This was the 5th (of 6) rounds for the Founders Cup.
Course conditions were fair and the weather improving as the morning progressed.
The wind provided something of a challenge on some holes, gusting as it

With 1 round left, Gina is leading on 148 with a healthy 7 pint margin over Alex and Ellie on 141.

A good turnout for our Captains’ Day and so nice of them to organise for a good day weatherwise. After the recent days of rain, the course was definitely looking greener but of course that reduced the amount of run, though looking at the top end of the results the higher handicapped players were taking full advantage.

Although this is a mixed event, there are separate prizes for the men’s and women’s winners. For some time the top 2 spots were held by the women until Ryan split them. With a splendid 41 points, Ellie is continuing her current good run of form to win the overall competition and take the women’s first place. For the men, Ryan with his 40 points takes the men’s first spot. With NIamh and Allan both on 39 points they take the runners-up spot in each of the events.

In addition to the main event, your captains organised some addtional challenges – the quiz and no, of pars recorded will follow later.
The nearest the pins (or as Paul G had started to call them, novelty prizes) are as follows:
2nd Hole (nearest in 2): Richard Smith
7th Hole: Men – Nigel
Women – Ellie
10th Hole: Men- Pete Needham
Women: Els
12th Hole (nearest in 3): Will B
16th Hole: Men – Allan
Women – Jenny
18th Hole (nearest in 2): Maher

The organisation etc of the day was obviously taking precedence for Paul, as he forgot to sign his card – though perhaps he just thought it would ensure he didn’t win his own captain’s day.

Many thanks from the women to Alison for providing some half-way refreshments and for our haribos and marker pens.

& to the club for the tab behind the bar.

Paul’s challenge to guess how many pars or better were recorded for the day was won rather appropriately by Ali, the women’s captain. She was closest with her guess of 213. The actual number was 172.

Quiz results won by Roger & Aidan who got 15 out of the 18 correct, are as follows:

Laura Davies
Aaron Rai (USPGA winner)
Jim Barnes (previous Englishman to win the USPGA)
Nelly Korda
Petr Korda
Jessica Korda
Gene Sarazen (first man to complete golf’s Grand Slam)
Lydia Ko
Ben Hogan (second GS)
Inbee Park
Gary Player (third GS)
Annika Sorenstam
Jack Nicklaus (fourth GS)
Lexie Thompson
Tiger Woods (fifth GS)
Lottie Woad
Rory McIlroy (sixth GS)
J H Taylor

Well impressed that they knew so many of them.

A fine pleasant day with threat of rain rain which fortunately held off. Not a day to be putting from above the hole on some greens and many a card went awry with the unexpected high score! Howver, Angus Robertson and Leigh Drake showed how it should be done winning Div 1 and Div 2 respectively,
Angus won by 4 shots ahead with his net 67ahead of 3 players on net 71. Paul green with his net 71 ahead of Jonathan Evans on countback and Richard Owen was 4th with his net 71.
Leigh Drake was just 1 ahead with his net 64 followed by Bella Mahale’s net 65. Who pushed Peter Miller’s net 65 into 3rd place.. Graham Cull was 4th with his net 67.
There were 9 2’s recorded.

Women

Our third monthly medal of 2026 but with only 50% of the players (12 in May & 11 in April).
Not the nicest of days with the wind that was pretty strong at times but at least it didn’t rain. However, the combination of wind and the rain of the last week contributed to the less than optimal scores today. The ball was definitely not running as it was a fortnight ago, when we were last on Prince’s.

Not quite the same stellar performance from Lia that she showed midweek but with her better back 9 it was sufficient to pip Bella for the win – both net 73s

Men

A dry but cloudy day with moderate south westerly wind. The rain that we have had over the first week of June has ‘greened up’ the course and the bounce and run of May has largely subsided. Only one player in Division 1 beat Par (Henry L-B) and just 3 players in Division 2 – out of a total of 56 players.

Congratulations to:

Division 1
1st Henry Lindesay-Bethune (67)
2nd Nick Rogers (68)
3rd Sam Goodchild-Way (68)
4th Nigel Ward (68)

Division 2
1st Dennis Keough (63)
2nd Gregory Jean-Baptiste (65)
3rd Seymour Laird (66)

After 4 rounds of the Grand Medal (report below) , Gavin Laniger leads from Kerry Sargeant (although only 4 members have played 4 rounds) and in Division 2, David Grace has a commanding lead – although it’s early days!

Eight mixed teams played the Women’s Invitation on the Duke’s course on a dry but sometimes windy day.   The winners were Jayne Maxwell and Richard Back,  scoring 40 points off their combined handicap of 10.  Runners up were Alison Chadwick and Paul Green on 39 points followed by Ellie Rhodes and Maher Sharma on 37 points.  Everyone enjoyed the American Greensomes format, staying dry and the pizza and chips afterwards.

Women

Tricky conditions out there today, what with the plunge in temperature from yesterday and the cold and pretty gusty wind which made clubbing a challenge at times (well it did me anyway). None of this helped by the speed, or lack, of play with rounds of 41/2 hours which is crazy for Prince’s.

Winner of the May medal was Joan with a net 67, followed by Sheena & Sali both on 68. Joan dropped just 6 of her shots on the front 9 leaving room for a more relaxed back 9. With both her & Sheena having the same gross, the system credited Sheena with the lowest one, presumably because her back 9 was better.

Men (GM 3 of 8)

Two words describe the weather : cold and windy. The leading scores in Division 1 were just higher than the par for the course (68), however David Grace and Toby Hunt managed to beat par (both 66). After 3 rounds of the Grand Medal, Brian McMahon leads on 216 points, followed closely by Gavin Laniger (217) and Kerry Sargeant (218).

Division 1
1st Maher Sharma 69
2nd Brian McMahon 69
3rd Nick Rogers 70

Division 2
1st David Grace 66
2nd Toby Hunt 66
Tony Kopczak 69

What a strange day weather-wise. In the sun the temperature was so reminiscent of a summer’s day, then it went in and early spring was more to mind. By the time the last groups of the day finished, evidence of sun had gone to be replaced by a pretty chilly wind – though the wind had been in residence for a lot of the time.

A few familiar names near the top again today but with a change of form from last week the top 2 places on 40 points went to Kim Jabbour and Peppe.It couldn’t have been much closer between them, both recording 21 out and 19 back but Kim took the honours on the back 3 holes.

It was noticeable that the only one man playing off the white tees in the top 20. He was in 5th spot.

The largest Sunday field thus far in 2026 played the for the only Sunday bogey event in the fixture list & this despite it being a Bank Holiday weekend.

With the weather being somewhat nicer than forecasts were predicitng in the run up there were some very good scores recorded – along with those who’d probably like to forget the round!

Leader in the clubhouse for a lot of the day was Kerry, recording 7 up and being level par for the front 9 and 5 up against the course. As seems to happen fairly regularly, the winner came from the last game with Alex also recording 7 up. With (just) 4up after the front 9 his 3up on the back 9 means he will be the recipient of the Bank Holiday Plate.

Congratulations to the winners!

The weather presented something of a challenge to those taking part in today’s Edward Cup, in the form of strong and gusty winds. Nevertheless it remained fine and dry with both the fairways and greens playing quite fast.

First place goes to Jonathan Evans with 38 points followed by David Grace and Donna Wilson on 35.