It was beautiful golf day today, with just enough sunshine, no recognizable wind and a Prince’s course in conditions we have not seen for more than half a year: the fairways had been freshly cut and widened, the rough cut down to manageable hights and the greens a pleasure to putt on! 🙂

RichardO took the most advantage and came back with unbeatable 42 points, including 3 birdies.
Late starter JustinW began his round with 2 blobs, but scrambled to 18 points on the front 9 and came back with 21 points, with 3 birdies on his card as well.

RichardO, RichardB and UliK share best gross score results with 75 shots.

After a predominantly good week weatherwise, we were down to just 1 temporary on Prince’s today.

Women

Congratulations to Caroline who is today’s winner by 1 shot from Sheena. Had she not recorded a 10 on the 7th it could have been by a much bigger margin. Good to see our injury stricken members back playing 18 holes again. Conditions remain tough if you stray from the fairway with the sun just encouraging grass growth at this time of year after all that rain.

Men

Conditions were tough with long grass in the rough just off the fairway and easy to lose a ball. But there was some good scoring in the May Medal.
An excellent 67 from Mark Bean secured the senior division (37 shots out and in) with Umran Ali just a shot behind 68 keeping a 6 well and truly off his card. With a strong back 9 Richard Owen was the best 69 on countback from Paul Kamerling and Captain Uli Katte; special mention to Paul Kamerling for securing 4 birdies in his round.

The junior division medal saw a convincing win for James Withers 64 from Gunnar Sundberg followed by Suhail Salim 67 and Charles Haines 68; all excellent scores in the 60s.

Well done to John Perkins for his eagle 2 on 17th!

This was 3rd round in the Grand Medal [best 5 from 8] and is dominated in both divisions by players with 3 rounds under their belts:

Seniors
Tamas Ladacs 212
Justin Wildman 242

Juniors
Tony Kopczak 210
Nigel Ward 211

It was a warm sunny day, ideal for golf, but the course proved challenging with long grass off the fairways, and the bunkers generally in a very poor condition to get out of (many were hardpan sand with a barely scratched surface). It was good to have the 5th green in play for the first time in 5 or 6 months.

After a poor front 9 (only 12 points), Richard Owen started playing proper golf and with a back 9 of 21 points (including 2 birdies in the last 3 holes) takes the win with 33 points. Ian Burgess (30 points) came in 2nd and Rannesh was the best of those on 29 points and takes 3rd place. Best front 9 was 17 points by Seymour Laird and Bill Jennings. Brian Ransom still leads the Birdie Tree but Uli moved up to 2nd and Adrian, Julian and Richard O. share 3rd spot. Sweep payout to the top 3.

It was the second day of bright sunshine in a row, when we played the second round of ‘The Founder’s Cup – E. Bailey’ competition.
Even first sightings of golf shorts were made … 😉

The Duke’s course had been closed for almost 5 months and was still in a less than ideal state: narrow fairways, with punishing high grass left and right … lead to extended ball searching and a rather slow round.
And, unfortunately, because of the 5 temp greens, the competition had to be changed to ‘non-handicap-qualifying’!
But it was good to play on Duke’s again, after such long ‘abstinence’!

Gina and Justin both played later in the afternoon and managed to navigate the difficult course very well to come in with respectable over-30-points results. Gina clocked a stellar 20-point back 9 to take the win!

It was the second day of bright sunshine in a row, when we played the second round of ‘The Founder’s Cup – E. Bailey’ competition.
Even first sightings of golf shorts were made … 😉

The Duke’s course had been closed for almost 5 months and was still in a less than ideal state: narrow fairways, with punishing high grass left and right … lead to extended ball searching and a rather slow round.
And, unfortunately, because of the 5 temp greens, the competition had to be changed to ‘non-handicap-qualifying’!
But it was good to play on Duke’s again, after such long ‘abstinence’!

Gina and Justin both played later in the afternoon and managed to navigate the difficult course very well to come in with respectable over-30-points results. Gina clocked a stellar 20-point back 9 to take the win!

On Tuesday May 7th, BrianR and UliK played their Surrey Golf Foursomes match against London Scottish.
After the usual initiation rites (both had to borrow the mandatory post-office-red shirts), the game proceeded, in beautiful spring weather.
It went up and down, in the end LS were 1up on the 18th tee.
Our team managed to claw back that last hole and went on to win on the first extra hole.
Next opponents will be either Drift GC or Couldon Court GC.

A bright sunny start for the May Bank holiday plate – and despite clouding over it remained dry after recent course closures. .
Scoring conditions were tough with little roll and odd fairway not reachable off back tees with good drives.

Silvia Bortoli rose to the top winning with a very creditable 35 points off 7; Silvia had a steady 18 pts out and 17 back with 11 scored on the 4 women’s’ 3 par 5s. Joe Gonclaves chased a point behind and had best of hard back 9 – 18 points.
Julian James came 3rd 33 points just 1 ahead of Mel Dunn whilst Gunnar Sundberg had best back 9 to win countback fro Duncan Taylor both 31. Alan King had very promsing front 9 – 20 points.

For a change the weather was warm and sunny with virtually no wind at all. There were a few drops at the end of play as it threatened to rain but fortunately it held off.
Staying out of the rough was the order of the day and only three players managed to have net scores below par.

In division 1 Russell Stewart won on countback on the last 6 holes by virtue of a birdie on 18 to push Toby Hunt into second place. Sheena Harrington took 3rd place ahead of Alan King and Kevin Prendergast in 5th all on net 70.

In division 2 It was much clearer with yours truly with a net 64 ahead of Paul Giles on net 66…and also The MW Grand Medal series on 202 from Chris Jones 207.