Breezy overall with spots of rain Sunday per bottom of results file and some run was available; last game got what sun there was. Ditch/trench across 9th fairway made an interesting feature:

Junior Ethan Ford crafted a professional 40 points to win the Plate and had 4 3s inc. one birdie at par 4 11th. Ethan will no doubt improve! Duncan Taylor had excellent back 9 22pts. Kerry Sargeant returned an excellent 38 pts with 1 over par on front 9 and 2 birdies. Kerry shared front 9 honours with Henry L-B. There were good 37s from Kim, Ulli and Robert C as well as 36s from Damber, Keith C and Paul K.

Spring golf made a  very welcome return to the park. The Royal Parks deciding to cut trees today was not really part of the plan. Therefore we had to run the competition over 16 holes. Milder temperatures, sunshine, faster greens, better looking fairways and some decent golf were all present. Pity that access to the clubhouse itself was rather limited.

But see photo afterwards of new layout and floor covering

Onto to the main talking points. 3 players recorded 37pts. Chris Rudkin was the best thanks to his 21pts on the back 9 (only matched by Paul G). Brian started with a birdie and maintained an excellent level of golf over the first 7 holes (18pts). 2nd place is a nice return for a steady back 9 (19pts). Alan King was playing like a man possessed on the way out: -1 gross through 6 holes. A DB on the 7th didn’t stop him from scoring 20pts on the way out. He recovered after a wobble on the 10th hole to come home with 17pts. Angus tightens extends his lead in the birdie tree with 3 extra birdies (2nd, 3rd and 17th). 5th place goes to the Women’s Captain today. Pralab and Allan benefit from the women not taking part in the sweep (cf. attachment). The game of Alan King, Alvaro Garcia-Hoz and yours truly managed as a group  to record 5 birdies on the first 7 holes.

The competition also constituted final round of Midweek Winter competition and associated Duke’s Eclectic. Juho Lim and Pralab share the honours on 115 with Mike Jones and Secretary Peter Harrington joint runners-up 114. The Duke’s Eclectic champion is Richard Owen 59.2 with Angus Robertson and Brian Ransom close on his heels at 59.6 and 59.9 respectively.

Now that storms Franklin and Eunice are a thing of the past a large field enjoyed decent playing conditions (except for some standing water and usual muddy spots).

Pralab went out early and set a very decent target of 40pts. That score held for most of the day. Richard H and Juho came close but have to settle for 3rd and 4th respectively. The only player beating 40pts was Julian. He torched the back 9 for 23pts (his only 1-pointer came as a result of a 6 on the 12th hole). As an FYI: the best front 9 belongs to Russel (22pts – cf. Best Score Analysis Report).  Cheryl was the only one other player recording 23pts on the back 9 (guess 5pts on the 14th didn’t hurt). A bit of last minute scorecard drama was resolved so she takes 5th place.  Chris Rudkin and the MC take 6th and 7th respectively. Looks like in general the women faired pretty well playing off the yellow tees (I believe the only nasty surprise came on the 12th tee).

There’s just one round of the Midweek Winter Comp left – next Wednesday twinned with the Inaugural Trophy; latest position is in attached [software cannot cope with bespoke requirement which insists that best 3 from 8 but at least one round must be played on each course].

A new leader has emerged – Pralab Barua!. His 40 yesterday replaced 30 on Prince’s advancing him 10 points from previous 105. The laws of maths apply but if I were a betting man I would tip Julian James [a course and distance winner] who only needs to have 34 or better to lead Pralab.

Of course the winner could be someone with just 1 score from each course so far.

MW Winter Comp: Pralab (115), Mike J (114), Peter H (114), Julian J (113), Tamas (112) Juho (112). Last round of the MW Winter Comp will be held next week. MW Prince’s eclectic goes to Peter Goodall

Strange conditions at the park today. The field enjoyed mild temperatures. But the rain of the last days had created lots of areas with standing water. It even forced the greenkeeper to close 2 holes. The greens were very receptive. Although it was a surprise not having to face any temporary greens. Distance control was tricky today. There was very little roll (believe that quite a few tee-shots must have plugged on the fairways). The swirling/gusty winds made things even more complicated.

It was a case of one man v the rest today. The men’s secretary took the course apart today with an outstanding score of 38pts. 17pts on the front 9 was already quite a feat. His 21pts on the back 9 look even more impressive since he didn’t score any points on the 17th. The best of the rest was Alan King. It has to be said he had to use the countback rule to claim 2nd. Riding high on his nomination to the club’s main committee he recorded 14 and 19pts. Yours truly took 3rd. Brian Ransom used an excellent back 9 (20pts) to steal 4th place from Richard O.  Only 3 birdies were recorded today. Four of the hardest holes were on the back 9. The 5 most difficult holes today were (in descending order): 12th, 14th, 13th, 6th and 17th. Jeremy Prescot managed to score 2 4-pointers today.

Looks like Rob Dykes wins the Duke’s eclectic (TBC).

Forecast rain started 1 o’clock per main results report with some sunshine preceding. So later games caught the rain on the back 9 . Saturday and early games escaped dry. 37 turned up for Sunday.

Other events conspired to keep most of the women away from the course – so no report for them this week.

Overall winner with a tidy 67 was Sean O’Sullivan with the in-form Gunnar chasing with 69; Julian James again performed 70as did Cuneyt.

Senior Division Medal winner was Toby 73 and Junior Sean. Bucking the normal trend, the Senior Division had far more NRs than the Junior despite less entrants.

A large field enjoyed pretty decent playing conditions: forward tees, mild temperatures, quite a bit of bounce & roll on the fairways and faster greens.

Early starter Chris Newman came in with a net score of 56. Turns out he put the bar (too) high for the rest of the field. Peppe put up a valiant effort. But his putter was stone cold today (a tap-in birdie on the 15th was a rare exception).  Unfortunately he came up just short with a net score of 58. 3rd place goes to Rudkin (despite 2 snowmen). Jim Deissler was the best of a group of 60. His 2 birdies on the last 3 holes allows him to (ab)use the countback rule to finish 4th. The men’s handicap secretary finishes 5th. Despite an eagle on the 3rd hole Brett Colley loses out Seymour for 6th. Some other highlights: Jeremy started with 2 birdies but his last 4 holes were less inspiring. New Committee member Alan King was on fire on the first 6 holes (1 under gross). Let’s not discuss the next 11 holes.

Early rain cleared earlier than forecast – at 09:30 according to plot at bottom of men’s results attached, sun came out with UV peaking shortly after midday. The author received a very poor weather forecast and did not play but apparently drainage operations were much in evidence 1st / 18th.

Women

What an interesting set of results and conditions on the morning after the club dinner. At least the rain went away, but that wind was somewhat strong and gusty.
A hazarded guess that Cheryl was the designated driver last night because those who imbibed quite freely at last night’s dinner did not appear to enjoy a great day on the course today. Certainly Gina’s score today does not match with her horde of trophies she gathered last year whereas Julie had a mere shandy all night. Prosecco to blame perhaps??
But that’s the golf gods for you – a few weeks ago Julie walked off after 5 or so holes as she struggled to hit the ball whereas today she won with 33 points. 3 ahead of both Cheryl & Jenny.

Despite her unusual poor result today, Gina still improved her eclectic score to move further away from the rest of the field. With the vagaries of WHS Susan has actually gone backwards as her handicap had a small cut, but is still in 2nd spot with 1 round to go.

Men

The winner proved to be Saturday entrant Richard Owen 40 points from Justin Wildman 38 with Brian McMahon and Paul Kammerling 37s. Richard went out in 22 points , Paul 21 with birdies at 4 and 8.

Winter Comp round 6 results are attached – manually retouched (at least 1 round from each course has to count and the HM software does not cater for such a bespoke feature so on MasterSoreboard the report is for rough guidance only) – Roger currently leads 115 from Julian and secretary Peter 114s. Colm, Tony and Adrian are in touch – 113.

The penultimate round of Prince’s Eclectic reveals Colm leading 57.3 from Roger 62.1 and Ed 62.8.

Contrary to expectations Glendale (or their contractors) chose to perform some (much needed) drainage works on the first 2 holes on our competition day. Unfortunately the works started after the early starters went out. As a consequence we are forced to make today’s competition a Non-Qualifier. But as previously players are welcome to submit their scores a General Play Scores. Please reply to this mail if you want us to take care of this input.

Onto the order of the day:

Russell had 3 birdies today. He recorded 16pts (over 7 holes) on the way out. The start of his back 9 was a bit shaky: he recorded no points on the 11th hole (blame an ugly 7). But he bounced back brilliantly with a birdie on the 12th. In total he netted 22pts on the last 9 holes. Kevin had a sub-par front 9 (14pts). But he more than made for that on the way in (23pts). Colm recorded the same points total but the countback rule awards 2nd place to Kevin. Jeremy Prescot copied KP’s method: 13pts (out) + 23pts (in) on his way to 4th place. Pralab had a solid round (15 +21pts). Brian’s back 9 was quite diverse: 3*1pt, 4*3pts and 1 4-point play.

Midweek Winter Competition: Mike Jones (114), Tamas Ladacs (112) .

Dukes Midweek Eclectic: R. Dykes (67), B. Colley (69), B. Ransom (70)

Early frost melted to give a largely sunny [and again dry] day with sun gradually gaining elevation. Towards end of round it became distinctly chilly with a cold breeze.

Good for scoring then and n weeks since Duke’s playing all 18 holes.

Women

Guess no one was too keen on the conditions and weather today and despite the fact that yesterday was pretty windy, Gina who played then takes this weekend’s comp with 31 points.

In the accompanying eclectic, with holes 8 & 9 previously out of action scores weren’t calculated but unsurprisingly (if you look at recent results) Gina is also in the lead in this – by some large margin with just 1 round to go.

Men

Cuneyt, playing on Saturday [6 entrants was the worthy winner 40 points on countback from Brian McMahon; Another Saturday entrant Dilip was third alone 39. Jihum, Julian (again) and Ross completed the first 6 line-up on 38 points.

This was the penultimate round of the Duke’s Eclectic with Richard Inglis om a commanding lead of 60.2 from Brian Ransom 65.2- but possibility remains that winner may emerge from those with no scores at 8 and 9.

The round also constituted 5th in Winter Competition with Roger Rojas leading 115 from Julian and Secretary Peter 114 then Adrian and Tony 113s.

Performance stats reports below

What a difference a couple of dry days can make. Most of the standing water has gone (except for the 1st and 18th fairway and some more remote areas of the course). Holes 8-9 were even open on Duke’s. And to top it all off there was even a slight chance to get bounce/roll on certain patches of the fairways. Add “milder” temperatures and some forward tees and you had a cocktail for some low scoring.

Juho is today’s clear winner. 24pts on the back 9 set the bar pretty high for anybody. Richard N takes 2nd with an excellent score of 42pts. The hottest golfer of 2022 James put in another stellar round to take 3rd (23pts on the way in). Something lit a fire under Alan today (surely not something that will be confirmed coming Sunday?). 4 birdies (yes 4) enable him to finish 4th. Richard O put in another solid round on Princes (although he will have nightmares about the 1st hole). Jenny and Sheena take 6 and 7th respectively.

Midweek Winter Comp (TBC)

Peter Goodall (115), Mike Jones (114), Julian James (113), Tamas Ladacs (112)

Midweek Eclectic Princes

Peter Goodall (58 Net), Richard Owen (61), Jeremy Ryan (63)