spot goes to Jeremy P. His round could’ve been more rewarding had the unpredictable bounce/rolls from the fairways not made him lose tee-shots on 4 (!) holes.
MW Founder Standings: KSC (98), PDH (96), Toby (91), Gina (91)