Today we were playing the Midweek July Medal which is the 5th round of the Midweek Grand Medal Trophy. We were treated to another glorious day for golf with sunny skies and hardly any breeze.
In the ideal conditions, scoring was predictably good and, in a couple of instances, downright stellar!

Division 1 winner was Pralab Barua with a net 62. Pralab’s gross of 76 was the lowest of the day (40 out, 36 in) and included 2 birdies at the 11th and 16th holes. Tom Laybourn finished second with a net 65. Tom had a very steady round grossing 37 on both 9’s.

In Division 2, Pat Dalton had a day to remember. Playing off 26, Pat shot 85 for a net score of 59 and not surprisingly, won the division by a country mile. Pat grossed 43 out and 42 back. His card included 5 pars and a birdie on the 15th hole. I suspect WHS will make sure Pat’s not playing off 26 next time out!
In second place was Richard Marriott (28) with a net 66. Despite 2 snowmen on his card, Richard scored 50 out and 44 in for a gross of 94 which included 4 pars. Chris Jones(20) was third with a net 68 followed by Kim Jabbour with a net 69 and Andy Johnson with a net 70.

In the Midweek Grand Medal Trophy, Julian James still leads Peppe Monterosso in Division 1 with Toby Hunt, Angus Robertson and Dave Cato in hot pursuit. In Division 2, Peter Fisher is establishing a commanding lead over Richard Marriott, David Grace, Graham Cull and Lia Donnath. A report showing the full standings is attached.

Women

An interesting end to today’s round for those in the last game who were klaxoned off as they walked to the 18th tee. As no one was interested in going back out to finish they all NR’d.

But it would have made no difference to the results with Doreen the runaway winner with her net 62. Just 7 under par. Of course for the competition she was off 95% of her handicap and WHS is showing that she played to 24.7 – just 12 below her handicap. Expect to see an ESR reduction overnight.

6 behind was Seshi (Sookkyung) in 2nd spot.

Men

Dry until a short thunderstorm struck after midday for the July medal, 3 players ‘not played’ 3 holes due lightning risk.

Michael Hayden shot another excellent round winning the first division with 64. Michaels’s round was the best gross of the day 73 and also won front 9 honours. Iker Lanzagorta was 1 behind with a glorious 65 and just 2 behind on back 9 of 35. Special mention to Paul Kamerling for best back 9 -10 better than front nine and of course to Kerry Sargeant for a super eagle at the par 5 ninth hole.
For division 2 there were some outstanding scores with Jonno McLean winning with 60, Abdullah Almasoud 61 Charlie Whiteman 62 and Seymour Laird 63. Well done indeed and there may be the odd handicap ESR overnight .
This was 5th round of the Grand Medal and with 5 rounds played each, First Division leaders are Oz Doyle 360 from Iker Lanzagorta 363; in second division it’s Nigel Ward 368 from Gerard Ouattara 37 and Rannesh Jansari 376.

Today we were playing the final round of the Founders Cup. Neither of the leading pair were able to play today but with their healthy lead over the rest of the field, it made no difference. Congratulations to Henry Lindesay-Bethune for taking the spoils with 154 points. Dave Cato was runner up with 151 and Mehmet Akdeniz just pipped Richard Owen for third spot (both with 149).

Many of us started our rounds in persistent light rain but fortunately, the skies lightened as the morning went on and the later groups finished in bright sunshine. The weather didn’t really affect the course conditions although the greens were notably slower than of late.

Winner today with an impressive 42 points was Val Panattoni (26). Val played a very solid round scoring 21 points on both 9’s. He scored 3 points on no less than 9 holes. In second place was Sheena Harrington (17) who scored 39 points (19 out, 20 back). Sheena’s blob on the 12th obviously inspired her because she parred the next four holes! Stephen Haworth (19) took third spot – also with 39 points. He had a superb front 9 (scoring 23 points) but came back down to earth somewhat with 16 points on the way in.

The sun eventually came out and as forecast it heated up to 30C for the Platinum Jubilee.

There were some outstanding scores on Duke’s. The winner with net 63 on back 9 countback was Tom Simpkins from the best woman Seema Sandhu; Tom was just 1 over par on the back 9 and best gross of the day 77. But many congratulations to Seema who started with a par, beginning a pattern for the day. Next were a couple of glorious 65s from Olav Bridie and Joan Mulcahy both with mainly pars or bogeys. Fantastic. Michael Hayden again did well with 69 and there followed 7 70s.
Most difficult hole proved to be 18th with 14 triple bogeys returned.

This was 2nd round of 5 for the Anniversary Cup which now sees Tom Simpkins leading 134 from Michael Hayden 139.

Another hot, dry day with little wind and feeling humid – max 26 degrees but it felt warmer.

Today’s clear winner was Kim Jabbour who took advantage of the cooler early morning temperatures – in fact 3 of the six ‘early starters’ scored in the top 5. Kim’s winning score (44 points, gross 86) was the best of his 20 rounds with us, since getting his handicap in March, and earned him and ESR of -1. He had 21 points out (with one blob) and 23 points in.

Tied in second place on 41 points were Mike Jones and Seymour, Mike winning out on countback. Jonno McLean (40 points) and Joan Mulcahy (39 points and best lady) take 4th and 5th places. Well done to all the top 5. On the down side, many players found the round very slow, waiting for the group in front on every hole. There was no reason for this as there was ‘no-one’ holding up our mid-morning competition group and it was a stableford competition in 3-balls. Sweep pay-out was to the top 5 sweep entrants.

A fresher day than the heat and humidity of recent days and a breeze.

The Shaw Cup was won with an excellent 42 point from Charles Haines – 21 on each 9; chasing him with 41 were Gerard Ouattara and Lee Frost both with 41 points and countback proclaimed Gerard 2nd. Fine 39s followed from Tony Kopczak and Tom O’Hare.

Best woman Doreen Dolby 37on countback from Jenny Lawrence. Best front 9 from Bernie McDermott 22 and back 23 from Olav Bridie.
This was 3rd comp in the men’s Top Dog with Joe Goncalves leading First Division [Senior]14 points from Michael Hayden, Tom O’Hare and Alan Treacy 12 each. Second Division[Junior] leader is Charles Haines 13 from Michael Pham and Charlie Whiteman 12 each.

The rounds started in hazy sunshine and slightly more humid conditions than the previous heatwave days but the high clouds cleared by midday and it was another very hot day. With rock hard fairways, good tee shots ‘ran a mile’ but the greens and approaches were is great condition, due to their daily watering.

Charles Haines and Tom Laybourn were both in great form and tied at the top with 40 points. However Charles was the winner on countback (18 out, 22 back); Charles had a ‘purple patch’ in the middle of his round with birdies on the 9th, 10th and 12th – his birdie 3 on the 10th being a 60 yards ‘chip in’.

Tom had 22 out and 18 points in, with birdies on the 6th (a 25 yards chip in) and the 12th. Tom drove the back of the 9th green in 2 but only par’d the hole. Also, a better last 3 holes and he could have won with 44 points – that’s what pressure does to you!

Third place finds Seymour with 37 points (20 out and 17 in), continuing his steady, resurgent form. Without sluggish scores on the 14th, 15th and 16th holes he could have been challenging for top spot.

Easiest holes yesterday were the 9th and 12th and most difficult were the 7th and 8th (as usual). Lee Frost still leads the Friday Birdie Tree on 10, with Simon McKnight and Richard Owen sharing 2nd place on 8. Richard also narrowly missed out on an eagle 2 on the 17th by leaving his putt 9 inches away !