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*Update* Virtual U.S. Amateur

• ujjbnjk 2,128 Posts

  Wed, Jul 18 2018 7:08 AM

  TopShelf2010:

  ujjbnjk:

  How about making this tournament with a enter fee like the rgs?

  Would the "top players" be willing to pay an entry fee Out of Pocket as opposed to using their own credits to enter?

   

  Don

  I would... i cant speak for all players... But I'm pretty sure players that are interested in a tournament like this... Would not have a problem with paying a couple of dollars enter fee to have a chance of playing against all the best players (and not just the best from certain countries) and possibly end up in a live event....we will never get all the best players cause some are just not interested in it... But this way everyone has a choice and a chance to be in it at least. 

• TopShelf2010 10,932 Posts

  Wed, Jul 18 2018 7:35 AM

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• lonniescott711 4,207 Posts

  Wed, Jul 18 2018 9:16 AM

  TopShelf2010:

  ujjbnjk:

  How about making this tournament with a enter fee like the rgs?

  Would the "top players" be willing to pay an entry fee Out of Pocket as opposed to using their own credits to enter?

   

  Don

   

  #1 How will they pay out of pocket ?

  #2 How will you know if they paid out of pocket ?

  #3 What difference will it make in the first place ? Either way if they will have to buy credits  how will they be differentiated to know the difference ?

  Unless they pay directly with a card then there will be no difference . I for one dont see WGT going through all of that for a tournament . At the same time laws which govern the game may forbid that type of collection to be done by WGT .

  It would also take away from the "Free to Play " theme of the game as well . Once money changes hands directly to play the game in any form then "free to play " is officially out of the window .

   

• TopShelf2010 10,932 Posts

  Wed, Jul 18 2018 10:00 AM

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• jayw4862 3,364 Posts

  Wed, Jul 18 2018 7:46 PM

  DodgyPutter:

  Surly there's something they could say without any risk, "Congratulations to JoeMaverick on his great play to shoot 222 in the VUSO, the lowest by two strokes" for instance.

  They must've seen this post.

  Says he won last year's and this year's VUSO....and a gold putter :-)

  WGT should change the way the VUSO is handled. If a player is ineligible, there should be stated prize(s) for the top scoring ineligible player, and the guaranteed trip for the top scoring eligible player.

  Don't take this the wrong way. I watched Joe's rounds and he killed it. But not being eligible, in essence takes an eligible player out (and saves WGT and the USGA a LOT of money). 

  The article also states they will announce the sweepstakes winner(s) soon. If a player's name is drawn, and he's also from an ineligible country, do they draw again, or save another $5,000.00+ and just give the sweepstakes winner a gold putter? 

  I don't know what the rules are for this upcoming amateur thing. Are ineligible players going to be able to play at all? 

  To get the truly best players in the top 32, it would have to include more than North American players. 

  If someone's country doesn't allow for them to play (or collect), WGT should offer up some kind of alternative for those players.

   

• Jimbog1964 8,378 Posts

  Wed, Jul 18 2018 8:30 PM

  JoeMaverick:

  Unfortunately I think it's 2 differents things. There's a law in Belgium against "lotery games", a lotery game is a game where you have to spend money to win a prize, with a random part. So WGT itself is not a lotery game (you can play for free, or you can pay without a prize to win), but the VUSO is definitively against the Belgium law, by definition (you can't win it without buying equipment).

   

  Without going through the legal jargon fully:

  Just looking at that I would say it would (should) easy be easy for WGT to drive a bus through that.  If that were applied to all games then a Belgium winning a real-life tournament would also be ineligible as they had bought a golf club or a pair of football boots say. 

  E.G. Belgium would not have been in the (FIFA) world cup unless they did it all for free (bought their own tickets / kit ) / received zero advertising revenue etc.

   

  Clearly that language is aimed at non skill based gambling, not skill based competition, IMO.

   

  Now saying that and spending money putting it all together is another matter, but just on that the VUSO is not what it's aimed at that I can see.

  is what it is and GL.

  EDIT: Congrats and well played too:)

• Yiannis1970 3,306 Posts

  Thu, Jul 19 2018 9:35 AM

  JoeMaverick:

  but the VUSO is definitively against the Belgium law, by definition (you can't win it without buying equipment).

  ...But in practice it's not true, because it's impossible to win the VUSO without being good enough to play to WGT without spending 1$. The last time I bought equipment it was in 2014, and I've earned much more Amazon cards than what I have spent on WGT. So in practice I have not spent money to win the VUSO. 

  Of couse I'm not a lawyer...

   

   

  Well...how about if equipments or balls have all been gifted to you? That i suppose would put in tilt all Belgian legal system and it's ratio behind this stupid law...

   

  And yes, iam a lawyer..

   

  Congrats for the US Open Joe!

   

• DodgyPutter 4,690 Posts

  Thu, Jul 19 2018 3:27 PM

  Well done whoever it was and thank you  :-)))  

   

  JoeMaverick is your 2018 Virtual U.S. Open Champion!

  18 Jul 2018

  

  Congratulations to this year's Virtual U.S. Open Champion... JoeMaverick from Belgium.

  A final round score of 222 put Champion tier JoeMaverick at the top of the leaderboard, 2 shots ahead of second place BrockBryn (USA) and 3 ahead of third place Naturali (USA).

  This win makes JoeMaverick a back-to-back Virtual U.S. Open Champion after winning last year on Erin Hills. While he's ineligible to claim the grand prize trip due to country restrictions, he's receiving a coveted gold MAX CC Putter to celebrate his achievement!  

  The special 10th anniversary course provided a challenging setting for this year's field, keeping competition strong and forcing players to perform at the highest levels to earn top spots on the leaderboard. Congratulations to all the Virtual U.S. Open tournament leaderboard winners...

  • Virtual U.S. Open Championship Winner: JoeMaverick (Belgium) – Wooden Tee Country Club
  • Virtual U.S. Open Front 9 Challenge Winner: Petewrex (USA) – Carolina Sandhills
  • Virtual U.S. Open Back 9 Challenge Winner: Petewrex (USA) – Carolina Sandhills

  Full Virtual U.S. Open Championship Leaderboard

  JoeMaverick is in good company with Champion tier poldimaier, who was our last back-to-back champion, after winning the 2014 and 2015 tournaments.

  Eligible leaderboard and sweepstakes winners win a $500 USGAshop.com Gift Card prize to spend on official USGA merchandise, plus a lucky sweepstakes winner for the Virtual U.S. Open Qualifier tournament will also win a grand prize trip to next year's U.S. Open.

  We're still confirming some of our sweepstakes winners, but will announce them all soon. Stay tuned...

• DodgyPutter 4,690 Posts

  Thu, Jul 19 2018 3:56 PM

  jayw4862:

  I don't know what the rules are for this upcoming amateur thing. Are ineligible players going to be able to play at all? 

  I find it hard to believe they'd rule so many players out of  the three weeks of qualifying and from there they'd have to get into the bracket.

  jayw4862:

  If someone's country doesn't allow for them to play (or collect), WGT should offer up some kind of alternative for those players.

  +1

  Two brackets with a mix of eligible and not players sounds tricky, what if both finalists aren't in for the prize?  A play off between the other semi finalists?  Imagine if three of those in the semi can't win so the trip is decided in in QF's, the end of the contest may lack the desired interest.

  There really does need to be some sort of prize available for those that can't win the trip. Even with all that various people have said above I can't see why Joe (for example) can win lots of credits in the VT but not in these, just give credits to the value of whatever prize, there was a $500 gift card I think (660c to the $) and he can get his gift cards from the pro shop.  Ok that's maybe unlikely but I'm sure they could think of something.

• DAZZA501 5,972 Posts

  Fri, Jul 20 2018 4:20 AM

  So players from ineligible countries can still buy amazon vouchers with credits. What if the winner of the VUSO won 5 million credits and he/she was then the only player eligible to buy a US Open trip voucher that could be available in the pro shop?