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.

Women

Winter conditions duly arrived today with a return to the mud and 2 temporary greens. There is likely to be a PCC (Playing Conditions Calculation) adjustment overnight since only 3 of the men managed to play to par or better and for sure none of the women did.
Cheryl looks to have spent her time off the course well bouncing back with her 29 today to win by 2 from Nida who was ready to call it a day after 11 but came to life after that.
Good to see some of our newer members at the top of the list and hope that today’s conditions haven’t put them off too much.
An analysis of the results shows that between us we managed to record a whole 7 pars and 1 glorious birdie 2 on the 10th from Ellie.
This was the first of what should be 4 rounds of the Duke’s eclectic, however, there are just 4 with counting scores at present as everyone else picked up on one of more holes.

Men

Conditions = ‘Wintry’

Div 1
Winner was Laurence Armstrong (10), 20 out 18 in, for a superb 38 points. In second came Chris Mellish (09), 17 out and 20 in, one point behind on 37. Third was Suhail Salim on 35 points, fourth Mark Bean on the same score.

Div 2
Winner was Dan Ballantyne (15), 20 out and 17 in, for a excellent 37 points. In second came Richard Posser (15), 17 out and 17 in, for 34 points. Duncan Taylor came in third on 33 points.

Shout out to Gerrard for his birdie on the 12th.

A bright sunny day for the Charity Cup – and dry with a breeze.
Winner by 2 points was Richard Prosser with a skilful 39 points – and sharing front 9 honours of 21 with Jonathan Evans and Paul Green. Second with 37 was Joe Goncalves. Another good round from Paul Kamerling earned Paul 3rd place on countback from Lawrence Armstrong – both on 36 points.
Best back 9 was Gregory Jean-Baptiste on 20 points and best woman Jayne Maxwell 32.

With prizes for both the gross and net winners being awarded at the Annual Dinner the cards needed to be checked so it was only announced, as everyone tucked into their pizza, that the results had yet to be ratified. In a very unusual outcome, 2 pairs had incorrectly entered their scores at the Park with one having a major impact on the results.

Unfortunately for the clubhouse leaders, Rich & Doreen, this meant a downgrade to 2nd place in the net and a promotion to winners for Alex & Cheryl with a net 74. They had entered a 7 on the screen for their score on the 18th but both their marker’s and their own card showed a 4. They were the only pair to bookend their round with pars on both the 1st & 18th.

The gross winners (Paul & Sheena) remain unchanged but sadly the clubhouse pair in 2nd place had entered a score which did the opposite for the same values, resulting in a fall down the rankings and promoting Ray & Gina to runners-up.

Despite the speed of the greens seemingly catching most out, a look at last year’s results shows that today’s were better. Interestingly the 1st hole came out as second hardest today and seems most struggled to get a ball off the tee and into play on it judging from the scores.

Whilst the booking sheet for the public was full, those playing ahead of us were obviously going at a good pace as our rounds were only just over 4 hours, which while not good for an effective 2-ball were great for a Saturday morning.

Women

Such good timing on the weather front as the rain started for the last game of the day on the 17th & accompanied me all the way home.
Congratulations to Bella on her net 70 and another medal win for her. Despite her view that she played so badly on the front 9, and there were 10 shots difference between her front & back 9 scores, it was still good enough for a 4 shot cushion. Because we play at 95% of course handicaps, Bella’s net 70 translates to playing to 33.4 ie below her handicap and will result in a small cut tomorrow.

With conditions very different already from a few weeks ago, very well judged Bella!

Today’s comp is the first part of the women’s autumn meeting with prizes awarded after the 4BBB which takes place next month.

Men

A grey cloudy day for the September Medal but the predicted rain just held off.

The best scores came from the 1st division – 64 from Peter Needham and 65 from Iker Lanzagorta; in that division Gerard Ouattara chsed with 7 and Peter Harrison and Richard Smith with 71s.
In the second division the winner with a commendable 66 was Sean O’Sullivan who n turn led from Richard Prosser 67 and Mihael Pham 69

Front 9 honours were shared by Richard, Peter and Iker – 4 over; whilst Aidan Hurley secured back 9 with level par.
This was the penultimate (7 of possible 8) round of te Gran Medal which in the first division sees Iker the leader 339 from Richard Owen 345; in second division Rannesh Jansari maintains the lead on 350 from Gerard 355.