Summer golf was a distant memory today at the Park. Sub 20 degrees temperatures, occasional rain showers and swirling/strong winds had more similarities with golf in October/November. 4 players dealt rather well with the conditions and recorded at least 40pts. A further 12 players managed to record at least 36pts. The rest of the field fared not as well.

Richard Owen went out in +2 gross. A nice birdie on the 9th hole brought his points total on the way out to 24pts! He recorded 3 more 3-pointers on the first 4 holes of the back 9. Holes 14-16 were a blip, 1 point on each, but better than what happened on the 16th tee. Richard managed to lose his first ball in the jungle on the right … after bouncing off the ladies’ tee-marker. He recovered with two 5’s on the last 2 holes. This enabled him to close the back 9 with 18pts.

A group of 3 players finished with 40pts. Another Richard (Hodgkinson) took 2nd place, thanks to a better back 9. Kim Chaffart managed to repeat Sunday’s horror show by recording another blob on the 15th hole, however a timely eagle on the 17th allowed him to hold of Angus. Uli will regret the 7 on the 12th and bogey on the 16th. Tamas was one-putting nearly every green on the front 9 on his way to 23pts. But an 8 on the 12th and blob on the 15th dented his charge on the back 9. Shout-out to the club captain John Ahad for recording the only “2” of the day. Richard H takes the lead in the Founders Cup (114) ahead of Juho (107), Richard O (104), Gina (103) and Kim (101).

Saturday entrants enjoyed best of the sun and temperature per bottom of results report. Yet best on Saturday was 39.

Women

With the Committee Cup deferred to later in the year, there was just a sweep for the women today – though the prize pot of just £12 didn’t make for early retirement. ( A number were away playing Whitewebbs). For the Sunday entrants it was always going to be a longshot that you’d get anywhere near Gina who chose to play on Saturday and seems to have found a very purple patch scoring 44 points. With the bizarre workings of WHS her 8 below handicap score only cuts her by a shot where previously this would have been 8*0.3 = 2.4 cut.

Men

Some superb scoring on Sunday came from Colm Ivors to win 46 pts 23 out 23 in with a ‘blob’. Peter Goodall gave chase 45 – 21 out with a ‘blob’ and 24 back; Gunnar shot very consistent 44 with 22 out and in.

This was a qualifier for NAPGC – entrants in attached report.

Incessant heavy rain made it miserable weather for golf and only 5 hardy souls, of the 10 that signed in, completed their rounds.

Winner was Andrew Watson with an excellent 35 points; runner-up on 33 points was Phil Martin, but all those who finished scored well, considering the conditions. Sweep payout to top 2.

Irrespective at what time players teed off, everybody enjoyed near perfect golfing conditions. Very mild temperatures and gently swirling winds (except may be on the 16th). A large proportion of the field must have enjoyed the extra roll on the fairways. The better players probably appreciated the fact that the greens seemed to become more receptive.

1st place today goes to Oliver Khan. He combined a steady front 9 (18pts) with an excellent back 9 (23pts – matched by Paul Green and only bettered by Tony Barnett. Early bird Gina is first woman today, runner-up with 41pts. Sheena, the Woman’s Captain, matched Gina’s score but “only” had 20pts on the back 9. Richard Owen had multiple birdie putts on the front 9. He still recorded 22pts on the way out. He then finally birdied a hole on the back 9 (the 14th). Unfortunately for him  he lost out to Gina and Sheena on countback. Richard Young is the last player to record 40pts. Chris Jones looked like a lock-in to match/beat that target but an ugly NR on the 18th prevented him from finishing higher than 8th. Michael Gallagher and Phil Martin complete the Top7 and take the last Sweep positions. 

Paul Giles would’ve finished 2nd today but he committed the cardinal sin of not signing his card.

Today was a throwback to those days when waiting on every tee for every shot was commonplace on a Sunday – it evidently started from first thing as there were messages from those out before the clubs who could see what was happening (or not) ahead. But it was just such a lovely day weatherwise to be out there so long unlike Wednesday when we got soaked.

Women

Another case of beware the injured golfer. As author, your captain could give you a blow by blow account of the round – but it wasn’t very exciting. What was more surprising was that all 3 in the game (Cheryl, Katharina and Sheena) seemed to be pretty much level pegging on hole by hole scores. Cheryl says it ws down to lucky bounces which obviously made the difference and that was before she knew she’d been beaten by 1 shot into second place…. as we have a Whitewebbs match next weekend hopefully we can keep it going. (Footnote: sadly we didn’t!

Men

Nuisance rain on Sunday morphed into annoying rain for later participants But there was good golf throughout.

Ian Humphreys shot an amazing 56 on Saturday with just 2 over par through 9th; it was back to normal in a GPS round on Duke’s for Ian on Sunday. But Ian earned an ESR -1 adjustment going back to his earliest (16th) WHS round.. Nigel Ward had a super 60 for second and there were 61s from Goran, Brian (& best gross), Joe , Paul Green and Justin. Overall PCC remained at zero.
Congrats for 3 Eagles -Henry L-B 9th, James P 12th and Kevin P 17th.


This translates to divisional results:
Senior – Brian 1st Joe 2nd
Junior – Ian 1st Nigel 2nd


Also 3rd round of Grand Medal Trophy – Colm lead 193 but menacingly close behind on 200 is Paul Grand with Robin 204 and Peter H 205.

A smaller than usual field played in today’s sweep, for a combination of reasons – regulars on holiday or playing elsewhere, late cancellations due to work and doctor’s appointment, Spring Matchplay matches taking place and unfortunately Chris Rudkin had to ‘retire hurt’ after 6 holes. Nevertheless those who did play enjoyed a fine sunny day with a strong westerly wind.

The ‘Richards’ won the day with Richard Owen scoring 38 points and Richard Norden with 33 points. From reports of the matchplay between Peter Goodall and Peppe, they would have taken 1st and 2nd slots if they had played equally well in the sweep. Sweep payout to top 2 (£6, £3).

Golfing conditions were not optimal. Dry fairways made bounces unpredictable. Even though the greens were a bit more receptive it was still very tricky to hold the greens. The gusting winds complicated things more. To round it all off the greenkeepers’ prayers were answered. Towards the end of play the floodgates opened. The later starters needed their waterproofs and umbrellas.

Richard Y had a steady round (18pts on the front and back 9). Other players ran either hot or cold over 9 hole stretches. So no-one was a match for Richard’s consistency. Juho had an excellent front 9 (20pts). After recording 36pts over 16 holes he looked a lock for a decent score. But unfortunately he didn’t record a singular extra point. 2nd place and the leader position in the ranking of the MW Founders Cup are his. Tamas was in the same game as Juho and also recorded 36pts. He and Richard H had an excellent score of 21pts on the front 9. Despite 3 blobs on the back 9 Tamas still beat Richard H on countback to take 4th. A strong back 9 (19pts) takes Jeremy to 5th place. Peter had an ugly front 9 but was on fire on the back 9 (22pts).

As mentioned: Juho takes the lead in the ranking of the MW Founders Cup.

A large field enjoyed dry and very warm, sunny conditions and the course looked more like a links than a parkland course, with bone dry fairways. The greens had been watered and were slightly receptive, although landing the ball short and rolling it onto the green was the better strategy.

A lot of players recorded scores of 23pts or more on the easier front 9, however our winner, Mark Bean, took full advantage of the conditions to record 4 birdies on the back 9 (over the stretch of just 7 holes – 12th to 18th) recording 24pts on the way in. That strong back 9 helped him to beat a Saturday starter, Dilip Mailvaganam, who’s round was a mirror image of Mark’s: 23pts out and 20pts in. He would probably like to play the 18th again – an untidy 7 was one of the very rare blemishes on his card. Martin Hay also recorded a very strong front 9 (23pts) but he too stumbled on the 18th. Dave Chilvers and Richard Owen take 4th and 5th respectively with very decent scores of 40pts. Nigel Ward and James Anslow are the last players finishing “In The Money”. Suhail was in a very good position to leapfrog Nigel/James (he had 36pts teeing off on the 17th), unfortunately for him he walked of the 18th with a scorecard still on 36pts.

The first Saturday event of the year saw just 9 pairs playing. This is a mixed random draw event, so you don’t find out who your partner is until just before the event – & hope that you’ve drawn a good’un

It was good to see all the games coming in so swiftly one after the other with no large gaps anywhere – must have been a consequence of all that good play out there.

As this is a comp with awards at the annual dinner all the cards and technically should have resulted in a DQ for two pairs – thus raising the finishing place of those of us lower down the order. However as both have finished just outside the prizes I have left them but can’t check their scores.

Needless to say, the winners with an outrageous 49 points are HIlary & Colm (who were probably disappointed on the 5 holes where they scored less than 3 points) and 5 points back on a very good score of 44 was Joan & John who as first out sat there at the top of the leaderboard for most of the day.

Bacon rolls with tea/coffee before play were the order of the day, followed by a drink afterwards as we gathered for the first social event.