It was a chilly and frosty morning with low winter sunshine which became a very pleasant day for golf. However, the soft ground conditions and lack of run on and off the fairways made the course long for most players, even off the yellow and red tees.

Only Joe Goncalves, our winner today on 38 points, ‘beat the course’. Joe had a 4-over-gross round of 74, comprising 14 pars and 4 bogeys – exceptional golf. He was obviously out to impress his two women playing partners ! In 2nd and 3rd places, both on 34 points were Lee Frost and Paul Kamerling, respectively. There was then a group of 4 players on 32 points. Because of the low scoring, WHS decided that there would be a PCC of 2 shots.

The leading women for the champagne prizes were Hilary Casey and Caroline Stillwell respectively, both on 26 points.

For the first time, both the men and women played from the yellow tees (all the tees were almost together anyway). Conditions were frosty to start but slowly improved after the sun came out. Scoring was not bad with over half of the field scoring 30+ points.

Today’s winner with 39 points was Andy Johnson 22out and 17 back. he just pipped Toby Hunt who scored 38 points. Toby played very steady 19 out and 19 back. Iain Barbour was 3rd on countback also with 38 points 21 out and 17 back. Mitchell Cohen edged into 4th place on countback ahead of Tamas Ladacs with a superior back nine score of 21 to 17 by Tamas.

There is special mention to Charles Haines with his hole in one on the 4th par 3. Also, the only 2 was an Eagle, scored by Greg Wright on the 15th hole. Everyone enjoyed a free drink in the clubhouse thanks to Charles.

A much reduced field as many were put off by the rain on Saturday & overnight, but despite it being somewhat slippery underfoot most of us played in glorious sunshine, though the early guys will have had some rain.

As the course set-up was largely forward tees, with many mats, the tee of the day was yellow, which better reflects the scores going through to WHS.

In Div 1 Allan Boyd took 1st spot on the back 9 from Richard Owen both on 38, followed by Toby Hunt on 37 and Greg Wright on 36.
Div 2 was headed by Sean O’Sullivan with 37 points followed by Charles Haines and Mike Shabani on 36, with Charles taking 2nd spot on the back 9.

This was also the first round of the Prince’s eclectic & the scores can be seen on MS under the Results tab.

Who would have bet on there being snow this morning leading to a lot of no-shows or cancellations.

With the very much reduced field and the early guys suffering the worst of the weather the comp has been changed to a sweep. We may have re-introduced the 2-putt rule for the temps but they were very much a lottery today and along with the 4 temps, the 10th was almost unplayable with standing water around half of the hole.

With most of the tees playing from the red positions, arguably the men’s scores should also have been off the red rather than yellow, but it was a non-qualifier and the only woman who played was not in contention off any tee!

Winner today with a very commendable 34 points was Andy, followed by Giles on 32 and Iain, Alex & Kim on 30.

Women

Winter conditions duly arrived today with a return to the mud and 2 temporary greens. There is likely to be a PCC (Playing Conditions Calculation) adjustment overnight since only 3 of the men managed to play to par or better and for sure none of the women did.
Cheryl looks to have spent her time off the course well bouncing back with her 29 today to win by 2 from Nida who was ready to call it a day after 11 but came to life after that.
Good to see some of our newer members at the top of the list and hope that today’s conditions haven’t put them off too much.
An analysis of the results shows that between us we managed to record a whole 7 pars and 1 glorious birdie 2 on the 10th from Ellie.
This was the first of what should be 4 rounds of the Duke’s eclectic, however, there are just 4 with counting scores at present as everyone else picked up on one of more holes.

Men

Conditions = ‘Wintry’

Div 1
Winner was Laurence Armstrong (10), 20 out 18 in, for a superb 38 points. In second came Chris Mellish (09), 17 out and 20 in, one point behind on 37. Third was Suhail Salim on 35 points, fourth Mark Bean on the same score.

Div 2
Winner was Dan Ballantyne (15), 20 out and 17 in, for a excellent 37 points. In second came Richard Posser (15), 17 out and 17 in, for 34 points. Duncan Taylor came in third on 33 points.

Shout out to Gerrard for his birdie on the 12th.

The weather was kinder than forecast earlier in the week, with no rain but chilly conditions. There were very slow rounds for some of the later groups, probably due to the ‘medal’ format and ball searching amongst the leaves. Thankfully the vast majority of the competitions over the next few months will be stableford.

In Division 1 there was a trio of players who played to their handicap (net 68) with Peppe winning the monthly medal spirits crystal glass on countback from Alan Treacy and Richard Smith, respectively. Richard had the best front and back 9s and the lowest gross score overall.

In Division 2 the winner was Chris Rudkin with the best net score of the day (net 65), followed by Stephen Philbin on net 68 and Kim Jabbour & Peter Harrington, both on net 71.

A bright sunny day for the Charity Cup – and dry with a breeze.
Winner by 2 points was Richard Prosser with a skilful 39 points – and sharing front 9 honours of 21 with Jonathan Evans and Paul Green. Second with 37 was Joe Goncalves. Another good round from Paul Kamerling earned Paul 3rd place on countback from Lawrence Armstrong – both on 36 points.
Best back 9 was Gregory Jean-Baptiste on 20 points and best woman Jayne Maxwell 32.

Duke’s generally in good condition and lots of good scoring.

Winner today with a terrific 41 points was Kevin Prendergast (17), 22 out and 19 in, piling on the points from hole to hole without pause. In second, Tamas Ladacs (13) went round in 18 out and 20 in, piping Andy Johnson (20), who went round in 21 out and 17 in, both compiling a considerable tally of 38 points each. In 4th was Mitchell Cohen, tied on points with Julian James in 5th, both making 35 points.

Women

The result couldn’t have been much closer, decided on the last 6 holes that Cheryl, Deb, Susan & Sheena had 5 pars and 1 bogey versus 4 pars and 2 bogeys.
Congrats to Ali, Bella, Caroline & Niamh who had nothing worse than a bogey all the way round.

Not easy conditions today after all the overnight rain had softened things up but definitely less stress out there with the 3 tee shot decision and at times a glorious sunny day for the first of the women’s winter team events.

Men

A little chilly but sunny and dry for the November Medal after the clearance of early rain.
The First (senior) division was keenly contested with both Allan Boyd and Paul Kamerling returning 69s Allan winning on countback but Paul recording best gross 77 of the day and also best back 9; well done. Tom Laybourn came a shot behind 70 for 3rd place.
In the Second division there was again a tie with both David Grace and Tony Kopczak 75. David won on back 9 countback. Ged Quinn came 3rd 76 and Gerard Ouattara 4th 77.
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The rain started around 10 o’clock time and did not stop until the last players finished their round. So the early starters definitely had the best of the weather. There were many sad and soggy scorecards along with quite a few who walked in off the course!! If the rain had been any heavier the course would have been unplayable with a lot of puddling on the greens.

However……
3 Players finished on 37 points with Julian James in first place on countback with 18 out and 19 back. Ged Quinn was 19 out and 18 back with a blob on hole 18. Justin Wildman had 20 out and 17 back with a 6 for 1point on the last hole.
The rest of us followed on.