More rain caused both courses to be closed again – as they were the preceding 2 days

What a glorious winter’s day in the sun it was, though spotting the balls could be a little challenging on some holes.
Good to see that many had no issue with scores on the 7 holes with temporary greens

In Division 1, Adrian had a comfortable 3 shot win with a net 68 that included an 8 on the 17th and in second spot was Jonathan.

Division 2 was a different matter with 3 coming in on net 67s. Both Ged and Charles will be ruing their 7s on the back 9. Charles leaving his to the 18th and Ged’s was on the 17th – Paul who took the honours today kept his to the front 9.

With only holes 2-10 open for play it was decided to make it a 9-hole event starting on the 3rd and finishing on the 2nd.

An interesting venture under the grey skies. Although the surface was starting to thaw there was still a lot of run on most of the holes and then the occasional one with a soft fringe that stopped the ball in the more usual winter fashion.

Most opted to stick to 9 holes rather than a second circuit and a few played on Prince’s instead.

Jonno seems to be the man to watch this year, winning his second event of the year. This time his 20 points gave him a 2 point lead over 4 others on 18.

For the women Cheryl & Susan both scored 14 with Cheryl taking it on the back 6.

More heavy rain lead to closure of both courses

A grey and overcast day for the Sunday before Christmas’ American Greensomes but there were a few in festive attire to brighten things up.

Some pairs certainly made it look easy with scores that could match some of the summer ones for this event. Although of course in summer men are off the back white tees and today would have had many forward mats.
The scores were off the women’s card which resulted in 2 eagles. 1 on the 7th for Tom & Joe and another on the 13th for Dennis & RichardS as both have higher pars for the women.
Greg & Michael made short work of the course, playing off just 3 they came back with 44 points beating BrianR & Robin and Giovanni & Gregory who both had 43.

Today was a fun round playing American Greensomes. The weather was overcast with a gentle breeze and no rain. With the back 8 holes being closed on Duke’s we opted to play just the 11 open ones rather than a double loop with the mud still making things rather tricky.

With everyone playing off the same tees, yellow was the chosen colour and was played off the women’s pars and stroke indices which caused confusion on the 8th hole which is a par 4 for the women off the yellow tee which is more forward than the red.

RichardO & BrianR felt hard done by to get a par rather than a birdie but as it is SI6 everyone had a shot on the hole so Angus & Justin were the winners on countback, both having 24 points on the 11 holes.
One point behind on 23 points was the pair of Alan & Mitch who in turn were followed with 2 teams on 22 points.
Well done to everyone

A sunny day saw a smallish field play for the Christmas Hamper on 2 loops of 9 on the very muddy and slippery Duke’s course. (Playing 3-10 then 2, twice with stroke indices adjusted for the second loop)
Whilst this layout is much shorter than the normal 18 holes, conditions were not conducive to great scoring but don’t think anyone told Gerard this was likely. Or perhaps it was the prize on offer that produced his score (including 1 pickup) of 40 points to win by 3 points. There were 3 players following on 37 points but Billy had the better back 9 to take 2nd spot with Bill in 3rd place. Tom misses out on the prizes in 4th spot and did his scoring the wrong way round with 20 of his points coming on the first loop.

The women realised a number of years ago that there was no chance of them winning the hamper, so now there are separate prizes for the top women.
Niamh is the first place woman some way down the results list with her 26 points – a keying error has sadly dropped Joan down from 26 to 23 points. The second woman was Bella.

Thankfully most people had read Richard’s request in the start sheet to fill the card in starting from hole 1 as usual – made the checking a whole lot easier.

The Princes course greeted us with temp greens on holes 1 and 2 which for some meant an easy par but for others not such a great start!! The weather was mild and the sun came out. It was just the mud that proved troublesome. More than half the field scored 30 +points.
The winner was Peter Harrington who was in the last group and had 17 out and 22 back which included one blob and one 4 pointer. In 2nd place Pat Dalton had 16 out and 22 back with one blob on hole 8. 1 point back from Pat is Steve De Long 16 out and 21 back for 37 total. Both Ged Quinn and Richard Smith had 35 points but Ged just beat Richard on countback for 4th place.
Susan Smith was the best placed lady on 33 points and there was only one two recorded by Jonno McClean on hole 11, so well done to them.

Weather conditions were much more pleasant than of late with blue skies and a light wind. Underfoot was very muddy with no or little run on the ball. Many rounds (14) ended in No Returns due to not being able to find the ball because of the leaves on the fairways.
The scores overall reflect the degree of difficulty described above but the senior division showed their class with nearly all being in the 70’s.

Who would have bet on there being snow this morning leading to a lot of no-shows or cancellations.

With the very much reduced field and the early guys suffering the worst of the weather the comp has been changed to a sweep. We may have re-introduced the 2-putt rule for the temps but they were very much a lottery today and along with the 4 temps, the 10th was almost unplayable with standing water around half of the hole.

With most of the tees playing from the red positions, arguably the men’s scores should also have been off the red rather than yellow, but it was a non-qualifier and the only woman who played was not in contention off any tee!

Winner today with a very commendable 34 points was Andy, followed by Giles on 32 and Iain, Alex & Kim on 30.