Richard Owen
Richard Owen
August Plate
A dry, warm , sunny day with temperatures in the mid 20s and very little breeze. The greens had been spiked a few days ago and were ‘bumpy’ and slightly slower than of date.
Scoring was good and, surprisingly for a mid-summer mixed competition on Duke’s, the top 10 places were all taken by the men.
Kerry Sargeant was the winner of the August Plate with a very impressive 43 points (74 shots, 3-over-gross), pipping Aiden Hurley and Brian Ransom, both on 41 points. Aiden was just 1-over-gross, taking just 72 shots. Both Kerry and Brian had their best round for more than 12 months, giving them a new Low handicap Index.
Three players scored 39 points and took the minor monies in the sweep, namely Simon McKnight, Richard Owen and Peter Harrington.
President’s Prize
Another warm and humid day with a gentle breeze.
The conditions suited almost everyone and the scoring was again very good with 4 players at 40 and over. It’s getting tough to win!!
Ged Quinn was the clubhouse leader for a long time with his 43 points but, at the end, along came Robin Thomas with an outstanding 44 points to pip him for first place. Cheryl Woodhouse and Dave Cato came 3rd and 4th with their 40 points, better than Paul Green with 39 points and Patrick Murphy with 38.
Robin would have scored more but for a blob on the 5th hole. But 21 out and 23 back (3 over par) was impressive.
The nearest the pin competition winners were as follows:
1st hole men Dave Cato. (None of the ladies were on the green in 2 shots!!)
2nd hole Robin Thomas
4th hole Peter Fisher
13th Hole Paul Green
16th Hole Ged Quinn
18th Hole Paul Green and Gina Jillett
Well done to all competitors for a lovely and enjoyable day.
Ballantyne – National Semi Final
The Richmond Park B team played Tilgate Forest A at The Oaks and claimed a 2:1 win, to take them to the NAPGC’s Finals Day being held at Winter Hill golf course on Saturday September 12th. Our opponents in the final will be Wycombe Heights A.
Our first pairing of Richard Back and Peter Harrison held their own through the front 9 but slipped to a 3&2 loss on the back 9. Our second pairing of Nick Rogers and Aiden Hurley increasingly consolidated their position throughout their match and closed it out with a 6&4 win. Our third pairing of Richard Owen and Gerard Ouattara also gradually pulled ahead during the front 9 and, although they lost the tricky 12th (their only loss), closed out the match on the 14th for a 5&4 win.
President’s Putter
A cloudy start but still a warm day in the high 20’s deg C as the sun broke through. Rock hard fairways and negligible rough provided good scoring opportunities and almost half the field played to their handicap, or better.
The winner of the President’s Putter trophy was Attilio Cheso with an outstanding 48 points, playing off a ‘capped’ handicap of 32 (his full course handicap was 34, which would have been 50 points !). Starting with a 5-pointer for a birdie on Hole 1 was something that most of us could only dream of ! By far this was Attilio’s best score on his EG record, and followed a score of 43 points at Coulsdon Manor on Friday. WHS reacted to these excellent scores by imposing an ESR of 2 strokes and Attilio’s HI is now 5 strokes lower than it was a week ago !!
Four players scored 41 points, with Sheena claiming 2nd place on countback from Charlie, Doreen and Kevin. Close behind on 40 points were James Deissler and John Ahad. James’s round reduced his HI down to 16.2, his equal lowest on record and into Division 1.
The Nearest the Pin winners were as follows:
1st in 2 : Steve De Long and Avi Murphy
2nd hole: Iker Lanzagorta
4th hole: Alex Catlow
13th in 2 : Ed Hall
16th hole: Kevin Prendergast
18th in 2 : Attilio and Sheena
After Round 5 of the Top Dog competition, and taking into account points accrued for the singles knockouts (to date), the latest situation is shown on the attached Senior and Junior Top Dog points tables.
In the Seniors, it’s very tight at the top. Iker (26) has ‘sneaked ahead’ of Brian McMahon (25), with Allan Boyd on 24 points.
In the Juniors, Sean O’Sullivan (21) has overtaken Robin Thomas (18), with Mike Shabani 3rd on 16 points.
With 2 more competition rounds to go, and the knockouts to be completed, there’s still opportunities for a lot of members to climb to the top of the tables.
Diamond Jubilee
Looks like everyone is getting the hang of the extra run and the ability to hit off the hard packed and frequent very tight lies. Lots of scores below par today so there could be a 1 shot PCC overnight even taking into account the shot adjustment the women get for a mixed medal.
No one could catch Cheryl today with her net 62, although Val had a good try, just 1 back on 63. Taking a leaf out of Peter’s book, Cheryl last played to a gross 93 on Duke’s just over 3 years ago in July 2023. In 3rd spot was Seshi, who her handicap record shows, prefers Duke’s to Prince’s and this round was just a further improvement to get a net 66.
There were 4 players recording net 67s and the men who placed in the top 10 played off whites.
After 3 rounds of the Anniversary Cup (best 4 of 5 rounds), Niamh is leading by 9 shots on 203.
Midweek August Medal (GM 6 of 8)
The weather was somewhat cooler than in recent days, with something of a gusty breeze at times. The fairways remain very fast, and ditto most of the greens. The flags were in a reasonably central position on most greens.
In Division 1 Richard Owen led the way with a 4-under par net 64, whilst in Division 2 Cheryl Woodhouse won the monthly medal glass on countback from Alex Braun (both on net 65).
After 6 rounds of the Grand Medal Accumulator, Angus Robertson (334 strokes) leads by 8 from Richard Owen, whilst in Division 2 David Grace has a 9 strokes lead over Graham Cull.
August Monthly Medal
Women
For most of us it seemed more of an endurance test than a relaxing round with all 3 games on the same hole probably more often than not and another round not much short of 5 hours. After the challenging pin positions of 2 weeks ago, today’s were a lot more ‘get at able’, not that it looks from the scores as if many of us took much advantage of this.
The ball may be running a lot, but in many cases not necessarily in the desired direction and the hard baked ground makes many shots more of a challenge.
Doreen was her usual straight down the middle self and but for Jenny’s excellent net 66 would have won another medal.
Congratulations on your win by 5 shots Jenny and on a good cut to your handicap tomorrow..
Men
Congratulations to:
Division 1
1st Brian McMahon (63)
2nd Kerry Sargeant (68)
3rd Paul Kamerling (68)
4th Tom Simpkins (68)
Division 2
1st Richard Hanna (62)
2nd Toby Hunt (64)
3rd Mike Shabani (68)
4th Seymour Laird (68)
In the Grand Medal accumulator, Brian McMahon leads the way in Division 1 on 343 points, from Peter Harrison (347) and Toby Hunt (354). In Division 2, Greg J-B (351 points) and David Grace (353 points) lead the rest of the field by a long way.
Ballantyne Area Final
Richmond Park B played the 2026 Area 2 Final against Easthampstead Golf Club at Hoebridge and won 2:1 to move on to the National Semi Finals of this competition, for the 3rd year in a row.
The Hoebridge fairways were brown, hard and running after all the dry weather but the greens and bunkers were in good condition. It was another baking hot day and the match was played in a very competitive spirit.
Our first pairing of Paul Green and Iker Lanzagorta had a close match, losing on the 18th hole (1 down). In Game 2, Nick Rogers was partnered by Richard Back; not the greatest day for Richard but Nick could do no wrong and the match was closed out on the 17th hole, 3&1. Our 3rd pair, Aiden Hurley and Richard Owen, were ‘nip & tuck’ with the opposition but moved ahead on the 10th and 11th holes and the match was closed out 3&2 on the 16th hole.
Club Championship – Round 1
Women
The pin positions made life tricky for most out there today, but not for the Division 2 (Pembroke Cup) women where both Doreen & Jenny played to net 68 & 69 respectively. They are also 5th & 3rd in the gross event.
The reports have divisional splits for both handicap & gross events, but there is no split in the gross.
Leader in the clubhouse for the gross is Lia on 92, 2 shots ahead of Ali & Jenny just 1 further back.
Lia also leads the Handicap Cup by 3 from Ali and as already mentioned Doreen leads in the Pembroke Cup.
After a 5 hour round today, no doubt next week on the longer stretch of Duke’s won’t be any quicker!
Well done to those in the mix – all to play for next week.
Men
The bone dry course, tricky pin positions and blustery wind were not conducive to good scoring and only one player (Ed Hall) scored better than their handicap.
In Division 1, Aiden Hurley leads the way with a gross 77, 3 shots better than Richard Smith (80) and with Paul Kamerling (81), Allan Boyd and Oz Doyle (both 82) just behind.
In Division 2, Ed Hall (gross 82) is 4 shots clear of Dennis Keough and 7 ahead of Duncan Taylor.
After round 1 of the Handicap Trophy, Ed Hall leads with a net 65, from Ox Doyle 68 and both Duncan Taylor and Seymour Laird on net 70s.
So all to play for next Sunday on Duke’s.
Midweek July Plate
Another fine and sunny day for today’s golf competition on Duke’s.
Scoring was good and top of the pile was Bella Mahale with her 41 points, beating Fhorkan Uddin on countback over the last nine holes. This score was Bella’s best on her recent record and resulted in a 1 shot reduction in her Handicap Index.
Brian Ransom was third with 40 points just ahead of Jonno McLean and Gina Jillett on 39. Toby Hunt and Sheena Harrington were 6th and 7th with 38 points each.