2025
2025
August Monthly Medals
Women
A much nicer day weatherwise than we were led to expect; a touch breezy at times but very warm when the sun made it’s occasional break through the clouds that at times looked rather ominous.
Congratulations to Bella on her second outing with the Sunday group and making the most of it with her net 65 beating Jenny by 1 shot. Playing to 28.6 another good handicap cut beckons for Bella returning her to her lowest recorded handicap.
A few of us had cards marred by one or two rather large numbers – which WHS will probably cut back for many overnight.
Men
Manly cloudy and dry except for a little drizzle at end of play for the July medal.
Outstanding score of the day came from Rannesh Jansari with a net 54 playing off 17 at 3 over par – probably his best round ever. His round included an eagle 3 at the par 5 9th. WHS will apply an Exceptional Scoring Reduction overnight. Well done Rannesh! Behind him in Second Division was Richard Prosser with excellent 67 and then Secretary Peter Harrington with a glorious 65.
The First Division belonged to Jonathan Evans 64 with consistent 37s in and out. Tom Simpkins’ glorious 65 gained second place – just 35 back 9.; Greg Wright gained 3rd with his 66 which included a 1 over par back 9.
After 6 (of possible 8) rounds in the Grand Medal, Richard Owen leads First division 347 from Oz Doyle 348 and then Mel Dunn 349. The Second Division is now headed by Rannesh by 11 350 from Gerard Ouattara361 then Nigel Ward 362.
NAPGC Ballantyne Trophy, National Semi-Final
Richmond Park played their National Semi-Final pairs matchplay against Royal Epping Forest golf club at Haste Hill golf course (neutral venue) and won 3:0. The team now play at the NAPGC National Finals Day at Winter Hill golf club on Saturday September 6th.
Most of the team had a practice round at Haste Hill on the eve of the semi-final, which helped significantly, particularly with the difficult front 9 holes.
Our first pair (Paul Green & Mel Dunn) had a comfortable 6&5 win against their low-single-figure-handicap opponents. Game 2 was a lot closer but was closed out “1up” on the 18th hole by Adrian Wells & Julian James. Our 3rd pair (Gerard Ouattara & Richard Owen) went ahead on the 2nd hole, again against low handicap opponents, steadily built up a 4-up lead over the front 9, and finished on the 16th hole with a 4&2 win.
Midweek Captain’s Day
Despite some threatening dark grey clouds, we only had one tiny little shower hardly worth the name.
Winds were light and the course was in excellent condition in the main – especially the greens.
Winner today with an excellent 40 points was Cheryl Woodhouse (playing off 27), second with 38 points was Nestor Egue (26) and third, also with 38 points was Michael Pham (27). There were similarities between all three rounds. They all made a net eagle on a par 4 (Cheryl on the 4th, Nestor on the 8th, Michael on the 1st) and all three managed at least 18 points on both the front and back 9’s.
The men had a choice between white or yellow tees today and 12 chose white while 32 chose yellow. Interestingly, the top three men all played off white. Perhaps there’s a lesson there for us more cautious types – fortune favours the brave!
We had extra challenges today in the form of Nearest the Pin competitions for both the men and women.
The winners were:
Women:
NTP in 2 on the par 3 7th Sheena Harrington
NTP on the par 3 10th Hilary Casey
NTP in 2 on the par 3 16th Jayne Maxwell
NTP in 2 on the par 4 18th Jayne Maxwell
Men:
NTP in 2 on the par 4 2nd Julian James
NTP on the par 3 7th Graham Cull
NTP in 2 on the par 4 9th Nestor Egue
NTP on the par 3 10th Richard Back
NTP in 2 on the par 4 15th Angus Robertson
NTP on the par 3 16th Justin Wildman
NTP in 2 on the par 4 18th Trevor Brown
Winners have a choice of ‘balls or booze’ and the club will be in contact to find out which they prefer.
Men’s & Women’s Club Championship – Rd 2
Women
It is fair to say that there was a fair amount of both good & not so good play between the leaders as a number of re-loads were required, although none ended up in play. On the first hole 2 of the contenders fired their tee shots under the bush on the left, but by some luck could both get a club to their ball rather than having to take a drop.
Joan brought a lead of 4 into the game but this had dropped to 2 after the front 9 and Sheena scrambled her way to a back 9 of 44 to finish with a 3 shot lead over the 2 rounds and take the championship. Susan also made up ground on Joan with both of them finishing on 185. Susan taking the runner-up spot courtesy of her better round today (93 to Joan’s 98).
The Handicap Cup did go to Joan with her net 147 4 shots ahead of Susan on 151.
With a field twice the size of the first round of the CC, an alternative stableford was set up to give them something to play for. Seema continued her recent good form to win with 35 points from Lia on 34. With a sweep entry fee, monies were paid into their purse accounts.
Men
Mostly cloudy and breezy but dry for the final round of the Club Championship.
For the scratch (gross results) the First Division shows last year winner Will Balakrishnan again winner on 145 (2nd round 76)– well done again. 8 behind was Richard Back153 (2nd round 82) and Richard Smith (2nd round 75).
Second Division winner is Suhail Salim 175 (2nd round 88) from Nigel Ward 177 (2nd round 93) and Charles Haines 182 (2nd round 90).
Scoring analysis for front 9 confirms 3 over par 38s for Richard Smith, Paul Kamerling, Mel Dunn and Jonathan Evans, best back 9s 1 over par 37s for Richard Smith and Will Balakrishnan. Well done all.
The net for the day shows for First Division the winner with excellent scoring as Richard Smith 65 on countback from Paul Kamerling also 65. In the Second Division the winner by a shot was Richard Young 68 from Jonno Mclean and Charles Haines both 69s.
Men’s & Women’s Club Championship – Rd1
Women
Numbers which were never high were further depleted when we woke to rain and the prospect of showers continuing through much of the day. As is often the case all we experienced was the occasional light & passing shower much to the annoyance of those who cancelled..
The dowsing of the course in water yesterday definitely had an effect on how it played today but a quick look at last year’s scores for the first round show they weren’t that much lower (except for Silvia of course!)
Joan played a very consistent round with 2 pars, a birdie and a 4 (on the 13th) on the par 3s that helped.
She can probably expect a .4/5 cut overnight as one of her higher scores drops off and goes into round 2 with a 4 shot lead over Sheena with Susan just 1 further back and a commanding lead in the handicap cup.
Men
A little early rain but otherwise dry for first round of Club Championship.
In the scratch championship The First Division is headed by Will Balakrishnan 69 from Richard Back 71 and then Mel Dunn 76 and Greg Wright 77. Some excellent golf -Will was 1 under gross 34 for front 9 whilst Richard scored 5 birdies on the back 9 30. Will’s front 9 included an eagle at par 5 9th .
‘In the Second Division Nigel Ward leads from Robin Thomas 86 (Julian James 85 and Dan Ballantyne 85 ineligible for Club Championship (not booked for round 2/ not enough Sunday Comps played).
In the net results (for Handicap Trophy) Richard Back, Mel Dunn are tied for First Division with 65s. In Second Division Nigel Ward 69 leads from Robin Thomas 70.
Sweeps by division as per attached -special Championship rules not applicable.
Round 4, Ballantyne Trophy 2025
On the final day of a heatwave, the Richmond Park team played Wycombe Heights B (last year’s Ballantyne Trophy winners) on Stockley Park golf course – a ‘neutral’ course, as this was the Regional Final. The result was a slow and hard-fought 2:1 win for Richmond Park. The next round is the National Semi-Final, to decide who plays at NAPGC Finals Day.
Our first pair (Paul Green and Mel Dunn) were soon trailing against stiff opposition and the match closed out with a 5&4 win for Wycombe. Our second pair (Adrian Wells and Julian James) were also soon trailing 3 down but gradually reeled their opponents in and finished 2 up. Our third pairing (Richard Owen and Gerard Ouattara) got off to an explosive start with 4 birdies on the first 3 holes and were 4 up after 4 holes. However, by the 10th hole the match was all square and over the back 9 the score alternated between all square and 1up to Richmond Park. Gerard’s par on the 17th took us to 1up (and the ‘half’ secured), and Richard’s long 2 putt par on the final hole secured the win.
Midweek July Plate
It was another fine day for golf – not as hot as some days recently but comfortably warm nonetheless. There was a moderate breeze which intensified as the day went on and definitely had to be factored into one’s thinking on the later holes. Scoring was solid rather than spectacular and all the top places were only separated by a couple of points.
Winner today with 38 points was Richard Marriott playing off 28. Despite 2 blobs on the front 9, Richard still managed to score 18 points going out. He then scored an impressive 20 points on the way in which was joint highest back 9 score of the day. Congratulations Richard, an engraved salver will be heading your way in due course.
Countback had to go down to the last three holes to separate second and third spots. Just coming out on top was Jeremy Prescot (31) who pipped Mehemet Akdeniz (22). Jeremy had a very solid round for his 37 points scoring 18 out and 19 back. He picked up points on all but one hole.
Mehmet’s round didn’t start promisingly when he picked up on the first. Despite blobbing the 8th as well, he still scored 18 points going out and 19 on the way back to mirror Jeremy’s points tally.
Richard Prosser (20) took fourth place and is probably frustrated not to have finished higher. His front 9 tally of 22 points was the best of the day. But things came down to earth with a bit of a bump on the way in when he only managed 15 points which included an ugly 9 on the 14th.
Top woman today was Jayne Maxwell (20) in 5th with 36 points. Jayne managed to score points on every hole which is no mean feat especially on Dukes.
Ged Quinn (22) was the highest placed finisher (7th) to play off the white tees. All the prize winning men played off the yellow tees and indeed only five men in the entire field decided to brave the white tees.
J Q Robertson – Top Dog Event 4 of 7
Not quite as hot as recently with a breeze. For the ‘JQR’
New member Alan Boyd heads the results with 44points off 17; his final card for qualifying for RPGC competitions.
The winner on a back 9 countback was Alison Chadwick on 41 points from Richard Hanna in the last game. Well done to both esp. Alison for a great back 9 of 23 points. Very well played to Richard Smith 40 and Aidan Hurley 39. AIdan kept a 6 off his gross 74 card – and picked up an eagle on 3rd hole. Michael Pham and Doreen Dolby also had excellent 39s.
This was 4th event in the men’s Top Dog and in the First Division Richard Smith 15 leads Joe Goncalves 14; in Second Division it’s Michael Pham 20 from Charles Haines 13.
Hawtree, Round 3 Regional Final
On a heatwave day, the Richmond Park team played Easthampstead for a place at NAPGC Finals Day in September. It was an extremely close match which Richmond Park won 152:151 combined stableford points.
The away pairings of Sheena Harrington & Paul Green and Susan Smith & Mel Dunn both scored 37 points in their greensomes matches, to their opponents 34 points – so 6up Away (after a very long 5.5 hour round). At Home, on the Duke’s course, the RPGC pairing of Brendan Sullivan & Jayne Maxwell scored 44 points to Easthampstead’s amazing 46 points and in the other match RPGC’s Cheryl Woodhouse & Richard Owen scored 34 points to their opponents 37 points. So now it’s the Final at Winter Hill golf course on Saturday September 6th.
NAPGC Mitchell Thompson Qualifier 2025
Richmond Park fielded a team of 8 players (4 pairs) in this year’s seniors Mitchell Thompson qualifier at Stockley Park golf course, against 5 other teams from Basildon, Huntswood, Brent Valley, Farnham Park and Southsea golf clubs. The format was greensomes and the weather conditions were “heatwave 33 deg. C !!). Richmond Park were represented by Brett Colley & Mike Jones, Paul Green & Chris Jones, Russell Stewart & Adrian Wells and Richard Owen & Gerard Ouattara. Our combined score of 133 stableford points put us in 3rd place with the winners being Farnham Park (140 points). Top scorers for RPGC were Paul & Chris on 39 points, equally the best of the day. Only Farnham Park progress to Finals Day in September.