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Tour Legend Secrets

• Fraenkel 2,252 Posts

  Fri, Apr 18 2014 11:19 PM

  Thank you Roger, we maybe get much more fun than this with a couple of bourbon glasses while get a play at Merion, HW and CG, share with all of you guys. All the answers get in the point, that's not a critics but a point of you: been or enter in the Tour Legend tier is a great achievement but it's just that you have to count two categories, those that will entertain and those who enjoy making money.

  The secret, if indeed it comes to that, is in the middle of these two coditions.

  David.

• MainzMan 9,591 Posts

  Fri, Apr 18 2014 11:20 PM

  I think Steve hit the nail on the head.  Putts are the key thing here, a rounds of almost all 1 putts is the only way to hit really low scores.  There are a few who have really low average distance to hole stats which is helping but they can also do as Roger says:

  mantis0014:

  The good players don't always nail their approach shots, but they sink those 20ft putts.

  This is also a key factor:

  Adalanar:

  more important seems to be getting it to the spots where putting is easy

  The great scores will always be made on the greens.  If 2 players both hit all greens in regulation but player 1 makes all 18 of those putts and player 2 only makes 13 then that's a 5 shot difference right there.

• brysoni23 693 Posts

  Sat, Apr 19 2014 12:24 AM

  Landing the ball on a certain spot of the green is key.

  eg. Olympic hole 1. Anything pin hight and left you have a downhill putt with a fairly big break. If you land short of the hole a to the right you have a fairly straight uphill putt :) 

   

• zagraniczniak 1,984 Posts

  Sat, Apr 19 2014 12:48 AM

  Are you Tour Legends all using the fanciest equipment and the most expensive balls? Do you ding most all of your shots (that you plan to ding)?

  After making Legend with some really nice equipment and Callaway balls I got kinda sick of blowing a dollar a ball and switched to the ones that cost 10 cents a pack. It's good practice trying to hit a zooming dinger, but my average is stuck and I can rarely bring it down even a hundredth of a point.

• MainzMan 9,591 Posts

  Sat, Apr 19 2014 1:14 AM

  zagraniczniak:

  Are you Tour Legends all using the fanciest equipment and the most expensive balls? Do you ding most all of your shots (that you plan to ding)?

  Apart from the balls, yes, in my case at least.

  I can't justify $7 for a sleeve of balls, or $4.50 come to that.   I use the L33 Callaway balls and get on just fine with them.

  As to the ding I find I have rounds where I hit it most of the time, other rounds I'm lucky if I hit it 4 or 5 times.  Off the tee it isn't an issue, unless it's a par 3 or you miss really badly or course.  Approaches are still not too bad as long as you don't miss my a big amount.  In this case missing into the wind has a less drastic effect on your shot.  Where a missed ding can cost you is on the greens, a missed putt that's down to a missed ding is very frustrating but happens a lot.  To me anyway.

  I see you're still using the old Burner 2 irons.  They aren't quite up to what's available these days but are still a good set.  The L90 R11 or L97 Nike would help your game though.  As would a better ball.  You'll be losing out on some spin and control with the ones you currently show equipped.

  At the end of the day it's down to the individual whether 1 or 2 shots less per round is worth the extra cost of having the best gear.  For me is almost is, hence the best clubs but a less expensive ball.

• alosso 21,072 Posts

  Sat, Apr 19 2014 1:30 AM

  +1!

  @Zag: Seeing your average of 62.3, amelioration steps may be scarce and they are small for sure: Shaving off one shot in a 500 scores calc means -0.002 which hides behind the two digit rounding more often than not.

  MainzMan:

  At the end of the day it's down to the individual whether 1 or 2 shots less per round is worth the extra cost [...]

  Plus, under these circumstances, these one or two shots may make the difference between a score relevant to the average or not. Lvl33 Callies or the WGT Tour-SD balls (65 crs) may be helpful budget alternatives. With these or higher quality balls you may be promoted faster but at higher costs per day.

• mantis0014 8,946 Posts

  Sat, Apr 19 2014 1:42 AM

  I've been thinking about this a bit more.

  I usually like to have about 12/13 Putts total for a 9 hole game...  If that happens then, I will have a pretty good score or be saved from a disaster....lol

  Two Examples....

  I shot a -8   37 on the Par5 course the other day, which is great and thinking how I could Improve that score, as I was playing it pretty well.... then I looked and I had 16 Total Putts. Take off 4 putts and I would have had a 33.

  When Cabo first came in....  I was shooting low scores as the course is pretty easy... from tee to green I was going great, but still in the high 50's....  again, I looked at my putting Total...  28-30 Putts.......  Take off 4 to 6 shots and your in the Low 50's.

• zagraniczniak 1,984 Posts

  Sat, Apr 19 2014 2:09 AM

  Danke, Deutschland.

  Yeah, probably I will suck it up one of these days and go back to some $lower, longer ball$. Maybe to have any kind of shot at qualifying on Pinehurst.

  Kind of depends what you're playing for. For me it is not credits, but a couple more Diamond course awards are a nice target--out of reach with the cheap balls--and in the longer term maybe even Tour Legend.

  Cheers,

  Zag

• Fraenkel 2,252 Posts

  Sat, Apr 19 2014 3:07 AM

  I think I set up a good thread, and thanks to you all dudes.

  The way you playing for also depends on the satisfaction that income doing what you love. Everyone likes to play in MP/MPC mode and I think a few people like to lose. The same mentality is inserted in the contexts of the RG, Weekly and Monthly Tours: I still remeber where a 28 at RSG front 9 assigned a likely first or second place, right now it will be good maybe for a 4 to 10 place and only if there a lot of 28 you can dust off your showcase for some crystal or diamond trophy.

  The equipment is important but it is essential to have an excellent driver as close putting from fringe or even close short putt. I love my equipment I use that for choice, a bad connection affects the game in the well-known issues. 

  Both of you guys said it right for part of the real true.

• Steve2golf 930 Posts

  Sat, Apr 19 2014 4:27 AM

  zagraniczniak:

  Are you Tour Legends all using the fanciest equipment and the most expensive balls? Do you ding most all of your shots (that you plan to ding)?

  Ding at this stage is something most can do fairly well, or close anyway. When the ding is missed, it either is severly punished or not at all or somewhere in between.

  Puting the ball in the right spot is also fairly obvious, when the game cooperates, that's great, but it does not always and one must be able to deal with it. There are times, that if there is a spot to be avoided, it cannot be avoided and sure as shite, the ball will find it's way there anyway.

  Balls: I warned WGT about this a while ago, different balls have different everything and they change day to day. If WGT wanted their best ball to sell, it should perform the best, day in and day out. Coming up the advice was play 1 ball and stick to it. Good advice again for lower levels, but this advice needs to be placed in the bin as well later on.

  The balls performance seem to be on a cycle or something IMHO and you need to be ready to switch it out when the ball starts behaving in an irratic manner.

  I'm up to 5 balls now that I'm ready to play, they are fully mapped, charted and ready to come off the bench once 2 or so nines of significant deviation from norm is encountered. I'm ready to go with Cally 33, 34, max, Nike 81 and 61.There are spin off balls once all these are mapped, ie. the nike 71 plays similar to 81 etc. And in some cases the performance difference is so slight it can be ignored.

  At this point I'm going to discuss the Nike 90 balls, not a rant, but an observation: I have not been able to play these as of yet, every once in a while I zip over to kia 1 and test the 4 iron to see if there was an update to the ball. Also I will throw it on the tee occasionally to see if anything has changed. I suppose it can't change now, to late for that.I burned about 6 of them mapping them as well, so I have given them a good go.

  IMHO 1 pixel of spin and 1 pixel of power has a far to great and dramatic result, resulting in some cases of 11 or more yards is to much IMHO. These balls take to much effort and time to play. Needing the ability to set the spin to 1 pixel of accuracy is a pain in the a$$ and takes the fun away from the game and even then consistency is just not there. So "why bother" is often my conclusion. Especially at 7 bucks a pop. I agree with what someone said somewhere else, they are likely there mostly to make the other balls look like a bargain.

  I would play a WGT ball, if I found a tight consistency, the key here for me, when selecting a ball for my current rotation, I look for the tightest consistency and will go with that ball. This is something WGT does not realise very well for the Nike 90 at the higher level. They would sell well and better had they a tight consistency, but to date, for me, they have not yet performed better then any other ball here on a consistency basis.

  I also know some others have all but given up on them as well.