It continued cold, grey and dry following driest February for 30 years.

Women

The last women’s team event of the winter saw a not unfamiliar number of just 9 taking part. As ever it was a close thing with the winning 3 doing so on the back 9 but as in the previous 2 months Ali managed to be in the winning team!

Men

In the first of 8 monthly medals comprising Grand Medal Trophy there was good scoring.
Will B taking the senior division with a super 64 inc. level back 9. Excellent 65s followed from Pete Malia and a late round from Tamas. Kerry took front 9 honours just 2 over and like Tamas Kerry was level par on the par 3s.

Dilip took the junior division 67 chased by 68s from Anthony Williams. Eliot and Duncan.

It was a chilly and cloudy day but dry and with very little wind. Fairway mowing was underway as well as construction of the new ditch which will eventually run all the way down the slope from the ‘wet area’ (now a pond) adjacent to the Prince’s 5th teeing area to the pond by the 5th green.

The clear winners of the team sweep were the team of James Deissler, Rannesh Jansari, Seymour Laird and Adrian Wells with an excellent 90 points (18 points more than a ‘par’ 72 points score). This team had the ‘Best Front 9’, the ‘Best back 9’, most points on the ‘Par 4s’ and on the ‘Par 5s’, and equal best score on the ‘Par 3s’ (with the team of Cheryl Woodhouse, Cuneyt Sazer, Richard Owen and Colin Price). Star of the team was James, with an individual General Play score of 42 stableford points.

There was only 1 point between the 2nd and 3rd placed teams, with Cheryl, Cuneyt, Richard and Colin (83 points) pipping Graham, John, Adrian and Ian (82 points) because of a much stronger back 9.

Play by the later 2 games was much slower than it should have been and everyone should read, and make every effort to adhere to, the club’s Fast Play Guidance (attached). As the season progresses the course will become busier and we do not want our competition to cause any ‘blockage’.

Sweep payout to the winning team (£5 each).

Anticyclonic conditions prevailed – mostly grey but wind chill and dry.

43 turned out for final round of Midweek Winter Comp – Raymond with inspired golf [ 1 over front 9 and 3 birdies total) winning with 42 points from Gina 39 (shame 2 blobs but great back 9 23) and 39 from Pat Dalton in last game.

Alan King is confirmed as overall winner of Midweek Winter Comp 114 from Richard Norden 113 and Paul Giles 112.
Alan also won Duke’s Eclectic 62.7 from Chris Newman 63.3 and Tamas 63.8.

Sunny to start but it clouded over; cold with wind chill but dry all day.

Women

The leaders in the eclectic were both in form today. Gina showing no after effects from a week of golfing, or perhaps she had in fact been honing her game, albeit in somewhat warmer weather in Portugal. Pat gsve them a good run for today’s stableford taking 2nd spot on the back 9 from Silvia with Gina 2 points ahead to win today with 35 points.

This last round of the eclectic was always going to be a 2 horse (or more appropriately, woman) race! Both started off by cutting a shot from their score with pars on the 1st hole. Gina then went 1 further ahead after the 5th but Silvia came back on the 6th – so still 1 shot in it from the 3rd round. They both then improved their scores by one further shot, but Silvia’s birdies were of no help to her as she’d already recorded them for the same holes in an earlier round. (Both Cheryl and Seema got birdies also – but theirs were of the feathered kind, who just waddled away unconcerned)..

So Gina not only wins today’s comp but also the eclectic by 1.3 from Silvia. Their scores were 71.1 and 72.4 respectively.

Men

In-form Peter Goodall shot the best score to win the last round of the winter competition – 40 points. Well done indeed but due WHS workings Peter replaced one good round with another so HI remains at 7.9. He was chased in the senior division by John Perkins 39 and Will B 38.

38 proved good for Alan K to take the junior division chased by Anthony Williams, Pat Dalton and Gunnar with 37s. Anthony’s HI is still in the throes of development and his 6th card attracted an ESR of -1.0 and an HI cut from 40.4 to 34.3.

Of course this was last round of Duke’s Eclectic with Will B edging Justin by a tenth of a shot to win 61.0 to 61.1; Oz and Peter G followed with 63s. Peter and Will managed with just the 3 of possible 4 rounds.

Overall Winter Comp Results from the 8 rounds played
Senior:
Peter G winner 119
Justin W runner-up 117
Will B third 113

Junior:
Giovanni winner 119
Alan K runner-up 112
Julian tied third 111
Gunnar tied third 111

A chilly and cloudy mid morning gave way to a short, fine drizzly spell around midday, after which the sun came out.

The results show a tie-at-the-top on 21points by Brian Ransom, Pat Dalton and Richard Norden. All 3 players also all scored par for 3 points on the only hole played on the ‘back 9’. However, the software identifies Brian as the Countback winner on account of the “last 6 holes on the Front 9” and Pat as 2nd on account of the “last 3 holes on the Front 9”.

Sweep payout to top 3 (£7, £5, £4)

Hopefully the ladies will be back playing with us again next Friday on Prince’s.

The field faced a (dramatic) change in playing conditions compared to last week. Lower temperatures, drizzle and lots of mud negating any kind of roll on the fairways were a sharp reminder of winter/autumn golf at the park. The sting was in the tail (end of the playing order). The Top6 all teed off after 9.30am.

Brian ended front and back 9 with a birdie. 21 (way out) and 20pts (way in) are just enough to see off the challenge of Richard N and Adrian. Richard N “only” scored 20pts on the front 9 missing out on the top spot. Adrian matched Brian’s score on the front 9. But 2 blobs on the back 9 prevent him from finishing higher than 3rd. 22pts on the back 9 allow Seymour take 4th. Best score on the back 9 goes Richard M (lots of Richards in this report). He scores 24pts: blob on 14th and birdie on the 18th = 5pts.

MW Princes Eclectic

Adrian Wells 61, Peter Goodall 62,  Alvaro Garcia-Hoz 63, Tamas Ladacs 63

A pleasant early Spring day with sunshine and not much wind though what there was had a chill to it .

Women

The lovely sun didn’t seem to help most out there today, except for our new member, Sali, playing in her first official club comp she came out a mere 7 points ahead of both Deb & Cheryl with her 38 points which will be rewarded with a handicap reduction of just under 2 shots in the morning. Well played Sali and welcome onboard.

Special mention to Silvia for her eagle 3 on the 10th hole – amazing!!

This was the last round of the Prince’s eclectic and despite Cheryl knocking 5 off her score it was not enough to catch Pat who wins the eclectic by 0.2 on 72.3 from Cheryl.

Men

Sam Goodchild-Way led the way in the senior division with an even 38 points – chased by Justin W whose 37 included 2 ‘blobs’. Consistent 36s came from Will B and Peter G, Will recording the 3rd Sunday eagle on 14th – nice one.

The junior division was also won with 38 points with Martn Hay edging Adrian and Michael C on back 9.

9 divisional sweep prizes awarded – 5 senior 4 junior due to greater number of senior participants.

This was last round for the Prince’s Winter Eclectic which sees Roger Rojas the winner 60.6 after just 3 rounds of the 4 from Kerry on 61.5.

The overall Winter Comp has just 1 round left and after 7 played :
Senior division leaders
Justin W 117
Peter G 114

Junior division leaders
Givanni C 119
Julian J 111

On a mild but cloudy day, the strong south-westerly winds from the effects of Storm Otto over Scotland were the most significant challenge (and assistance) during the round.

The ‘best 2 scores from 3 players’ proved difficult for all teams on some holes with all teams have the odd 2-pointer (or less !!). It turned out that there were only 2 teams that played ‘better than par (72 points)’, with the team of Pete Goodall, Justin Wildman and Seymour Laird (79 points) outscoring Pat Dalton, Bill Norman and Alex Braun (77 points).

As is so often the case, the story of winners and runners up came down to the closing few holes. Alex birdied both the 15th and 16th and his team scored 13 team points on those 2 holes, but then they only scored 7 team points on the 17th and 18th. Pete birdied the 15th and the 18th (on the green with his tee shot), giving his team 13 points on 17th and 18th, plus 9 team points on the 15th and 16th.

Sweep payout to the winning team (£6 each).