The weather today was more kind than earlier this week and we all stayed dry although the ground was still very muddy in many places. There were 6 temp greens where putting was a lottery, thank goodness for the 2 putt rule.
However, scoring was fairly good and for some very good.
One can only hope that the conditions will continue to improve over the coming weeks.

A damp grey start for the March Plate on the composite Duke’s course with 6 holes played twice; conditions deteriorated with rain becoming heavier and a few came in early.

Gerard O had an amazing front 9 with 25 points in his total 43 to win from James W who shot a consistent 37 ahead of the early clubhouse leader Joe having another fine 36 points nipping Justin 35. There were 5 birdies with Kerry scoring 2 .

Competition played on a drier course than of late with a bit of run on the fairways. Dry overhead and some sunshine while remaining cool with a strong wind. The green on the 1st was open for the first time in 2024. 1st, 2nd and 3rd all finished with a creditable 38 points, with Niel Barbour winning and Pat Dalton coming in second in front of Ed Robinson.

A cold and sunny start but although clouding over the forecast rain kept off. 8 temp greens with 4 played twice; rain in the week again meant some lying water with mud. Finding a dry spot to move the ball to was a challenge!

Women

As predicted the numbers fell away again with the news on the course being wetter than 2 weeks ago to just 2 teams of 3 both playing off 10. The winning team of Angela, Katharina and Sali had no double bogeys and a birdie on the 7th to beat Cheryl, Sheena and Susan by 3 shots with their net 73

Men

A good turnout of 37 for the 2nd iteration of the 12 holes plus 6 played twice on Duke’s.

Robert C won the senior division with 20 points out and in with 2 birdies. 2 behind was Joe G with a consistent 38 and then a fine round from Chris M on 35.

The junior division was clinched by Charlie W – an even 18 out 18 in 36 points with 2 ‘4-pointers’. Just second on countback over last 6 holes was Duncan T 35 from Alan K.

Well, it was a rainy day! 🙂
And it was forecasted as such, so a good number of players chose to drop out / cancel their participation beforehand. Another handful of players, yours truly amongst them, decided mid-course that enough is enough …

Richard N came in first, with another stellar round: 42 points (23 on the first 9!). Very consistent play the last few weeks, congratulations!
Runner-up, with quite some points distance (38) was Ian B, followed by Richard M (36), who beat Mike Jones via countback of the last 9 holes.

The Sweep money got distributed like this:
1st place £13
2nd place £9
3rd place £4

Resultsheet

The courses were closed today after the rain overnight left standing water on many of the fairways

Course conditions were muddy but unseasonably warm with a light breeze coming up from time to time.

The highlight of the day was not the winners but a hole in one by Chris Rudkin at the second hole par 3.
A wonderful straight shot that bounced a few times before nestling at the bottom of the cup. His first ever hole in one.
We all enjoyed a drink on his success in the clubhouse afterwards.

The overall standard of scoring was very high, everyone seems to have got used to layout now.

The sweep winner was Peter Harrington with 43 points (23 out and 20 back). Sweep second is Richard Norden with 40 points and third in the sweep was Brian Ransom with 39.

A diminished field met a watery course, wet and windy conditions, but was rewarded with some dry spells eventually. Huge puddles in bunkers etc made play difficult.

Winner with a cosmic 53 points was new member Gerrard Q playing off a recently gained handicap of 36. His round comprised 8 pars and 30 points on the front nine. He put in a general play score and can expect a handicap reduction overnight. Second place goes to Richard N with a commendable 38 points playing off 22, with six pars. 1st place £7; 2nd place £4.

The course conditions were rather wet underfoot after the overnight rain and the temperature had dropped by a degree or two with a cool breeze.

However the division 2 players showed that scoring was not a problem. Richard Marriott birdied the 18th to record his net62 pushing Peter Fisher who only parred it into 2nd place. in 3rd place by bogeying the 18th was Mike Jones. They were followed by Dave Cato and Pat Dalton for the money places. Julian James was the only Division 1 player to break par and Bill Norman took the 2nd place money. The division 1 players I think knew that the higher handicap players would have the edge today.
It was pleasing to note that the real 6th Green was back in play and hopefully other temps will disappear shortly.

Women

Another huge field for the comp today!
Although we had the same number of temps that we’ve had for the last few weeks, it was encouraging to see some of the roped off areas being re-opened, an indication that perhaps at long last it is starting to dry up a bit.
Cheryl decided to have a drive-in on her first singles event since taking over the reins as women’s captain. Her artistic skills added to our challenge of deciding where we thought her shot would end up, but the consensus view was that Doreen got the closest. Well judged Doreen.

Perhaps with both the AGM and club dinner out of the way, Sheena was inspired. With her best round since August & recording 8 pars along the way she finished with 38 points. Jayne was just 2 points behind with 36, helped by her 4 points on the 18th.

Both made good inroads into Gina’s 5 shot lead in the Eclectic and now head it up with 1 round to go. So it looks like the result might end up being a close run thing in the end.

Men

A mild and dry day and a good turnout for another round of the Winter Competition.

Good golf and scoring. Kerry led division 1 on 42 points – 2 birdies and 23 on front 9; a point behind was Aidan with 23 on back 9. and 3rd was Tamas on 40 points.

The junior division saw a tie of 43 points between Gregory and Gunnar who just won on countback last 6 holes. Well done to both! Another tie for 3rd with Paul F just countback winner on the back 9 from Ashley = both 41 points.
The Prince’s Eclectic after 3 rounds gives Peter N the lead 61 from Tamas and Umran 62.

The round was 4th played in the Winter Comp and the senior division is headed by Tamas and Kerry tied 116 from Peter N 110 whilst in the junior Oz leads 113 from Gunnar and Onursal both 111.