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Add more randomness to green speed selection

• Panteleimon 17 Posts

  Tue, Aug 31 2010 8:33 AM

  zagraniczniak:

  Can't speak for those big shots, but for a so-so player who worked up to Master I did not think it was very much trouble to adjust to the faster greens. In my experience they are reasonably consistent. If they were 100% predictable it would be a mechanical exercise and not a game.

  An exception, in many players' opinion, was the greens at Oakmont during the championship qualifier. You could be just next to the hole, but if you didn't quite make it the ball would often slide off into oblivion. Word from the experts is that the greens really are like that in real life. In any event, the bit shot WGT players managed to conquer those greens, too (to shoot 61's or thereabouts). Now, in the regular ranked round mode, the Oakmont vfg greens are entirely playable.

  This particular suggestion is not against very fast greens (though, I admit to not liking them), but against the utter predictability of which speed of greens you'll get. Sometimes even an all-star will play slow, sluggish greens -- and sometimes even duffers will play unbelievably fast greens. This randomness should be reflected here.

• cozmozogg 167 Posts

  Tue, Aug 31 2010 8:47 AM

  hey doublemocha, i'm waitin for you to send me the video of the putt from 6 feet away, an inch above the hole, that when barely hit, breaks 12 feet and rolls 25 :) even the approach shot by kuchar in the Barclay's playoff didn't do that - punched with a 7-iron from the rough...

• zagraniczniak 1,984 Posts

  Tue, Aug 31 2010 8:52 AM

  Panteleimon:

  Sometimes even an all-star will play slow, sluggish greens -- and sometimes even duffers will play unbelievably fast greens. This randomness should be reflected here.

  Amen! I'm with you there. While it is true that championships are set up with green and rough manicured to achieve specific playing conditions, it would actually be harder for a top player in WGT to sometimes get a mix of green speeds.

  "A mix of fresh greens" you might say - and that's my approach shot to dinner.

• cozmozogg 167 Posts

  Tue, Aug 31 2010 8:56 AM

  i agree with your desideratum zag, but i would like the ability to modify those settings [pins/winds/green speeds/weather]. if i can't, as long as part of the "random" conditions don't mean that when i am reading a putt and hit it 3 feet, it goes 2-8 feet - not some "random" distance/break, or hit my 3i [200 yds] into a 15 mph headwind full meter, perfect ding, no spin and watch it fly 140yds, know what i mean?

• Doublemochaman 2,009 Posts

  Tue, Aug 31 2010 9:03 AM

  There was an interesting situation in the U.S. Amateur at Chambers Bay where a player putted to within 1 foot of the hole and his opponent immediately conceded the putt for a tie on the hole.  But after a brief pause the ball began to roll away from the hole some 7 feet!  Too late, the par had been conceded. 

• zagraniczniak 1,984 Posts

  Tue, Aug 31 2010 9:09 AM

  cozmozogg:

  i would like the ability to modify those settings [pins/winds/green speeds/weather].

  The way I picture it the conditions would be mentioned on the display (much as the wind is now shown). Now the wind sometimes moves around on you as you line up your shot (the weather vane shifts a bit) and you adjust accordingly. So, in this view, your lie might read "wet sand, 50/60%," or "damp green, speed slow" etc.

  And depending on the game mode you could select specific conditions, random conditions and so on.

• cozmozogg 167 Posts

  Tue, Aug 31 2010 9:51 AM

  Wow! was the wind howling or what? i remember the open championship at STA in july - but if the balls moved on the green, they would suspend play... and at the JELD-WEN Tradition, a ball hung on the edge for a good 15 seconds, and as the player approached the ball it fell in

• cozmozogg 167 Posts

  Tue, Aug 31 2010 9:55 AM

  Great idea zag - i wonder when the new updates will be ready and what they will bring [i hear player reputation and uphill/downhill lies and shotshaping will be a part of it] - i would love to see those "conditions" implemented as well, i think it would be very entertaining. could you imagine playin STA in blinding rain [with lightning], 30 mph winds, and mud for the sand traps...lol

• zagraniczniak 1,984 Posts

  Tue, Aug 31 2010 10:25 AM

  Well, we do have the wind!

  We (anyway) say that the Scots have a saying that "If's there's nae wind there's nae golf." But when I made it out to the funny old links at Musselburgh (an Open venue eons ago, now incorporated into the infield of the local racetrack, go figure), the wind was so fierce it was hard to stand. The local fellows were reluctant to play. "There's too much wind," they said. "It's nae golf!"