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Re: 'Tough-It-Out II': The Trans-Atlantic Starter Clubs Uneven Open RETURNS!

• Daboofness 438 Posts

  Fri, Feb 15 2013 6:55 AM

  Well...didn't win anything but did enjoy myself!!  Thanks again to all who worked feverishly to put this tourney on, offer prizes, and play as markers! I look forward to the next tourney (whatever that may be) as long as I'm allowed to play!

• Corwyn 2,410 Posts

  Fri, Feb 15 2013 12:07 PM

  Corwyn:

  Still no word at all from Neil (Unclenewy), so it's looking more and more likely that we'll have to consider him as a WD. Where are you, Neil?

  I'm hoping to wrap up placings and prizes tomorrow one way or another. Neil's deadline is 10am PST Friday.

  One thing to note is that Hans' wonderful coaching prize may be preferred by some of our winners, so if you're drawn at random for that you'll have the option of taking that prize, and letting the next-placed player in the relevant standings pick up the winnings.

  TOURNAMENT ANNOUNCEMENT: Tough-It-Out 2 is now officially over!

  Sadly, there's been no word from Neil at all, and, very reluctantly, we'll have to consider him as WithDrawn from the tourney. It's such an unfortunate situation, and we wish Neil all the best in dealing with it.

  It's a pity that now this is the second time TIO has had its 2nd placed player WD in the last round... and it's an awkward call for me as the organizer, as I stand to benefit directly in the prize-giving as a result. However, I don't think it fair on all the players or prize-sponsors to let things drag on indefinitely.

  So, I'm calling the Tourney FINISHED! Thank you everyone, for your patience, and for getting through the toughest tournament on WGT!!!

  Here is the link to the final Leaderboard and Special Prize Standings... and I'll prepare a full post with screenshots of these, and the confirmed list of prize-winners and sponsor responsibilities later today/tonight, and hopefully pull together the Tough-It-Out 2 trophies asap as well!

  Please note that I've invited Hans to go ahead and make his Random Drawing among all the finishers, and declare the winner of his Coaching prize here in the thread. That way, if it duplicates any winner of another prize, that player can choose to let the next-placed person in the standings take their winnings instead.

  Thanks,
  Corwyn

• Hanswurst72 1,097 Posts

  Fri, Feb 15 2013 12:12 PM

  I just made the random draw of my coaching prize and the winner is........... drumroll.........

  bhoese !

  Congrats to you and thanks to all participating players of this tournament.

  Cheers, Hans

• Corwyn 2,410 Posts

  Sun, Feb 17 2013 10:03 AM

  Apologies for the delay... real-life has intervened! 

  And now, for the Prizes and Final Standings!!! 

  See the next series of posts for each prize. And, please note, the trophies are still at the engravers, but I expect them to be finished in a day or so.

  Any questions about Prizes, please respond in the thread or by PM. And, if replying to any of the following prize posts, please quote selectively, or we may be overwhelmed!, and Shiner may prove right in us exceeding 100 pages of this thread!!!

  Here is the FINAL OVERALL LEADERBOARD 

  

  Once again, Hans has demonstrated his extraordinary prowess at the game in this format. His winning score of 277 (5 under par), a margin of 10 shots (compared to 16 in TIO1) is extraordinary, especially as he twice had disappointing rounds (for him!) this time around, on both of the windy links courses. (So, next time, we'll be sure to play exclusively on the British courses, in as much wind as possible, to help give everyone something of a fighting chance, lol!).

  And Hans also shot what was clearly the round of the tournament, and arguably one of the greatest rounds ever seen on WGT: his 66 (-4) at Olympic. Sure, it included a 3-putt bogey, but that just makes it all the more 'real' (rather than the unreal scores possible with fancy clubs and balls. After all, if every approach can be stopped on a dime 2 yards or so from the pin, it reduces even a course of Olympic's difficulty to dull dart-throwing.)

  In all, the tourney saw 13 rounds (out of 116) of par or better (compared to 10 in TIO1), with St Andrew's proving the 'easiest' course, yielding 9 of those, topped by unclenewy's beautiful -3. Hans was also the only player to shoot par or better at Oakmont, and at Royal St. George's, despite several players shooting under par in posted practice rounds, no-one managed to break par at all. However, Matt (bfghd) and Russ (ColumbusStorm) both played fabulously to record their best uneven starter rounds and the best on the course with even 70s. Only 2 out of 25 players got consistently better in relation to par as the tourney progressed through all 4 rounds: Johehejo, and Wassernixe. For most, one bad round somewhere along the way really hurt their final standing. Overall, we were a combined 717 over par for the 25 finishers!

  Corwyn and Cerino finished 2nd and 3rd respectively at +5 and +7 (although we can presume that Neil, had he been able to finish, would have challenged hard for a top 3 finish. He was +3 after 3 rounds). James finished at +10, hurt by a poor opening round, and an awful bit of VEM bad luck on the 3rd at RSG. Mizzy ended up 5th at +13, and then a cluster of players who all broke 300, Ben at +15, MB at +16, and Jure and Russ at +17. Mati rounded out our top 10 at +19.

  But perhaps the greatest achievement of all was to have so many players gut it out, and complete the tourney. 25 of you finished all 4 rounds in just about the toughest conditions imaginable. From a field of 32 that started the first round, that's a 78% completion rate (far higher than TIO1's 48%).

  All in all, I think the scheduling worked fairly well. We certainly had some hiccups, partly with players expecting to just find their partner online at the right time, and partly with the limited availability of some of us (myself included) preventing the ideal top of leaderboard match-ups. I'd welcome any suggestions for improvement of the Availability Chart method.

  And, finally, a special thank you is due to all of our wonderful sponsors. The prize pool for this tourney was something really special about Tough-It-Out 2, and I believe, has really kept interest going throughout, and made the stats freaks among us extremely happy, lol. The organizers, Cerino and I, put up the 6,500 cr of the main prizes (placings, and GIR and Ave. Distance to the Pin), but at a rough calculation (assuming a 450 cr value for ball sleeves), all the other special prizes combined added approx 8,000 cr to the tourney pool, making an approximate total of nearly 15,000 (not bad for a starters tourney!), and then there's Hans' prize as well, which as they say, is priceless! Thank you all for your incredible generosity!

  ---------------------------------------------------------------------

  Corwyn:

  PRIZES: Tourney organizers are covering the main prizes, which are as follows:

  1st place: 2,500 credit purchases in the Pro Shop
  2nd place: 1,500 credit purchases in the Pro Shop
  3rd place: 1,000 credit purchases in the Pro Shop

  1st place: Hanswurst72
  2nd place: Corwyn
  3rd place: CerinoDevoti

• Woodoworkery 3,498 Posts

  Sun, Feb 17 2013 10:13 AM

  So where is the names of the other prizes?

• Corwyn 2,410 Posts

  Sun, Feb 17 2013 10:13 AM

  APPROACH PLAY:

  GIR standings:

  
  

  In the Greens in Regulation standings, Mizzy fell 2 greens short of Hans' winning total of 62.8%, but will share the spoils with Hans (who, as a top 3 finisher, is only eligible for 50% of the prize).

  Notable achievements in this category were Hans' 72% at Olympic, a phenomenal stat given how hard it is to hit and hold those greens, and best throughout the tourney scores at St Andrews of 83% for Mati, iMikeAllStar, and Joe.

  Ave. Distance to the Pin:

  

  Phil (Phaxda) cleaned up the Ave. Distance to the Pin prize by a significant margin in the end, his fantastic 5.2ft from the first round well supported by solid scores in the remainder of the tourney (and no doubt, some clever tactics to get there). Congratulations, Phil, on mastering this intriguing extra aspect to the gameplay. This is my favorite sub-prize, for the way in which it introduces such additional course management strategy. James came in 2nd here, with great showings from iMikeAllStar and FairwayRuepel as well.

  ------------------------------------------------------

  Corwyn:

  1. Most Greens in Regulation (750 credit purchases in the Pro Shop; ***)

  2. Closest Ave. Distance to the Pin  (750 credit purchases in the Pro Shop; ***)

  1. Most Greens in Regulation: shared between Mizzy & Hans (375 credit purchases each in the Pro Shop each)

  2. Closest Ave. Distance to the Pin: Phil (750 credit purchases in the Pro Shop)

• Corwyn 2,410 Posts

  Sun, Feb 17 2013 10:14 AM

  IMPROVEMENT:

  

  The Greatest Improvement prizes (calculated in this manner) were snapped up by Phil (Phaxda) with a 14.78% improvement in his overall total compared to 1st Round amount over par, and Steve (mnshiner) with 13.69%. Woodo, Mati, and Daboofness all also made improvements of over 10% throughout the tourney, and assuming this method of calculation gives some degree of accuracy in reflecting improvement, all but 2 players in the field ended up with an improved score against par by the end, which is wonderful! (And Russ [ColumbusStorm], one of those 2 that didn't, did make an almost 4% improvement on his score from TIO1).

  And, for interest, the table includes the scores of those players who also completed TIO1 (and showing how they improved second time around).

  --------------------------------------------------

  Corwyn:

  3. Greatest Improvement (relative to par) throughout the tourney (from Rnd 1-4)
  (Top 2 players in this category win a sleeve of balls of their choice; sponsor: jimbean346) [calculation of biggest improvement in percentage by comparison of % over par in 1st round against % over par for 72 holes]

  Greatest Improvement (relative to par) throughout tourney:
  Phil (Phaxda) & Steve (mnshiner)

  Sponsor: jimbean346

  (please contact James to let him know which sleeve you would like for your prize)

• Corwyn 2,410 Posts

  Sun, Feb 17 2013 10:14 AM

  BIRDIES:

  

  In the Most Birdies standings, Hans ended up with an astonishing 19 birdies across the 4 rounds (only 4 of them on the 14 par 3 holes, and with 4 of the other 15 on par 5s, indicating as much as anything else, an extreme proficiency with uneven lie approaches, and of course his putting!). But since Hans is not eligible for the actual prize (as one of the top 3 finishers), that goes to Gary (Woodoworkery), who made an extremely impressive 16 birdies overall. For someone who only finished tied for 17th, with +36, this was really surprising. Of all our players, Gary may have been the most aggressive, attacking the pins with a vengeance… Sometimes it worked, but his tally of 33 bogeys or worse indicates that it had its costs. Alternatively, perhaps he is just such a good putter that birdies could come from anywhere on the green (once he got there!).

  -------------------------------------------------------------

  Corwyn:

  4. Most Birdies across whole tourney (goes to next placed player not already in top 3 places): (1 player wins a sleeve of balls of their choice; sponsor: jimbean346) [tie-breaker will be most birdies on non-par3 holes]

   

  Most Birdies prize: Gary (Woodoworkery)

  Sponsor: jimbean346

  (please contact James to let him know which sleeve you would like for your prize)

   

• Corwyn 2,410 Posts

  Sun, Feb 17 2013 10:14 AM

  BOGEYS:

  

  Not so surprisingly, our top 6 finishers are also in the top 6 with Least # of bogies or worse, indicating that this is the most reliable path to success with uneven starters. However, interestingly, not one player managed to get through an entire round without a bogey, with only Hans at Olympic, and Corwyn at St Andrews, both with 1, getting close.

  Again Hans finishes first in this category with just 14 bogeys or worse, Corwyn is one back with 15, but our prize-winner is MizzyMan, who although tied with Ben and Cerino in third place (with none of our top 3 finishers, Hans, Corwyn, and Cerino, eligible), wins it over Ben based on the tie-breaker, fewest number of double-bogeys or worse. He had just 1 double, compared to Ben's 5+? (1 scorecard is missing so I can't tell if Ben's total is more than 5 or not.)

  -----------------------------------------

  Corwyn:

  5. Least Bogies or Worse across whole tourney (goes to next placed player not already in top 3 places): (1 player wins a sleeve of balls of their choice; sponsor: jimbean346) [tie-breaker will be least number of double-bogies or worse]

   

  Least Bogeys prize: MizzyMan

  Sponsor: jimbean346

  (please contact James to let him know which sleeve you would like for your prize)

   

• Corwyn 2,410 Posts

  Sun, Feb 17 2013 10:14 AM

  PUTTING:

  

  Gary (Woodo) wins the Total Distance Putts made award, just beating out Hans by a mere 7.28ft, probably the length of just one missed putt during Hans final round (marked, ironically enough, by Gary himself). Corwyn and James were nearly 100 ft behind in the standings, but no fewer than 9 players had rounds with total putts made of over 100 feet, a great achievement by all with the starter putter.

  Cerino deserves special mention here for his extraordinary stat in the final round, a grand total of just 24.76 ft, just about the lowest total possible. However, Cerino, alone among the field, managed to get through all 72 holes without a single 3-putt to win the No 3-putt award.

  Incidentally, I was curious to see how many putts people had taken, and surprise, surprise, Hans came in well under everyone else with just 110 putts overall, needing just 27 or 28 every round, 7 better than anyone else. Also notable was James' total of just 24 putts at Olympic, on the toughest greens of all.

  ------------------------------------

  6. Longest total distance of putts across whole tourney (1 player wins a sleeve of lvl71 Nikes or 450cr; note winner will need to post their Putting stats tab each round to be eligible; sponsor: MizzyMan)

  Longest total distance of putts prize: Gary (Woodoworkery)

  Sponsor: MizzyMan

  (please contact Mizzy to let him know your prize preference)

  -------------------------------------

  12. "No-3-putt" throughout the whole tourney (1 pack of balls of players choice, up to 450 credits. If multiple players tie for the prize, the winner is determined by the highest total GIR amongst them; sponsor Hanswurst72).

  No-3-putt prize: CerinoDevoti

  Sponsor: Hanswurst72

  (please contact Hans to let him know which sleeve you would like for your prize)