Unseasonably windy for July and first competition with red penalty areas on 17 and 18.

As with previous 2 years the Captains’ Day was won by a woman and this year women took first 5 prizes. Reiko came out top 6 from Mayumi and Ali 68s then Capt. Sheena and Doreen 69s; best men with 71s – Brian M, Paul McG and George T.

Aidan and Silvia had the best front9s whilst Raymond did the same on the back 9 – all in 39
Ed H added to the men’s Sunday eagle tally this year with first at 3rd.

For men this was 4th comp in the ‘Top Dog’ and as attached we find Brian M and Raymond on 18 leading the senior division from Toby. Dilip maintains his lead26 from Onursal. 18.

Women led the associated putting competition with Ali just edging Sheena with 27s [Sheena 2 ‘zeroes’]; Brian M took men’s with 26 putts.

Novelty prizes as below.
Nearest the pin in Two on
Hole No 6 – Men only Aidan Hurley
Hole No 18 – Men & Women Seema Sandhu & Sean O’Sullivan

.Longest Drive on the Fairway on Hole No 15 – Men only Andre Pelser/ Justin Wildman

Nearest the pin on Hole No 7 and Hole No 16 – Men & Women

Hole No 7 – Susan Smith & Sean O’Sullivan

Hole No 16 – Avi Murphy & Paul McGrath

The field enjoyed pretty decent golfing conditions. Still plenty of roll on the fairway. Looks like some greens on the front 9 were cut. The rough remains enemy number 1 for most players. But all in all the course seemed there for the taking. And that is what a lot of players did. Prime example was the 18th hole. On that hole in particular players did take full advantage of the white tees being (temporarily) moved up. 

Best of the class today was Julian. He enjoyed a decent start. But he then went on to record birdies on 11 and 17. That was part of a 35 gross back 9 (aka 26 net). Just enough to finish as the best of 3 players on 62 (net). Today’s Runner-Up was on a Headingley high. Alison copied the JJ method: solid on the front 9 (48 gross – 33 net) and excellent on the back 9 (42 gross – 29 net). Last member of the 62 gang is Chris Rudkin. He finishes 46 (gross – 31 net) and 45 (gross – again 31 net). Very well played all 3.

Early starter Pralab was leader in the ckubhouse for a quite a while. The highlight of his 64 net was an eagle 2 on the 15th. Angus recovered in time from a demanding golf trip on Monday to shoot 74 gross (65 net). He probably could’ve challenged the group on 62 had it not been for 3 3-putts in the first 5 holes. PCC adjustment looks likely. So the HI adjustments could be more muted than anticipated.

Early rain dissipated to give a sometmes breezy day.

Women

A select group of 6 today and seems the women found it a touch tougher than Joe G who has recorded a gross 70 (as per below), to match Lia’s net score today. A fair number of matches both internal and external reduced both fields, but the effect seemed to help the speed of play!

Pretty pleasant conditions for golf though think the rain of yesterday had softened things up a bit.

Congrats to Lia on her win by 1 shot today.

Men

Joe G (aka Mr. 59) shot a lifetime best net 59 to win the July Medal by 3 shots – well done Joe. Joe was 35 out and 35 in coming on top of a win at Coombe Wood yesterday and is set for an overnight WHS ESR of -1.0 to take his HI from11.2 to 9.2 and back to single figures.

Tamas shot an amazing net 62 [34 gross on back 9] for second place whist Jay shot level par 68 (net 63) and best gross of the day. Well done indeed – Joe, Tamas and Jay get the senior division sweep.

4^th overall and junior division leader is Sean with excellent 64 with James Cridland and new member Craig. Most encouraging.

This was the 5^th round from a possible 8 for the Grand Medal Trophy and Tamas is leader of senior division by himself being only player to have played all 5 rounds. In the junior division Duncan T leads with from Dilip 277 and Anthony W 279 – all after 4 rounds.

Yesterday’s rain made the greens a bit more receptive. But there was still plenty of roll & bounce on the fairways. The rough in certain places is just getting ridiculous. So staying on the fairways “doesn’t hurt”.

Winner of the day and 1st woman is Cheryl. She went steady on the front 9. But totally let it go (no reference to Frozen the movie) on the back 9. She managed to record a nett score of 30 (!) strokes on the way in. Nothing you can do against that. Yours truly’s round was a mirror image of Cheryl’s. I scrambled my way to a gross score of Level Par (30 nett) on the front 9. But I lost the plot on holes 13-16 (where I went +5). So a nett score of 36 on the back 9 means I finish second (but I do win the sweep – small consolation). Toby only finished 1 stroke back on 67 (Nett). The first early bird was Peppe (looks like the morning hour suits your golf game PM). Peter G had his 3rd eagle in the last month. He managed to chip in from 40yds on the 3rd. But surprisingly he lost his way on the 2 par 5’s today. Otherwise he would’ve challenged for the top prizes.

There are no more certainties at RPGC. “Ballantyne” Captain Richard O recorded another good score on Duke’s (his allegiance was clearly with Princes the last couple of years). Last year’s Women’s CC, Silvia, finishes in the last “Money Spot”.

Cool and blustery conditions for the second Jubilee (of 4 ) in the Anniversary Cup.

Doreen shot a glorious round of 65 and had the equivalent of 25 points on the back 9 to win on countback from John M whose round was consistently excellent.
A super 69 from Reiko gained Reiko 3rd place from Ian B.
Only 2 ‘Twos’ were recorded – Richard S 7th and Paul K 16th;again reflecting conditions for medal a third of the field NRd.

Women dominate places in this round and also in 2nd of Anniversary Cup where Cheryl’s 65 in the Platinum sees her leader on 139 from Lia 143. 4 further behind is leading man John P 147.

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.