Ladies

Another good turn out for the ladies’ team event which was another Texas scramble (a bit of a favourite for many). The winning team was Maureen, Fiona, Habe & Jane with a gross 71 and net 63.1. Conditions underfoot were considerably drier than for last month’s event, but the wind did its best, picking up as the round went on. However, it obviously wasn’t too tricky with 5 more birdies recorded than last month. Interestingly the 15th was the only hole that all 4 teams recorded a par on. Results…

Men

Conditions were quite testing. Mud (again), cooler temperatures and winds that grew stronger during the course of the day proved a bit too much for most of the field.

Luke Baker is keeping up his excellent form (who awarded him an initial handicap of 20?). A consistent round of golf (43 out and 44 in) is enough for Net 66 and 1st place today. Luke’s competition handicap drops to 17. Looks like the nerves got the better of him on the last hole. An untidy 7 prevented him from adding even more cachet to his win. Four players recorded Net 68’s. The countback rule fills up places 2 to 5 in the following order: Nigel Ward, Brian McMahon, Tamas Ladacs and Jim Fogarty (an unfortunate finish on the 18th prevented Jim from moving clear of the band of 68). Toby was the 1st of a group finishing on 69. Pete Harrison recorded the lowest Gross Score. And Peter Jagger netted an excellent 2 on the 16th. Other golfing highlights were very rare. It will come as no surprise that CSS rose to 68. Results…

You are not mistaken if you heard a lot shouts of Fore. They all came from Mike Shabani who had a clear preference to the left side of the course (aka a severe case of the hooks). Finally one member doesn’t seem to like the new drop rule. According to him it is the “gayest” way of dropping a ball.

CSS: 68 (as mentioned above)

Cold conditions prevailed, especially for holes into the wind. Some odd spits and spots (first rain for what must be getting on for a month) meant continuing cloying mud. Sean Thamas mastered the conditions with 39 points to win and recorded the day’s only ‘Two’ and the two birdies on back 9 helped 21 on the difficult back 9. James Anslow fought valiantly for 37 points and was followed by the trio of Messrs. Evans, Shabani and Mouilah on what proved to be a reduced CSS of 35 points. Best lady was Sheena Harrington 34 points. Results…

In the associated Midweek Winter Competition after 3 rounds Mike Jones leads 105 from Oliver Khan 97. R3 Leader board…

Meanwhile in the Duke’s Eclectic Philip Taggart net 70.0  leads Hassan Mouilah and John Curry nett 71.0s. R2 Leader board…

Ladies

The relatively benign conditions for the first week of January saw 15 ladies venture forth and the gloom of the first few holes gave way to a sunny afternoon. Whilst a good number struggled to score, at least on both 9s, Susan Smith had no problem. Frequently out-driving her playing partners with her 3-wood she was equally good with her approach shots. Although her driving skills deserted her for a few holes on the back 9, she still managed 18 points, which together with the 20 on the front 9, gave her a four shot victory today and a 0.6 handicap cut. Results…

CSS remained at 36.

In the associated Eclectic report due soon. R2 Leader board…

Men

Competitors who use trolleys probably wasted a lot of time clearing up the mud they took home. Greens could’ve offered better/truer rolls. But all in all conditions turned out to be relatively fine. Scoring on the other hand was not very good. CSS decreased to 35pts. Even with the CSS adjustment only 13 of the 40 competitors remained in their buffers.

Mike Shabani was Houdini today. He pulled off escape after escape. On numerous occasions he was hitting shots from “wrong” fairways (needless to say that this didn’t improve the speed of play). A steady front 9 was followed by an excellent 21pts on the way in. Well deserved victory and 0.8 handicap cut are his rewards. Three birdies sent Oliver Maskell on his way to 37pts and 2nd place. Fatherhood/lack of sleep didn’t prevent Caleb Mills from taking 3rd place with a commendable 36pts. Jay Barker, James Shine and Lee Marshall (whoever recorded Lee’s score did a pretty awful job. The recorded score of Keith Cassidy could’ve been better too …) complete the Top6. Results…

Pete Harrison recorded 3 birdies. Enough to take the lead in the Duke’s Eclectic with a Net 66 (ahead of Oliver Maskell and Barry Page). R2 Leader board…

In the associated Winter Competition – report due soon. R3 Leader board…

A decidedly chilly start to the first Medal of 2019 greeted competitors. Whilst no rain had fallen for a week, mud cloyed to trollies and shoes. Carl Latham fulfilled a New Year resolution winning the medal and being cut – well done Carl. Jim Fogarty and Chris Philips-Jones fought valiantly for 67s – CSS and SSS for the course on the day. Congrats also to Philip Taggart for best gross- 79. Results…

Students of handicapping will notice that Oliver Maskell NR’d but did not get raised .1 – how come? A: he dropped just 4 shots but NR’d at 14; a net double bogey was assigned for handicapping at this par 4 SI 12 hole (6 since he gets no shot at the hole) therefore an overall net differential of 4+2=6 being within his buffer zone. Moral: always return your card.

Prince’s was in reasonably good shape (except for the muddy fairways). Jay Barker put some new sticks in the bag. The change paid off immediately: a round of 70 gross translates into 39 stableford points. 3rd place is nice reward for good day at the office. Steady Eddy Brian McMahon recorded another solid round on Prince’s: 21pts on the way out enable him to push Jay into 3rd thanks to the countback rule. One of the late starters Sean Thomas logged an excellent score of 40pts (21pts on the way back). Sean’s handicap drops to 12 in a nice finish to the 2018 golfing year. The RPGC version of Waldorf and Stadler, aka Kerry S and Alan K, claim 4th and 5th spot with excellent rounds of golf. Julian James’ strong back 9 land him 6th place. Paul Brown trounced Val by 9pts and earned bragging rights for one day. It has to be said that apart from Tenesi the ladies didn’t like today’s conditions. Results… 

On a housekeeping note: Ludovico can you please record your score on the computer at the clubhouse. Doing your admin is NOT one of the duties of the Handicap Secretary. Recording a score on the computer takes 90s. No valid excuses for not completing this task.

CSS: 37pts (Men & Ladies)

After all the rain it was of course very boggy underfoot, so we were fortunate that the public were out shopping allowing us to switch courses to play on Prince’s which unlike Duke’s had no temporary greens. Although the early starters would have played a few holes in the rain it didn’t have any detrimental affect on their results as they took the top places. Scoring was tight amongst the also-rans, but the top 3 scored 40 or more with Keith & Lee winning on 44 points, 2 points back were Brian & James with Kerry and Alan in 3rd place on 40. Results… 

There were some interesting handicap calculations and the ladies got 2 additional shots, so most pairs ended up with more points than they recorded.

The Harringtons were again the most festive with their hats and lights adorning their trolleys – sadly it didn’t improve their golf!

Overnight rain made Prince’s muddy but not as bad as Duke’s. Otherwise it was pleasantly mild just two days from the winter solstice.

Peter and Sheena won adulation for their Xmas gear – esp. Peter with Xmas lights on his trolley!

Adil Lalani shot a fantastic back nine 24 points to win overall with 40 points. Luke Baker shot a workmanlike 39 points and well done to Hassan with 37 points off 6. Results…

Unusually on Prince’s CSS was reduced from SSS 37 to 36 points with no ‘Twos’.

The rain of the last few days left its mark: competitors faced muddy fairways, some casual water in bunkers and fairly receptive greens. Roger Rojas was one of the early starters and laid down the marker with an excellent score of 39pts (he will regret his score on the 18th hole though. Stunningly his score was only good enough for … 6th place today. No less than five competitors managed to record 40pts.

5th place goes to Luke Baker who keeps up his excellent form (FYI: he finished second last week). Paul Grand just edged Luke thanks 19pts on the back 9. Paul B will have mixed feelings about his round: he would’ve taken 40pts and a par on the 16th hole on any given day. However today: that tally only leads to 3rd place and to make things worse he is beaten a) on countback by b) none other than … Val. She did a Paul Brown and let victory slip away with an untidy bogey on the 16th. Nigel Ward’s excellent back 9 (11pts on the last 4 holes) enable him to leapfrog Val into 1st. The whole 40-gang get sizeable handicap cuts. Results…

Please also note that Tony Kopczak went from hero (winner last week) to zero in just 7 days. Exit polls seemed to indicate that Captain and Secretary ended in a tie …

CSS: 37pts (Men & Ladies)

Benign but seasonably muddy conditions prevailed for the field of 31 competitors. Jon Cooper posted a winning 37 points to win the midweek Champagne Chase in his valedictory round at RP (after circa 33 years) with 37 points from a strong 36pts from Angela Flynn. Keith Cassidy and Tamas Ladacs shared honours on 35 points. Results…

On a day where the UK political situation shared characteristics of an embittered banana republic, the important question arose: did the presence of swans on the clubhouse pond spell curtains for Canadian Geese?

CSS remained at SSS.

Weather proved to awful for the 8.00am starters. Strong winds, muddy fairways, uneven greens were met by brief and heavy showers. It won’t come as a surprise that scoring proved to be tricky for the field.

Roger Rojas recovered from seeing his Man City lose to Chelsea yesterday to take the clubhouse lead with 35pts. Lee Marshall saw his round of solid golf rewarded with 36pts. Change of the clubhouse lead after just two completed games. Rain means that Tony Kopczak will show up with his blue Inspector Gadget coat. The trick seemed to work. A wobble on the 1st hole was immediately offset by a birdie on the 2nd. Another wobble followed when it took him 3 shots on the 8th just to get his ball … past the ladies tees. 19pts on the way out were followed by an identical score on the back 9. He even tried to be too smart for his own good. Sensing a good score he tried to manage his handicap by professionally messing up the 18th. He didn’t take into account that CSS would move (see below). As a result Inspector Gadget’s handicap gets cut by 1.2 strokes down to 18. Luke Baker, who was in the same flight, didn’t fare too well in the rain. Once the waterproofs came off he put on a clinic on the back 9: 24pts. He also skilfully messed up the 18th. Still good enough for 37pts and 2nd place. Anis Driaa matched Roger’s score and since both players recorded identical number of points on the way in the computer had to pick the player to finish 5th. HandicapMaster decided that Anis would finish ahead of Roger. The software developer must be a Chelsea fan or dislike Man City fans … HLB closes out the Top6. Results…

Other note: 2019 Men’s Captain Nigel Gaymond’s ambition for today was to complete one round without swearing. Unfortunately he pulled his tee-shot on the 1st into the trees on the left. Hacking out proved to be too tricky and a few 4-letter words soon followed … Outgoing Captain NR claims he could’ve avoided a +0.1. But he too got fixated by a static CSS. To use his words: If I’d tried harder on the back 9 I could’ve …

Only one lady stayed within her buffer. Rumour has it that a skilful display on the greens helped Sheena pull off that feat.

How tricky were conditions? Only 6 (!) out of 47 players stayed in their buffer. CSS: 34pts (Men & Ladies)