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.

Women

Another week that sees Joan heading our results – the best of a bad bunch is a reasonable conclusion with her score of 30 points obviously being the highest.
Rather interestingly the 3rd hole came out as the hardest today followed by the 18th – of course with only 8 playing any visits to ditches or bunkers will have swayed the results.
But what a lovely day it was both overhead and on the course. Duke’s has definitely benefitted from a lack of play over the winter and the work that the greenkeepers have been doing on it. As Cheryl mentioned, even the ball-washers had fresh water in them.

Men

A very mild and sunny day for the penultimate Winter Competition – around 16C. Conditions were pretty good on Duke’s.
The senior division saw another excellent round from Iker Lanzagorta with 39 points – 4 ahead of Greg Wright , Mel Dunn and Brian McMahon who had very good performances with 35 points.

35 points was good enough to win the junior division for Nigel Ward just a point from Gerard Ouattara. Charlie Whiteman, Onursal Soyer and Lee Frost followed with 33s each.

Paul Kamerling now leads after 3 rounds of the associated Duke’s Eclectic on 62.6 ahead of Iker 63.5.
After the 7 rounds of winter competition (best 3 from possible 8 with at least one round from each course) positions are largely unchanged :
Greg leads senior division 116 to Iker’s 113 whilst in the junior it’s Duncan Taylor 109 from Tom Simpkins and Paul Fulham with 107s.

After a slightly chilly start the weather warmed up and was a pleasant round for golf.
The scoring was reasonably good but being Medal errors were costly at times.
Division I winner Alan Treacy found things to his liking net 66 and won by 2 shots with a birdie 2 on 11 as well.
2 shots behind was Julian James net 68 with a birdie on the second hole. 2 shots further back was Bill Norman on net 70.

In Division 2 Peter Fisher had a very solid round with a net 63 four shots ahead of 2nd placed Ed Robinson with his net 67. Just ahead of Graham Cull on net 68. He just pipped Dave Cato on countback also on Net 68.

Women

What a glorious day it was with the blue sky and sun. As the game progressed there were a fair number of layers dispensed with as the lingering fog dissipated and the sun shone through to warm things up. Unsurprisingly the course was pretty wet after all the rain of last week, but hopefully with this week forecast as dry we’ll get a bit more run next weekend and the greens won’t be quite so bumpy. Having said that Joan found the solution – whack it hard and online so it smacks the flagstick and drops into the cup.
Jenny was marking Joan’s card and aware that until the 16th they were level on points when she blobbed the hole. They both par’d the 17th and then Joan blew up on the 18th, but snuck the win on the last 6 holes from Jenny. Both scoring 34 points which seems like a magnificent score to many of us. With 3 temps it was a non-qualifier today.

Men

Brilliantly sunny after early frost cleared for round 6 of the Winter Competition.

Greg Wright had another good round to head the senior division with 39 points – and claimed front 9 honours with 21 points; Greg was followed by some more good rounds of 36 from Iker Lanzargorta and Kerry Sargeant – both Iker and Kerry had 19 out and in with Iker having a prile of 3s on 2, 3 and 4.
Junior division was similarly headed by 39 – from Paul Fulham from Giovanni Caboni 38 and Duncan Taylor 35.

This was last of the 4 Prince’s Eclectic rounds of the Winter Competition which sees Greg the winner 55.1 ahead of Duncan 57.8. Third was Umran Ali with just 2 rounds -59.1.

After round 6 of Winter Comp { best 3 from possible 8 and with at least 1 round on each course) the senior division is headed by Greg extending his lead from 111 to 116 from Paul Kamerling 110; Duncan maintains his lead in junior division on 109 but now Tom Simpkins and Paul Fulham chase closely with 107s.

Women

For those who cared either way the decision was to leave the comp as a qualifier not that any of the scores are ever likely to make it as one of the top 8 scores. Deb being the best with 27 points and the rest will remain anonymous!
It wasn’t just a tough day for the women, if you looked at the men’s results only Ray played to handicap with 31 being the next highest and the men were off the forward tees of course. Needless to say there was a PCC adjustment last night of 2.

It was definitely a challenge yesterday, but it was good to be back on Duke’s and the lack of use was evident on the fairways which whilst of course being very wet did have more grass and fewer worm casts than Prince’s. The greens were, as notified, very soft in places. It will come as a shock the first time a ball bounces and runs through the green and we have to revert to much less club.

Men

Dry and reasonably mild but with wind increasing for 5th round of Winter Comp on Duke’s. The course played ‘long’.

36 points was enough for Raymond Esin to win the senior division from Adrian Wells, Greg Wright and Iker Lanzagorta on 31s.
31 was enough in the junior division for Giovanni Caboni to win on countback from Lee Frost and Steve De Long; Steve started with a strong front 9 of 20 points.

#in the cumulative position after 5 rounds (but with at least 1 round from each ourse), Greg Wright 111 leads from Paul Kamerling 110.In the junior division it’s Duncan Taylor 109 from Julian James 105.

After 2 rounds of Duke’s Eclectic Iker leads 66.4 from Raymond 68.7.