We enjoyed a lovely spring day with blue skies and warm sunshine. A cool wind blew but not as strong as in recent days. Of the 57 competitors 17 played to par or under.
Brett Colley off 14 had a very steady round of 39 out and 40 back for a winning score of net 65. Which included a birdie 4 on the 12th hole. Three players had net 67’s with David Grace coming 2nd on countback ahead of Kevin Prendergast , Charles Haines and Bernie McDermot in 3rd and 4th and 5th. The best lady was Cheryl Woodhouse with a net 68 in 6th place.

The competition also doubed as last of the 8 midweek winter competition rounds[with at least 1 round from each ciurse] and also the last of the 4 Duke;s Eclectic rounds.

The results show Richard Norden the Winter comp winner on 117 points from Julian James and Brett Colley both 115.

Brett won the Eclectic with 63 from Kim Chaffart64 and 65s from Kevin Prendergast and Bill Norman.

Well done to all.

Women

Captain Cheryl obviously liked the look of the prizes she’d bought for 1st place today and pairing with Alison they came home with 43 points. It was close though with Caroline & Elisabeth just 1 point back on 42 followed by Jayne & Sheena on 41.

A lovely sunny day saw the women tucking into pizza and chips afterwards for their Spring Meeting get together.

Men

Another gloriously sunny day for the final round of the Spring Stableford; after what was the sunniest March for England recorded.

Scoring generally was a bit better than on Duke’s with some good individual performances.
In the senior division Greg Wright had a good 36 with 20 points on more challenging back 9 holding Henry Lindesay Bethune on countback. Raymond Esin followed with 35 which included 2 pickup holes. In the junior division Sajid Khan was the runaway winner with 42 points – setup with 1 pickup and 8 ‘3 pointers’ for 24 points on front 9. Adrian Wells followed with an excellent 38 points [19 out and in]. Third was Tom Simpkins with 35 and (Well done Tom!) an eagle on3rd hole.

James Burr’s great score of 39 wins the senior division for the aggregate 71. 2nd was Adrian Wells with 70; 3 chased for next position all with 68 – Michael Hayden, Iker Lanzagorta and Mel Dunn.
The junior aggregate was again won with 70 – by Gerard Ouattara from Lee Frost 65 and Nigel Ward 64.

A Lovely bright and sunny day with a cold easterly breeze to cool the temperature all day.
As always some players were not perturbed and revelled in the conditions.

In division 1 Richard Owen and Angus Robertson battled it out to tie with net 68’s. Angus just missed out on countback but had the best Gross score. 4 shots back were Raymond Esin and Jonathon Evans with Raymond edging in front on countback.
Anus apparently had a nightmare 1st hole losing his first tee shot. Returned to tee and played again and hit a tree on the left. after playing about 80 yards short of the green the holed his next shot for a bogey 5.
The moral is never give up!!

In Div2 Jeremy Prescot had a steady round to win by 4 shots with a net 64. All the rest formed a tight queue behind with Andy Johnson on net 69 and David Grace on net 70.

Women

Congratulations to Sali on her fine 38 points today which included a blob on the 3rd hole for her 18 out and 20 back. Some 6 points back was Sheena, so a run away victory for Sali.

Despite only 2 of the 6 of us scoring on the 7th hole; the ‘Competition Score Analysis’ report says it was the 2nd easiest hole today!! It can’t cope with pickups.

Although we’re all benefitting from run on the ball again after months of mudball, it’s fair to say that most are still getting to grips with summer golf conditions and the fairly speedy greens not forgetting just how many layers we should be wearing!

Men

Good sunny day for first round of the Spring Stableford but chilly early on and there was a wind.
Mel Dunn had an excellent round and won the senior division with 37 points – 19 points out and only birdie of the day at 11th. A point behind was Aidan Hurley with again a fine round playing to handicap on 36. Richard Smith had 35 points and could have been much better since pickups at 7 and 14.

Best score of the day came from Gerard Ouattara with an outstanding 39 points which could have been better but for pickup at 7th. Lee Frost chased on 35 points which included only birdie of the day at 4th. 3rd in a late game came Charles Haines on 34 with consistent front and back 9s of 17 points.

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

Joan is making a habit of her 1st place position in our recent comps finishing just 5 points ahead of Niamh and Sheena. There was an interesting mix of scoring with the most extreme being Cheryl’s 9 on the outward leg and 19 back in. She wasn’t the only one to score better on the back 9 but no one else had such a contrast in numbers.

Until today the women’s Sunday birdie tree was completely bare then Jenny started her round with a birdie 3 on the 1st, chipping in from a fair way off the green. The tree then gained a second birdie from Joan on the par 3 16th.

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.

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.