With Mac having finished her delayed 3rd Round earlier today, here is the current state of the tournament as we all head off to Merion for the final round.
Here is the Overall Leaderboard, and below it, standings for all the special prizes.
Everything can be perused at this link, or by right-clicking the images below, open in new tab & enlarge.
At the top, Corwyn leads by 7. What chance a Norman-esque collapse in the final round... ? Merion is just the sort of course where a couple of bad shots could lead to double-bogies, and where someone could shoot an inspired round and card a real low number, so anything's still possible. Or, if he can avoid a collapse, can he still finish the tourney under par, which is also possible for Neil, Cerino, and even Ben if any of them shoot a best-ever TIO round?
Things are tighter in the battle for 2nd and 3rd, with just 2 shots separating Neil from Cerino, and Cerino from Ben. So the placings prizes seem destined to go right down the 18th. And Dazza isn't entirely out of the running for a top 3, if he can carry forward his splendid form from Olympic.
Just a couple of shots separate our next 7 players...
... and then down at the other end of the leaderboard, we have the prospect of an intriguing battle for Gary's generous 'Tough-It-Out' consolation prize, as LJ and BZ are paired together with a 6-stroke differential and the dilemma of whether to play for pride or prize! (and hyena is potentially close enough to scoop the anchor pot too!).
STANDINGS FOR SPECIAL PRIZES:
Most Greens in Regulation
Corwyn still leads in this category, despite a struggle at Olympic. But James, Inigo, and Jay are all close behind. If they hit 4 more greens than Corwyn, they can catch him!
Our special prizes (sponsored by bhoese) for GIR for Olympic, and for closest GIR (the calculated result), were intended to reflect the incredible difficulty of hitting and holding those greens. However, I was really impressed that no less than 8 players managed 50% or greater GIR at Oly, and Mac (our final finisher) was the pick of the field, achieving a GIR of 61% and scooping that prize.
In the calculated result GIR, our winner is Ian (Legaci) whose sole non-par-3 green hit at #17 at 4.4 ft made a big impact on the calculation, and secured that prize by a wide margin. Bad luck to Wessdog who was close in both categories.
(Note that any player finishing in the top 3 in the tourney is only eligible for 50% of this prize)
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Closest Ave. Distance to the Pin
This stat is fascinating, with none of the leaders anywhere high in the rankings. It's a good category for players who fancy a strategic challenge to aim for a prize. Provided you record a legitimate score each round (i.e. by hitting at least one non-par-3 green: see this post for clarification), you could even play to deliberately miss most greens, and be very selective about the ones you do go for the pin on (i.e. only those you're pretty sure you can get close with). This is pretty much what happened, by accident, last round with Ian (Legaci), and has given him a commanding lead in this stat. Can anyone else pull off a similar success?
This stat does not count par 3s, so it's only your shots that get on in regulation for par 4s and par 5s.
Expect some interesting tactical play come the last round, as the competition hots up for this prize! (and note that any player finishing in the top 3 in the tourney, is only eligible for 50% of this prize).
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'Low-Am' prize: Lowest final score among players Master tier or below
Note that GolfingJMan and JayO92 both voluntarily took themselves out of the running for bhoese's very generous iron set prize for Low-Am... That said, Inigo may well outscore them anyway. He's a stone-cold certainty to win this one, holding a 25 shot lead over Deedles, and a 42 shot lead over BZ.
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"No-3-putt" throughout all 72 holes of the tourney
And then there were two... Only Cerino, and Ben are still in the running for this prize...
... can they keep it together on Merion's greens, especially as they'll be birdie-hunting in the race for 2nd and 3rd place.
Good luck, fellas!
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Most Birdies
Not surprisingly, our leader Corwyn also heads up the Most Birdies standings with 12, with Micke (hobbe95) 3 behind on 9. But Merion is that rare course where even a dozen birdies are theoretically possible on a lucky day, so anything can happen.
Please note, anyone finishing in the top 3 in the tourney is not eligible for this prize at all, so the question is who can catch Micke?
Interestingly, as I looked at our tie-breaker (most # of eagles) I discovered that we haven't had a single one yet in the tourney. Surely that must change at Merion where hole-out approaches seem more likely than at any other course.
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Least Bogies or Worse
Cerino and myself heading the list here, but Dazza, Jay, Neil and Ben doing very nicely too. Lots to play for here as well with the top 3 ineligible.
Interestingly, our tie-breaker here: least # of double-bogies or worse, shows that only 3 players, Corwyn, unclenewy, and hobbe95 have avoided a double-bogey so far.
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Lowest 4 round final score with an overall GIR of 50% or less
This is a tricky prize... Arguably Merion is the easiest GIR course of our set, and so this standing could change considerably by tourney-end. The numbered players in the spreadsheet above are those whose GIR is at 50% or lower, with Cerino leading the pack, but since Russ' new Wedge prize is also restricted to those outside the top 3, both he (and perhaps Ben too, just 2 shots back) may be out of the running.
Hobbe95 may be the best placed with a GIR of 39% and sitting at +13 for the tourney. Could lead to some strategic play on his part down the final stretch...
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Longest total distance of putts made across whole tourney
Well, Corwyn leap-frogged Russ thanks to a couple of long putts at Olympic, and is in danger of winning his own prize here... and even still has an outside shot at Woodoworkery's all-time TIO record of 441.67ft.
However, there's only 22 ft in it between Corwyn and Russ, so this prize is wide open!
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We seem to have a tie for Inigo's special prize for CTTH on #13, with both Dazza501 and jlucky3333 achieving an 18ft result. (only James made his birdie, though!)...
... although Mati (12ft) and hobbe (13ft) both got closer, but without any proof.
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Hopefully, there are still possible prizes for most players to be chasing if they so choose, and even if not, still more fun to be had in the final round of TIO3.
Many thanks to all our generous prize sponsors, and to all the players for supplying your fascinating stats from each round. Good luck at Merion!