A bright but chilly start with some wind for the Easter plate ; but it remained dry again.
Scoring was generally good but Justin Wildman was the clear winner with on astounding 41 points; his 21 on back 9 included 5 pars and a birdie. Best woman was Seema Sandhu with an excellent 39 (21 out 18 back). A couple of points behind on 37 were Paul Kamerling, Alex Catlow, Bernie McDermott and Elizabeth Piner. Women scored the only birdies at 10th – Alison Chadwick and Elisabeth – well done!

The Princes course was in good condition but the wind made scoring rather Tough at times. Keeping the ball on the fairway was the order of the day.
Russell Stewart showed us all how to do it with a 4 Up score. His gross score of 80 was helped by parring holes 17 and 18. Alex Braun had a chance to equal Russell but had an 8 on 18 to drop to +3.
Only 5 players beat level rounds.

A grey and cooler day than of late for 2nd round of the Grand Medal; fortunately any rain came after play.

Scoring was generally good with an excellent 63 from Tamas Ladacs to take the senior division on the day. Tamas was followed by a 65 from Simon McKnight (lowest gross on the day) and 68s from Raymond Esin and Alan Treacy.

In the junior division Bill Norman and Brian Ransome were the leading lights with 64s followed in turn by Jonno Mclean, Bernie McDermott and Sean O’Sullivan who returned 66s.
Front 9 honours went to Simon [2 over] whilst back 9 to Aidan Hurley [1 over].
In the Grand Medal series comp, Raymond Esin 137 leads Tamas in the senior whilstGerard Outtara and Richard Hanna are currently tied 141s.

We enjoyed a lovely spring day with blue skies and warm sunshine. A cool wind blew but not as strong as in recent days. Of the 57 competitors 17 played to par or under.
Brett Colley off 14 had a very steady round of 39 out and 40 back for a winning score of net 65. Which included a birdie 4 on the 12th hole. Three players had net 67’s with David Grace coming 2nd on countback ahead of Kevin Prendergast , Charles Haines and Bernie McDermot in 3rd and 4th and 5th. The best lady was Cheryl Woodhouse with a net 68 in 6th place.

The competition also doubed as last of the 8 midweek winter competition rounds[with at least 1 round from each ciurse] and also the last of the 4 Duke;s Eclectic rounds.

The results show Richard Norden the Winter comp winner on 117 points from Julian James and Brett Colley both 115.

Brett won the Eclectic with 63 from Kim Chaffart64 and 65s from Kevin Prendergast and Bill Norman.

Well done to all.

Another gloriously sunny day for the final round of the Spring Stableford; after what was the sunniest March for England recorded.

Scoring generally was a bit better than on Duke’s with some good individual performances.
In the senior division Greg Wright had a good 36 with 20 points on more challenging back 9 holding Henry Lindesay Bethune on countback. Raymond Esin followed with 35 which included 2 pickup holes. In the junior division Sajid Khan was the runaway winner with 42 points – setup with 1 pickup and 8 ‘3 pointers’ for 24 points on front 9. Adrian Wells followed with an excellent 38 points [19 out and in]. Third was Tom Simpkins with 35 and (Well done Tom!) an eagle on3rd hole.

James Burr’s great score of 39 wins the senior division for the aggregate 71. 2nd was Adrian Wells with 70; 3 chased for next position all with 68 – Michael Hayden, Iker Lanzagorta and Mel Dunn.
The junior aggregate was again won with 70 – by Gerard Ouattara from Lee Frost 65 and Nigel Ward 64.

Conditions were perfect for golf with blue skies and hardly a breath of wind. Accordingly, the overall scoring was very good indeed.

Top of the leaderboard for round 2 of the Midweek Spring Stableford was Kevin Prendergast(17) with an excellent 40 points. In second place with the same fine score (but beaten on countback) was Paul Gullett(25). Richard Norden(19) managed third spot (also on countback) from Stephen Philbin(19) and Aidan Hurley(5) all of whom scored a very impressive 39 points. A special mention for Aidan who had the best gross of the day with a hugely impressive 72 strokes.

The overall result of the Midweek Spring Stableford was a tight run thing but new member Jonathan Evans just prevailed with a combined score of 76 points (40 last week and 36 today). Hot on his heels and both just a point behind with 75 points came Aidan Hurley (36+39) and Richard Owen (37+38). Congratulations Jonathan – what a great way to start your membership with us!

Today was also round 7 of the Winter Competition. Handicap Master can’t compute best 3 from 8 where at least one score has to count for each course. Therefore the result on HM is purely indicative. The official calculation will be done manually and shown on the club website in due course. Unofficially it looks as though Richard Norden may well have overtaken long-time leader Julian James with just one round remaining. Nail biting stuff!

Women

Men

A dry day on Duke’s for the final round of the Winter Competition off yellow tees and with run on the ball.

Tamas Ladacs was the best in senior division with 38 points – on countback from Greg Wright and Aidan Hurley. Tamas finished with a superlative back 9 of 22 points – just 3 over par. Greg had 20 on front 9 whilst Aidan 21 on front 9 – level par with 2 birdies.
In the junior division the day belonged to Nigel Ward 40 points – an excellent 20 out and in; Charlie Whiteman was in form 37 points with 22 on the back. With 2 pickups Charlie might have had much better. James Deissler was 3rd 34 points and with 20 on front 9. Henri Mercer Jones excelled on front 9 22 points.
The Duke’s Eclectic turned out to be extremely close with Paul Kamerling the winner by a tenth of a shot 61.6 from Raymond Esin 61.7.
Overall, the Winter Competition {best 3 from possible 8 rounds with at least 1 round from each course() had in the senior division the winner Greg Wright 109 from Iker Lanzargorta and Tamas 113 [good for Tamas with just 1 round on Duke’s played]. In the junior division Nigel’s 40 point on the day was enough to make him the winner 110 leap-frogging Duncan Taylor’s 109. Whilst the software has Duncan 117 the leader this only because 3 best all on Prince’s and the handicapping software doesn’t distinguish between courses.

It was glorious golfing weather with blue skies and hardly a breath of wind. And the leading scores certainly reflected the weather. And it was good to see the women featuring strongly at the top end of the leaderboard. However, it must be said that some of us (me included) came off with tales of could’a, would’a, should’a and felt, given the benign conditions, we “left a few out there”. Maybe the shock of quicker greens and run on the fairways was just too much for some of us!

The winner today with an outstanding 40 points was Jonathan Evans playing off 13. His round included no less than 3 birdies and 6 pars. Hot on his heels were Susan Smith (off 15) and Reiko Hashimoto (off 26) with 39 points each. Both had solid rounds. Susan scored18 points out and 21points in while Reiko achieved her score despite blobbing the first hole on both 9’s.

Women

Congrats to Caroline, Niamh, Deborah and Ali who won todays Scramble with a score of 48 which included two 4 point birdies. They were also the only team with a double bogey on the card. They had the same gross (75) as the 3-ball team finishing in 3rd (Cheryl, Joan, Angela), but the considerable advantage of 17 shots compared to the 3-ball’s 11 shots… and the extra player of course!

Cheryl/Joan/Angela had 3 birdies. No birdies for the 2nd place team of Jane, Doreen, Lia and Jenny which was the only real difference between all the teams.

Everyone enjoyed the sunshine even though the wind was a little cold at times. Farewell Texas Scramble… we will miss you. Back to medals now.

Men

A bright day for first round [from 8] of the Grand Medal – a cold nagging wind but some run on the ball off white tees.

An excellent 66 with 2 birdies secured Mel Dunn the senior division from Iker Lanzagorta who had another good round 67 with front 9 honours 37; next came Chris Mellish and Raymond Esin with creditable 69s. Will Balakrishnan had back 9 honours with 2 over par 35.

The junior division saw Gerard Outtara win on 71 – this could have been a lot lower save for a 10 on 3rd. James Deissler came second with a consistent 72followed by 74s from Richard Hanna and Lee Frost.

It was typical Spring weather with a little bit of everything – brilliant sunshine, grey clouds, a chilly breeze and the odd spit of rain. But a lovely day for golf and a joy to be out on the Dukes course again. The consensus seemed to be it was in pretty good nick and the scoring reflected that.

Leading the way today with an impressive 38 points was Peter Miller. Peter scored an outstanding 22 points on the front 9 and although his back 9 wasn’t as strong, he’d done enough to fend off the chasing pack.
A point behind with 37 points came Graham Cull and Gerrard Quinn – Graham claiming the runner up spot on countback. Richard Marriott came 4th with 35 points and Russell Stewart was the best of those with 34 points by virtue of having a better score on the final hole.