October 2023
October 2023
Top Dog latest
With the 2 Matchplay KOs finished and now the final competition – Lissaman Cup, final Senior and Junior positions are shown below:
Lissaman Cup (3 clubs + putter) (Top Dog 7/7)
The weather was foul and autumnal – not cold but persistent spells of rain. A number understandably completed a few holes and walked in, The condition of the course was discussed by the Committee before agreeing to proceed to issue the results. The sun did finally come brilliantly out for the last game.
Well done to all who completed the 3 Clubs and putter Lissaman Cup competition and especially those below with less than 70 net.
Joe Go and Brian M both had 67s with Joe winner on countback rule – 36 on back 9 Brian 39. New member Iker L in his 5th qualifying round shot a commendable 68 with Paul K and Joseph Go 69s; next was best woman Bridget S 70.
A couple of ‘Twos’ – Kim 4th and Rannesh 11th.
For the men this was the final competition in the Top Dog and with the 2 matchplay Kos completed, divisional results are as attached.
In the Senior division we have a tie with Brian M’s 8 points awarded for this comp making him joint winner with Kerry S both 26; they were chased b today’s winner Joe Go 20 and Paul K 19.
In the Junior division Paul McG wins from Dilip 28 to 26 with Duncan T 24 and Gregory 20.
Friday Sweep
The early morning rain showers quickly subsided for the 10am starters and the sun then appeared to make it a pleasant Autumn day, at least for a few hours. At around 2.30 pm however, black shower clouds appeared and Games 3 to 7 had to endure around 15 to 20 mins of heavy rain, which was unfortunate.
Our winner, Peppe (40 points), was in Game 1 so missed the late downpour and, apart from the 4th hole, put in a very solid round (18 points out and 22 points in). Second place goes to Poria Alinia (39 points) who had an average front 9 (17 points) but a back 9 (22 points) super-charged by consecutive birdies on the 14th and 15th holes. Rannesh takes 3rd place with 37 points, thanks to some excellent 4 iron tee shots (no driver or 3 wood in his bag !), surprisingly good approach shots and a steady putting display. Gary Simpson and Colin Price both scored 36 points for 4th and 5th places. Best front 9 was Tom Simpkins (21 points) and best back 9 was Andre Pelser (23 points). Sweep payout to top 3 (£14, £9, £5).
Midweek Charity Cup
The field must have thought they were playing Round 1 of the Spring Stableford. The overnight rains were a distant memory and made way for mild temperatures and a lot sunshine. The geese were causing some drama/delay by picking apart the work of the green keepers on the 1st green. Scoring was more than acceptable.
Mike J went out in the first game. A solid round of golf translates into 20pts (front 9) and 19pts (back 9). Good enough to set the mark/become leader in the clubhouse. Ian B also went out in 20pts. But his snowman on the 17th means he finishes 1pt behind Mike. Peter G must really likes the current greens. Apparently he only had 15 putts through 12 holes. On top of that he had his usual salvo of birdies (3 to be precise). 2 of them occurred on the front 9 (21pts). His back 9 was solid until a brain freeze on the 18th tee. A blob on that hole limits his back 9 to 18pts. Unfortunately for the 3 of them (and the rest of the field) there was no match to day for Tom S: 18pts on the way out and a staggering 25pts (!!!) on the way in. Enough to claim victory today by a margin of 4pts.
Tamas, Angus and Andre all finish on 37pts. But the countback rule decided that Tamas and Angus are the last players to receive “Purse Adjustments”. Tamas L missed out on 3rd spot. He was never on the right hole when playing the 6th. He still managed to get on the green in 3. But he then missed the par put sending him back to the group on 37pts.
Charity Cup – MacMillan CR day
A perfect autumnal day with plenty of sunshine for golf. Temps nudged 15C.
Greens were unevenly mown with quite a bit of growth showing.
Rannesh rose to the challenge and breezed to victory to win the Charity Cup; he excelled on the back 9 with birdies at 11 and 18 to give 22 points for a total of 41 ponts. 2 points behind again with 22 on front 9 was Mark L who in turn edged Sean who had 38. 4th was Charles H on 37 – Charles had a super front 9 with 23 pints.
Best woman was redoubtable Avi M with 33 points.
Surrey Fives – Final
On Sunday 15th October the Richmond Park B team made the journey to Clandon Regis to play West Surrey in order to determine the overall Surrey 5’s matchplay champions for 2023. The result was a convincing win for Richmond Park; a full report from captain Brendan Sullivan and photo of the team with the trophy is found below.
The day was bright and sunny but accompanied with a bitterly cold wind which made staying in the sun a priority. Clandon Regis had the course in excellent condition with beautiful fairways and fast undulating greens. Surrey County Golf provided a referee who with the use of a buggy moved between all five matches to answer any rules queries that may arise and also kept the teams well informed of how all the matches were progressing.
West Surrey had the honour and each match was announced on the tee by the Surrey County starter. George Taylor (Rookie) was out first for Richmond Park. This was George’s first appearance in the Surrey 5’s but his recent good competition form at Richmond Park justified his selection. George’s first tee nerves where his opening tee shot resulted in a lost ball was not a sign of things to come. With some outstanding play and excellent putting from both players it was clearly evident that this was going to be a close match but nobody was prepared for the drama that unfolded. The match was all square after 17 holes. Two good fairway drives followed by approach shots which found the 18th green (albeit with West Surrey 2ft from the pin and Richmond Park 20ft+ away) made it look as though West Surrey with draw first blood in the match. But in a true matchplay scenario George somehow sank his 20ft+ which had about 2ft of break to put the pressure back on West Surrey to hole his 2ft foot which seemed a formality. Somehow West Surrey missed and Richmond Park won the match to establish a 1-0 lead.
Out second was Pete Malla and again this proved to be yet another close encounter. In a match that was always either 1 up or level throughout also came down to the 18th with West Surrey edging a close 1 up victory to make the overall score 1 – 1.
Match 3 had the ever reliable John Perkins and again this proved to be very close with the score either 1 up or level throughout. John has been extremely consistent for the team all summer and today was no exception. John established a 1 up advantage after 17 holes and with a comfortable par on 18th gave Richmond Park a 2 – 1 lead in the match. Cometh the hour cometh the man.
Brendan Sullivan (Team captain) was out 4th and having lost the first hole to a birdie 3 soon established a stronghold on the match and ran out a 7 & 6 winner to give Richmond Park a 3 – 1 lead and overall victory.
In the anchor match we had Bernie McDermott who to-date had a 100% victory record in the Surrey 5’s for Richmond Park. Bernie some weeks ago was tidying his garage and came across a Ping G2 driver (not a misprint, it really is a G2) and decided to replace his trusty 25 year old Ben Hogan driver with this modern up to date newer model. The result was never in doubt and Bernie as always throughout this years campaign didn’t let the team down. With his straight driving, approach play and steady putting Bernie gradually wore the opposition down and shook hands with his opponent on the 16th green for a 3 & 2 victory to make the overall result 4 – 1 in favour of Richmond Park.
This year’s Surrey 5’s competition started at home on the 18th March against Kingswood and continued with the following:
29th April against Woodcote Park @ home
24th June against Wimbledon Common @ home
16th July against Reigate Hill @ home
26th August against Epsom ‘A’ @ Epsom
16th September against Epsom ‘B’ @ Hindhead
As team captain I would like to thank the following for representing Richmond Park at short notice when asked throughout this year’s competition:
Will Balakrishnan
Kevin Prendergast
Russell Stewart
Toby Hunt
Ryan Wilson
Naveed Manazir
I would also like to thank Peter Harrington, Richard Owen and Roger Rojas for suggesting and recommending various members for selection and supplying contact details for those members.
Lastly I would like to thank George Taylor, Pete Malla, John Perkins and Bernie Mcdermott for turning up to play a practice round at Clandon Regis. As team captain of this Surrey 5’s team their dedication and support to both myself and the team has been really appreciated. Their play in the final was exceptional and what they have achieved has put Richmond Park GC in the limelight and hopefully will inspire the club and it’s members to repeat what they have done in the coming years.
Kind regards
Brendan
Team Captain
Autumn Stableford R2/2 (& Barton Bowl final for Women)
Autumn/Winter golf is back with a vengeance. May be that explains why no less than 26 snowmen were recorded today. 2 observations: 9 of those snowmen were recorded in Div1. Why are so many of you putting out for an 8 in stableford comp?
Hats off to Nick R who recorded an ok score of 33pts despite opening with an 8 on Hole 1. The temperatures were far less helpful than the previous weeks. The fairways still offered interesting amount of roll. But the winds swirled around quite a bit.
Div1
Kerry S recorded to 2 nice birdies. He went out with a solid 19pts. But he decided to notch things up a bit on the back 9. He managed to come home in Level Par gross. That translates to 23pts. His score of 42pts was proved too hard to beat for the rest of the field. To use a slogan familiar to the person question Richard’s round can be described as “bigin quality and LIDL on drama”. A birdie on SI1 set him on course for 22pts on the front 9. 2 DB stalted his progress on the back 9. And he recorded “only” 19pts. 2nd place is welcome change in form. Places 3-4 were a family affair. Thanks to 2 birdies youth prevailed. But a bit more experience may have prevented a 7-5 finish. The experienced member of the Dickey family scored 1pt less than LD on the front 9. That proved the tie-breaker between the 2 of them. CC Roger takes 5th. Pete N is the last on Div1 to get a “purse adjustment”.
Div2
Bridget S decided to take it slow on the front 9 (16pts). But she caught fire on the way in: 5*3pts and 4pts on the 18th. That helped her to record 24pts and finish just ahead of the rest of the field Goran had a solid round (20+19pts) to ctake 2nd. He may had a bit more competition but Iker L committed the cardinal sin by not signing his card (even though he too recorded 39pts). Martin H’s excellent back 9 (22pts) takes him into 3rd. Paul G’s 36pts earn him 4th place.
Aggregate Results
Div1: Kerry S 81pts, Roger R 77pts, Paul K 77pts
Div2: P Green 74pts, Goran K 71pts, Suhail S 71pts
Midweek October Medal (MGMT R8/8)
Much cooler/more reasonable temperatures to walk 18 holes today. Greens were fairly receptive. There was still plenty of roll on the fairways. But the wind made life pretty tricky on a lot of holes.
The early starters didn’t set the bar too high for the 9am starters. But one player went under the bar by some margin. Colin’s birdie on the 2nd set him on route for a score of 40 gross (29 Nett) on the front 9. He was solid as a rock on the back 9. But just as we went on 59 watch he had his sole bad hole of the day on the 18th (Competition Scoring Analysis will show that other players struggled on that hole too). Nonetheless Colin finishes with a Nett score of … 63. His HI will drop faster than the temperatures this weekend. Best of the rest was Dave. Just look at how small the final margins were: Dave’s front 9 40 (30 Nett) and back 9 = 47 (36 Nett). Oliver K was the best of a group of 4 finishing on 68 (Nett). Countback is the tie-breaker between him, Seymour, Peter H and yours truly. 1st woman is steady Doreen. Best gross score is the fruit of yours truly’s labour.
What the results don’t show:
– The woman’s captain, Sheena, makes an entrance on the eagle tree with a 3 on the 8th
– Peter G and Richard B thought that today’s format was 4 Ball Better Ball and decided to have 6 birdies amongst them
– Gina actually played 35 holes today. She first tried to leapfrog a few people ahead of her in the MW Medal standings. She then rushed out to play the final of the Women’s Challenge Cup. That should take care of today’s step count.
MW Grand Medal standings
Colin P 354, Pralab B 356, Chris R 357, Bill N 359, Alex B/Kim C 360
Autumn Stableford R1/2
Another week/weekend/day of summer golf at the park. And the field took advantage of the playing conditions.
Div1
CC Roger recorded an excellent score of 40pts (21+19) to take the clubhouse lead. A DB on the front 9 and a snowman on the back 9 were his only blemishes of the day. Those one-offs allowd Paul K to leapfrog our Men’s CC and clain vitocry in Div1. Paul tallied an excellent score of 22pts (out) and 20pts (in). Suppose that Paul never enters the sweep softens the blow a bit for Roger. Kerry proved again that every good round starts with a DB (or worse). His PU on the 1st hole softened his score on the front 9 to 17pts. But an excellent 22pts onn the back 9 make up for that. Richard S had a solid round (20+18). Tamas is the last player to earn “a purse adjustment”. The Women’s CC recorded no less than 4 birdies today. No price for that unfortunately.
Div2
Women rule the world in Div2. Seema’s round started “slowly” with 17pts on the way out. But she caught fire on the back 9. 25pts on the back 9 allow her hold off the rest of the field. Joan M only finishes 1pt back. Gerard’s balance round (20pts on front and back 9) is good enough for 3rd (and claim the sweep money of this division). Tom and Ducan both finish on 39pts. As per usual the countback rule is the tie-breaker.
All to play for in R2 next week.
Friday Sweep
After a slightly chilly start it turned out to be another sunny, warm autumn day, Still plenty of bounce and run on the fairways but the grass on the greens was in need of a cut.
An outstanding round of golf by Richard Norden (46 points) makes him the clear winner and earns him a 2 strokes cut in his handicap index (including an ESR of 1.0) – he’s now back down to 22.4, where he was 2 years ago. Richard started with a blob (tree trouble) but then didn’t look back with a consistency and driving, approach shots and putting display of a low teens handicapper. Perhaps the most surprising thing about his round (and score) were that there were no birdies.
Early starter Ed Robinson bags 2nd place with a fine 43 points, achieved over 16 holes, as he blobbed the 5th and 16th holes. In 3rd place, with a similarly steady round (just 1 blob) was Richard Hodgkinson (40 points).
Special mentions also go to Poria Alinia (35 points) who had 3 birdies on the front 9, including consecutively on the 7th and 8th holes, but then rather fell apart on the back 9 with 3 blobs, and to Graham Cull (39 points) who had an outstanding front 9 (24 points) – even beating Richard Nordon’s front 9.
To win the sweep money on a Friday it helps to have a high handicap (!!!); the monies go to the top 3 (£12, £8 & £5). However, there were also some good gross scores by the lower handicappers: Richard O. 80, Pralab 82 and Brian 84.