Tag Archives: SHRM

Results from the 2015 FROGS KMPG Individual Championship

Posted on by
Reply

Champion Mr Felfoldi
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.

It was a very warm day!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.

Fred with his consolation prizeGiven 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.

Runner-up Mr BaxterThe 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.

Best gross scoreThe 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.

Most honest Golfer...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.
Botty the man

Results – CITCO round 8 – Kikuoka – 22 July 2015

Posted on by
Reply

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.

Results – CITCO round 7 – Preisch – 2 July 2015

Posted on by
Reply

22 FROGS braved the heat wave conditions of Preisch for round 7 of the CITCO Grand Prix.

Mark Houston, our starter, decided that the FROGs needed to be reminded of their roots and offered up cold beers – or coolish for the last flights – and crisps on the 1st tee. Much appreciated by all.

Although there was another fall in the standard scratch to 14 points, the scoring was close as the FROGS tried to take advantage of a light warm wind and dry fairways. Arnaud Bouteiller tried to claim that the wind stopped him winning the LD but in reality, using his natural abilities and local knowledge, James “Le Roi” King left all trailing in his wake on the 5th. Mark Houston attacked the tight pin position on the 6th but and would have been the worthy winner but…

And now for the results:

Danny Kaiser picked up 5th with a solid 15 points. The next three places all shared 18 points so the count back mechanism came into play: Mark Houston took 4th place, Andrew Paton was pushed into 3rd by Arnaud Bouteiller.

But where was our French FROG? Still on the course trying to work out how he had messed up his round with a double bogey! In any case, he was not there.

Unperturbed, Dave Winters took control of the situation: Mark Houston handed over his NTP to Danny Kaiser and then accepted the voucher for 3rd and Andrew Paton moved up to 2nd.

But our worthy winner was Simon Baker who showed that his 18 points of the previous week was no flash in the pan and followed up this 3rd place by taking the winner’s rostrum with 19 points. And this was while taking on Dennis “The Meance” Robertson in his match play (result below), which included a memorable 6th hole: playing his second shot from the water and with Dennis safely on the green and in contention for NTP, Simon halved the hole! Dennis, as you can imagine, was gob smacked!

With 37 points and having only played 2 events could Simon Baker be a dark horse for the CITCO? Just make sure you are there for the next 3 events, Simon!

New candidates put themselves forward for the Pink Ball: Graham Paul, after a beer, sneaked off hoping that this would take his 7 points out of contention and was lucky… (this time!) He was saved by the efforts of Mark Lowe and Colin Cameron, who tied on 6 points. After a very careful [reverse] count back, the Pink Ball was awarded to Mark Lowe. But Mark too had disappeared. Don’t worry, Mark, you cannot escape the Pink Ball and it is being carefully looked after so that you can use it on the 1st tee of your next outing with the FROGS.

With Nick Felfoldi having retired from the role since becoming a proud member of the FROGS, Best guest award went to Keith Burman.

With 7 events complete, Andrew Paton has managed to increase his lead from 7 to 9 points over Dennis Robertson, who is still in second place with 77 points. Arnaud Bouteiller on 76 points has taken over 3rd place from Duncan Tippin.

Despite Dennis, in a moment of depression after his turbulent evening and as he drowned himself in bottle after bottle of rosé, ceding his title, there is still all to play for in the last 3 events.

Thanks to our main sponsor CITCO for their support.

The next CITCO event is at Kikuoka on July 22nd. Will Heath will be in touch.

But the next FROGS event is the MIXvoip Pairs on 15th July sponsored by Frank Maitry. Rob McCorduck will be contacting you next week with details including confirmation of where the event will be held.

SHRM Match play
Quarter finals of the SHRM Matchplay are underway.

Dennis “The Menace” Robertson was beaten 3&1 by Simon Baker Graham Paul’s timely announcements of the scores was also much appreciated by both players.

Jess Have and Stephane Ayache are going to battle it out this Friday while Daniel Kaiser is taking on Jonny Hill over the weekend!
The date and time for the Alan Botfield v Arnaud Bouteiller clash remains a mystery.

Thanks to SHRM for their continued support of the Matchplay event.

Report – CITCO round 6 – Kikuoka – 24 June 2015

Posted on by
Reply

Perfect conditions greeted the FROGs who ventured to Canach for round 6 of the CITCO Grand Prix.

The Irish FROGs were delighted to see Colin Cameron at the starters table with his thermos flask in hand. Nothing better to start a round of golf than a nice cup of tea! Their glee was dashed when he pulled warm Luxembourg grillworsts from the flask instead. Any shock was short lived, ‘cause the grillworsts were delicious & more fitting for the Duke’s birthday celebration week. In true Luxembourgish style, they were complimented by some chilled ‘Boff’s. Cheers Colin.

Perfect conditions were not reflected with perfect golf. The standard scratch slid from last week’s lofty 17pts, down to a more familiar 15pts.

Jonny Hill was tasked with carrying out the long drive & NTP markers. Not surprisingly, his name was first down on the list! Pick that hole before or after your drive Jon? Matter it did not, as a volley of drives soared past it. Johan Terblanche hit the best of the lot, long & straight(ish), but was refused any reward for his efforts.
Dennis Robertson arrived to the clubhouse like a giddy teenage girl. He was in the last flight so knew that his shot on the 7th was enough to win the NTP award.
Excluding his shaky start in Junglinster, our best guest award has gone to Nick Felfoldi every time he has played & so it was again tonight with an impressive 16 points. In order to give the other guests a chance, Nick has been promoted to a full member … but this does mean he is eligible for his preferred Long Drive award……hhmmmm we didn’t think this one through! I suppose Steve ?????????? has won too many LD’s already this year, so a bit of competition will do him no harm.

The fall in standard scratch indicated the field did not fare as well as last week, but the same could not be said for the leaders on the night.
Our giddy schoolgirl leapt up to claim his prize for 5th place & 17 points. Dennis Robertson had to be seated once he realised there are no prizes for 5th.
Johan Terblanche ‘kindly’ donated his long-drive prize for the 4th place winner & Ian Doherty was happy to accept. His 18 points was good, but par over the back 4 was not enough. Simon Baker bettered his finish & his 18pts took third place.
Johan Terblanche had a long wait knowing his total was enough to win last week’s event. 20 points was only good enough for second place though, but will have done his position in the overall standings no harm at all.
With no wood in his bag (and soon to be with no shots on his handicap) Neil “I didn’t lose a Ball” Underwood hit a massive 22 points to take the glory on the night. Fantastic performance Neil & congrats on the win.

As regulars in contention for the pink ball, John Sutherland & Gerry Mullen sat calmly knowing their respective 8 & 7 points were not nearly enough to win the coveted title – of so they tried to tried to make it appear. It seems there really is no substitute for experience as they were a long way from the winning score. Only one hand was needed to count up Steve Kaiser’s score, and that even left a finger free for him to scratch his head while wondering how it all went so wrong. His 4 points was enough to claim to the Pink ball, for the second time, for the second time with 4 points.

With 6 events complete, the number of FROGS with a full complement of 5 scores in the overall CITCO Grand Prix is increasing & making the leaderboard more interesting. Andrew Paton started the day with an 18 points buffer at the top & then bettered his worst score by 2 points. Despite this, his lead has been slashed … or at least dented. Dennis Robertson jumps up to second place with 75 points & 7 off the lead. Will Dennis be worried that Andrew is already only 1 points shy of his winning score last year & he has 4 more chances to better his total? Despite adding a fifth score to his overall total Duncan Tippin retains his position in third place on 69pts, but bettering that 8 points you got last night should be easy Duncan!

Thanks to our main sponsor CITCO for their support.

The next CITCO event is at Preisch on July 1st. Mark Houston will be in touch to facilitate the organisation into orderly flights.

SHRM Matchplay
The SHRM Matchplay is shaping up well with the cream coming to the top.

William Heath bowed out, giving Daniel Kaiser a walkover
Jess Have tried to let Andrew Paton take the match, but Andrew stubbornly refused the many chances & left Jess to win 1up
Dennis Robertson bt Craig Ferreira 2&1
Jonny Hill bt Merve Herneman with another 2&1
This leaves Francis Parisis & Simon Baker to finish their match & complete the lineup for the Quarters

The quarters are shaping up like this & are due to be completed by July 7th:
Jess Have to play Stephane Ayache
Jonny Hill to face Daniel Kaiser
Alan Botfield & Arnaud Bouteiller go to battle & Dennis Robertson to play the winner of Francis Parisis & Simon Baker

Thanks to SHRM for their continued support of the Matchplay event.

Ryder Cup

On other matters, I hope you have all been impressing our Ryder Cup captain Alan Botfield of late with your almost & nearly, dreary, stories. The Ryder Cup is around the corner on July 25th, so last chance for any underhanded influencing of the team selection! More to come over the next few weeks.

Report – CITCO round 5 – Preisch – 17 June 2015

Posted on by
Reply

Wednesday night saw 26 FROGS descend on the France course, at Preisch for round 5 of the CITCO Grand Prix.

Neil Underwood set-up the starters banquet hall off the back of the 1st tee. His Sild och Snaps was approached cautiously by a lot of FROGS – some feared the schnapps – more feared the old fish! Turns out both were delicious. Still not sure how he managed to be able to serve hot meatballs all evening! Are the starters now bringing ovens in order to cater for the event? Great performance Neil, thank you.

It was looking like the standard of golf had dropped significantly when the database suggested standard scratch for the night was 8 points! Even with so many doom & gloom stories in the courtyard of café/restaurant Klein, surely it couldn’t have been that bad … could it?. Upon investigation, it appears the database had expected quite a number of you to be playing off scratch by now so it had done away with your FROGGIE-caps. As it wasn’t Andrew Paton at the keyboard user error was ruled out, so pencil-tips were licked and scoring was done the way out ancestors used to calculate them.

Rob McCorduck was the first to mark his name down on the Long Drive sheet. It was pointed out to him that in order to qualify the drive has to be a) long & b) on the fairway and his was neither of these. Ian Doherty thought he had bagged the prize for a second week running, but Steve ?? stepped up to deny him & claim his second set of long drive froggie-balls this season.
Luc de Vet & Arnaud Bouteiller both hit decent shots into the eighth green, but left too much space between themselves & the pin. Andrew Paton took the NTP award for the best shot on the short hole.

Subject to ratification by the laptop once we manage to wind it back up again, here are the results at the pointy end of the leaderboard:
With 18 points, countback calculations were needed to find that Graham Paul’s better finish put him ahead of Dennis Robertson, but this was only good enough to earn 4th & 5th respectively.
Since no one scored 19, surely you would think 20 points is enough to take the coveted first place, no?
20 points is not good enough if you put two balls into the trees from the teebox on the last hole! This will only get you 3rd place, William Heath.
A steadier finish to earn 20 points & a fine score by Duncan Tippin, but it was only good enough to give him second place.
20 points is good enough if you scored 6 of them in the last two holes, and this is exactly what Stéphane Ayache did to claim first spot. Is this the start of Steph’s run up the leaderboard to reclaim the position he held in 2013? 4 more similar rounds will see you beat your own 93 point record, Steph.

There were two nervous FROGS, who from experience, knew that their 8 point scores were enough to earn them the Pink Ball. Their nerves were eased slightly when they saw one eager FROG had come dressed for the award in splendid pink shorts. Peter Baxter continued to make them feel a whole lot better by refusing to give much away about his scoring, other than letting slip that he lost his matchplay ‘by some margin’. So it seems Tiger had it right all this time with his last day red shirt – what you wear does influence how you play! Peter, you are obliged to tee off at the next CITCO event with your new pink ball, but feel free not to wear the shorts next time – that is unless you want another 5 pointer?.

You will have to wait a while for an update on the overall CITCO Grand Prix leaderboard but all these 20 point scores will be making Andrew Paton nervous, particularly Duncan Tippen’s, as he previously held second place after round 3! Andrew will definitely have lost some of his 13 point lead at the top of the table.

Thanks to our main sponsor CITCO for their support.

Colin Cameron has already been in touch with everyone to ask for your preferences for the next CITCO event at Kikuoka on June 24th. Do get your requests in early as the bank holiday on Tuesday may add some challenges to the communications.

SHRM Matchplay

A plethora of SHRM Matchplay result were decided in the last two weeks.

Results handed in throughout the last fortnight:
Francis Parisis dispatched Gregor Dalrymple 3&2.
Andrew Botfied beat Luc de Vet
John Brophy was seen off by Merve Herneman 1up
Derek Sinclair conceded a walkover to Peter Baxter
William Heath beat Stuart Rowlands

Wednesday night saw
Stephane Ayache only needed 5 holes to conclude his match against Peter Baxter
Dennis Robertson beat Dave Winters in a closer affair
Rob ‘short & wild off the tee’ McCorduck succumbed to Alan Botfield after 1 extra hole
Arnaud Bouteiller defeated Johan Terblanche 2up on the last

Round 2 matches have until June 24th to be settled.

Thanks to SHRM for their continued support of the Matchplay event.

Report – CITCO round 4 – 3 June 2015

Posted on by
Reply

Dennis Robertson took up the gauntlet thrown down by Arnaud Bouteiller & the previous starters. With a fortnight to mull over the menu, the safer option of Neeps and Tatties were left off in favor of the crowd-splitting Haggis Roll. The digestif was a no-brainer, and a fine 18yr old was the star of the whiskeys on offer. Taking it a step further, the Saltire bedecked the banquet table & a selection of tam o’ shanters was made available for a pre-match selfies. Keep an eye on the website for the pic’s! Great show Mr Robertson, lang may yer lum reek. Based on the continuing performance of our starters, we are going to have to change the name of our society from Friendly Round of Golf Society, to something more culinary related. Fabulously Rotund with a touch of Gout Society maybe? The FROGmittee remains open to your suggestions.

Down to the principal matter in hand -> Golf & round 4 of the CITCO Grand Prix.

The fine weather resulted in some equally fine scoring throughout the field & Standard Scratch for the night remained at an impressive 16 points.

Steve Kaiser would have being feeling confident he had won the Nearest To the Pin award as his name stayed at the top of the list all the way until the last flight, but Alan Botfield pinching the spoils from him at the last moment with a fine pitch.
Arnaud Bouteiller hit a 299yrd belter down the 8th, but Ian Doherty just about managed to avoid the long stuff with his effort and denied him of a couple of boxes of FROG-logoed balls for the Long Drive award.

Even with such a loft Standard Scratch, Mark Phillips will receive his first ever handicap cut! His impressive performance in bringing home 17 points is enough to lose a few 0.1’s, but unfortunately is only good enough for 5th place.
The battle for third & fourth descended into an ugly affair, with an objection being lodged by Mark Gillies against Steve Kaiser for slow play. The R&A were consulted only to rule that Steve’s pace was actually slower than the formal definition of slow play so third had to be awarded to Steve on technicality. The R&A did advise that they would plug the loophole in the rules with add an additional category of sub-slow play, linked to the rate of glacial creep. Look out for ‘Kaiser-Kreep’ in your 2016 rule book!
Andrew Paton & Stuart Rowlands were much more gentlemanly in their settling of the top two places. Both hit sufficiently few shots to earn 18 points, with Stuart having the better finishing holes & taking the top step. Congrats on the win Stuart & a fine start to your Grand Prix.

The Pink Ball was only going one way last night… 1st hole = lost ball; 2nd hole = lost ball; 3rd hole = lost ball; 4th hole = lost ball; 5th hole = lost ball. Things got so bad that his clubs & caddie car tried to escape down the hill on the 11th whilst he was occupied on the green. The FROG spotted the escape attempt and gave chase down the hill. Seeing that he was gaining on them, his clubs threw themselves at a tree on the second fairway in a last ditch effort to end it all. Unfortunately for them they survived the collision & their abuse continued all the way up the 12th. Paul Goes sat smugly knowing his 8 points was too many to win & happily presented the prize to Jess Have for his 6 points.

Thanks to Jonny Hill for doing the scoring on the night. Good to have someone competent on the job.

After four rounds the top of the overall CITCO Grand Prix leaderboard looks something like this:
Andrew Paton retains the lead with 63 points & a 13 point lead!
Mark Houston adds 10 to his score to move to second with 50 points
Ian Doherty jumps to third with 49 points.
The chasing pack are Gerry Mullen 48; Steve Brúnt 46; Merve Herneman 45; Arnaud Bouteiller 42; Steve Kaiser 42; Alan Botfield 41; Duncan Tippin 41.

Thanks to our main sponsor CITCO for their support.

Neil Underwood will be in touch with everyone to ask for your preferences for the next CITCO event at Preisch on June 17th.

SHRM Matchplay

Only one SHRM Matchplay result was decided on the night.

Jonny Hill toyed with Mark Houston all the way to the last, before making it through to the next round 1up.
At an unknown location & with an unknown score (i.e. I can’t remember) Stéphane Ayache did away with Russell Edwards and progresses to Round 2.

A final dispensation has been given to those remaining Round 1 matches. A winners name has to be agreed and submit to the FROGmittee by June 10th. If you happen to play a round of golf to help determine who that winner is, then all the better.
No winners name by 10th will result in neither player going through. Round 2 matches have until June 24th to be settled.

Thanks to SHRM for their continued support of the Matchplay event.

Some stellar photographs from the evening will appear here shortly.

Report – CITCO round 3 – 20 May 2015

Posted on by
Reply

The reporting from Round 3 of the CITCO Grand Prix has to start with the starter! Arnaud Bouteiller hosted the players in what can only be described as the pre-game dining suite, with tables set-up to offer wine, cheese, salami’s, baguettes and home-made tapenade. Rumor has it the olives were lovingly crushed between virgin’s thighs, but it was not clear if the thighs were his own or not. Surely he is much too handsome to still be … never mind! We look forward to seeing how the next starter is going to follow that gastronomic display. No pressure Dennis Robertson!

Suitably fed and watered, 29 FROGS and guests hit off from the first eyeing a podium finish, improving their standing on the CITCO leaderboard, and avoiding the dreaded pink ball. Fear is a great motivator and raised the standards across the entire field – SS was up 3 points this week to 16.

It was crowded at the top last night! Philip Zimmer was the best of 6 FROGS on 15 points, but this was only good enough for 5th place. Mark Houston went one better with 16 points.
Gregor Dalrymple and Paul Goes both had fine evenings about the Belenhaff hillside, bringing home 18 points with Gregor pushing Paul down into third place on countback.
The stand-out performance goes to Leon Marks … QUADRUPLING the winner’s round 2 score (5 points) with just one lesson! Leon was disappointed with the shakey start scratch on the first, but was pleased with 5-over par for the rest of the holes giving a stellar 20 points. Unfortunately Leon could only make a brief appearance in the clubhouse so his student was called on to collected the prize on the night.

Mark Gillies hit a couple of sprinkler heads to skip down the fairway to collect the long drive award.

Nick Felfoldi was not on form on the night but was lucky that he was the only guest. His pink-ball matching score was unchallenged and left him claim the spoils in the best guest category, along with a pink ball for good measure.

James King was called up for the NTP award, but was disappointed to find it was only to present ‘his’ prize to the FROG who pitched it an inch closer to the pin. A fine shot from Franco Mastroddi took the prize.

Steve Kaiser and Ian Doherty put themselves in contention for the pink ball again this week with 10 points, but Ayzo Van Eysinga (yes – Ayzo Van Eysinga – that’s not an autocorrect error) saved their blushes. Succumbing to match-play pressure he blobbed his way down the hill on the 1st, blobbing through the kink on the second and blobbing his way around the corner on the third! A handful of pars and a bogey on his way back up from the pit of despair saw him amass his 9 points & earn the coveted pink prize.

After three rounds the top of the overall CITCO Grand Prix leaderboard looks something like this:
Andrew Paton on 45 points
Duncan Tippin on 41 points
Peter Baxter on 40 points
Mark Houston on 39 points
Gerry Mullen on 39 points

I am not sure where John Sutherland is on the overall leaderboard, but the 20 points Leon earned him last night will certainly do his standing no harm. Congrats on your win John J. A McIlroy-esque dominance of the field.

Thanks of course to our main sponsor CITCO for the continued support.

SHRM Matchplay
Plenty of SHRM Matchplay results were decided in the last fortnight, three of them on the night:

Rupert Birch was match-play rusty having received a walk-over in the last round & fell to Simon Baker, all be it after fighting until the 3rd extra hole.
William Heath tonked Stuart Rowlands 4&3
Andrew Paton was equally ruthless with Paolo Tarakdjian. Another 4&3 victory
Jess Have put his feet up after seeing Ayzo Van Eysinga’s shaky start, put was nearly caught napping & scraped home 1up.
Daniel Kaiser needed an extra hole to beat Graham Paul on the night to keep some link to SHRM
Duncan Tippin was not kept suffering for too long. Arnaud Bouteiller did the descent thing & finished him off 4 up after 6 holes.

All Preliminary matches have been settled at this point. There are 7 remaining round 1 to be played on or before 3rd June…..tick-tock! Round 2 matches have until June 24th to be settled.

Thanks to SHRM for their continued support of the Matchplay event.

Housekeeping
The next event is Round 4 of the CITCO Grand Prix, back at Junglinster on June 3rd. Dennis Robertson will be sending a telex asking for time preferences.

Report – CITCO round 2 – 6 May 2015

Posted on by
Reply

After the storm...
Round 2 of the CITCO Grand Prix saw 3 flights teed-off in beautiful sunshine, the next two teed-off into the teeth of a raging rainstorm, and the flights after that had to reach for their sunscreen before teeing off.
Craig Ferreira’s par/scratch/par/scratch/par/scratch/par/scratch/par round was even more split-personality than the weather. A standard scratch of 13 points on the night indicates that the bulk of us spent time in the company of Craig’s less talented persona … but his more talented personality was clearly dominant when he hit his drive on the 7th, to claim the NTP award.

Steve Marrón managed to shepherd his long drive on the 8th within the boundaries of the tall grass to claim his annual appearance amongst the big hitters.

While the build up to battle for the Pink Ball didn’t have as much media hype as the Mayweather v. Pacquiao faceoff, it did prove to be a much closer fight. Neil Underwood, Frank Maitry and John Sutherland put in a lot of hits below the belt, out of bounds, and in the pond to amass their 5 points. By unanimous decision, John’s zero points on the last three holes gave him a hard fought victory. Another one to add to the nest of pink balls which is building up in the bottom of your bag, John.

Merve Herneman was the bridesmaid again this week, keeping claim of 5th place on 14 points.
Having returned from Vegas, Alan Botfield’s lighter pockets made for easier movement around the course & allowed him to score a solid 15 points.
Rob McCorduck played a very steady round. He doubled his points tally compared to last week, with 16 points, & claimed third spot.
Andrew Paton nearly doubled his points tally compared to last week, scoring 18 points to secure second place.
Scoring 19 points more than he did in the first round, Gregor Dalrymple topped the leaderboard on the night with 19 points. Congrats Gregor.

The players present on the night appreciated & accepted Alan Botfield’s apology for the scoring palaver during round 1.
The adjusted scores leave the overall leaderboard with a point each between the top three:
Merve Herneman on 31 points
Andrew Paton on 30 points
Luc De Vet on 29 points

Many thanks to our starter Francis Parisis, who (despite almost everyone’s best attempts at disrupting the schedule) saw us all off in good time and well refreshed. Cheers for the beers, Francis.

Thanks to the continued support from our main sponsor CITCO.

SHRM matchplay
Plenty of SHRM Matchplay results were decided on the night:

Rupert Birch, Jess Have & Derek Sinclair did not have to hit a shot to accept their respective walk-overs from Tony Whiteman, Willem Van Rooyen & Paul Goes.
Frank Maitry, Neil Underwood & Mark Gillies all hit too many shots to concede their respective matches 4&2 to Luc De Vet, Johan Terblanche & Dave Winters.
Rob McCorduck beat Ian Doherty on the 8th, winning 3&1.
Gregor Dalrymple beat Steve Brązowy 3&2.
Gerry Mullen fought Craig Ferreira down to the last, only to take advantage of the pond for an early bath & lose 1 down.

Any remaining Preliminary changes are to be played on or before 10th May & Round 1 to be played on or before 3rd June.

Thanks to SHRM for their continued support of the Matchplay event.

Housekeeping
The next event is in Junglinster on May 20th. Arnaud Bouteiller will be in touch to receive your preferred tee times.

Report – CITCO round 1 – 22 April 2015

Posted on by
Reply

The FROGS 2015 season is officially up and running, with 32 eager Frogs & guests lining up on the 1st for round 1 of the CITCO Grand Prix. Most of us managed to get to the tee-box on time and in an orderly manner, some even managed to get themselves off the tee-box on time & in an orderly fashion. A standard scratch of 14pts indicates that many managed to keep this good form throughout the round … although considering the actual strokes played seems not to have been considered when calculating the scores, this may be adjusted after final auditing is completed.

Many thanks to our starter Richard Neale, who managed to point us all in the right direction.

There were clear intentions from the reigning CITCO grand prix champion Dennis Robertson, who spent the week prior at a training camp in Dubai. Unfortunately overtraining resulted in a blistered pinkie, which curtailed his time on the range and this resulted in his absence from the pointy end of the scoreboard. Looks like Dennis will have to repeat his late run up the leader board again this year.

Intentions are also clear from the returning Colin Cameron, who hit the best of the shots on the 7th to claim the NTP award and a fine bottle of wine. Congrats Colin & welcome back.

Despite Jonny ‘Boom Boom’ Hill’s best efforts, Craig Ferreira continues to dominate the long drive & adds more FROG logo’d balls to his growing stockpile.

Emulating Jordan Spieth’s performance at the masters, Robert-Jan Bertina led the ‘Best Guest’ category from the moment he hit his first drive. No other guest was able to claw back his lead.

As usual, the pink ball was a hotly contested prize. Steve Br(a)un and John Sutherland both hit a sufficient amount of shots to earn themselves 6 points, but were eclipsed by Steve Kaiser who greedily hit the most shots on his way to earning 4 points. I am sure you will remember to tee off with that pink ball at your next FROGS event, Steve.

Low light conditions in the shadow of the scorer’s new facial growth is being blamed for more position swapping than an Essex swingers party. Merve Herneman will have to settle with having received the applause on the night, having been bumped from 3rd to 5th, losing out to Luc DeVet & John Brophy on countback. John has claimed the third rung on the podium ahead of Luc. Gerry Mullen & James King went toe-to-toe for the top rung on the CITCO grand prix leader board, both scoring 19pts. Despite having a -0.5 handicap, The King wins … all hail The King. Congrats on the win James & we look forward to seeing how many shots you have to give the course on May 6th, when the CITCO grand prix moves on to Preisch.

Thanks to the continued support from our main sponsor CITCO.

SHRM Matchplay
The SHRM Matchplay also got underway, with matches being played on the night.

Andrew Paton bt John Sutherland 4&2; Paolo Tarakdjian awaits you in the next round.
Neil Underwood bt Steve Kaiser 3 up in order to advance to meet previous SHRM matchplay champion – Johan Terblanche. Ian Doherty bt Tony Nightingale 4&2 – Rob McCorduck waits for the next round match.

Thanks to SHRM for their continued support of the Matchplay event.

The next event is in Preisch on May 6th. Dinner will be at the Hotel de la Frontiere.
After much squabbling, it was decided your starter will be Francis Parisis so watch out for a mail from him. Don’t worry Dennis Robertson, your offer will be carried forward.

Results of CITCO Grand Prix – final round – Grand Ducal – 31 July 2014

Posted on by
Reply

[singlepic id=199 w=300 h=300 float=right]
Last night saw multiple champions crowned with the last round of CITCO Race to Ducal completed and the SHRM matchplay final played out.

For the CITCO Race to Ducal – 26 FROGS & guests were seen off on the GCGD first tee by David Hopwood, and as he was unable to play, they were greeted by him at the bar on their return. While unavoidably dreary, the stories he had to endure were much less ‘if & nearly’ than expected, with standard scratch of 17 & a plethora of seasons bests. Thanks for the chilled refreshments Hoppy.

Craig Ferreira did his best to continue his domination of the longest drive however his arch-nemesis Jess Have edged ahead of him – but only by about 15yards. Steve Brown continued to consistently outdrive both of them, but consistently continued to put it in the long grass! Well done Jess, but now the dilemma of whether to keep using the driver that saw you murder the ball up & down the middle of each fairway, or to unwrap that shiny new Taylormade SLDR that is waiting for you in the shop.

Jess Have secured 4th place on 18 points, but as he had already won a compliment of balls for the LD, his prize was passed on to 5th place. Mark Phillips scored a seasons best 17 points, but was beaten to 5th place by Stef Ayache on count-back, also having hit a seasons best of 17 points. Dennis Robertson equaled his seasons best score of 18pts and edged ahead of Jess on count-back to win third place. Shame on those who questioned Dave Winters’ complex determination of the prize winner shufflings. Surely his ‘Trust me’ should have been enough to allay any concerns. It was sufficient for Bill Clinton, Berlusconi, & other similarly reputable gentlemen, so we have nothing to be concerned with. Willem Van Rooyen scored his seasons best with 19pts to claim second, but could not better Dave Winters, who had to have put himself into contention for the overall title with 21pts – also his seasons best. Time for that bunga-bunga party Dave!

Paul Sweetman scored 19 points to earn him the best guest prize, but as he was unable to attend the prize giving Ivor Johnstone collected the spoils.
[singlepic id=200 w=400 h=400 float=right]Stuart Rowlands & Ian Doherty both gathered up 11pts on their scrappy rounds but Daniel Kaiser, distracted by formal duties on the night, saved their blushes with his 8 points earning him the pink ball
Willem Van Rooyen got his ball inside Ayzo Van Eysinga’s effort to win the NTP honors on the 4th

So… on to the overall race to Ducal
John Sutherland secured 6th place, to find himself just outside the prizes.
Johan Terblanche increased his points tally by two to 77, but dropped back the leader board to 5th place.
Jonathan Hill, stagnating on 78 points, continued his slide down the overall rankings stopping at 4th place
Duncan Tippin’s ill timed holiday meant he could not improve his 80 points, costing him his top spot & earning relegation to the third place on the podium
Dave Winters seasons best was not best enough, and had to settle with second place & 82 points
Dennis Robertson knew he had a chance of overall glory so cut short a trip, caught the red-eye back to Lux, hit his seasons best, and bagged the title of overall CITCO Race to Ducal champion with 83 points – congratulations to you Dennis.

Many thanks to our generous sponsor CITCO.
_____________________________________________________

There was just one to SHRM Matchplay complete on the night – the heavyweight showdown between two previous champions in the 2014 final.

Johan Terblanche in the orange corner, and Ayzo Van Eysinga in the other orange corner! Terblanche was edgy and focused on the driving range, blasting balls into oblivion throughout his warm-up routine. Van Eysinga was also to be found on the range for his usual warm up, mostly catching the gossip & mocking other FROGS, with the occasional splaying of a ball or two.

The tension was palpable on the 1st tee as both athletes jostled for prime position at the front, however once each had receive their beers they visibly relaxed & toasted the match. Daniel Kaiser joined the pair (late) to allow the SHRM Matchplay final start.

Spectators following the match… sorry spectator… sorry the other person contractually obliged to be in the flight… saw the matchplay pressure yo-yo the lead back and forward. Van Eysinga took it on the first, Tereblanche reigned him back in on the second, Van Eysinga retook the lead again on the third. From that point on, Terblanche scrambled hard to keep his steadier opponent reigned in. His eagerness got the best of him on occasion, such as hitting his ball straight to the 7th teebox, bypassing the 6th green altogether. Once the players on the teebox shooed him back to finish out the 6th, he managed to win the hole with an unconventional par & bring the match back to 1-up Van Eysinga. Terblanche ensured the match stayed at 1-up by missing his short putt on the 7th, leaving Van Eysinga teed off down to the last with the slimmest of leads. Terblanche had a knee-knocker on the 9th green to force the extra hole, but blazed it wide. As he did all day, Van Eysinga calmly popped in his putt for a half, and took his second SHRM Matchplay Champion title – congratulations to you Ayzo.

Many thanks to our generous sponsor SHRM.

General news & house-keeping:
· The MIXvoip FROGS Pairs was rescheduled to Wednesday Aug 13th, but there is a potential shuffle with the Citable 3-club. More to come on this.
· The Ryder Cup is up next, this weekend. Jonny Hill will have given the team their timeslots. We still await confirmation from the Golfaholics on the numbers of their team and handicap details, confirming whether we will be able to use our reserve teams. 2014 green shirts & beige trouser/shorts is the order of the day.
· Full results, standings, etc… will be on the http://www.FROGS.lu website shortly.