To state the obvious: players made things look (very)easy today. Nearly 20% of the field recorded 40pts or more. Suppose a PCC adjustment is on the cards. [Ed : 0]

Jim D birdied 9 and 11 today. He had 23pts on the first 9. His score of 22pts on the back 9 would even have been better had he not PU’ed on the last (!) hole. Victory and an ESR are well deserved. Jim is also the first winner in 3 weeks not to have been accompanied by Alan K or yours truly. But I suppose both of them were with Russel S in spirit.  He is keeping up his good form. Another +40pts score  is in the books. Thanks to 24pts on the back 9 he edges Terry into 3rd place (Terry recorded 19/23pts on front and back 9 respectively). Colin had another steady round to claim 4th with 42pts (20+22pts). The bionic man Peppe choose an early tee-time. Turned out to be very clever choice: 41pts and 5th place. Yours truly is the last player finishing “in the Money” (the score on the 16th still hurts …). 1st woman today is the incoming Women’s Captain: Cheryl. Peter G’s tee shot on the 6th finished 30yds short of the green. He then managed to chip in for an unexpected eagle.  

A hot sunny and humid day for the Shaw Cup on Prince’s.

Mark Bean shot a convincing 42 points to win with 22 on back 9 – 2 birdies inc long par 3 13th. Well done Mark!
Earlier, Dilip was the clubhouse leader on 41 with 23 on front 9 including a ‘blob’ but offset with 2 4 pointers. Best woman Susan Smith just edged Charlie Whiteman on back 9 – both 39 points Susan’s back 9 was excellent – 22 points 5 over par.
PCC remained at 0 but Mark enjoyed a full shot cut with HI down from 11.6 to 10.6.

For men this was 3rd comp in the ‘Top Dog’; per attached a new leader has emerged – Toby. He leads on 14 from Dilip, Raymond and Ross all 12 with points from JQR and Shaw.
The junior sees Dilip now in a strong lead on 26 points from Onursal 12 and Gregory 11.

Founders Cup – Mrs Millidge (5/6) 

The day belonged to the 9am starters. Just like last week the winner played with the duo of Alan K and yours truly. Alvaro had an excellent front 9. But the middle of the front 9 was really interesting: birdie on 5, a double digit score on 6 followed by … a birdie on 7. That roller coaster returned 21pts going out. His last last 9 holes were less volatile. But the 18pts on the back 9 and the fact that he was awarded 13 (!) shots today were the perfect assist to today’s win. Chris R was the best of the rest. He seems to thrive in the MW Founders Cup (more on that later). 37pts are enough for 2nd today (he will regret his scores on holes 17-18 though).  First woman of the day is Pat. Her 19pts on the way in edge her past the Men’s Secretary (who will have regrets about the 17th …). Seymour is a deserving 5th today. 6th place belongs to the person who was expected to show up in orange today. What happened to the Rickie Fowler trend Cheryl? Due to some people opting out of the sweep the payouts reached out to Richard Y and Chris N respectively.

MW Founders Cup Standings (TBC)
Chris R (142), Gina (140 – doens’t hurt when your previous low score of 20pts drops off today), KSC, RIchard Y and Peter H (all 132). So it’s a 2 horse race.

Humid conditions for the JQ Robertson but predicted rain didn’t arrive until after play.

Well done indeed to the overall winner Raymond who shot an amazing 44 pts – 22 out and 22 in with one ‘blob’. WHS applied an ESR of -1.0 and he now 10.0 from 12.4.

Two women followed – Jenny 41 [front 23] and Alison 38 [22 back with 3 4 pointers inc 17^th and 18^th]. Dilip beaten on back 9 also 38pts.

For the men this was 2^nd competition in the ‘Top Dog’ order of merit. In the senior division Raymond shares lead 12points Ross Hood ahead of Joe G and Toby each with 8. The junior has clear leader Dilip 14 from Onursal. See attached report.

The drought and the high(er) temperatures are starting to take its toll on the course. The extra distance gained from the roll and bounce on the fairways very welcome for most of the field. The greens seemed more receptive too. However the penalty from bouncing/rolling off the fairway was steep since the rough is becoming more and more punishing.

None of this bothered the Top5 today. All of them had +40pts.
Russell changed his tactics. He abandoned the 7am starters. A bit of traffic drama made him show up just in time to tee off. The rest of his round was drama free. Even better: he probably would’ve been able to walk on water today. He could not be faulted. 8/10 he had an Up & Down from 70yds and shorter. Numbers speak for themselves: 24pts (front 9) and 20pts (back 9 – largely due to an ugly DB on the 17th – his sole 1-pointer of the day – he had 0 PU’s). ESR on its way …

Chris J played an excellent back 9 (25pts – 5*3pts, 1*4pts). Unfortunately he finishes just 1pt behind Russell. Peter G also torched the last 9 holes. A score of Level par gross awards him 23pts and 3rd place. 1st lady of the day was in form Cheryl. 19+22pts are her competition stats today. She must have some serious regrets over her PU on 8. Dave C is the last of +40 gang. Spare a thought for Alex B. He stood on the 15th with 34pts … Tommy H birdied the 2 par 3’s on the front 9 and parred the 13th.

Hot and humid conditions prevailed although rain and thunder arrived – but after cards returned.

Women

Perhaps Katharina has found the secret to playing well – send Uli away so no pressure on who is cooking dinner! A net 65 which would have been considerably lower without a 10 on the 17th has resulted in an ESR being applied – most unlike WHS which often seems to gift those who play well with either no change or an increase as older scores drop off. Katharina sees a drop from 20.5 to 18.4.
If realisation of how her game was going suddenly hit on that hole, it didn’t harm the last which resulted in a birdie finish (1 of 2 with Bridget also finishing well).

Bridget in fact finished 2nd, 5 shots behind and she got a much smaller .5 cut

Men

Tamas won the senior division with a well-crafted and consistent 64. He was chased by Michael Hayden 66 and best Mark Bean 67(also best gross 78 on countback).

In the junior division Richard Young shot an astonishing 60 proving the value of technique and practice. Onursal followed with a fine consistent 64 and Julian J 65; Julian’s round was superb except for the SI 1 7th where he recorded 12.

In 4th round aggregate of the GMT both divisions headed by only 3 players to complete the 4 rounds to date:
Senior: Tamas 278, Oz 294, Richard B 299

Junior: Dilip 277, Tom Simp 286, Tony K 286

As with recent days it warmed up with the sun melting clouds but still a chilly wind.

Like Sunday, a third of the field NR’d but the PCC calculation was +1.
Winner of the medal was Toby H wit a very fine 70; just one shot behind was Cheryl 1 – had Cheryl’s birdie at 16 been repeated then she would have won by a margin. Pat B and Alex B followed with 71s.

Jay took best gross 80 and both front and back nine honours.

Graham C leads the Midweek Grand Medal (best 5 from 8 rounds) but are only players to have completed 4 rounds.

Another brilliantly ‘blazing’ June day with glorious sunshine. The NE wind kept temps down.

With a third of the field NR’ing you might think a positive PCC would arise – but it didn’t and remained at zero.

Anyway, there was still some very good golf – from ‘in-form’ players. Cheryl took the honours with a glorious 65 after an inspiring win in the Women’s Invite the day before. Such is the nature of WHS that her HI remained the same because she ‘lost’ a good counting score from January. An amazing round with birdie at 17th – well done! Another recent winner Richard Young challenged with a 66 for second place ahead of Raymond 68; wrt WHS again, Richard’s HI actually increased 0.3 since he ‘lost’ a better score from last August in the best 8 averaging.
Many no doubt NR’d due to still thick rough.

Spare a thought for Raymond – he stood on 13th tee level par and recent birdies at 11 & 12. Raymond returned best grossof the day 81 but dropped all the shots 13-18.

This was first Jubilee of 4 in the Anniversary Cup.

If Karma played golf it would’ve made Kevin Prendergast winner today. But that script never materialised. After underwhelming scoring last Sunday on Princes things looked rather ominous for today’s field. The rough was still stupidly high. And the bounces on the fairway/fringes were extremely unpredictable. But it has to be said that the field outperformed (and that is putting it mildly). 3 of the players finishing in the Top 5 went out at the crack of dawn.

Gina’s brisk pace of play (she and Ross finished 18 holes in 2h37) translated into an excellent score of 37pts. But her mark was bettered by Vinny (39pts). Alan T had a remarkable eagle on the 5th. 18pts out and 24pts in are his final numbers. The 9am starters did have the final laugh. Richard Y picked up on 3 holes on the front 9 (17pts). But he blew everyone away with 25pts on the back to snatch victory from Alan. Chris R had an excellent round (19+22pts). But he will have regrets about the 18th hole (recorded a DB). It has to be said that the tee-shot on the 18th  from the white tees is becoming quite daunting. In a couple of years you will either have to use an 8 iron to just get on the fairway or (as Sam W does) bend/slice it around the trees. Finally Ross has to thank Gina for not entering the sweep. He is the last player to get a “positive purse adjustment”.

MW Founders Cup Standings
Chris Rudkin (132), KSC (131), Gina (128 – but she has a great opportunity to make up ground the coming weeks), PDH (124).

Similar conditions of late prevailed but warmth 23 C from sunshine was abated by wind.

Women

Men

The rough was not a place to be in, ruining a hole’s score; run on fairway sometimes ran unexpectedly into bunker and hard greens needing water wouldn’t hold pitches and were ‘fast’.
Additionally loose plastic liners at top of holes annoyingly lifted and needed replacing for next player. Greens having dried out since placing of liners.
Unsurprisingly PCC was again lifted to +1.

But there was some good golf. Winner by one point was Luke R 38 pts with good front 9 21 pts and a birdie at first. Chasing one point behind were Alan K and Duncan T. Duncan with an inspired back 9 24pts.

Sam Williams recorded 3rd men’s Sunday eagle of year at 17 [total eagles 5] – well done!.