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'Tough-It-Out': The Trans-Atlantic Starter Clubs Uneven Open

• CerinoDevoti 3,232 Posts

  Thu, Oct 25 2012 5:50 AM

  strawbridgemicha:

  Excelant game it's such a challenge, i really enjoy this format.Many many thanks to the organizers you have done a smahing job,and i appreciate all your hard work, hope there will be more of these competions using unequal lies.   Micha

  I'm really glad to hear you're enjoying the game play with the uneven lies and the starters. I'm surprised that WGT hasn't offered up some sort of uneven lies tourney of their own. I find the look and game play very rewarding. Hitting draws and fades to greens off the uneven fairway lies just feels most realistic to me. When I first joined WGT I assumed the ground had an effect on shots so I was aiming all over the place thinking we had to compensate. Needless to say my start on WGT wasn't so great. ;-).

  I watched very closely this years US open at Olympic and some of the shots hit by the Pros and their results were a little shocking. Watching guys need to hit short of greens or long on greens just to hold them looked brutal. Now that we have the uneven lies the shots makes so much more sense. I've had to hit exactly the same type shots to assure pars on certain holes. Carrying the approach all the way on some green ends up long and in the rough.  On Olympic the balance of going for a GIR and knowing the result can actually be worse than missing the green is a tough decision when you're in the middle of a round. I have to continue to throttle myself back to actually score better. Now I understand what the Pros are talking about when they say they had to "be patient and allow the course to come to them" during an Open Championship. Grinding out pars can wear you down but it's rewarding at the end when you don't have bogies in their place.

  Also, I echo your thoughts regarding Corwyn's work in running the show. He's done a very serious and careful job of thinking out many different scenarios behind the scenes. Never having run a Tourney before he's doing a smashing job and should be recognized by all of us for the time and thought he's poured into this. :-)

• Hanswurst72 1,097 Posts

  Thu, Oct 25 2012 12:48 PM

  Colm sadly (actually it is not sad at all, but for this tournament) has some spontaneous family commitments from now on which prevents us playing our round as scheduled (basically now). His main alternative, Sunday,  is really not too good for me due to similar reasons. Someone might have to mark for him whenever he finds a small schedule gap. We dont seem to be too good at scheduling games with each other to say the least :-P

  I would love to play the round today or at least tomorrow, ideally with someone of the top 5 to mark me. Basically it comes down to Kurt, Cerino and Corwyn. Is anyone of you available to play the round with me or mark me in maybe?

  Cheers and thanks already,

  Hans

• Corwyn 2,410 Posts

  Thu, Oct 25 2012 3:50 PM

  Hi Hans,

  [We've been Messaging each other too on this, but I'll reply publicly as well, so others know what's happening].

  Because it's such a unique opportunity to have the leaders play together down the final stretch of a long tourney, I'd like to offer the 2 of you the chance to extend into early next week if that would enable you to play your rounds with each other (rather than markers).

  Let us know via the thread if you can make this work, preferably on Mon, Tue, or Wed if possible, so as not to keep the rest of us in suspense for too long!

  If it needs to be marking, I'm available Fri 9:15am-12:15pm (Pacific Time), or late evenings 10pm-midnight (Pacific) Thu/Fri, but it doesn't seem as if those will work well for your time in Germany.

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

  How is everyone else doing in scheduling their last-round games?

• CerinoDevoti 3,232 Posts

  Thu, Oct 25 2012 4:02 PM

  Corwyn:

  Hi Hans,

  [We've been Messaging each other too on this, but I'll reply publically as well, so others know what's happening].

  Because it's such a unique opportunity to have the leaders play together down the final stretch of a long tourney, I'd like to offer the 2 of you the chance to extend into early next week if that would enable you to play your rounds with each other (rather than markers).

  Let us know via the thread if you can make this work, preferably on Mon, Tue, or Wed if possible, so as not to keep the rest of us in suspense for too long!

  If it needs to be marking, I'm available Fri 9:15am-12:15pm (Pacific Time), or late evenings 10pm-midnight (Pacific) Thu/Fri, but it doesn't seem as if those will work well for your time in Germany.

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

  How is everyone else doing in scheduling their last-round games?

  I back this idea 100%. I'm willing to mark for Hans as well but I'd really like as many games as possible to be played between paired players. Kurtsbuford and I are scheduled for Saturday morning.

  ~CD~

• Hanswurst72 1,097 Posts

  Thu, Oct 25 2012 4:40 PM

  I will ask him for his opinion on this, thanks for the chance. In case there is no answer until tomorrow mid day german time, I will have to get my round marked (for example alosso said he could probably do it) as the weekend is - as always - not too good for wgt golf for me and next week will be definitely more critical as well.

  Cheers and sorry,

  Hans

• oneeyedjohn 9,581 Posts

  Thu, Oct 25 2012 6:23 PM

  Just want to add my appreciation for the work and thought put into this tournament by Cerino and Corwyn. Special thanks to Corwyn for getting me started when it looked dodgy.

  It is something I have looked forward to each week.  So much so that yesterday I entered a CC comp not realising I had all Starter stuff in my bag still, I did ponder whether to continue but eventually withdrew,lol

  Looks like I won't be relieving anyone here of any prizes, but have enjoyed participating.

  Please invite me again if something similar is arranged.

  Thanks.

  OeJ

• MrAxelrod 33 Posts

  Thu, Oct 25 2012 8:27 PM

  [View:http://www.wgt.com/themes/wgt/utility/ :450:0]

• Corwyn 2,410 Posts

  Thu, Oct 25 2012 11:11 PM

  As we near the end of the tourney, here is an updated Leaderboard , GIR, and Ave. Distance to the Pin standings (see all the tabs in full at the link here):

  (Note: this doesn't yet have Axel and hyena's 4th round scores from earlier this evening. Just waiting on their full details to be posted)

  
  

  Plenty of intrigue at the top of the leaderboard: can Hans hang on to a 5 shot lead over Colm (cmdking) on the toughest course, and can either of them master Olympic sufficiently to end the 72 holes under par? (Which, given that the other 21 of us are a collective 577 over par, is quite an achievement!!!)

  Cerino and Buffers (Kurtsbuford) appear to be slogging it out for the 3rd place, with Corwyn in the clubhouse 2-3 shots back if they slip up.

  For the Special Prizes, it looks impossible for anyone to catch Hans for the GIR award, but it'll be interesting to see just what the best GIR score is on Olympic.

  And, in the Ave. Distance to the Pin standings, OeJ has the clubhouse lead with an impressive 22.4 ft average. However, Hans, Colm, and Stu (Spino1) (the 3rd round leader in this category) all are well placed to challenge. Indeed, Stu, with nothing else at stake, has an interesting conundrum to consider in thinking about how to play his final round. If he can get 25.4 ft or less 22.6 ft [edit: new target to better Hans' total following his 4th round score] in the last round he could win. He could choose to play to deliberately miss greens except where he's got a good bet to get close, e.g. #7, #17, and perhaps other holes where he can choose a line to the pin where if you go long you run through, e.g. #9, #10, #16. It would be quite the feat to plan and execute such a strategy: will he try it?!

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

  I'd like to give a special thank you to Alosso for helping me make sense of the Stats involved in the Ave. Distance prize. Although we are ultimately creating an artificial average across the 4 rounds that isn't exactly mathematically accurate, it is the best available option given the data available, and the way in which WGT calculates GIR. [For the record, par 3s do count towards GIR, but do not count towards Ave. Distance to the Pin]

• alosso 21,072 Posts

  Fri, Oct 26 2012 5:48 AM

  What a day!

  I had the pleasure...

  - to accompany a Gentleman friend, Hanswurst27, on his fourth round,

  - to see him fight his way through ##1-6 in +2,

  - to witness his struggle with the demon DEVIATIONS,

  - to see him recover to even par through 7-12,

  - to prove his outstanding class in -3 through 15-17,

  - and to be the first to congratulate him for the first sub-par round on OLY in our tourney and the most probable win!

  Congrats again, Hans, to your marvellous 69 score!

  The best shots IMHO were on 17, staying on the fairway after the drive and placing the approach straight below the hole from a very uneven lie - an easy birdie & a great show of class and skills!!

  Other scores: 67% GIR, 21.3 ft ave.dist. (entered them in the spreadsheet),

  I granted me some relief, packing my vintage TP bag with the Rapture 3WD and two Satins, playing driverless like in the olde days. It was easier to play, allowing me to reach GIR at #6, but the easier situation and some chipping errors lead to a repeat of my previous 80. Two or three successful "Wadlbeisser" (ankle biters), i.e. 8 ft putts, will stay in my memory.

  
  
  

  A shot of myself to prove the UEL:
  

  Hans' pics: