A very cold morning with frozen fairways and greens greeted the smallest Friday field of the year. The ‘solid’ ground provided plenty of bounce and roll – a real change from the recent muddy conditions and it took some getting used to with approaches to the greens. Given the cold weather conditions (there were even flurries of light snow before midday) and the knowledge that there were 5 temporary greens over the final 8 holes of the course, the competition was reduced Holes 1 to 10 only. Some players continued to play the full 18 holes and were treated to some weak winter sun.

High handicapper Richard Norden was the clear winner (23 points) with a very solid display of driving, pitching and putting. By back-analysis, Richard should have been one of the lowest handicappers in the field! In 2nd place Julian James (20 points) played to his handicap; the rest of the field were also-rans.

Sweep payout to Richard N. (£7)

The 5 (!) temporary greens and muddy conditions were almost offset by the abundant sunshine. The back white tees on  the 18th must have been a bit of shock for the men. 

 Looks like the early starters had a bit more trouble adjusting to the conditions. The exception was Mike Jones. A steady front 9 (19pts) was followed up by a better back 9 (20pts). 39pts proved to be a pretty lofty target for most of the field. Andre P mirrored Mike’s round. He almost let victory slip away by not scoring any points on the 16th hole. But he was still able to outscore Mike J by 1pt on the back 9. Serhat matched Mike’s score over front and back 9 (19+20Pts). But the countback rule awards 3rd place to Serhat. As usual Peppe had a strong front 9 (21pts – a birdie for 4pts on the 8th doesn’t hurt). An ugly triple on the 16th stymied his march to victory. But the upside is that he managed to hold it together on the way in.

A cold frosty start with temps only nudging 6C and mainly dry for the Champagne Chase.

Iker Lanzagorta uncorked a magnificent 48 points to win with just irons and won honours for front and back 9s : 23 and 25 respectively; close behind though was a bubbling 45 from Sushant Lall [24 on back]. Suhai followed with a sparkling 41 and then Paul Green with effervescent 40.

Best woman not far behind was Suan Smith 37. Just 3 ‘Twos’ all at par 3s with most notable being Tamas at long 13th.

A real drop in temperature overnight and players faced a cloudy morning with a cold, brisk wind from the north west. The sun showed itself briefly around midday and again nearing the end of our rounds but winter has certainly arrived. Five temporary greens in play, as expected (holes 1,2,3,5 & 8), all having been recently mowed to make putting less of a lottery. The greens on the 13 holes in play were in good condition and, with very little rain over the past 2/3 days, the fairways were much firmer and less muddy.

Most of the field scored reasonably close to, or better than, their handicap on what was a ‘shortened course’, due to forward mats on the 2nd, 4th, 13th & yellow teeing area on the 18th, and the 5 temporary greens. The stand-out performer was Bill Norman, our winner on 43 points (19 out, 24 in); Bill had 3 pars on the front 9 and 2 birdies and another 3 pars on the back 9. In 2nd place on 39 points was Charlie Haines with one of his best rounds for a long time, which included 3 birdies (on the 4th, 15th and 18th). In 3rd place, just one point back, was another good, steady round by Pat Dalton.

Charlie’s 3 birdies jumps him up to 4th on the 2023 Friday Birdie Tree, not too far behind Uli and Rannesh in 2nd and 3rd spots respectively, but still some way behind our leader Pralab on 16 birdies.
Sweep payout goes to top 3 (£11, £7, £4).

With Duke’s closed the Midweek November Plate was played on Prince’s – with 5 temporary greens at 1,2,3,5 & 8.

Andre Pelser proved the winner with 46 points playing off 31; in his first 3 holes alone he scored 2 4 pointers and11 points! 25 out and 21 back – well done.. Returning to the clubhouse in almost dark, Umran shot an amazing level par 68 gross – all 3s and 4s [gross] except on 12th where a rare 7 ensued. Well done indeed to Umran and 2nd on 44 points.

Bill Norman won 3rd position 43 points on countback from Niel who returned best front 9 of 24 points. Richard 1marriott edged Mike Sands on countback with both41 points; special mention for Richard’s back 9 of 25 points in contrast to 3 ‘blobs’ on the front.

Best woman Gina 37.

General consensus was that the course should either have had 18 temps or be closed. On the first green footprints went several inches below the surface leaving it in an appalling condition which is likely to render it out of action for some months.

Women

Hmmm what to say! Last week Joan made it look easy. She still managed to come out on top today but it wasn’t quite the master class of last week. In fact it was her 17 points on the back 9 that made the difference, started with her birdie on the 10th.
Susan was just one point behind but she kept alternating great shots with ones she’d rather forget.
Our second game today are all currently shown as NRs in the eclectic as they all recorded rahter a number of blobs.

As with last week, handicapping affects the order in the eclectic with Susan & Joan swapping places but it’s only the first round.

Men

Tamas shot a consistent 41 points [inc. 2 birdie ‘Twos’ at 7 and 16 ] to lead Senior division for the day ahead of Kerry 38; Kerry’s round showed scope for improvement with a couple of ‘blobs’ but had a fine birdie at 12th. Paul Kammerling’s 35 showed much promise. In the cumulative Winter comp Tamas leads after 2 rounds 73 from Paul’s 71 and Kerry’s 70.
The stats show Kerry had most holes under par [so birdies since no eagles today] – 3.

The Junior division for the day was headed by Robin T with a fine 40 points [21 on back 9] 3 ahead of Gerard O’s 37 [which was 21 out but with 3 ‘blobs’ on back 9]. Suhail led the rest of challenge on with 36 on countback from Rannesh and Tony K. Sean ties the cumulative Winter comp after 2 rounds with Onursal both 75 points.

It was a cold and thankfully dry start becoming increasingly warm (relatively !) as the sun shone down. The course was very wet and muddy, so no run on the ball. Three temporary greens (3rd, 11th and 12th) which didn’t seem to have seen a mower for quite a few days. The 1st hole should also have had a temporary green and was in a dreadful state.

Nothing seemed to stop today’s winner Richard Norden though. His impressive 42 points included 6 pars and a birdie on the final hole. Clear 2nd place (38 points) went to Rannesh, who had one of those rounds with his putter producing 3 birdies on the 7th, 10th and 18th (two of which were putted from distance off the greens). This raises Rannesh to 3rd in the 2023 Friday Birdie Tree (attached). 3rd and 4th places in the competition (36 points) were decided on countback, with Pat Dalton squeezing out Charlie Haines. Pat’s score could have been even better if he hadn’t blobbed 2 holes because his ball was “lost in the sun”. Sweep payout to top two (£11, £6).

 Nowhere to hide from the casual water and mud (all of us took their fair share home …). The 2 temporary greens and forward tees on a lot of holes rendered the course fairly short.

So you could argue the above offset each other. Gerard O recorded 5 3-pointers and 2 4-pointers. That translated into 19pts on the front 9 and 21pts on the back 9. Pretty impressive in these conditions. Another early starter Robert C finished 1 point back of Gerard. He may regret the 3 5’s to start his back 9. 5 players scored 38pts. Chris J and Richard O matched Gerard’s score on the back 9 (21pts). But Chris’ last 6 holes were marginally better than Richard’s. Adrian W and Mike J had a softer back (20pts). But it was enough to claim the last “money spots”.  Pepe M had the best front 9 (21pts).

MW Winter Standings
Julian J, Robert C 73pts, JM Gomez 72, Serhat G 71

MW Princes Eclectic
Richard O 71.9, Robert C 72.1, Adrian W 73.6

Cool and grey with the odd spell of light rain. 2 temps & a non-qualifier for handicap.

Women

It was Joan’s turn to make it look easy this week with 35 but she was closely followed by 3 on 34. Think Katharina and Sheena were playing in a parallel universe but it gives us plenty of room for improvement in the next rounds of the eclectic.
In the eclectic, Gina tops it followed by Jayne & Joan courtesy of the half handicap allowance- you can check the holes you need to improve from the report on MS

Men

The senior division was headed by Peter Needham who started with a welcome birdie and against normal form had a better front 9 (22pts) than back (17pts) for 39 total; in a similar vein Thierry Andretta had 21 out 16 back for his 37. Paul Kamerling finished 3rd with steady 35 then club champion Roger Rojas 35.

The junior division returned higher points scores with Onursal Soyer 42 [best front 9, 23pts ], Paul Green 41, Sean O’Sullivan 3rd 40 on countback from Julian James and Paul McGrath .

The first round of [8] for Winter Comp. reflects the above whilst in first [of 4] Prince’s Eclectic is headed by Peter Needham 70.1 from Julian James 72.2.

Light rain showers were evident over the first few holes and the weather forecast promised dry sunny conditions from about 11am, however the clouds kept rolling in and, with the wind becoming more northerly, it was decidedly ‘cold’ by mid afternoon.

It seemed for a long time that early starter Russell Stewart’s 38 points would easily win the day, however in the penultimate game Peter Miller came in with 40 points ( 23 points on the back 9) and Julian James equalled Stewart’s 38 points, but missed out on countback. Russell had birdies on the 11th and 14th, while Peter birdied the 4th and Julian birdied the 17th. Sweep pay-out to these top 3 (£9, £6, £3).