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Tough-It-Out VT April event: Bethpage

Wed, Apr 29 2015 8:33 PM (88 replies)
  • Corwyn
    2,410 Posts
    Wed, Apr 8 2015 9:57 AM

    Something else is starting tomorrow... but I can't think what it is... 

    Anyway, here's a really important tournament that I know you'll want to be a part of:

    The next monthly VT Tough-It-Out event begins Thursday @ Bethpage!


    TOURNEY OPENS tomorrow Thursday

    TOURNEY IS NOW OPEN...

    R1 runs Thu 4/9 - Wed 4/15; R2 runs Thu 4/16 - Wed 4/22

    LEADERBOARD

    After the success of the holiday special at the beginning of the year, A Bandon Hope, and the two follow-up tourneys @ RSG in Feb, and Kiawah in March, the Tough-It-Out VT bandwagon moves on to Bethpage for April. We are offering a monthly TIO Starters-only tourney running parallel to the VT. 

    Prior 2015 events: 

    Jan: A Bandon Hope  (LB)

    Feb: Tough-It-Out VT Feb event: Royal St. George's  (LB)

    Mar: Tough-It-Out VT Mar event: Kiawah Island  (LB)

    Tough-It-Out competitions have run for several years as community organized events here on WGT (see example here). The Tough-It-Out concept is all about trying to mimic the hardest conditions in Major Championship golf, giving us the challenge of trying to tackle the toughest courses in a manner similar to that faced by the top pros. Par will be a great score! 

    By using Starter Clubs and Balls only, and doing it with Uneven Lies we believe this is the hardest test on WGT, and it's one that's a level playing field (pun intended) for all participants. 

    WGT is offering a sleeve (of good balls) to the top 5 players in this 2 single-play rounds event (Thanks Shoe!). Good luck! 

    FYI: We had hoped that these events would be official tourneys visible to all players through the game client, but apparently there are some programming issues with that because of the restricted club settings... so it will be accessed just via a link to be posted here: so, please help spread the word with friends and your Country Club:

    TOURNAMENT ENTRY LINK is HERE (event starts Thu 4/9: 1st Rnd ends Wed 4/15)

    ***Remember, to be in the running for any of the special prizes (see next post below), take SCREEN SHOTS of both f9 & b9 CARDS and all the STATS!!!!!***

    The tourney is open to all tiers and levels. We'll all be using the same clubs, balls, green speeds, and lies.

    PLEASE NOTE: the tourney link (when live from Thursday on) will take you directly to the game client, and if you do not have full Starter Clubs and Ball equipped, you'll get a warning message. Shoe sets these up as equipment-restricted events. 

    We really do want to encourage newbies to give it a go. It's a great chance for new players (who may be more familiar than old fogies with these clubs) to pit themselves against the best on WGT, and for the experienced player, it's a opportunity to revisit the fun of playing the game without the pressure of needing to make a birdie on almost every hole.

    Here are the tournament dates and conditions:

    R1 :: Thu 4/9 to Wed 4/15 ::

    18 holes; Bethpage BlackWhite (Medium) tees, High Wind, Champ13 greens, Hard pins, Uneven Lies, equipment restricted to Starter Clubs and Ball

    R2 :: Thu 4/16 to Wed 4/22 ::

    18 holes; Bethpage Black; Blue (Hard) tees, Moderate wind, Tourney11 greens, Easy pins, Uneven Lies, equipment restricted to Starter Clubs and Ball

    Please note, Shoe tried to set it up so that everyone gets the same set of Hard pins for R1, and that everyone also gets the same set of the different Easy pins for R2. However, apparently with this course, that is not possible (unlike at Kiawah last month). So, we will all get Random Hard for R1, and Random Easy for R2 (which I believe means the actual pin may be determined by wind conditions for that particular hole).

    Prizes:

    WGTdbloshoe is generously offering a sleeve (of good balls) to the top 5 finishers across two completed rounds.

    Other prizes will be announced below shortly, depending on what donations come in. Please feel free to offer something if you are so moved! As with prior Tough-It-Out events, we want to encourage sharing of descriptions and snapshotted scorecards and stats, so there'll be special prizes in different categories. And, of course, it would be great if any participants are willing and able to Twitch their rounds.

    Any questions, please feel free to ask here in the thread.

    Thanks, and have fun!

    TOURNAMENT ENTRY LINK is HERE!

    (event starts Thu 4/9: 1st Rnd ends Wed 4/15)

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

  • Corwyn
    2,410 Posts
    Wed, Apr 8 2015 9:58 AM

    PRIZES:

    WGTdbloshoe will award a sleeve to the top 5 on the final leaderboard

    In addition... we hope to have some Special Prizes, to be announced below.

    If anyone wants to be a sponsor, or has a particular prize they think should be offered, please let me know.

    Possible prizes (to be confirmed):

    1) Low score level 70 or lower (level at conclusion of tourney).

    2) Longest putt made.  SPONSORED: bhoese

    3) Number of saves.  SPONSORED: Corwyn

    4) Highest overall percentage of Greens in Regulation SPONSORED: bhoese

    5) Closest Ave. Distance to the Hole  SPONSORED: Ianzzz

    6) Greatest overall total distance made puttsSPONSORED: Corwyn

    Other potential ideas include: ctth on a particular hole, holes-in-oneLeast Number of Bogeys or WorseMost Number of Birdies, etc, etc.

     

    PRIZES SO FAR...

    Ben has very kindly stepped up to sponsor the GIR (Highest overall percentage of Greens in Regulation) and Longest Putt made prizes. Thank you Ben!

    I'll sponsor the other putting one, Greatest overall total distance made putts and also one for Most Number of 1-Putt Par Saves (as determined by scorecard).

    Ianzzz:
    I will happily put a prize up for this one and Ave distance to pin sounds a good idea

    Cheers

    ian

     

    SPECIAL PRIZES:

    Remember: To be in the running for special prizes, please note you will need to share screenshots of your scorecard and stats.

    Tips on how to take screenshots are here: http://www.take-a-screenshot.org/ and here.

    My recommended free hosting service is: http://postimage.org/ -- free, and no signup required) which will provide you with a 'direct link' which you paste in after clicking the 'Insert Media' button above.

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

    Again, any donations of prizes will be gratefully accepted! Don't be shy... !

  • Corwyn
    2,410 Posts
    Wed, Apr 8 2015 9:59 AM

    <reserved>

  • razza31
    703 Posts
    Wed, Apr 8 2015 11:30 PM

    Round 1 seems to be rather tough lol

  • Corwyn
    2,410 Posts
    Thu, Apr 9 2015 12:09 AM

    Hi Razza,

    You know, I went back and forth endless times trying to figure out what was a tough test but also fair and hopefully fun...

    ... and I probably wore out the patience of my good friends I consulted on the matter: thanks Ben, Cerino, Russ!

    I did try Mags' suggestion (in the March event thread) of setting this tourney up from the tips but it would have meant several fairways that just couldn't be reached (which in itself didn't rule it out) but the combination of that and the near-impossibility of stopping shots with starters to elevated greens made that too much in my opinion. Bethpage is particularly hard because it's such an aerial course. There aren't ways to run the ball up onto the green on many holes.

    I tried the course out from the Red (Easy) tees but felt that went too far the other way. I didn't want to 'cheapen' Tough-It-Out by making it too easy, lol. And I was hearing of sub-par rounds by my consultants even from the Medium tees (and almost-par, without advance practice, from the Hards). I also considered doing both rounds from the White (Medium) tees but in the end preferred the variety.

    So, yes, we do have a tough test. Bethpage even from the Medium tees plays almost as long as the Hard tees @ Kiawah and RSG in the prior events (see below).

    I strongly recommend getting in some practice, especially with your wedges. The ability to get up and down from 50-90 yards out to save par will be crucial to this tournament.

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

    Bethpage tee box yardages:

    Black (champ) tees: 7439

    Blue (Hard) tees : 7186

    White (Medium) tees: 6636

    Red (Easy): 6325


    March TIO event @ Kiawah: 

    R1 : Gold (hard) 6896

    R2 : White (Medium) 6486


    Feb TIO event @ RSG:

    R1 : White (Med): 6414

    R2 : Red (Hard): 6826

  • MatildaIgaly
    1,822 Posts
    Thu, Apr 9 2015 5:56 AM

    Corwyn:
    I strongly recommend getting in some practice, especially with your wedges. The ability to get up and down from 50-90 yards out to save par will be crucial to this tournament.

    lol tell me about it. My weakest shot in starter so i was doomed even before start :)

    In all fairness, i think it's to tough settings. Back nine with almost every shot against wind is not what you want.

    Learnt one thing though, hit  your ball into a greenbunker and pray for uphill lie!

    Still great fun so keep them coming.

     

     

  • jayw4862
    3,364 Posts
    Thu, Apr 9 2015 7:08 AM

    razza31:

    Round 1 seems to be rather tough lol

    Understatement of the year, lol. 

    Corwyn, I recorded my round. Not in the running for anything, I'm sure. As I see what others post/score, I will post screenshots, if necessary. Too embarrassed to put the vid on Youtube. Shot 79 (6 over on back w/ a triple bogey on #10, and was playing safe and conservative, too, lol).

  • fmagnets
    3,640 Posts
    Thu, Apr 9 2015 10:19 AM

    Well, I cobbled it round in 72, but it wasn't pretty. Only hit 6 greens because, even pitching at the front, the approaches won't stop when hitting so many long clubs in. Small under par is probably perfectly doable for anyone who practices this format, but I refuse to do this on the grounds of maintaining sanity!!

    Despite checking twice, I still managed to end up with the EZ swing 70 yard wedge in the bag. Luckily it was only needed for the 3rd into 7, so not too costly. Hopefully Shoe and Icon can get on top of this because it's the 3rd time this has been reported and it shouldn't be possible in a restricted clubs event.

    And I see this event has also gone into my stats. Having been trying all year to get my bunker %age to 80, and finally getting there a few days ago, 2 failed up and downs out of 4 bunkers has knocked me back to 79.94%. I know attention to detail is not Shoe's strong point, but can we please urge him to get these things set up properly?

  • Melonhead66630
    102 Posts
    Thu, Apr 9 2015 4:08 PM

    Here's my scorecard and stats................I hope.

    Front 9 I cruise pretty well, back 9 i developed a stutter and it hurt me.

    I did do much better than previous tournaments though.

    Thanks for setting these up, I enjoy them, hope others do too!

  • bhoese
    679 Posts
    Thu, Apr 9 2015 8:55 PM

    There are prizes to be announced...please post (or at least save) your scorecards and stats!

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