Great to see your posts, Ben!
Played this morning, but haven't had time to post card/report until now.
I played a practice right before the real round, and was holing putts from everywhere (even a wedge from the 17th fairway too!) in recording a 64! The same form didn't carry through (and the practice round, on an 'identical' setup as a CC event had different 'easy' pins for many of the holes) but I'm very pleased to get round in Even par for the clubhouse lead.
I was disappointed that my R1 and R2 had 12 pins exactly the same, despite asking WGT to set them up as Hard for first round, and Easy for second. Did everyone get the same pins I've noted in my rounds? It seems to me that at Oakmont with this gear there are holes where birdie is out of the question with a particular pin, but definitely in the realm of possibility with the other pin.
Here's the greenshot, card and stats, along with the full tale of the tape. As you can see, I had a lot of near-misses with makeable mid-range putts, and a couple of clumsy bogeys... but also got off to a very lucky start when I could have been in big trouble.
#1 L pin :: 11@10:30 fractional pull on t shot and went way left into 30-40 rough, aarggh! punched it out and rolled through green back right (rolled 100 yards after landing, lol), was hoping for center or left side. Hummed and hawed forever on whether to pitch or flop, and ended up with too much on pitch22 4yards past. But rescued an undeserved par with great 13ft save, phew! PAR
#2 L pin (so-called easy pin!) :: 10@730 hit full 137fbs expecting heart of green, fractional pull and stunned to see it fly into bunker and not even close to reaching, wow got out and on green but rolled well down, But saved the day again by holing the 20ft curler, wow! PAR
… extremely lucky to get through first 2 holes in par after finding real trouble on both ...
#3 B pin :: 13@145 >186 recognized I had no chance to get close with that wind, so hit 3H to heart of green, 48ft lag to 3ft for save PAR
#4 R pin :: 11@400 D fairway leaving >318 , good 3W to >116 slight pull but good on distance, hit 125fbs 94% for 116 dw and downhill slope, and comfortably holed 8ft putt BIRDIE
#5 L pin :: 12@845 good D up right side >142 dinged 2nd, but a little too much; however, still below hole 5yds and very makable… however, hit the 16ft uphill putt tiny bit too hard and failed to heed nagging doubt that it had some tiny very late break the other way, tiny bit too hard and gave too much break on 16ft uphiller, lip-out; 2ft save PAR
#6 B pin :: 11@4 played nearly ns 160 and too much, 3yds past; but still should have made 8.5ft putt but I slightly pulled it and it slid by, darn!, 2ft save PAR
… 2 good birdie chances squandered :(
#7 R pin :: 13@1045 >155 Oops! mishit 2nd and came up way short and bounced up and rolled back, wrong club!, and lousy pitch up only went 12yds, didn't even reach top of ridge , and late click on 18ft curler, 2ft for BOGEY
… poorly played hole in every respect and got punished as deserved … back to Even
#8 B pin :: 10@4 hit D 98%fbs but too long, into fringe on right. Big fist-pump moment when I buried the 14ft fringe putt, woo hoo! BIRDIE
#9 R pin :: 8@130 D up left side 2nd lay-up to LW distance, gave 3rd shot slightly too much but it rolled back, intended early click against slope/wind but dinged so slightly right; right in the middle with 5.2ft save PAR
#10 F pin :: 12@5 Unlucky to get headwind here making it impossible to reach green: dingD >210 and gave 3W 2nd everything but still 18yd short, very nice flop shot that just carried to green and cozied on down to 1yd, 2.8ft save PAR
… making par on 9 & 10 felt really good, two extremely tough holes in this set-up, and likely gaining 2 or more shots on most of the field …
#11 R pin :: 12@1 3W off tee >122 added 10yds to get to pin-high with deliberate early click, good result, but not quite enough break on 14ft downhill curler that I really should have made, came pretty close though, 3ft save PAR
#12 R pin :: 10@1215 dingD 250 >327 slight push on 2nd, into rough, darn, clumsy >113, but hit really good 3rd shot with PW to bounce on and roll down and hold, landed it 80 before green and rolled to 111, 3yds R of pin; But, seeing the glory of a possible birdie on one of the very hardest holes here, I just missed 9.7ft putt, trying early click but ding would have gone in... shaved hole 1.6ft PAR
#13 B pin :: 9@12 After awful double-bogey in R1, I clicked way early this time for safety and ended up long left, 19ft away; was just too high on another longish putt, 2.8ft save PAR
#14 B pin :: 11@730 dingD >143 a little long and too much push on 2nd against slope/wind 18ft away, but really poor early click on the putt to mess up what was still a good birdie chance, sunk 3.8ft save PAR
… pars on the last 4 holes, all of which had reasonable birdie chances … now I'm wondering if I can hang on to the -1 score ...
#15 L pin :: 12@530 bad wind, can't reach green 212D >246, dinged 3W 190 >57 very hard 3rd, didn't want to risk being near bunker, played harder than needed and dinged instead of early click: ended up 4yds long right, but missed left edge 12ft par try, 2.4ft left for frustrating BOGEY
#16 R pin :: 10@245, Got greedy here, right after the bogey on the last hole. Wind seemed too inviting, but way too hard on 3W, with fractional late click and ran through to rough beyond long right, good distance on pitch out but 4yds right of pin played too safe for line. Fairly straight 11ft putt but pulled it and just missed, another clumsy BOGEY
… oh dear, back to +1, and the goal of shooting par at least is looking in trouble ...
#17 L pin :: 14@1045 Helpful wind, and nice dingD >54 Took a risk between clubs, 54 out plus big sidehill and tiny uphill lie, and added topspin to stretch out a LW to get as close as possible, 3yds below right. Dinged 10ft putt for bird BIRDIE
… now I'm looking for a four to post an even-par round (the Holy Grail of TIO events, lol!)
#18 R pin :: 10@730 but it's a wind where reaching the green is out of the question! Dinged D leaving > 221 can't reach! Took a little of the 3W for a lay-up that left 44, and then added some topspin to fantastic dinged LW approach to 0 yards for the save, phew! 1.3ft for PAR
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FYI: if anyone can't do the hover over their bag (or the video option), these are the only 4 club shots that are needed: pics showing 3W, 3H, SW, and LW.
