Winter golf made a comeback with a vengeance. Icy temperatures turned the park into a golfers’ version of the Disney movie Frozen. The greens were tricky: judging the speed was challenging. But the lack of carry was offset by the extra bounce on the fairways.

The men’s Secretary is currently the in form player at the club. The H&H combo proved too much for the rest of the field. 22pts out was an excellent start (Owen/Prescot and Woodhouse/Wildman association bettered that score with 23pts each). But they then managed to rack up 25pts on the way in. Just enough to see off the nearest challengers (thank you countback rule). Second place goes to the pairing of Mike Jones and Roger Rojas. Especially Mike seemed to enjoy the winter golf. He drained just about any putt from more than 10 feet. Their 25pts on the back 9 compensated for a more volatile front 9.

As indicated above Woodhouse, Wildman and associates (does have the ring of a law firm in the city don’t you think?) decided to start strong but wavered a little on the back 9. 44pts is still good enough for 3rd place. Best score on the back 9 goes to Susan and Gregory.

Fog at Richmond Park delayed start until 10ish with any entrants having returned home.
Nearby weather station in East Sheen was unaffected by fog but at bottom of main results the wind increase measured 11ish would have cleared the fog at RP and allowed temperature to rise.

The winning combination was Nick Rogers and Gina 48 points separated only by back 9 countback from Justin and Sheena.Third place in this last Sunday comp before Christmas were Mike Shabani and Nigel Ward.

Most Improved Golfer Since 01 January 2021

A small field dealt with mild temperatures but muddy fairways (let’s hope the aeration work by the greenkeepers will work their magic).

Chris Jones’ round was solid on the front 9 (17pts) but downright outstanding on the back 9 (25pts). He needed this tally to stay ahead of Julian who had a very balanced round of golf (20 + 21pts). FYI: both players birdied the 16th hole. 3rd place goes to the in form player of the moment: the men’s secretary Peter. His strong back 9 ( (22pts) allowed him better Jeremy (“only” 20pts on the back 9). Richard Owen let loose on the back 9 (22pts) to claim 5th place. Sheena is the first lady (thanks in part to a very strong front 9 – an honour shared with Andrew Watson). Final note: Peter Goodall recorded an eagle on the 9th.

Very mild conditions prevailed with temp over 13C and soil warming up per results report.

The Harrington and Ivors households will be celebrating Christmas with bespoke hampers – Peter just on top after countback. Both superb 43s. James Deissler shot 42 for 3rd with Paddy Stone and Richard Hanna 41s. All will get Xmas prizesand sweep.

Kevin Prendergast shot the only Eagle 2 at par 4 15th – well done Kevin!
Best woman Sheena 37.

On a cold but dry winter’s day it seems as though the Princes’ course was no push-over, perhaps due to the heavy overnight rain.

The best score (34 points) was posted by Juho Lim, who played the back 9 well. The runner up was Peppe on 32 points, just one ahead of Uli. In terms of gross scores, there was very little in it between John Curry, Mike Horsthuis and Uli.

Sweep payout to Juho (£8) and Peppe (£4).

Winter Golf at its best/worst (pick your poison) at the park today. Or as I would’ve said in my previous role as banker: when we play winter golf it is like low correlation between financial assets. Summer golf on the other hand is as if correlation between financial assets were high.

Overall winner (and subsequently winner of the Junior Division) is the Men’s Secretary. 22pts on the back 9 more than made up for a sub-par front 9. Early starter Angus is keeping up his good form. He started his round with a birdie. He kept up some sort of similarity by repeating that feat on the 18th hole. Brett matched Angus’ score but his back 9 was just a bit softer. So the countback rule puts another early starter in 3rd place. Both players are the best of the Senior Division. Mike Jones – yet another early starter – takes 4th place. So may be playing in cold(er) weather does offer a certain advantage.

Weather forecast calls for a few dry days. This would give the course(s) an opportunity to dry up.

A very chilly day with a biting wind for wind chill and passing showers/drizzle. All depicted in busy graph plot at bottom of men’s results. Mud accumulated esp. towards end of round and metal spikes on shoes would have been the practical choice to avoid slithering. PCC was 1 – more difficult than normal.

Women

After yesterday’s AGM, Sheena had her drive-in as the women’s captain for 2022. Usual rules were followed with the women putting their X on a photo of the hole to guess where it would end up. It was a close run thing, but the decision was given to Avi from Katherina, who were presented with some Lindt chocs as we gathered for mulled wine & mince pies after the games.

It was the first team event of winter and conditions underfoot reminded us why we’d done away with medals at this time of year. The two 3-ball teams both finished on net 72s but the new captain’s team of Sheena, Ali & Hilary took the honours with the best back 9. Numbers were down because of those waiting on PCR results after the rules changed during the week.

Men

Sam Way shot an extremely tidy round of 66 from Rojer Rojas with Ross Hood 70 and Jay and Peter H 71s.

Sam duly won the Senior Division medal and Secretary Peter the Junior – see report.

A significantly reduced field braved the muddy (?) Dukes course in mild, overcast conditions – one can only imagine what it will be like this weekend after the promised rain tonight.

Julian continued his recent good form to win with 42 points (19 out and 23 points in), with late entry Uli taking 2nd place with 37 points (20 out and 17 in) and comfortably the lowest gross score. Ann beat the remainder of the men with a steady 30 points.

Julian wins £5 with Uli getting £1 to cover his entry fee.

Going out early seemed like the way to go. 5 players in the Top 6 went out before 8am.

Rob Dykes followed a solid front 9 (44 gross) with an excellent back 9 (38 gross). With a playing handicap of 22 his final score results in a nett score of … 60. 2nd place goes to Allan. He managed to birdie 2 par 3’s. But the rest of his round was a bit more volatile than Rob’s (a snowman and a 7 didn’t help). A group of players with a nett score 64 comes next. 3rd and 4th place go to early birds Mike and Joe: the first had a solid round but got held back by a few ugly 7’s. The 16th hole was Joe’s undoing. A 5 prevented him from improving on 4th place. 5th place goes to the only “late starter”: Peter G. He had a good day at the office except for 2 double bogeys. Seymour – you guessed it: he went out before 9AM – completes the Top6.

Below are attached PDF reports of the results, Scoring Analysis and Best Scores.