September 2026
September 2026
Ballantyne Trophy Final
The Final of the NAPGC Ballantyne Trophy was played at Winter Hill Golf Club, near Maidenhead, on the Saturday of NAPGC’s 2026 Finals Weekend. The Ballantyne finalists, Richmond Park B and Wycombe Heights C, tee’d off at 1pm on a sunny, warm, but breezy day, following the teams playing for the Hawtree and Siemens trophies. The Winter Hill course was in great condition, showing very little sign of the multiple summer heat waves that have affected so many courses, including Richmond Park.
The teams and handicaps are shown on the tee sheet (link below). Richmond Park’s first pair of Richard Back and Joe Gonclaves were ‘running late’ and arrived just 10 minutes before their tee time. Neither had played the course before but competed in a close match which finished with a “1 down” loss. Richmond Park’s second pair of Nick Rogers and Aiden Hurley also had a close match throughout but closed it out with a “2 & 1” win. Richmond Park’s third pair took the lead on the 5th hole and built a 4up lead after 9 holes. This lead was pegged back to 3up after 11 holes, 2up after 13 holes, and just 1up after 15 holes, however pars on the 16th, 17th and 18th resulted in a “1up win” at the finish. So Richmond Park retained the Ballantyne Trophy for another year with a 2:1 win. Although extremely competitive, the matches were played in a very good spirit and the Wycombe team were very gracious in defeat.
Golden Jubilee
A very pleasant, partly sunny early Autumn day with a noticeable southerly breeze and temperatures rising to 26 degC. The greens seemed to be well on the way to recovering from their recent hollow tining and other restoration treatment but were slow and still a little bumpy.
Only 5 players played under Par and our clear winner of the Golden Jubilee Shield was Oz Doyle with a net 66, playing off 17. 2 shots back was Peter Needham net 68, playing off 14, and in the 3rd and 4th places Jonathan Evans and Richard Smith, both net 69. It is surprising that the top 15 places taken by the men were all Division 1 players; the best Division 2 player was Tony Kopczak (net 75) in 16th place overall. Sali Davies recorded the best women’s score (net 72) in 11th place overall.
This was the 4th round (of 5) in the Anniversary Cup series and the latest position is shown in the report attached. Richard Smith and Niamh Grace share the lead on 281 shots, 3 ahead of Nick Rogers (284) and Kerry Sargeant (286).
In the men’s Top Dog competitions, it is very close at the top in both the Senior and Junior divisions (report attached). In the Senior Division, Iker (26 points) leads from Brian McMahon (25) and Allan Boyd (24). In the Junior Division, Sean O’Sullivan leads on 23 points, from Mike Shabani (22) and Seymour Laird (20).
Women’s Weekend Away 2026
This year, 19 of us went to Wokefield Park, near Reading, for our annual Women’s Weekend Away. It turned out to be glorious weather that compensated for the challenging golf course with 73, pretty large bunkers. Two people mastered it well with Cuneyt as the overall men’s winner with rounds of 28 and 37 points and Joan, the overall women’s winner with rounds of 29 and 34. Joan won the Gills Hibbs Trophy and well done!
There were other prizes for teams each day, best of two scores. On Saturday, it was a combination of Peter Harrington, Hilary, Susan and Christine, 75 points and on Sunday it was Christine, Maher, Ellie and Cuneyt with an impressive 83 points.
Jayne and Susan did a masterful job in all the organisation both before and during the weekend.
Midweek Club Championship, Round 1
Good day for golf, only slight rain for the later starters.
In the men’s scratch competitions, Angus Robertson leads the way in Division 1 with 78, three shots ahead of 3 players on 81. (Richard Back’s 77 and Duncan Matthews 80 will not count, as they hadn’t played 6 qualifying Midweek competitions this year). In Division 2, Jonno McLean (84) has a 3 shots lead over David Grace, with Leigh Drake a further shot back. In the women’s scratch competition, Gina Jillett (77) has a commanding 8 shots lead over Jayne Maxwell.
In the Handicap Cup competition, the best scores in Round 1 were Mike Sands net 65 and net 66s for Richard Marriott, Pralab Barua and Jonno McLean, who lead Round 1 because Mike Sands hadn’t played 6 Midweek competitions this year.