Hey all,
Please move along if you disagree with the following statement:
The scores are roughly decided before one takes his.her first tee shot.
For those who remain, perhaps customer/player advice can fix this monster that WGT has created. I love the game, but not the drunk who comes home every night and beats me with a flashlight. Sometimes, I play and I hit the DING continuously. The finger click matches up and you have that 'feel'. These rounds, I tend to score just below par as my clubs are not top-notch, nor do I use insanely expensive balls. I get that. You want to shoot in the 50s, you've got to shell out the 50s. Anyhow, the point is that I know my limitations, play for fun within them, and expect to shoot around a certain score with variance, obviously.
However, the variance should be reasonable and should not feel contrived the way it is. My last round on Merion was a perfect example of not being able to do anything right. I parred every single front 9 hole. I had more than a few 2-4 foot putts that didn't drop for birdie. These are gimmes any other round. Then, the back 9. Water found me. A bunker shot (14 yds @ 30-40%/I hit at 35ish yds) that I make any time suddenly finds the brush on the lip, not catch and snag, but sort of flopped down into it. It took 3 shots to get out. Got 5+ on the hole. Also, the ENTIRE game, I could count the DINGs on one hand! I normally, as a conservative guess, DING more often than not, so let's say 50%. When you go from 35/70 DINGs to 5/70 DINGs, something's up.
Anyhow, that's my rant. Now, to the reason I'm here. Is there a viable alternative to score manipulation? Would it be possible to keep the game fair for all without making it simply a slot machine? Essentially, that's what it is: you pull the handle and wait to see where the ball goes. This whole "JACKPOT/JACKPOT/BOGIE" crap is getting wearisome (much like these rants, and that's why I think WGT needs some input).