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Idea for parallel Starters Virtual Tour

• CerinoDevoti 3,232 Posts

  Thu, Apr 17 2014 6:21 PM

  MainzMan:

  Damn, I forgot a screen shot to show my gear.  I have a couple of replays, nothing that shows my irons though.

  

  

  

  

  

  

   

  Highlights of the round were this putt on the 10th and a long approach on the 11th.

   

  Great stuff Mainz. Glad to see you get into the short club craze. Once you get going in one of these rounds, it's so much fun and you find yourself totally concentrating on each shot. Course management is key and every so often, you get a birdie chance with a good putt.

  ~CD~

• MainzMan 9,591 Posts

  Thu, Apr 17 2014 10:28 PM

  Thanks Cerino, it really was fun to have to be more creative with shots again.  Not to mention using a driver on the 17th where I usually hit a 5 iron.

  I was very surprised how well the starter gear played, apart from the total lack of back spin that is.   The biggest difficulty was the putter early on, it took me a while to adjust to it having a 30 foot scale as the shortest.

• Corwyn 2,410 Posts

  Fri, Apr 18 2014 1:06 AM

  Wonderful to see you joining in here MM! And you're right, it does make a fun change to get creative again. 

  I'm seriously impressed by your putting stats, and it doesn't seem that you had too much difficulty adjusting, lol. (And yes, that 30ft scale catches each of us out for at least 1 shot per round!)

• bhoese 679 Posts

  Wed, Apr 23 2014 8:35 PM

  I finally carded a good score in the Glenmorangie main event, probably within a restart or two of completely losing my mind.  That done, I tackled it with the Golden Clubs and the GI2-S.

  I also further eroded Corwyn's original concept with the addition of the level 44 Ping Redwood.  This should be as much about having fun as anything, and the Starter and Golden putters are not fun at all in my opinion.  I can deal with the other clubs spraying shots around, but not the putter.  When it misses, there's no chance to get that shot back.

  The Redwood is rated with a faster meter than the Golden, so I was a bit disappointed to find that it's actually a bit slower.  When paired with the GI2-S, it's not exactly the leisurely meter speed of my usual Nike-Nike combo, but it's definitely more dingable than not.  It will be more challenging when paired with the starter ball.  Still, even this way it's very different from my usual putter and (I believe) in keeping with the spirit of the concept.

  It has very good precision (4) , so when dinged, it goes where you aimed. It supposedly has only mediocre forgiveness (2), but I managed to sneak a couple of middle-distance putts with very small misses into the hole.  It sure seemed more forgiving than that 2 rating suggests, but I might have misread and got lucky with the misses, too.

  Anyways, on to the round.  The Redwood was a magic wand on the front nine, where 87 feet of made putts put me on course for a very satisfying 67.  My only 2-putt was a wrong-meter job on the 2nd.

  

  I blew the poor man's perfect round by hitting this touchy little bender a little too hard and a little too late.  

  The highlights were a 26-footer on 6, a chip-in on 12, four perfect shots on the Road Hole, and a hybrid on 17 that made me feel all tingly.

• CerinoDevoti 3,232 Posts

  Thu, Apr 24 2014 5:44 PM

  What are the conditions for Tour Legend in the Glenmorangie Round 1? Legend tier has heavy wind and championship speed greens. I wasn't going to bother trying to play with my good clubs but I suppose I'll try with the Golden Clubs and see what happens.

• CerinoDevoti 3,232 Posts

  Thu, Apr 24 2014 6:33 PM

  Well I ended up playing the Glenmorangie Round 1 with the L10 Tour Starters and the 49 credit ball. Can't say I enjoyed it much. I threw my card in the trash can on the run to the car to get the hell out of there as soon as my par putt on 18 dropped. Shot a 77 and hated it. Even par on the front then into the wind for the final 9 holes and +5 back.

• Corwyn 2,410 Posts

  Fri, Apr 25 2014 10:51 PM

  bhoese:

  I also further eroded Corwyn's original concept with the addition of the level 44 Ping Redwood.  This should be as much about having fun as anything, and the Starter and Golden putters are not fun at all in my opinion.

  Yup, I guess this thread is beginning to get off-topic, lol! Actually, you're right, the whole point is to have more fun than endlessly restarting these unlimited first-round tourneys, and experience again what it's like to play some golf shots you have to think about.

  So, I approve of any combo you want to play in order to have fun. 

  Somewhere along the line, I'd love it if several of us could at least try one round each month with a matching club set, and post cards with a goal of seeing if we can get best-ball rounds of par, or really doing a parallel tour.

  Anyway, I went back to the original concept of the thread, and used all Starter Clubs with the special competition ball (the orange Glenmorangie) to shoot my last try at the Glenmorangie on this Best of Famous track with Heavy wind and Champ greens... and with a lot of good fortune at the end, got round in par to match MainzMan! Woo hoo! 

  Here's the card and stats... (as I unexpectedly holed out from the 18th fairway, I don't have a greenshot showing the full club set): a lot of near misses with the putter, so all in all very pleased to come out with a 72.

  

  Highlights: rescued par on 16 with this chip, after at first playing a chip from a couple of yards further back, forgetting that you just can't do that with the starter clubs! On #13 (ccc's 18) I'd gotten a big headwind but still came real close to a great par, 3 ding shots in a row including this final approach: a shot I thought I'd caught perfect, but was amazed to find it fail to roll downhill closer. Of course, I pulled the putt... ;)

  The shot that ended up as a hole-out on #18 is one of my favorite challenges on WGT. Firstly, you have to dare to play as close to the road as you can (ironically enough, on the widest fairway there is on WGT) ... and then, having created the angle, the only way I've found to get close to the pin with starter clubs is a punch shot that lands short of or into the bank that starts the Valley of Sin at the right... then it has to roll up and take the curve to come in close to the hole, and in this case, in for a very welcome eagle!

• Corwyn 2,410 Posts

  Sun, Apr 27 2014 12:06 AM

  Well, got another Starters round in tonight, one I've been meaning to play all month, the Monthly 18 Unlimited UEL tourney at St Andrews.

  I did it hard core, with all Starter clubs and ball, trying to see if I could shoot par... and woo hoo! I succeeded!

  With several fairways unreachable with headwinds (even though Low in this tourney), it meant a number of probable bogeys or great saves needed. I knew I had to put some birdies in the bank on the front 9, and managed that on #1, and #8, and on #7 via the left fairway and this super 3H shot to 12ft. 

  I played poor approaches on #5, #9, #10, all of which could have offered decent birdie possibilities, but made up for those with this bit of good fortune on #12. I did intend to use the bank to help stop and bring back the approach shot, but this hung up there so long I thought all hope was gone... but roll back it did, and I made the 7ft birdie.

  From then on, it was a matter of trying to minimize damage: #13-17 with this gear are just brutal especially with any headwinds, but I managed to make 2 pars in there, and play a safe par on the last to finish -1 (I believe my first-ever under-par UEL round with full starters from the tips).

  So, overall, I am very pleased to have broken par and matched Ben's score there (see p7 of this thread)! Our best-ball: -6!!!

  Conditions: Champ tees / Low wind / Tourney greens / uneven lies

  

• hiltonwelford 6 Posts

  Mon, Apr 28 2014 3:40 AM

  its weird reading you guys.i play with this gear and the starter ball all the time,and pack a major sad if i cannot break par.lol

• CerinoDevoti 3,232 Posts

  Mon, Apr 28 2014 5:19 PM

  hiltonwelford:

  its weird reading you guys.i play with this gear and the starter ball all the time,and pack a major sad if i cannot break par.lol

  We're all playing from the far back tees(Legend and Tour Legend). You're 2 tee boxes in front of us(Tour Pro). Set up a practice round from the back tees and give it a try. :)