A smaller than usual field enjoyed a lovely sunny winter’s day on the now much drier/less muddy Dukes course.

Uli posted the best score of the day (39 points) with birdies on the 2nd and 11th holes; second place was taken by early player Pralab (35 points) who had a very steady round throughout. Peppe and Julian came in 3rd and 4th, respectively, both with 30 points.

Many thanks to Uli and Richard Norden who both marked handicap cards for prospective members.

A band of heavy rain ‘blew through’ between 7.30am and 10.30am causing a little standing water and wet patches on some greens and fairways and a good deal of puddles on pathways. The early rain caused some entrants to ‘cry off’ and early starter Pralab to abandon his round after 1 hole, but those of us who turned up to play enjoyed a very pleasant, entirely dry winter’s day with spells of sunshine.

Julian James again tops the leaderboard with 37 points from 17 holes; the 18th being closed due to ongoing drainage contractor’s work. As usual, a very steady round from Julian, scoring on every hole and with a birdie 3 on the 15th. In 2nd place was late entrant Russell Stewart, with 35 points, also birdieing the 15th but then making a mess of the 100yard 16th. Three players came in on 34 points, with 3rd, 4th and 5th places to Brian, Chris Rudkin and Seymour respectively on countback. Brian also birdied the 15th but was then unfortunate not to find his drive down the middle of the fairway (reportedly !) on the 17th and had to go back for 3 off-the-tee. Quite a few players ‘made hay’ by scoring 3 and 4 points on the shortened first hole.

Sweep payout mainly to the top two (£8 & £5 respectively), with a £1 ‘ return of entry’ to 3rd, 4th and 5th, and no charge to Pralab.

It was good to play the full 18 holes on Dukes, now that the recent prolonged dry spell has allowed the 8th fairway (and other previously areas of standing water) to dry out. Even the sun came out, although a freshening cold wind set in as the afternoon progressed.

The winning score (40 points) was posted by Ryan Jones, who started with a birdie 3 on the first and largely didn’t look back, although blobs on the 14th and 16th spoilt what would have been an outstanding round. Just behind (39 points) was the in-form Peter Goodall who had a very strong back 9 (3 over par, 22 points), with a birdie on the 12th – not good enough to overcome Brian & Colm in their friendly matchplay with partner Seymour though. Yours truly was 3rd with an ever-steady 37 points (no birdies or blobs) and in 4th and 5th places, both on 36 points, were Adrian and Brian respectively.

Best golf of the day was played by Rob Smyth, who was doing a 2nd card for handicap. Rob par’d the front 9 and played 8 of the back 9 holes in 3 over par, just making a mess of the 11th by hitting 2 tee shots OOB.

Sweep payout to the top 3 (£7, £5, £3)

A cold and frosty morning greeted all players with the early greens hard as ice, making approach shots extremely difficult. With heavy cloud cover, it never really warmed up but at least nearly all the standing water was gone from the Princes course, the muddy areas were largely frozen and there was bounce and run on offer occasionally.

These tricky conditions were seemingly no problem for Richard Norden (42 points) who continued his recent good form with 22 points out and 20 points in. Runner Up was Chris Rudkin (40 points) who also had a very steady round (19 out, 21 back) – shame about the triple bogey 16th and double bogey 17th. In 3rd and 4th places, both with 38 points were Jeremy Prescot and Julian James, respectively.

A very cold and frosty morning turned into a lovely sunny winter’s day, no doubt softening the frozen mud as the rounds progressed.

Today’s clear winner was Oz Doyle (36 points) amassed from the 16 playable holes, 4 ahead of Dave Chilvers and Seymour Laird, who both ‘played to handicap’ with 32 points. All of the top 3 had very similar front 9s (13 or 14 points), but Oz’s better back 9 (22 points) with 3 pars and a birdie was the difference.

Sweep payout to the top 3 (£7, £4, £3)

Even though you could qualify the last few days as “drier” there was still an abundance of mud and standing water. Add to that icy temperatures at the start of the comp and course was not really there for the taking.

Peter Goodall took full advantage of his distance to tame the course. He combined 20pts on the way out with 22pts on the back 9. His round could even have been out of this world had he not recorded 3 bogeys in the last 4 holes.

Best score on the back 9 goes to Julian. He recorded 23pts on the way home to take 2nd place. The men’s secretary had a consistent round of golf (19+20pts). But the countback rule awards him “only” 3rd place. None of the players in the Top3 recorded a “blob”.

Alan Cobb, Uli and Mike Jones all “played to their handicap” and recorded 36pts. Tamas’ flurry on the back 9 (22pts after only 13pts on the front 9) landed him just shy of the Top6.

As a consolation Tamas takes the lead in the Midweek Winter Comp (110pts). Mike Jones (108) and Peter Harrington (107) are the closest competitors at present. Peter Goodall takes the lead in the Midweek Prince’s eclectic (nett score of 62).

After Saturday’s rain it was good to have the sunshine., but this coupled with mud caused a number of balls to be lost – either in flight or on the ground. Most greens were very bobbly and some mats in play had just a large rubber tee/ no hole to insert tee; it is hope that Glendale will pay attention to these important details.

Women

Reiko who scored a very good 30 thought she might have won today, little knowing that the first game had gone directly to drinking without passing the computer, but the mud didn’t seem to have affected either Susan or Gina which could be the reason for celebrating. Susan posting a score we more expect to see in the men’s comps in winter rather than the women’s and with 40 points is today’s winner.
5 points back is Gina who is consistently good these days and got 35 off her playing handicap of 10, birdieing 2 of the par 3s.

For most of us today, it was just good to be out on a gloriously sunny January Sunday, such a contrast to yesterday!

Suffice to say that these 2 are top of the eclectic, but in reverse order – Gina’s highest score is now a 5, so good luck to the rest of us in the last 2 rounds in attempting to catch her.

Scores were all allowed today despite some using ‘winter rules’ in the rough forgetting that in a qualifier this is not permitted – a result of generosity from the Christmas NQ events causing confusion

Men

Scoring was pretty good with three 42s – separation by countback placed Pierpaolo from Colm from Roger; 4 41s followed from John P, Leo, Adrian and Secretary Peter [again in the frame].

Peirpaolo had a consistent 20 out, 22 back whilst Colm started with 2 birdies and Roger shot level par front 9 and had just 1 blob on card. More stats in best scores report.

The 3rd Winter Comp round shows Roger in the lead 115 from Peter 114 and Adrian 112.

The 2nd Eclectic on Prince’s shows Roger leading 63.1 from Colm 64.3 and Kerry 64.7. As always, an eventual winner might emerge from the large numbers in the ‘NR’s’ pack, after subsequent rounds are played.

Morning sunshine prevailed for the early holes, although the cold temperatures and areas of standing water on parts of the fairways and surrounds on the Princes course made it a typical winter round at Richmond Park. The clouds rolled in around midday but everyone completed their rounds in the dry.

Richard Owen had ‘one of those rounds’ (total 42 points) especially on the greens on the front 9, which was completed with 1 birdie and 6 pars for 23 points. The back 9 was more routine (19 points), with just 4 pars.

2nd and 3rd places, both with 40 points, were Richard Norden and Peppe Monterosso respectively. Richard had a great back 9 (23 points) and it was only the blob on the 9th that held him back from winning overall. Peppe had a steady 19 points out and 21 points in with 6 pars overall – a good result for someone who hasn’t played for several weeks.

Brian Ransom (39 points) was 4th with a very steady round which included 6 pars and a birdie on the 3rd hole – shame about the blob on the 1st hole.

Sweep payout (£7, £4, £3) to the top 3.

A healthy field of 21 players enjoyed the warmest Christmas Eve temperatures on record in England and there were even short periods of sunshine. As expected, conditions were muddy on the 14 holes available for play, however the grass could be seen growing on the fairways.

Colm put in another unbeatable round (35 points), 20 points on the front 7, 15 points on the back 7, 3 birdies and no blobs. In 2nd place was Sean O’Sullivan (31 points), with 16 points from 6 holes in the front 7 and 15 points on the back 7. Uli came in 3rd with 29 points, a very steady round finished off with an unlikely chip-in on the last and a successful first outing for his new driver. Purse pay out to top 3 (£10, £7, £4 respectively).

Finally, well done to everyone who entered holes 8 – 11 as “Did Not Play” – there were only two who entered NR instead, so Colm and Seema please note for next time.

Mild, overcast weather conditions prevailed with wet ground underfoot.

Good scores were posted by Thierry (39), Chris Rudkin (37) and the ever-consistent Julian James (36). The small sweep pot goes to the top 2.