Competitions
Competitions
Midweek Club Championship, Round 1
Good day for golf, only slight rain for the later starters.
In the men’s scratch competitions, Angus Robertson leads the way in Division 1 with 78, 2 ahead of Duncan Matthews and 3 ahead of 3 players on 81. (Richard Back’s 77 will not count, as he hadn’t played 6 qualifying Midweek rounds this year). In Division 2, Jonno McLean (84) has a 3 shots lead over David Grace, with Leigh Drake a further shot back. In the women’s scratch competition, Gina Jillett (77) has a commanding 8 shots lead over Jayne Maxwell.
In the Handicap Cup competition, the best scores in Round 1 were Mike Sands net 65 and net 66s for Richard Marriott, Pralab Barua and Jonno McLean.
Bank Holiday Plate
Despite the course getting some rain it didn’t seem to affect the run on the ball today and the cored & sanded greens didn’t appear to faze too many especially not Hilary who was 5 points ahead with her 44 point win. Behind her were 3 players on 39 points, 3 on 38 and 4 on 37. Hilary’s round resulted in an ESR of 1 shot.
40 birdies recorded today plus an eagle 2 for Ed Hall on the 14th – it was either a relatively uncommon straight drive for Ed or a great chip in. (sorry Ed but your partner from yesterday alluded to some fairly wild drives!!)
We also seemed to luck out with the weather despite the grey clouds rolling in and over us without stopping to drop any rain – driving home the radio was reporting the covers still on at Lords as they’d been rained off for a bit.
David Lloyd Hampton Friendly Match
A mixed team of 12 RPGC players took part in the annual match against the David Lloyd Hampton (DLH) club and secured a 5:1 win, to retain the trophy. This fixture has been played for more than 10 years against the DLH club, which used to be known as Amida. The RPGC team held the honours for the match, winning at home last year and hoping to retain the bragging rights following this away fixture.
The match was played on the DLH course, which is a 9-hole course where we played two circuits of the course making 18 holes. The front and back 9 holes were played from slightly different tee positions, with the women playing from the red tees and the men from the whites. The format was four ball better ball matchplay.
Unfortunately, the fairways had suffered a similar fate to Richmond Park where the dry summer has burned off the grass, so most lies were on bare turf. As a result, there was a lot of run on the ball along with unpredictable bounces. The odd bladed shot was hard to avoid but that’s been summer 2026!
We started to play on what was forecast to be quite a wet day but thankfully the weather forecast was more pessimistic than reality and whereas we had to have brollies at the ready for the odd shower, the match was played in relatively good conditions.
To the credit of all players who had signed up for this fixture, and despite the BBC promising monsoon conditions, everyone turned up for the challenge and, after a very tasty morning roll and a hot drink, we headed to the first tee at 10.00am to begin the first of 6 four ball better ball games.
The first Richmond Park team of Alison Chadwick and Aiden Hurley halved the first hole with birdies, Alison and Aidan steadily built a lead to be 3 up after 9. On the 12th Alison’s tee shot hit the flag stick and she tapped in for birdie and a five-hole lead. Another birdie and par followed to secure a 5 and 4 win for team 1.
Team 2 comprised Sheena Harrington and Russell Stewart playing their game against the DLH women’s and men’s captains who came out of the blocks quickly and, after the third hole, we were two down with the short game of the DLH team proving to be the difference. But battling on, after the 9th it was all square and team 2 went on to go 2 up at one point only to lose that lead heading into the 18th hole all square. However, after both men thinned their approach shots to the 18th, it was Sheena who finally stepped up to win the hole and game 2 for RPGC.
The game 3 pairing of John Cho and Richard Owen alternately won and lost holes to their opponents through the front 9 scoring pars and birdies. The back 9 second loop started “all square”. A one-shot lead was then taken at the 10th, increased to 2up on the 13th, 3 up on the 15th and the match closed out at 4 &2 on the 16th.
Game 4 was played by Caroline Stillwell and Paul Green. This game was nip and tuck from the start and there was never more than a hole in it. Level after nine, Paul and Caroline snatched a draw with impressive birdies at the finish.
The game 5 team was Ellie Rhodes and Maher Sharma. They had a similar, tightly contested game which finished in another draw and a second consolation ½ point for DLH.
The final RPGC pairing comprised Lia Donath and Ed Hall. Both pairs started scruffily in the heaviest shower of the morning but thanks to some great play from Lia they took a 2-hole lead early on. The match stayed tight until the RPGC team pulled away on the back 9, sealing a 4 and 2 win on the 16th green.
So, overall, a big win for Richmond Park taking four of the six games to a win and drawing two, therefore, the team won the match by 5 points to 1 on the day. An excellent result made even more impressive given this was an away match on an unfamiliar course for the significant majority of the RPGC team. We were all invited for food at the end of the match in the conservatory area of the David Lloyd club which was welcome. All games were played in good spirit and the DLH team proved to be excellent hosts and seemed to enjoy the challenge but perhaps, not the result! The DLH women’s Captain (Veronika Wyper) therefore handed the match claret jug back to us to keep for another year with a short address thanking RPGC for participating. Thanks to all our hosts on the day including the DLH men’s captain Keith Mitchell.
Midweek August Plate
There was some early confusion, as the touchscreen was ‘down’, sign-in wasn’t set up for mobile phones and the start sheet indicated only white tees for the men (not a choice of white or yellow). However all these issues were overcome and the clear winner was Aiden Hurley (39 points), continuing his recent good form
The greens proved to be particularly hard to read as they had just been spiked and hollow tined, and this undoubtedly upped some final scores.
August Plate
A dry, warm , sunny day with temperatures in the mid 20s and very little breeze. The greens had been spiked a few days ago and were ‘bumpy’ and slightly slower than of date.
Scoring was good and, surprisingly for a mid-summer mixed competition on Duke’s, the top 10 places were all taken by the men.
Kerry Sargeant was the winner of the August Plate with a very impressive 43 points (74 shots, 3-over-gross), pipping Aiden Hurley and Brian Ransom, both on 41 points. Aiden was just 1-over-gross, taking just 72 shots. Both Kerry and Brian had their best round for more than 12 months, giving them a new Low handicap Index.
Three players scored 39 points and took the minor monies in the sweep, namely Simon McKnight, Richard Owen and Peter Harrington.
President’s Prize
Another warm and humid day with a gentle breeze.
The conditions suited almost everyone and the scoring was again very good with 4 players at 40 and over. It’s getting tough to win!!
Ged Quinn was the clubhouse leader for a long time with his 43 points but, at the end, along came Robin Thomas with an outstanding 44 points to pip him for first place. Cheryl Woodhouse and Dave Cato came 3rd and 4th with their 40 points, better than Paul Green with 39 points and Patrick Murphy with 38.
Robin would have scored more but for a blob on the 5th hole. But 21 out and 23 back (3 over par) was impressive.
The nearest the pin competition winners were as follows:
1st hole men Dave Cato. (None of the ladies were on the green in 2 shots!!)
2nd hole Robin Thomas
4th hole Peter Fisher
13th Hole Paul Green
16th Hole Ged Quinn
18th Hole Paul Green and Gina Jillett
Well done to all competitors for a lovely and enjoyable day.
Ballantyne – National Semi Final
The Richmond Park B team played Tilgate Forest A at The Oaks and claimed a 2:1 win, to take them to the NAPGC’s Finals Day being held at Winter Hill golf course on Saturday September 12th. Our opponents in the final will be Wycombe Heights A.
Our first pairing of Richard Back and Peter Harrison held their own through the front 9 but slipped to a 3&2 loss on the back 9. Our second pairing of Nick Rogers and Aiden Hurley increasingly consolidated their position throughout their match and closed it out with a 6&4 win. Our third pairing of Richard Owen and Gerard Ouattara also gradually pulled ahead during the front 9 and, although they lost the tricky 12th (their only loss), closed out the match on the 14th for a 5&4 win.
President’s Putter
A cloudy start but still a warm day in the high 20’s deg C as the sun broke through. Rock hard fairways and negligible rough provided good scoring opportunities and almost half the field played to their handicap, or better.
The winner of the President’s Putter trophy was Attilio Cheso with an outstanding 48 points, playing off a ‘capped’ handicap of 32 (his full course handicap was 34, which would have been 50 points !). Starting with a 5-pointer for a birdie on Hole 1 was something that most of us could only dream of ! By far this was Attilio’s best score on his EG record, and followed a score of 43 points at Coulsdon Manor on Friday. WHS reacted to these excellent scores by imposing an ESR of 2 strokes and Attilio’s HI is now 5 strokes lower than it was a week ago !!
Four players scored 41 points, with Sheena claiming 2nd place on countback from Charlie, Doreen and Kevin. Close behind on 40 points were James Deissler and John Ahad. James’s round reduced his HI down to 16.2, his equal lowest on record and into Division 1.
The Nearest the Pin winners were as follows:
1st in 2 : Steve De Long and Avi Murphy
2nd hole: Iker Lanzagorta
4th hole: Alex Catlow
13th in 2 : Ed Hall
16th hole: Kevin Prendergast
18th in 2 : Attilio and Sheena
After Round 5 of the Top Dog competition, and taking into account points accrued for the singles knockouts (to date), the latest situation is shown on the attached Senior and Junior Top Dog points tables.
In the Seniors, it’s very tight at the top. Iker (26) has ‘sneaked ahead’ of Brian McMahon (25), with Allan Boyd on 24 points.
In the Juniors, Sean O’Sullivan (21) has overtaken Robin Thomas (18), with Mike Shabani 3rd on 16 points.
With 2 more competition rounds to go, and the knockouts to be completed, there’s still opportunities for a lot of members to climb to the top of the tables.
Fred Hawtree Cup
The usual weather applied, hot, and then more hot. Lots of run on the fairways, but greens holding quite well.
The winner today, of the Fred Hawtree Cup,, perhaps a little fortuitously, was Susan Smith, with a very excellent 4 up on the course. Well done.
Avi Murphy should have won by 2, but the scorecard, after being checked at least 5 times, to be sure, is not signed by the player. Apologies Avi – maybe can be debated later with someone else in the household.
John Ahad had an equally fine score, matching Susan, but in 2nd place on countback.
Diamond Jubilee
Looks like everyone is getting the hang of the extra run and the ability to hit off the hard packed and frequent very tight lies. Lots of scores below par today so there could be a 1 shot PCC overnight even taking into account the shot adjustment the women get for a mixed medal.
No one could catch Cheryl today with her net 62, although Val had a good try, just 1 back on 63. Taking a leaf out of Peter’s book, Cheryl last played to a gross 93 on Duke’s just over 3 years ago in July 2023. In 3rd spot was Seshi, who her handicap record shows, prefers Duke’s to Prince’s and this round was just a further improvement to get a net 66.
There were 4 players recording net 67s and the men who placed in the top 10 played off whites.
After 3 rounds of the Anniversary Cup (best 4 of 5 rounds), Niamh is leading by 9 shots on 203.