Richard Owen
Richard Owen
Ballantyne Trophy, round 4 (Area 2 final)
On a very windy Sunday afternoon at Hoebridge (a neutral venue), the Richmond Park team played Easthampstead for a place in the national semi final of this men’s pairs matchplay competition. The course was in good condition and proved an excellent choice for the match. Our 3 pairs did the club proud by all winning their matches for a 3-0 result and we now look forward to a national semi-final against the Area 3 winners (either Huntswood or South Bucks).
With Uli away on holiday and Peter Goodall and Julian James unavailable, Roger Rojas and Mark Bean joined the team for the match. Our long hitting, low handicap pairing of Richard Back and Ross Hood were first to tee off and ground out a relatively comfortable 2&1 win (certainly more comfortable than their earlier, last-ditch 1up win at Birds Hill!). Richard Owen and Mark Bean were 2nd to go and, after halving the 1st hole, surged to strong position by winning the next 5 holes, and although Easthampstead fought back, the match was closed out with a 4&3 win on the 15th. Our final pairing of Roger Rojas and Tamas Ladacs had a close front 9 with both teams playing very well, however Easthampstead’s putting fell away on the back 9 and a comfortable 3&2 win was the result.
Surrey Fives East, Round 4
On a beautiful but very windy Sunday morning our Richmond Park Surrey 5’s B team welcomed Reigate Hill to the Park for their quarter final match in the Surrey 5s. The chosen course (Prince’s) was in magnificent condition with fast greens, penial rough and fairways firm and running. Strong winds made club selection extremely difficult with a premium on tee shots. An excellent performance by our team saw a resounding 5 – 0 victory, with Richmond Park progressing to the semi finals where we will meet the winners of Epsom v Surrey National. More details on the match below.
Will Balakrishnan led the team off and went into an early lead which he never relinquished before finishing his match with a effortless 2 & 1 victory to give the hosts a 1 – 0 lead in the match.
Brendan Sullivan’s 3 & 2 victory was quickly followed by Richmond’s super sub and first time participant in this year’s competition Toby Hunt, who produced some short game wizardry to dispatch the Reigate Hill player with a commanding 4 & 3 scoreline, to give the hosts a 3 – 0 lead and send them into the semi finals.
The evergreen Bernie McDermott with his trusty 25 year old Ben Hogan driver was demoralising his playing partner with fairway-finding drives and a short game to envy, before dismantling his opponent 4 & 3 to put the host 4 – 0 ahead.
Kevin Prendergast who was 3 down after 10 quickly got in on the action and birdied his way back into contention and finished his match with a 3 & 2 victory.
Friday Sweep
Those that believed the weather forecast and decided to cancel were not disappointed – it really did rain almost the whole time we were playing, making it all rather unpleasant, although the bonhomie over drinks in the clubhouse afterwards was up to the usual high standards.
Our winner today, Brian Ransom (40 points), continued his recent good form and this time is ‘in the money’. Runner up, just one point behind, was Justin Wildman making the most of his school holidays. Bill Norman came with a strategy today – use a 6 iron instead of the driver – and his strategy paid off, as he came in 3rd with 37 points. Sweep payout to these top three (£9, £6, £3).
Clapham Common Round 3
It was a close match between Richmond Park and Wexham Park ‘C’, with RPGC posting 218 stableford points to Wexham Park’s 221 points. Our 3 home team pairs scored a combined 114 points, 10 more than Wexham’s away team managed on the Prince’s course; however our away team were outscored by 13 points at a shortened, tight Wexham course, which wouldn’t have suited the ‘long hitters’ that we sent there. Wexham admitted that they brought all their long hitters to Richmond Park and it looks like their strategy paid off. So we’ll try again next year.
Friday Sweep
It was a swealteringly hot and humid day with temperatures peaking around 30 deg. C, so well done to all those who finished 18 holes. The SLOW PLAY by one of the early groups made it a frustrating day for those that followed and this must not become a trend – if you are not keeping up with the game in front, you must stand aside and let the group(s) behind play through.
It was tight at the top with Uli and Pete playing together and both scoring 37 points, Uli winning out on countback. 3rd and 4th places went to Russell (36 points) and Mitch (35 points), both playing in the cooler early morning conditions. Best front 9 (21 points) recorded by James and Lia and best back 9 (22 points) scored by Graham Swindells. George Taylor and Pete Goodall both had 2 birdies.
Sweeep payout to top 4 (£10, £8, £5, £3)
Friday Sweep
It felt like winter had returned with much colder temperatures, a strong south-westerly wind and occasional light rain. The significant rain on Wednesday night had soften the fairways and greens and there was less bounce and run than recently.
The unpleasant conditions kept the scoring to modest levels, except for our winner Richard Norden who posted 41 points, with an outstanding 24 points on the front 9, including a birdie on the 9th. In 2nd place (38 points) was Paul McGrath; a steady round with 20 out and 18 points in. Uli Katte and James Deissler both got 36 points to take 3rd and 4th places, respectively; Uli started slowly but got stronger as his round progressed, whereas James was the opposite, except for his birdie on the 16th.
It was great to have Teddy Holt back playing with us again and to have Pralab, Graham and Ed ‘in the mix’, rather than 2 hours ahead.
Sweep pay out to top 4 (£10, £8, £5, £3)
Course Inspection
A buggy tour of most of the holes on The Duke’s and Prince’s courses was undertaken by Peter Harrington and Richard Owen as part of the club’s ongoing liaison with Glendale’s greenkeeping staff.
The distances from tees to the start of fairways were measured, the extent of the ‘rough’ was inspected, together with the state of the bunkers, the course marking of out-of-bounds and no-play areas and other hole-specific features.
Ballantyne Trophy, round 3
Richmond Park welcomed Hoebridge for their Round 3 match in this men’s 4BBB matchplay competition. In very hot weather conditions a 2:1 win was achieved with solid play on a bone dry Prince’s course and the team now moves to a Region final against Easthampstead.
Our first pair (Pete Goodall and Julian James) were up against two low handicappers, who played the course to an impressive 2 over par. They kept up with them till the 16th but were finally beaten ‘2 up’. Next up were Richard Back and Tamas Ladacs, who were up against two single figure handicappers from Hoebridge. After some back and forth, Richmond took command and closed the match out on the 16th with a 3 &2 win. Our final pair, Richard Owen and Uli Katte got off to a slow start, 2 down after 3 holes but clawed their way back to be 1 up at the turn. With Richard’s net birdies on the 10th and 13th, the lead was extended to 3 up and the match was closed out on the 16th hole, 4&2.
Surrey Fives East, Round 3
On a beautiful Saturday morning our Surrey 5’s B team welcomed the Wimbledon Common A team to the Park for their 3rd round match. The result was a 3.5:1.5 win for Richmond Park, who are now in the Quarter Finals.
The match was played on Prince’s which had fast greens and fairways but the rough was penial if your tee shot strayed off line a fraction.
Will Balakrishnan let the team off and went down fighting to a narrow 2 & 1 loss to give the visitors a 1 – 0 lead in the match. Brendan Sullivan got things back level with a 2 & 1 victory which was quickly followed by Richmond’s john Perkins commanding winning 4 & 3 to give the hosts a 2 – 1 lead. As Richmond’s Bernie McDermott was putting out on 18 to finish all square, news filtered through that new debutant Kevin Prendergast had demolished the Wimbledon Common club captain 4 & 3 to put Richmond Park over the winning line and into the quarter finals where we will meet either Reigate Heath or Reigate Hill.
Friday Sweep
It was another ‘hot day in the sun’ on hard fairways and fast greens (if you were fortunate enough to stay out of the rough)!
After his success the day before on Glendale’s Airlinks course (45 points), Brian Ransom cruised to another victory with 38 points (16 points out and 22 points in). One would think that this ‘return to form’ by Brian would see his handicap reduce, but in fact WHS has increased his index from 18.3 to 18.6 overnight. Brian only won by countback from the ever steady Colin Price, who had 20 points out and 18 points in, with a birdie 2 on the 16th. In 3rd place was Pat Barbour, with her first ever gross score under 90 (88 in fact). Pat had 37 points and WHS has rewarded her with a 0.2 Index cut from 18.6 to 18.4 (she’s now lower than Brian !!!).
There were also some other good scoring performances as shown on the report attached. Rob Wilhelmsson 3 birdies, George Parker best front 9 (22 points) and Veronica Mitchell best back 9 (23 points).
Sweep payout to top 3 (£10, £7, £4)