CerinoDevoti:I'm really stoked to read some of the final comments from our players. Sounds like many learned what Corwyn and I hoped many would learn. The Courses were designed many years ago when the equipment was about as good as the starter gear or even worse.The starter gear is a little better than hickory sticks and dried dung balls but not by much. It takes a heck of a lot of plotting and thinking to manage around these old Courses instead of throwing darts to 2 feet. We have to learn the Course Design as it was intended to fully get everything out of each round. Any course management skills we can muster up have to be used to the fullest and playing for par, as a good score, many times is the only way to play a hole. Something that has helped my "fancy Club" game is learning the rolls in the fairways and the run ups to the greens. Now if I miss a fairway and have to hit a punch shot to run up to the green, I know how the ball will react and if the run ups are tilted one way or the other. I hope to never need that kind of info but learning what's under the ball at all times comes in handy when saving a par now and again.
Sounds like Corwyn and I have a field of the willing for future events of this kind and that's another great thing to be reading. As for 9 vs. 18 hole rounds I'm of the opinion that 9 holes isn't a round of golf. I'd prefer there were no 9 holes rounds here in the game. All the courses are designed to carry us through a journey that includes all the holes. If you note what clubs you're hitting on approach a pattern can be seen on each course. Your hitting draws and fades off the UL through your irons in a specific sequence that tests our abilities. Mid iron draw followed by long iron fade with "relief in the par 3's. We picked these 4 courses, the wind speeds and the green speeds specifically for that reason. They carry you around working the ball both ways and make us prove to ourselves that we can hit "all the shots". I hear that all the time watching US and British Opens. Hitting "all the shots" are what Opens are about. This Tourney was meant to be "Tough" as in the title. If you've played all four rounds you know it. I'd like to give a shout-out to Hyena64. He was the "anchor" of the Tourney and never complained about anything. Sounds like he gave up more than a pound of flesh to the UL and still came out the other side smiling. You have to have no ego at all and love the game to keep posting scores at the other end of the leaderboard. A special un-announced prize will be going to him for truly "Toughing It Out" and bringing it home with grace and humility.
Thank you all and please have fun playing this game. Fun is the best thing to have so seek it and gather it to yourselves.
~CD~
Hear, hear!!! What a great post, Cerino! (And a fitting one for your 1,000th post milestone!)
And I can't think of a more deserving winner of a special prize than Hyena, whose wonderful attitude has helped keep us all going through the toughest times. That said, everyone finishing this tourney deserves a special prize, as it takes a lot of guts to set your pride aside and tackle these courses in this format. Congratulations to everyone for getting through it.
I don't feel quite ready to try and sum up my reflections on the tourney (not having quite finished yet, lol!). I couldn't top what Cerino has said anyway... I will say, though, that I've enjoyed the immersion in the tourney: I put away my other clubs altogether at the beginning, and have just stuck with the hickories and the rock ball, and it's gotten a lot easier as I've gone along, especially the putting. And, I've loved exclusively playing one course a week, with a practice of some sort (even if just a random 3) every day. It really gives you the chance to appreciate one course, and the architect's intentions (or nature's designs).
I'll share too my strangest, and most successful, practice round from last night, which for me, really illustrated Cerino's points about course management above. I shot a bogey-free -2, which somehow included no birdies on any par 3s, despite having 12-15 ft putts on each one! But the key, of course, to a good round, was the par-saving, accomplished not just by great scrambling, but primarily by forcing myself to lay up to the best distance, rather than being too aggressive. I had the hard headwinds on #4, #15, #17, #18, but still parred them by leaving full LW distances, and I tell you, they all felt like birdies to me!
So, still not enough to scare Hans... although who knows, add that par-making to a day of awesome birdie putting (especially on the par 3s), and anything could happen...
