I just want to add my gratitude for this great uneven lies tourney. Thank you WGT!
I really enjoyed the challenge of playing Merion with unevens alongside the best of the best. It's a great course in these tough conditions, really forcing you to consider all your shots, and the risks involved.
I'd love to see a similar-format special Uneven Lies tourney every month (every 2 weeks might be too often to keep this as something unique and special, IMO), picking a course to correspond in some way with a key real-life tournament if possible (e.g. July could be a links course St A's or RSG to coincide with the British Open).
A few minor suggestions:
1. A return to a split weekday/weekend schedule, which you used in the January uneven lies Invitationals, which ran from maybe Tues-Sat, and then the final round from Sun-Mon. The overlap with the weekend allowed players who could only play weekdays or weekends to get both rounds in easily. Running it Tues-Fri, and then Sat-Sun makes it hard for a lot of us.
2. Could it be a cut-line of 50% + ties, rather than just 50%? Missing out on the tie-breaker is an awfully cruel way to be eliminated. And, looking at the TL division, it's striking that a lot of 1st-round 63s missed the cut, yet the eventual winner (congrats fm!) was just 2 shots better on 1st round.
[BTW: I love that the winner was the player who produced the best single-play round (by 4 shots) in the harder conditions, and who was 4 shots back after the unlimited, perhaps proving that endless grinding for the top 1st round score is not essential! And I'm also stunned by how many WDs there were amongst the TLs: I'm guessing that a lot of players assumed many birdies were needed for a decent finish, and might have given up early. But, in this format, a cool head and lots of patience are critical.]
3. Can there be more clarity on the format? A number of players didn't realize the unlimited 1st round (which I'd prefer it wasn't, but I understand WGT may need to do it that way for 'ball use' to help subsidize the doubled prize fund)... was going to count towards the final aggregate score.
Using the phrase 'qualifier round' is confusing: "This free tournament is a week-long challenge with an unlimited-play qualifier round from 6/3-6/7". How about: "This free tournament is a week-long challenge with aggregate scores from an unlimited-play qualifier 1st round from x/x-x/x, and the top 50% + ties advancing to a single-play championship 2nd round, x/x-x/x."
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Finally, congratulations to Hanswurst72 (for a runaway win in the Legends division), and to fmagnets (for winning the TL division; and commiserations bullfrog, for coming so close).