Richard Owen
Richard Owen
December Plate
A significantly reduced field played for the December Plate in overcast, chilly, but thankfully dry conditions. The recent dry spell of weather made the course less ‘slippery’ underfoot and lessened the need for ball cleaning.
Scoring was pretty good with almost half the field scoring 20 points or more (compared to a ‘par score’ of 22 points on this shortened course). The winner Ged Quinn beat Olav Bridie, both 24 points, on last 6 countback (holes 6 -10, +2). Similarly, Alan Boyd beat Duncan Taylor, both 23 points, on last 9 countback.
Neither Olav nor Allan entered the Sweep, so the sweep payout goes to Ged, Duncan, Greg and Lee.
Midweek Xmas Eve Plate
The temperature was down to about 6 degrees with a chill wind blowing from the East. However the Prince’s was otherwise in good condition. The top 11 players scored 30+ points with Charles Haines (35 points) winning his first Plate trophy, scoring 20 points on the back nine to push Richard Owen into second place and Duncan Taylor into third spot on 35 points countback. Angus had a good round off 6 handicap to take fourth place on 34 points just ahead of Andy Johnson on 33 points.
Men’s December Medal & Women’s Scramble
Women
With conditions as muddy as ever, the decision was just 3 tee shots apiece which gave another close result. Ali, Bella, Deb & Jenny, maximising their extra 6 shots over Cheryl, Jayne, Joan & Susan even allowing for a 7 & 6 on their card, gave them a 1 shot win.
Both teams had birdies one of them even managing it on the temp green on the 2nd hole.
Hopefully the January event will not be a repeat of the first 2 events when 11 were booked in but only 8 played!
Men
The weather forecast was correct: rain up until around 9.30am, a cloudy, dry interlude till midday, then more rain – challenging conditions for golf, especially with muddy conditions underfoot. We had hoped to have all 18 greens in play, but overnight rain caused the 1st and 2nd to be temporaries.
After a few late drop outs, 34 hardy souls played the December medal with surprisingly only one NR, although there were several double digit hole scores on a number of cards.
In Division 1, Suhail Salim takes home the monthly medal glass with an impressive net 68, just pipping Brian McMahon, Greg Wright and Paul Green (all on 69), and Oz, Paul Kamerling and Joe on 70. Joe had the lowest gross of the day (73) – for the 2nd week running! Chris Mellish could have equalled Suhail if he had par’d the 14th, instead of taking 3 tee shots and recording a 9!
In Division 2, Duncan Taylor was the clear winner, also with a net 68 and takes home the monthly medal glass. Jonno McLean, Dennis Keough and Gerard Ouattara took 2nd, 3rd and 4th places, all on 72. Gerard will be ruing his 9 on the 8th, which spoilt an otherwise impressive card.
Champagne Chase
It was a chilly and frosty morning with low winter sunshine which became a very pleasant day for golf. However, the soft ground conditions and lack of run on and off the fairways made the course long for most players, even off the yellow and red tees.
Only Joe Goncalves, our winner today on 38 points, ‘beat the course’. Joe had a 4-over-gross round of 74, comprising 14 pars and 4 bogeys – exceptional golf. He was obviously out to impress his two women playing partners ! In 2nd and 3rd places, both on 34 points were Lee Frost and Paul Kamerling, respectively. There was then a group of 4 players on 32 points. Because of the low scoring, WHS decided that there would be a PCC of 2 shots.
The leading women for the champagne prizes were Hilary Casey and Caroline Stillwell respectively, both on 26 points.
Midweek Champagne Chase
For the first time, both the men and women played from the yellow tees (all the tees were almost together anyway). Conditions were frosty to start but slowly improved after the sun came out. Scoring was not bad with over half of the field scoring 30+ points.
Today’s winner with 39 points was Andy Johnson 22 out and 17 back. He just pipped Toby Hunt who scored 38 points. Toby played very steady 19 out and 19 back. Iain Barbour was 3rd on countback also with 38 points 21 out and 17 back. Mitchell Cohen edged into 4th place on countback ahead of Tamas Ladacs with a superior back nine score of 21 to 17 by Tamas.
There is special mention to Charles Haines with his hole in one on the 4th par 3. Also, the only 2 was an Eagle, scored by Greg Wright on the 15th hole. Everyone enjoyed a free drink in the clubhouse thanks to Charles.
Men’s Winter Comp Rd2/P1 & Women’s Eclectic P1
Women
Having entered Jenny’s score rather than her own it turned out that Bella managed to hold on to 1st place with her own score – but by just 1 point and not such a high one!
It turned out to be a lovely sunny day after the wet start and I think we all took layers off at one point. Hopefully the 11 who cancelled are regretting it.
Men
A much reduced field as many were put off by the rain on Saturday & overnight, but despite it being somewhat slippery underfoot most of us played in glorious sunshine, though the early guys will have had some rain.
As the course set-up was largely forward tees, with many mats, the tee of the day was yellow, which better reflects the scores going through to WHS.
In Div 1 Allan Boyd took 1st spot on the back 9 from Richard Owen both on 38, followed by Toby Hunt on 37 and Greg Wright on 36.
Div 2 was headed by Sean O’Sullivan with 37 points followed by Charles Haines and Mike Shabani on 36, with Charles taking 2nd spot on the back 9.
This was also the first round of the Prince’s eclectic & the scores can be seen on MS under the Results tab.
Midweek November Medal
The weather was kinder than forecast earlier in the week, with no rain but chilly conditions. There were very slow rounds for some of the later groups, probably due to the ‘medal’ format and ball searching amongst the leaves. Thankfully the vast majority of the competitions over the next few months will be stableford.
In Division 1 there was a trio of players who played to their handicap (net 68) with Peppe winning the monthly medal spirits crystal glass on countback from Alan Treacy and Richard Smith, respectively. Richard had the best front and back 9s and the lowest gross score overall.
In Division 2 the winner was Chris Rudkin with the best net score of the day (net 65), followed by Stephen Philbin on net 68 and Kim Jabbour & Peter Harrington, both on net 71.
David Lloyd (Amida) Friendly
A mixed team of 12 RPGC players took part in the annual match against a team from the David Lloyd Hampton (DLH) club on Saturday the 4th of October 2025. This fixture has been played for more than 10 years against a team from DLH, which used to be known as Amida. The DLH team held the honours for the competition winning at home last year and hoping to retain the bragging rights on their visit to Richmond Park this year.
The match was played on the Duke’s course, with the women playing from the red tees and the men from the whites on what was a very windy day, as the tail end of storm Amy closed some of the public parks across London but not the Duke’s course. To the credit of all players who had signed up for this fixture, and despite the yellow weather warning, they turned up for the challenge and after a morning roll and a hot drink we headed to the first tee at 9.15am to begin the first of 6 four ball better ball games. It was thankfully a dry day but at times the wind was gusting very strongly which made standing still to hit the ball a bit of a challenge at times.
The first Richmond Park team of Bella Mahale and Russell Stewart came out of the blocks really quickly and were 6 holes up at the turn finally winning 7 & 6. The second game, played by Joan Mulcahy and Simon Russett, was much tighter for the front nine but they then dominated on the back nine and won 3 & 2. The third team of Monique Hubaille and Sajid Khan had an even tighter game but won on the last hole. Team four, Seema Sandhu and Ed Hall, had an easier time of it and were four holes up by the fifth, eventually winning 6 & 4. Team five, Ellie Rhodes and Maher Sharma had a similar dominant round and finally won out 4 & 3. Team six comprising Jayne Maxwell and Richard Owen were up against much stiffer opposition (including the DLH long hitting lady captain) and lost their game after 15 holes, so a drop of consolation was taken by the DLH team. So, overall, a big win for Richmond Park taking 5 of the 6 games to win the day.
Pizza was thankfully consumed at the end as we warmed up after the first real taste of chilly Autumn weather. All games were played in good spirit and the DLH team were generally impressed with the course and enjoyed the challenge but perhaps, not the result!
Home advantage was a big advantage in this match. Again, well done to everyone for braving the elements to play. Unfortunately, we were unable to get everybody in the picture (below) – this is the best we have.
Rickmansworth match, Away Leg
The team from Richmond Golf Club headed up to North London to play Rickmansworth in the second leg of a competition between the clubs which has been running for 60 years. The first leg finished 3 points to each team so all that was needed was 3 points to retain the trophy which Richmond won last year. We tee’ d off with rain threatening on the forecast but it remained dry for all six of the games. However, it turned out that that was the only bit of good fortune we had as we battled the course as much as the opposition team. Although a short course at a par 65, 4,635 yards, the course is quite difficult and very little there seemed to be predictable! Richmond Park had a pretty strong team overall and as a result the other team had 102 shots against our 39.
Joe Goncalves pitch into the hole in their game kept his team with Maher Sharma in the hunt with a draw for half a point. The teams of Alan Treacy/Russell Stewart and Michael Hayden/Simon Russett lost by 1 hole and 2 holes, respectively, which gave Rickmansworth 2.5 points and 1 point away from winning the match. The teams of Simon McKnight/Peter Harrison and Chris Mellish/Cliff Morgan both battled to the finish with draws which meant that at half a point per game, Rickmansworth had the match with 3 ½ points. Adrian Wells and Julian James gave Richmond Park a consolation win and an impressive one, given the shots they had to give away to the opposition – 27 in total. So, the 2025 match ended with Rickmansworth winning 6½ points to our 5½. The Rickmansworth course is a varied and difficult challenge and home advantage is a big advantage in this case – better luck next year!!
Men’s Horton Park match (2nd leg – away)
Following heavy overnight rain and a brief course inspection by the Horton captain, the course was deemed ‘fit for play’ and our 6 pairs headed off in sunny, breezy weather for the 2nd leg of our inaugural match against the home club. With a 3.5:2.5 lead from the home leg at Richmond Park, we were looking for at least an additional 3 points from the away fixture to secure the win. In fact, we won the away leg 5:1 making the overall result 8.5:3.5 in favour of Richmond Park, much to the joy of our team (and the despondency of the Horton captain – who won his match).
Our winning pairs were Joe Gonclaves & Maher Sharma (2up), Iker Lanzagorta & Chris Mellish (3&2), Gerard Ouattara & Marco Vergani (6&4), Will Balakrishnan & Kevin Prendergast (3&2) and Sunny Lall & Alex Catlow (2up). All these pairings scored between 39 and 43 stableford points (better ball) off their course handicaps, with Iker & Chris on 43 points.
The match was played in a very friendly atmosphere and we enjoyed pizza, chips and drinks in their clubroom after the match. Unfortunately the greens had been spiked, hollow tined and sanded only days before the match and some of the tees were in poor condition, however the fairways and bunkers were in better condition than those at Richmond Park. Whilst our early pairs finished before the heavy showers resumed, our final pairs caught the rain on the closing holes.
It is hoped to arrange to play a return double-header again next year.