CITCO report round 5 – 20 June 2018 – Kikuoka

Posted on 21 June 2018 by jhave

Tree golf by Rupert Birch

Bonjour mes copains!

Yesterday evening +/- 30 FROGS gathered at Kikuoka CC to demonstrate their golfing skills in round 5 of the CITCO Grand Prix. With the mercury heading towards 29C our starter’s cool box full of chilled beer was greatly appreciated – thank’s Martin!

What did we learn?

1) It’s not how you start it’s how you finish!
2) Luminous green FROGS shirts are not recommended attire when there’s a plague of flies of biblical proportions on the course – ask Roby!
3) 6 points is more than enough to progress from the group stage of the World Cup but sadly not sufficient to avoid the ‘pink ball’!

So to the golf…

As usual there was a mixture of the good,the bad and the ugly! As for the golf shots played these followed along the same lines. A topped,low and left tee shot on the 1st tee from yours truly found the the first bunker. 5 hacks and a couple of club slamming tantrums later and a scratch was safely in the bag! Meanwhile my 2 playing partners (Stevie B & Steph) placed 2 great drives straight down the middle.

From there on in things improved or deteriorated depending on your perspective.

Hole 6 – longest drive…Myself and Stevie B decided to lay up short of Jessica’s LD marker in order to leave our favourite approach distance to the pin – 225 metres! Mr B creaming a 3 wood to within 8M below the pin and myself hitting an even more impressive 5 wood pin high. Unfortunately Steve walked off with a par 🙁 but fortunately for me I sank my put for an eagle!

The half-way house was a welcome sight after 9 holes in the sweltering heat and the vending machine rapidly sold out of ice-cold beers so after sharing each others stories of missed putts, swarming flies,eagle putts, scoring 21pts the previous day, we adjourned proceedings to the terrace for food and drinks.

The aftermath

The atmosphere on the terrace was great with the beer & wine flowing but the usual chaos with ordering continued however everyone eventually getting what they ordered….. I think?!!

A gusto rendition of ‘Happy Birthday’ was belted out for Denis’s birthday and his generous offering of Rose wine for everyone was much appreciated – Cheers Dennis!

So to the important stuff (for some of us anyway!)

First of all a big thank you again to our starter Martin!

Standard Scratch on the day was 15.

1. Nick 18
2. Chris McKenzie 17
3. Franco 17
4. Dennis 16

Longest Jessica
Nearest: Nick – prize went to 5th place (Chris Juste) under the ‘1 prize/person’ rule
Bijnens Leary: Dave Winters
Pink Ball: Colin Cameron 6

Other results:
Ronaldo beat Morocco 1-0
Scotland 161/3 – Netherlands 160/6
England 481/6 – Australia 239 all out!

Matchplays:
Paul won against Botty
Craig won against Delboy
Gregor won against Colin

Dennis to play Gregor winner to play Paul in the semis!
Joost or Arnaud to play against Jess with the winner to play Craig in the semis!

Matchplay – message from committee:
Players are responsible to play their match before the deadline. If you cannot play your match by the deadline, you must give your opponent a bye.

Round 6 takes place on 4th July @ Junglinster. Your starter Marco will no doubt be in touch nearer the date.

Cheers!
Nick

Report – CITCO Round 9 – 27 July 2016 – Kikuoka

Posted on 28 July 2016 by jhave

Dear Golfers,

Thank you to Mark Houston for being our starter yesterday evening. He welcomed us on the first tee with beers and crisps. Mark has also raised the bar on starter duties by including on the starter spreadsheet each player’s handicap and whether or not they are members.

The course and the weather were both perfect for 9 holes of golf and the quality of play reflected this. The standard scratch score was 15, to be confirmed as there was a computer issue last night. At least this time we had the computer, which is a step in the right direction.

As concerns the results: Arnaud hit a laser like 5 iron on the 7th for Nearest the Pin. Gregor got all of it on the 2nd to win the Longest Drive. Will Heath got it done to take the Leary.

We were honoured to be joined by two guests, Stuart Hamilton scored 12 points, but was beaten by a point by Stéphane (Arnaud’s father).

I was fortunate to take first prize this time with 17 points. Alan was second on 16, narrowly beating Arnaud into third on count back. On the same total of 16 points was Johan who came fourth on count back. In fifth place was Delboy on 15 points.

In case we needed proof of how fickle golf can be: Peter, the winner of round 8, walked away with the Pink Ball.

As concerns the Stibbe matchplay: Arnaud beat Stephane Ayache, 3 and 2. Mark Houston beat Paul Goes, 1 up.

I failed to make a note of the updated standings in the CITCO Overall; but you will find them on the website soon. Sorry.

The next event is the MIXvoip Pairs at Junglinster on 3 August. Paul is your starter.

Please Note: The computer issues that we have suffered the last couple of weeks are being addressed. Ernest has offered training, which should help. Thank you for your patience.

Further: by some miracle there were no issues last night with unpaid food or drinks.

Thank you.

James

Match Report – Rest of World v Great Britain & Ireland – Kikuoka – 23 July 2016

Posted on 28 July 2016 by jhave

All 32 participants woke up to a gloomy sky and poor weather forecast projected heavy rain for midday. Despite some torrential overnight rain Kikiouka was is remarkable good shape with only the bunkers showing some erosion damage. An encouraging feature of the day is that all 32 players turned up on time.

The average handicap of the ROW team was 12.1 against 9.9 for the GB+I team. The home advantage of the ROW team seamed to be cancelled by the slightly more skilled GB+I team. The two captains exchanged some pleasantries on the range and after a focused handshake, the first four players headed to the first tee.

GAME 1 – De Vet & Goes (ROW) v Dalrymple & Warde (GB+I)

De Vet had the privilege to hit the first shot of the competition. Oh dear! Goes was under pressure to hit the 1st fairway. A par and win on the 1st by Warde saw the initiative going to GB+I. The match was back to all square on 5th but solid golf by GB+I provided a 2 hole advantage by the 7th. Step up Goes and De Vet, with Goes net birdie on the 8th followed by a holed putt on hole 9 by De Vet from off the green, after Ward had done the same moments earlier. Match all square and first points on the board for ROW and GB+I teams.

The golf got better on the 2nd nine. Dalrymple birdied the difficult 11th to nudge ahead but ROW levelled the match on the 15th after superb play by De Vet. The 16th was halved after an excellent up and down by Goes. The 17th hole was pivotal. Goes, Dalrymple and Warde were all on the green in regulation, with De Vet out of it. Goes has a shot on stoke index 2. Goes aggressive effort at a net eagle slips by a good 3 meters. Deadly Warde’s putt secured the par but Dalrymple holes his putt for a birdie. Goes fails in his 3 metre return putt and the GB+ I team goes down the last 1 up and 1 to play. Goes and De Vet fight on with some excellent positional play down the last. However, pressure was intensified as Dalrymple hits the par 5 with his second. Goes shoots a great 3rd shot but roles off the green, but not far from the pin. Role up De Vet and he hits his shot of the round to within 2 metres. Dalrymple lags his putt one meter from the hole. Not given!!. De Vet strokes it in for birdie, but Dalrymple plays a Captain role by securing the half, also with a birdie and wins the match for GB+I, 1 up.

MATCH RESULT:- ROW = ½ – GB+I = 2 ½.

GAME 2 – Gilles & Eysinga (ROW) v Robertson & Graham (GB+I)

The charismatic and big hitting (but not always straight) pairing of Gilles and Van Eysinga was paired against the equalling charismatic and short hitting (but straight) pairing of Robertson and Goes. Graham has the claim to fame status of having recorded the first hole-in-one in a FROGS event earlier this year. (Graham is an honourably FROG by buying a round of drinks for all other FROGS present that historic evening in Kikuoka). The match was close in the front nine and all square on the 8th. GB+I holed a long one on the 9th to end the front nine 1 up.

Strong motivational words by Van Eysinga to Gilles on the 10th tee was expected of this part-time University Lecturer. No doubt he was scrutinising the rules to look for yet another notional deduction to gain an advantage, as all good tax practitioners would do. GB+I were looking good to go 2 up on the 10th with a putt of 4 metres for birdie. ROW somehow scrambled a 3 on this pivotal hole and GB+I missed their birdie opportunity. Match remains 1 up to GB+I. What followed was spectacular 2nd half collapses often seen by the Scottish and English football teams, with ROW winning 3 of the last 8 holes for a comfortable overall win. So confused with the speed of the turn around of fortunes, Robertson was ready to shake hands on the 16th green with the match still live. Graham said of his partner that “there was a short gap of getting warm and getting tired, unfortunately today that gap was not there… Robertson needs substance in the form of a good steak and chips”. A chirpy Van Eysinga stated that “my garden leave from Stibbe was the best preparation I could have had for this match”.

MATCH RESULT:- ROW = 2 – GB+I = 1.

CUMULATIVE RESULT:- ROW = 2½ – GB+I = 3 ½.

GAME 3 – Spadafora & Hartnett (ROW) v Botfield & Nevin (GB+I)

GB+I assembled on of their big gun pairings of Botfield and Nevin to take down the Golfaholic ROW pairing of Spadafora and Hartnett. The astute ROW captaincy of Terblanche made it difficult for GB+I by pairing a high handicap grouping (combined handicap 34) against the GB+I combined handicap of just 5. Nevin had to rely on his RAF prisoned short game while Botfield banked on his self belief and confidence. A sound front nine saw GB+I take a slender 1 hole advantage after nine holes.

Incredibly the match had swung around after the 11th hole where the ROW went 1 up on the match and 2 up on the back nine. When the going get tough the tough get going and GB+I managed to claw back 2 holes to win by the slender margin of 1 hole. Spadafora was the only player in the entire field to receive a shot on the last and the ROW was disappointed not to extract more than the ½ point.

MATCH RESULT:- ROW = ½ – GB+I = 2 ½.

CUMULATIVE RESULT:- ROW = 3 – GB+I = 6.

GAME 4 – Reidy & Johnston (ROW) v Birch & Sinclair (GB+I)

Game No 4 had a real Delphi feel about it. At 8.28 on Saturday morning a big black limousine manages to squeeze into a rather generous parking slot and then appear Johnston and Sinclair. What was Sinclair doing fraternising with the opposition, was the pre-match discussion. The other pre-match discussion was Terblanche’s decision to pair two Americans together. Did Terblanche forget that the US has not won any match play events in Europe for many years.

Early in the match it became apparent that GB+I had their work cut out to get anything from this game. The power US Delphi pairing won the first nine and offered no concessions heading in to the back nine and closed out the game with a 4&2 win and in doing so took all three points wiping out all of GB+I earlier gains.

MATCH RESULT:- ROW = 3 – GB+I = 0.

CUMULATIVE RESULT:- ROW = 6 – GB+I = 6.

GAME 5 – Chan & Ferreira (ROW) v Hill & Edwards (GB+I)

This was a much-anticipated match with 4 serious golfers equipped with a power game. Ferreira gained the initiative by winning the best-dressed golfer award, with a predictable loud blue number, which seemed to distract Hill more that Edwards. There was also mutterings in the clubhouse on Dalrymple’s decision to allow Hill and Edwards to play a FROGS 9 hole match play tie. These mutterings proved unjustified and the GB+I team secured a slender 1 hole advantage going into the back nine.

No shots were given in the second nine and the match finished on the 17th with ROW recoding a 2&1 victory in the overall game. This was a great back nine performance by Chan and Ferreira. On the FROGS match pay event Edwards beat Hill by 3&2 over the front nine, which capped a miserable day at the office for Hill.

MATCH RESULT:- ROW = 2 – GB+I = 1.

CUMULATIVE RESULT:- ROW = 8 – GB+I = 7.

GAME 6 – Have & Janssen (ROW) v McCorduck & Baxter (GB+I)

Ireland untied with the pairing of McCorduck and Ulsterman, Baxter, stormed off to a significant lead and won the front nine 5 up!!, with McCorduck holing everything in sight.

However, the dandy Danes mounted a significant fightback in the back nine to level the match by 17th, with Have recording three 3s on the bounce. Some noteworthy golf on the 11 with Have manufacturing a career defining iron [4 iron, red.] out of the rough from 180m to 6ft on the 11th. Baxter responded with a career defining rescue club from 180m to 10 feet from the fairway! A GB+I win on the last hole was probably the big story of this remarkable match. Indeed, Have looked distressed and battle weary coming off the 18th green, heading towards the clubhouse terrace where both ROW and GB+I teams were assembling to cheer in the remaining matches.

MATCH RESULT:- ROW = 1 – GB+I = 2.

CUMULATIVE RESULT:- ROW = 9 – GB+I = 9.

GAME 7 – Maitry & Bus (ROW) v Alford & Hutchines (GB+I)

Dalrymple paired Golfaholics Hutchines and Alford together to take on Maitry and Bus. Maitry had the distinction of being the only true Luxembourger in the 32 man field. Maitry played some of his best FROGS golf all season and recorded a good number of pars in the front nine, but this effort was only good enough to secure a half point for the front nine, with Alford playing steady golf for GB+I.

The second nine saw Maitry distracted by the constant calls from his phone. But it is believed that he was sorting out the prizes for the Mix Voip FROGS PAIRS (Maitry is the sponsor) to be held on Wednesday 3rd August at Junglinster. If you have not signed up for this event you should do so as you will be playing for the Don MacGregor – Dave Moody Trophy.

Back to the match… The pivotal hole was again the 17th. Maitry hit a good drive and placed a nine iron on the green. His first put was under a meter away. Not given by Hutchines and Alford! Maitry was distracted in his line of sight and missed the putt. The match ended 1 up to the credit of GB+I. Now GB+I are just one point away from winning the competition.

MATCH RESULT:- ROW = 1/2 – GB+I = 2 1/2.

CUMULATIVE RESULT:- ROW = 9 1/2 – GB+I = 11 1/2.

GAME 8 – Boutellier & Terblanche (ROW) v Winters Felfoldi (GB+I)

It all came down to the final match. ROW captain Terblanche was playing with the inform Boutellier. Reports were coming in that Boutellier was burning up the course and that ROW had already secured the front nine. GB+I just needed 1 point for outright victory. Dalrymple had placed faith with Winters as the anchor man with the big hitting Felfoldi as security.

The packed terrace went silent is disbelief as the fourball was searching in desperation for a ball beside the burn on the right side of the green. Was this another cock-up on the 18th by a Frenchman in a major event. However Boutellier’s socks remained on and deep concern was written on the GB+I faces watching on. It seemed that all was still to play for as putts were studied and restudied. And then a roar from the 18th green as ROW sunk a decent length putt. High fives from Terblanche and Boutellier send despair through the GB+I camp. It was official ROW won all three 3 points with a 4&3 win and with it came Game Set and Match for ROW.

MATCH RESULT:- ROW = 3 – GB+I = 0.

FINAL RESULT:- ROW = 12 1/2 – GB+I = 11 1/2.

Congratulations to the following for special prizes:-

• Longest Drive (hole No 6) – Nick Felfoldi

• Nearest to Pin (hole No 12) – Alan Botfield

• Leary (hole No 18) – Mark Gilles

Commiseration to David Winters and Nick Felfoldi who suffered a 4&3 defeat, the worse result of the day, but they were unfortunate to come up against Arnaud Boutellier who was under par for his round. The pink ball(s) had to be won by someone. Well done ROW team.

FINAL THOUGHTS

• If we followed the traditional scoring method the competition would have been a tie at 4 matches a piece. However the ROW won their matches more convincingly, but they also had higher average handicaps.

• Dennis was not able to reconcile the Scottish and French methods to cook a good steak. The clubhouse entertainment was excellent but Dennis should perhaps next time order the fish option, to help reduce his stress levels.

• The Delphi yanks were a good fun to have and recorded the second best win for the ROW team. Belief in American match play capabilities are somewhat restored in European circles.

• The GB+I team need to source some Welsh participants. Irish were the star performers with all participants winning their respective matches.

• Request of a repeat event next year were voiced. The chanced received a significant boost with a possible sponsor expressing an interest.

• Lastly, apologies to the Golfaholics participants, FROGS application forms should available on the day. These will be posted to you shortly !

Match report by GB&I Captain Gregor Dalrymple

Report – CITCO round 7 – 29 June 2016 – Preisch (Luxembourg)

Posted on 2 July 2016 by jhave

A little bit of sun and the scores improve – well done guys.

20 FROGS and a guest ventured cross border (will we be able to in a couple of years’ time?) to play Luxembourg. The course was in amazingly good condition certainly compared to the last outing.

Thanks to a William and Richard starting combination.

Standard scratch was an unbelievable 14.

NTP went to Merve who reluctantly handed the wine to Jess.
The leary to Neil Underwood (maybe we should all use a driving iron off the tee) shame it was followed by a three put including a second from only four inches
The longest drive to Will I Am who beat Botty by a mile.

The winner with 18 points using his new, well Jonny’s old, ex Leon’s, driver was Merve.
Second on 16 was Botty with Duncan in his penultimate outing beating Jess into 4th place with 15 points on countback.
Richard on 14 made up the role of honour.

Keith Derby won the best/worst guest on around 7 points.

The pink ball could have been very hotly contested with Neil, Steve, Rob, Mark and myself all on 10 points but fortunately Simon came in with 8 to win thus avoiding lots of complicated countback calculations. Thanks Simon.

In the CITCO Overall, Fred still leads on 77 but is being caught by Botty on 72, Paul on 70 and Craig on 66. As said last week Will I Am is catching fast now with 4 events played on 64.

In the Stibbe Matchplay

Paul finally beat Simon 4 and 3 at the umpteenth time of asking.

Jonny played his best golf of the season so far to win his matchplay 3&2. The record doesn’t show who he beat however.

The next FROGS event is round 8 of the CITCO Grand Prix at Junglinster on Wednesday 6th July.
Your starter will be James.

Report – CITCO Round 5 – 15 June – Preisch (France)

Posted on 21 June 2016 by jhave

Wanted new reporter to cover FROGS events – no experience necessary, doesn’t need to write particularly good English, helpful if a paid-up member of FROGS. Look at the below for the dubious level of writing ability needed.
Wellies should have been the order of the day as we set out onto a very very wet course. Arnaud’s comment “I don’t know where all this water has come from as it wasn’t this wet at the weekend” wasn’t particularly helpful. As at Junglinster in the previous round rule 25 was waived as it affected the whole course. At least following a brief monsoon soaking for the first flight the rain abated and one could almost say it became a perfect evening for golf. Almost being the operative word looking at the scores.

Thanks to Rob for the beers and munchies on the 1st.

Standard scratch (average score plus 2) of 12 for the evening doesn’t bode well for the Ryder Cup however.

The winner was a late entrant for the evening on 15 points – Danny K. Not closely followed by our sponsor on 13 who beat Arnaud and new member Jens Buch into 3rd and 4th place on countback. Paul Goes completed the leaderboard on 12.

Don’t forget results, overall positions and handicaps can be found on www.frogs.lu at the top of the CITCO Leaderboard page. They are normally updated a few days after an event depending on how busy Ernest is – what with a wife, au pair/nanny and two kids to worry about its not surprising he doesn’t have much time for golf with the FROGS now.

That reminds me there is another vacancy.

Wanted one or two people to learn how to use the FROGS laptop for scoring. Again no experience needed although being an ACCESS expert might help sometimes. Full training given – 5 minutes needed.

NTP went to Luc whose prize was gratefully accepted by Jens.

Paul G got the leary although one or two of the later staters didn’t seem to realise there was a leary. Guys this year the leary has replaced the longest drive to give more people a chance to win therefore there will always be a leary normally on a par 4. If you ask the starter nicely he may even tell you on which hole. Otherwise look out for the markers other than at Kikuoka who want to charge us for using them when scorcards will be used.

The longest drive (exceptionally being continued for the moment to clear some stocks of balls) went to Jess (thanks for looking after the website) Have.

As you might expect the pink ball was more closely fought than usual. Mark. Gerry, yours truly all just missing out on 7 and 6. The winner again and a clear contender for the Bernard Biggar award 2016 was Colin on 5. Don’t worry Colin we’re keeping it warm for you.

In the STIBBE Matchplay I think there were two matches played. Gregor beat Mark and Stephane stuffed Botty.

I may have missed some other non FROG night results but please check the latest spreadsheet attached and let me have any updates.

If anyone found any of Mark’s dozen or so (bit like the size of a fisherman’s catch it gets ever bigger) PRO V 1s that he lost during the evening please let him know as he’s missing them lots.

Next event is Round 6 of the CITCO Grand Prix at Kikuoka on 22nd June. Your starter will be the esteemed Colin Cameron.

Please let Gregor know your availability for the Ryder Cup on 23rd July.

Also start thinking about your partner for the MixVoip pairs at Junglinster on 3rd August.

NB the 3 club will not be held on 20 July as Bijnens beer will not be ready.

Please forward any complaints to the captain of the Golfaholics.

PS thanks to the Hotel de la Frontière for their generous restocking of Mark’s ball supply with some logoed Ultra 500 balls which went to all the non prize winners.

Report – CITCO round 4 – 1 June 2016 – Junglinster

Posted on 14 June 2016 by jhave

In spite of a forecast of heavy rain and knowing that Kikuoka had been closed for the previous 2 days, numerous FROGS went out to play on a course on which Rule 25 could not be applied as nowhere on the course was dry enough. Even all the bunkers were GUR. Real frogs loved it though.

Ice cold corporate beers from the part owner of Redbridge www.ccbc.lu were again available at the start thanks to Tony.

All things considered scoring wasn’t too bad (standard scratch was 13) with the jet lagged South African FROG flying in from 45c in Arizona to win with 15 points on countback from Mark Houston and Peter Baxter in second and third places respectively. By the way Craig you still owe me the green fee. Mark “under the thumb” Houston though had to leave early as he’d also played the previous day thus forfeiting his prize. This meant that Duncan on 14 points got promoted into 3rd place on one of his few remaining FROGS outings before departing for somewhere almost as wet as Junglinster – well humid anyway. In 5th place and winning precisely nothing was Steve on 13 points beating Andy, Frank and Dennis on countback.

Nearest the pin was our starter, Dennis shot the leary and Danny K kept it on the fairway to snatch the longest. Danny’s partners claim it was the only fairway he hit in the 9 holes.

The pink ball was again a closely fought affair, Neil Underwood dropping in from Sweden to not win it with 7 points and Jess wasn’t quite bad enough on 6 losing out to Rob Mac on countback. Clearly Neil took it to heart and scored 45 points to win his category of the Italian Open on Sunday – don’t think there’s a sombrero big enough. Also winning his category was Mauro with 41 points.

Best guest for the second week in a row with 16 was Jens Buch. Worst guest was Phil Williams with 2 but as Phil had had to leave we gleefully gave it to his partner Tim Cosby who scored 5.

It was also good to see a founding FROG present in the bar and we were pleased to present Mike Lowe with an honorary umbrella. Not sure how he was going to use it as he was on crutches having allegedly fallen off a wall and the King’s horses etc… couldn’t help enough to get him out to play.

For the CITCO overall Fred is still doing a Stephane on 66 points not very closely followed by Dennis on 50 and Craig / Paul on 48.

Two results from the Stibbe Matchplay to complete the first round.

Andy beat Ian 2 & 1
Jess beat Steve on the 1st extra ( I’m sure this would have been different had Mike been able to drive Steve round the course but unfortunately buggies are like golf trollies and don’t float)

The updated schedule is now on www.frogs.lu along with handicaps and the schedule.

As I mentioned earlier today we may postpone round 6 scheduled on 22 June.

The MixVoip Pairs is confirmed for 3rd August in Junglinster.

The Bijnens Beer 3 club challenge will be in late August / early September once the brewmeister has finished his work.

Round 5 of the CITCO Grand Prix is on 15 June in Preisch – hopefully playing France. Rob is starting and dinner should be at Hotel de la Frontiere.

We are still missing a few starters. You only need to do it once and then will not be hassled for a year or two. FROGS cannot survive without then. We have 15 or so events a year and there are over 60 members.

Report – CITCO round 2 – Preisch – 11 May 2016

Posted on 17 May 2016 by jhave

24 or so intrepid FROGS set out on an adventure to the land of fois gras, snails and, heaven forbid, frogs’ legs even if it was to play Luxembourg and just a Fred Sudret drive over the border to play the second round of the CITCO Grand Prix.

Thanks to Chris Juste for getting everyone off on time even though he couldn’t stay for the results and dinner. You can have your reward next time.

Scoring was the usual Froggie mix with a standard scratch of 14.

Botty was out in the first flight and almost cleaned up claiming the NTP and the Leary. The longest drive going to Ayzo.

Winning with 18 points and about to be drastically cut was the aforementioned Fred who beat Botty into second place with 17 points. Gregor snuck into 3rd place on his own with 16. The lucky FROGS in 4th and 5th place winning prizes due to Botty’s all round golfing luck (sorry ability) were Arnaud and Luc both with 15 points.

The usual suspects were up for the pink ball: Jess a sparkling 7, Drunken a slightly less sparking 6 but the clear winner in the absence of Jonny D was the KPMG Most Honest Golfer Colin Cameron with a wonderful 5. Clearly the prize of a lesson with Jonas from KPMG wasn’t sufficient.

Several Stibbe matchplay results to report:
Stephane beat Nick 1st extra hole
Lux beat Peter 2&1
Simon beat Ayzo 1 up
Colin beat Mark w/o

The only thunder that threatened play came on the 9th hole were Johan have fought from 3 up with 4 to play against yours truly managed to sneak a ten at the last having been just short of the green in 2 to lose. Johan, as Botty said in his masterful presentation speech we promise never to mention this again.

The next CITCO Grand Prix is this Wednesday at K-ikuoka. Your starter will be Richard Neale.

Keep playing the matchplays.

Following Dave Fisher’s (one of the FROGS founder members) attendance in CITCO Grand Prix round 1 it was noted that another founder member was regretfully overlooked. We are more than happy to correct this and welcome Mike Lowe as an honorary FROG joining Dave and Dave Moody.

Report – CITCO round 1 – Grand Ducal – 27 April 2016

Posted on 2 May 2016 by jhave

28 Optimistic FROGS (or did they not have access to weather forecasts) signed up for Wednesday’s first round of the Citco Grand Prix. No less than 28 frosty FROGS turned up on the day – quelle commitment! Thanks also to FROGS founder member Dave Fischer for participating, nice to see you!

Back to the golf: it was a tale of two halves, as starters Gregor and Mark entertained all comers with Aus wine, Lux beer, sandwiches, crisps, cheese and more while extracting a hefty 50 smackeroos from non-members to squeeze into the corners of the coffers of the Golf Club Grand Duchal.

Glimpses from the round

The first lot set out and scoring went remarkably well, early starters certainly got the rub of the green (and didn’t need to rub the green…). Will Heath will be severely cut for having the cheek to return with 18 points, followed by Arnaud (quality golf again) and Fred, with Russel and Mark G following closely. A bunched leaderboard saw a number of other good scores and Standard Scratch was an impressive 13, but countback is a beach, especially if you play the last few holes with snow covering the greenstaff’s foibles…

No less than three brave (?) pairs slug it out in round 1 of the Stibbe (note how we plug our new sponsor!) with Russell putting Craig to the sword (4 & 3), Bottie toyed with Stevie B and got up and down on 4 to match Steve’s only par just before hail (and then snow) came to the party to confirm that the 2016 vintage of FROGS are the most committed ever – come on Ryder Cup (check the schedule and block that day off, get in touch with our Ryder Cup captain and put in the time to practice – we’re going to make history, baby)! Paul Goes played well too (or at least better than his opponent) to beat Drunken (Dave tells me he didn’t do the draw by last years’ hairstyles…). The pink ball was gracefully accepted by Steve Kaiser and the committee finally caught up with Frank to hand over an overdue pinky – we’re all looking forward to seeing you both tee off with those as tradition dictates!

In other happenings, little Fred Sudret got all of his 4 foot 11 and a half wound up and bombed yet another one. Sadly for Fred, Mini Me and Danny de Vito, Jess got one straight to usurp Fred’s superb effort and claim the Longest (drive!). Rob McCorduck hit a sublime shot into the 7th to take the Nearest at a canter and Johan got the snow-covered Leary, then promptly 3 putted from a few feet away( it seems that putting in the snow can be quite the challenge, that is, provided that you don’t build a Highway to Hole*). * This, quite possibly first ever, reference to AC/DC is dedicated to all Australians in our honorable (nevertheless) society.

Most FROGS stayed for the (very good) dinner – hurrah – Frank donated a bottle of red to our table – double hurrah – and the cozy (and warm) GD clubhouse was the perfect setting for watching the last few groups wrap it up on 9. Dennis, Ayzo and companion were odds on favorites to debut Luxembourg at the curling event of the next Olympics, then Craig and Russ had a good go too (too much use of the feet, no points for style) but their efforts were put to shame by the last group (consisting of our two intrepid starters and Jess)! A quick reminder that we play by the Rules of Golf, gentlemen – if you have horticultural tendencies or simply want to get closer to Mother Earth and give her a few caresses, don’t do it on the line of your put!

Thanks again to Citco: still 9 rounds to go and all of us (well, almost) can still do it: Willy will be severely cut (he won’t see another 18 for a few years)! You will already have received the call to arms for our next event (at Preisch, pray for drought…), hope to see many of you there (and at the dinner, last year was a blast)!

Results from the 2015 FROGS KMPG Individual Championship

Posted on 2 September 2015 by jhave

Almost 30 valiant FROGS turned up for the final event of the 2015 season: the KPMG FROGS Individuals played in memory of the late Ken Reid, one of the founding fathers of the Society.

And in the midst of this gathering, Jonny Hill went into battle with Simon Baker to decide who would be the SHRM 2015 Matchplay champion.

And it was hot! But, apart from the heat, conditions were ideal: little wind and the course in excellent condition having been softened just enough by the recent rain.

Botty, our starter, maintained the high standards set by the 2015 vintage through his excellent coordination of his assistant, the little Brunette helper, and delivered to us excellent bacon butties and some very healthy orange juice on the first tee. He then spent the next hour and a half putting up with a constant stream of FROGs comments on how he had managed to get that dent on his fine car — something that wasn’t there when he left his car in the car park earlier that morning.

Given that on this rare occasion, we were playing all 18 holes: LD and NtP were set on the second 9. A monstrous effort by Chris Juste secured him the ‘Top FROG’ award for the LD (showing the benefit of eating one’s greens) while Peter (no more pink shorts) Baxter showed us all what we should be doing on a Par 3 to win NtP and got the birdie to boot. Dave Winters thought he had the leary won on the 18th missing the eagle by 20cm until our beloved starter missed it by just 2cm.

The results were close with the FROGS actually showing that they can play this course well, especially in light of our interesting exchanges after the Ryder Cup. It should not be forgotten that most of our FROGGIE handicaps are considerably lower than our real club handicaps.

5th and 6th were tied on 32 points place respectively but on count back Jess Have had to settle for 6th, Will Heath for 5th, Andrew Paton shot 33 for 4th place on his own. Fred Sudret, on only his second outing, was 3rd with 34 points edged out of 2nd place by Peter Baxter on count back.

On 35 points, the winner and the 2015 KPMG FROGS Individual Champion is Nick Felfoldi.

The prize for best gross went to Alan Botfield, who managed to forget all the comments on his car and produce a solid round of 78 shots beating Craig and Nick who both shot 80!

We had two guests and our friendly Golfaholic interloper, Pat Hutchines with 33 points bested Chris Edwards.

Having lost out on the pink ball at the last CITCO event, Duncan Tippin on 19 points was definitely not going to be outdone this time especially as KPMG offer the prize as ‘Most honest golfer’, although he only won it on reverse count back from Graham Paul with Simon Baker, Stuart Rowlands and Colin Cameron also pushing Duncan close.

Many thanks to KPMG for its sponsorship and the generous prizes including golf balls offered to all those who did not win a prize.

And, let us not forget in the midst of all this, a tight battle was taking place to decide the 2015 SHRM Matchplay champion: and it ended on the 9th with Jonny ‘Bacon Butty’ Hill defeating Simon Baker on the final hole to win 1up. Congratulations to the champion and the runner-up! Our thanks to the sponsor, SHRM!

One last thing…

Only one gathering remains for 2015 and that is our Annual Dinner. Information on the date and venue will be sent out shortly.

Results – CITCO round 8 – Kikuoka – 22 July 2015

Posted on 27 July 2015 by jhave

A fine number of FROGS and 2 guests turned up for round 8 of the CITCO Grand Prix at Kikuoka.

Thanks to Will Heath, our starter, who had an impressive size cooler welcoming us on to the 1st tee.

Conditions were steamy, wind was minimal… so there could be no excuses.

The top 6 were all within 2 points of each other so count back came into play.

On 17 points, Mark Houston took 6th place, Frank Maitry picked up 5th, Jonny Hill was 4th and Arnaud Bouteiller ended up 3rd.

Luc De Vet took 2nd with an excellent 18 points.

But our worthy winner on his first outing this season, I believe, was Tony Whiteman, who took 1st place with 19 points.

Although Craig Ferreira almost caught him in the last group, Nick Felfoldi claimed the honours for LD with an excellent drive on the 6th and was happy to receive at last the prize he had won but not won as a guest a few times already this season! Frank Maitry, first out, set himself up nicely on the 7th for NtP and sunk his putt for a birdie but Andrew Paton outdid him going pin high to 2 feet to take the prize – he also made birdie.

There were two winners of the pink ball this week: one, “Man down”, was Steve Kaiser, who through injury did not manage to complete the 9 holes – perhaps awarded slightly unfairly. And the other, as pointed out by our Ryder Cup Captain, is one of the FROGS better golfers and down to play in the singles for the Cup. But don’t worry, Captain oh my Captain, he was clearly just getting rid of all his bad shots in view of the big event this Saturday. Yes, Jess “The Viking” Have took the honour with 8 points.

Best guest award went to Ron Dickie.

With 8 events complete, Andrew Paton has remains in the lead on 86pts but Arnaud Bouteiller is creeping up steadily and is now on 80 points. All to play for in the last 2 rounds.

Thanks to our main sponsor CITCO for their support.

SHRM Match play
The semifinals of the SHRM Match play were also played on this humid evening.

Simon Baker put to the sword Jess “The Viking” Have 3&2.

Jonny Hill saved his best for last and did away with Alan “The Shrek” Botfield winning the last two holes and going through 1up.

Looking forward to the final! Simon Baker v Jonny Hill

Thanks to SHRM for their continued support of the Match play event.

The next CITCO event (Round 9) is at Junglinster on August 5th. Steve Brown will be your host and will be in touch next week.

But the next FROGS event is the Citabel 3 Club Challenge at Kikuoka on 29th July. Merve Herneman will be contacting you shortly.

Frogs

Friendly Round Of Golf Society

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