CerinoDevoti:Well I'm back to challenge anyone to beat my score. Played the
Nike RZN Precision Challenge with starter clubs and ball on Merion. Wow was it brutal. The Championship Speed greens for Legend Tier took their toll on me and my scorecard. At least the wind was low for Legend Tier. I had to hit to the forward ladies tee on several holes including a par 3 to get around in one piece. Obviously the clubs have no real chance in these conditions on this course so thinking a way to make bogies, and not worse, on many holes was the key. As usual I missed 2 good putts but made 2 unusual ones to level the card out. Finished with a sporting
77 and didn't rip what's left of my hair out. Once again I feel the killer putters can beat my go but it's pretty nerve racking once you're out there doing it. The tale of woe below.....
~CD~
bhoese: CD, that 77 ain't bad at all. I shot an 85. 8 GIR for me as well, but I don't recall a single time when I thought I had a decent chance at birdie.
I had four 1-putts the entire round: one for par (12th, a sand save that would have been impossible in UEL), one for a double (4th, after getting hung up in 70-80 in front of the green), one for a triple (15th, rough-sand-fairway still 90 yds out - off the front-off the front again-up and down), and one that didn't even end up in the hole, but actually the rough inside the bend on the 9th.
Wow! Is that a fantastic test or what?!!! Par is not impossible but would be a stunning achievement IMO.
Ben: what an intriguing description of your adventure on #9... you certainly made me think! ... tough break to get the back pin setting up that 2nd shot dilemma.
I'm very impressed with your 77 Cerino... I managed 79 today, tackling it mostly in an experimental frame of mind, so taking more risks than was prudent. It shows in my card: I somehow made 5 birdies but didn't take notice of CD's advice above, that what really saves a score here is limiting the damage on holes that you can't realistically par.
Having had this experience, I would say that birdies are potentially possible on #2, #8, #9 (with front pin; this was my Driver tee shot that got me one), #10 with a good putt like this one, since with back pin you'll inevitably be off to the right), #11 (perhaps the easiest of the bunch), #13 (especially if you have a headwind to help stop the tee shot), and that's it, unless you get some helping wind and can make a long enough tee shot on #16 to hit a high Hybrid that rolls back down the hill close to the front pin; I had to use the right fairway to leave a wedge approach to make par there).
I missed a stupid short put on #5 for double, and just wasn't thinking on #3 where I played to front tee, then still left 2nd short, and then 4-putted, lol. Had a bad 3-putt at #7 too. I made a total mess of #12: found rough off tee, hit 3rd way long, putted off green from 27 ft past 13 down, chip almost saved bogey but not quite...
CD: did you play to the front tee on #17 (or on #3)? I went for the front rough on 17 but caught weeds and careened forward. A great punch out left me 7ft to save, but I missed it :(
The last was quite an adventure... and might have been a fantastic par. Sadly I missed the front tee box with my drive, pushing it right. Decided to pitch sideways to get the tee again, then hit a corking drive that caught the downslope and went 240+. And the approach was a thing of beauty, one of those sublime starter shots that are so much more satisfying than a spinning dart (160 full bs hit @ 95% to land just in the right spot and take the contours perfectly to leave a simple 3ft uphiller).
P.S. Hey, I just looked at our cards side-by-side, and even lacking Ben's card, our best-ball would have been +1, pretty damn impressive given the conditions.
Perhaps that's another way we can look at these challenges, see which of us can shoot closest to par, but also see if collectively we can manage a best-ball score of par or better.
Essentially, that was the concept behind the pairs Tough-It-Out from the Tips proposal. Only this can now be a community effort, lol!