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Post by Brighttail on Sept 14, 2015 15:44:39 GMT -5
I just played the practice course while watching Brionne, had about the same wind in the tourney and put up a -7 for round 1. Pretty good score, eh? Well I should let ya know that I completely changed up the way I played the course. Many holes I played to be in the rough near the hole. I made four chip ins for birdie and one flop for bird.
For the record I had one 99foot putt that full strength didn't get to the hole and in fact rolled down to the second tier i was trying to get over. 3 putt for sure. I'm hoping for season 2 this is one rule that will be revisited. We are supposedly mirroring the pros and if a pro couldn't get there by putting they would chip, no question. If and until HB addresses this issue or TGCtours only chooses courses that this can't happen, it is an unfortunate rule that had good reasons to be enacted but ended up with some harsh, unforseen consequences.
Good luck all... Damn hard course.
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Post by Brighttail on Sept 14, 2015 15:45:40 GMT -5
The 11th, SPIN BACK HOLE. Its one of those if you are in the FW or fringe and have 20 to 40yds to pin you are NOT gunna keep it on the green, and since you cant bump and run a chip its just a guess.Your better off in the light rough cause those flops and pitches wont spin back, so actually try to aim for rough. I think the 11th will play the hardest just cause of that pin. I don't mind playing a firm, fast, course. But when you add all the red to something that fast its not the best outcome. Some of you may remember Shakespeare, its a lot like that hit it and hope you get the right bounce or roll. Ill be happy shooting 4 rounds of even par even in low winds. I gotta have a top finish to make it to Wadi Sigi, gunna be tough here. Watch 11 guys its a bad pin placement. Love the layout just could've still been tough with white lines on greens as firm as it is. GL to all !! You nailed a good strategy here on a few holes
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Post by drlowdon on Sept 14, 2015 16:56:40 GMT -5
Its a shame about the greens with this course in particular as it has some fantastic aspects to it, such as the railroad track running alongside a couple of holes, and the overall hole design is very good. Had the greens been fairer I'd have added this to the list of courses I play over and over but the way it is I won't be playing it again once I finish my 4 rounds for the tournament.
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Post by Deleted on Sept 14, 2015 18:06:42 GMT -5
As stated in another thread, hit and hope and marble madness. Numerous holes I played a well thought out shot and executed as required only to see the ball take on a mind of its own. My worst example was on the 12th where whilst I agree that a reachable par four should carry an element of risk, aiming to the rough on the left of the green to have it somehow navigate its way across the green and out of bounds on the right is ridiculous. Currently -2 under after 3, part of me hopes I don't make the cut to save me the pain of another 18 holes. As you can probably tell,hate it hate it hate it.... Sorry to say but there is no cut
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Post by Deleted on Sept 14, 2015 18:07:52 GMT -5
2 rounds in and shot 68 in both (2 bogies in each rounds). Needed a breather after as it's mentally draining, will carry on later in the week.
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Post by edi_vedder on Sept 15, 2015 4:56:33 GMT -5
I have never been that happy about finishing a tournament as with this one!
Rd1: Horrible... still somehow managed to score -4 on that day! Rd2: Still horrible... and the course fu**ed me up; +3 for the day! Rd3: I'm about to eat my controller... Even Par round! Rd4: Just about to rage quit... Even Par again!
So I finished the BMW Masters with -1. I really like challenging courses, but this was just hit & hope with no skill required. I'm pretty sure the person with the most hole-outs/chip-ins is going to win this tournament. I still take my hat off to anybody that is finishing that tournament with -10 or even better! Well done, guys!
Unfortunately I don't think Biggins has done himself a favour with that course! He already created some stunning courses for TGC, but this one will leave him with lots of negative feedback (that he generally doesn't deserve). If there was a little less firmness & slopes on the greens, this could have been a wonderful venue for a R2D-event. So it was more a lottery than a (virtual) golf tournament.
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Post by boomboom on Sept 15, 2015 6:12:24 GMT -5
I'm not on your tour, however I found this to be the most enjoyable tournament thus far in my short history on TGCT. Golf at tournament level should be about course management and this tour had that in abundance.
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Post by Deleted on Sept 15, 2015 8:06:07 GMT -5
Couldn't get anything going the last 2 rounds, seemed to follow a birdie with a bogey. Shot 72, 73 for a total of -7
I'll be shocked if I have better than 50% GIR for the tournament. Might be good enough for a top 25?
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Post by mcbogga on Sept 15, 2015 9:33:36 GMT -5
I'm not on your tour, however I found this to be the most enjoyable tournament thus far in my short history on TGCT. Golf at tournament level should be about course management and this tour had that in abundance. Can't agree. There is good difficult and not so good difficult. This set up punishes good shots which means there is no difference between as good as it gets and a mediocre approach. It's a little bit like chambers bay for this years real US open. The best players that handle the frustration will still rise to the top but it really feels like a lottery out on the course. There is a bit of course management - sure, but not much more than any other week. There are better ways to make a course play difficult. Go play Harbour Pointe, legacy at cape point or reebs US open course for some examples. For a links you only have to go a couple of weeks back and look at Ballylough. If Rod would have been just a bit more daring with those pins it could have played to a similar difficulty but in a more predictable and "fair" way. Biggins make great courses - but I am no fan of his tour set ups. Both this and the Shakespeare would have been much better in original form on the challenge or web tour. Have to say I do enjoy the grinding bit of playing a course like this though - so once in a while, why not. Sure beats the birdie-fests. But as BT pointed out in his (not so) humblebrag above a course where the best strategy is to shortside yourself in the heavy rough is not that well set up. Partly due to wierd game mechanics, but still not what I would call good design. Actually - it's funny how Biggins courses manage to stir up controversy both ways. Is he going for having designed the course with lowest AND highest winning score on tour maybe? Laughing at the raging in this thread?
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Post by Deleted on Sept 15, 2015 9:42:26 GMT -5
I'm not on your tour, however I found this to be the most enjoyable tournament thus far in my short history on TGCT. Golf at tournament level should be about course management and this tour had that in abundance. Can't agree. There is good difficult and not so good difficult. This set up punishes good shots which means there is no difference between as good as it gets and a mediocre approach. It's a little bit like chambers bay for this years real US open. The best players that handle the frustration will still rise to the top but it really feels like a lottery out on the course. There is a bit of course management - sure, but not much more than any other week. There are better ways to make a course play difficult. Go play Harbour Pointe, legacy at cape point or reebs US open course for some examples. For a links you only have to go a couple of weeks back and look at Ballylough. If Rod would have been just a bit more daring with those pins it could have played to a similar difficulty but in a more predictable and "fair" way. Biggins make great courses - but I am no fan of his tour set ups. Both this and the Shakespeare would have been much better in original form on the challenge or web tour. Have to say I do enjoy the grinding bit of playing a course like this though - so once in a while, why not. Sure beats the birdie-fests. But as BT pointed out in his (not so) humblebrag above a course where the best strategy is to shortside yourself in the heavy rough is not that well set up. Partly due to wierd game mechanics, but still not what I would call good design. Actually - it's funny how Biggins courses manage to stir up controversy both ways. Is he going for having designed the course with lowest AND highest winning score on tour maybe? Laughing at the raging in this thread? I couldn't agree more to the bolded above. I played a round and a half. I found everyone playing from a similar spot whether they had a good shot or just a so-so shot. That isn't defining a challenging course, that is everyone playing the same putt/chip/flop/pitch into the green almost regardless of how well you executed your approach. The ridiculous firmness did not help at all because this course was difficult enough to play well as a medium-firm course. The clincher for me to quit out was the short drivable par 4. Round 1 I hit it to the back rough and my character was swinging through a fence from the back of the green. In round two I hit it about 2 yards to the right and maybe 1-2 yards longer, but since I was beyond the fence I was OB. I was maybe 5 yards off of the green, yet I was OB. Sorry, but I couldn't continue after that.
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Post by AFCTUJacko on Sept 15, 2015 10:19:13 GMT -5
Some very valid points, but I don't have much sympathy for anyone caught out by the 12th tbh
It took me one attempt at going for it in Practice to make me realise that it was the wrong play. As it was I played it conservatively and birdied it all 4 rounds.
Some holes are virtually unbirdieable (11), but if you fall into avoidable traps the designer has set for you then you've only got yourself to blame.
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Post by Deleted on Sept 15, 2015 10:23:40 GMT -5
Some very valid points, but I don't have much sympathy for anyone caught out by the 12th tbh It took me one attempt at going for it in Practice to make me realise that it was the wrong play. As it was I played it conservatively and birdied it all 4 rounds. If you fall into the traps the designer has set for you then you've only got yourself to blame. Whether it's right/fair is a different debate. Understood. I am a PGA player playing this for fun/challenge. I normally play no practice rounds in events I am not a member of that tour, so I certainly can see how I was caught on that hole. I just didn't understand how being that close to a green is being OB. Oh well, I will refrain and let the rest of you actually competing own this thread. Good luck to all!
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Post by Brighttail on Sept 15, 2015 10:34:16 GMT -5
When I played this as a ranger, it had maybe one questionable pin. Everything else you had plenty of room in each green to attempt a relatively close shot. My concern was when a designer has to find 3 more pin placements. BTW my "braggart" way was actually supposed to be sarcasm. Shooting -7 where you chip in 3-4 and then flop in another all cause I'm playing short is not something to be extremely proud of, it just shows the weakness of the course.
It is like on several holes I've played in the tournaments in the past where you have a severe dogleg and you can use a tree to cut a corner, h it the tree and fall into the fairway pretty easily. If there was no tree there, you'd go through the fairway 100% of the time. Poor game mechanics there.
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Post by shootermcgavin on Sept 15, 2015 11:18:41 GMT -5
74/68 for the first 2 rounds. Took me the first round to figure out how to play the course. Second round just landed most shots short of the green, on the fairway or in the rough and played for a good/lucky bounce. This is one course where I actually wanted to be off the green sometimes, as the chip was a lot easier than a putt. Anyway will play the 3rd and 4th rounds later in the week. Good luck everyone, and remember to stay patient, there is a score to be had out there.
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Post by boomboom on Sept 15, 2015 12:14:01 GMT -5
I just stated my opinion and it stands. This was not my tournament, however I still played a practice round, and for the record I also found the OB in 1 round right next to the fence, maybe 10 feet off the green. On that, was it a good shot, I hit 3 wood aiming for the left rough, hoping to stay in the left rough, hit the left rough and bounced, hit the green like a rocket and rocketed across the green to the OB. I tried the same shot again and did the same thing. Was it a good shot, absolutely not, it was greedy, it was a 270 yard par 4, I got greedy, I got punished, plain and simple. That course is/was absolutely brilliant, playing for the tap in birdie is/was stupid and not good management.
Playing for birdie on plenty of those holes is asking for bogie or worse, and is/was not only not good course management, was/is not a good shot by far, but a really really bad decision
The course has 3,4,5 maybe 6 or 7 birdie opportunities and 18 par opportunities. My guess is low -20's wins it, the tournament will be won by the person keeping bogie off the card the most.
That's as close to some of the great US Open set-ups there ever was. When a tournament can be won just keeping bogie off the card, that right there is the greatest tournament TGCT has ever hosted IMHO, however I recognize I have a short history here.
The problem many players face when faced with these kinds of challenges, is they just don't know what a good shot is, they think they do, they think it's as easy as get it close and tap it in, that is just inexperience and poor thinking. It looks like every once in a while, players are going to need to play to keep bogie off the card, yeah that may mean missing the green in regulation on purpose and it may mean iron off the tee etc.
Golf is a great and ancient game, it is not easy, was never meant to be conquered by any one player. Great golf courses can present a player with a thousand options in any single round. That is the definition of a great course, a course that presents options and fools the greatest of players. A course that angers a player and excites them in 1 18 hole round of golf, that is truly a great golf course.
Recognizing a great golf course is also a skilled art. Planning shot execution and playing a course like this properly and executing truly good shots is something best left to the best of the best on great tracks like this, where truly the winner will be the greatest golfer and thinker for that week.
All the chitter chatter about red and yellow, multi tiers, trees blocking this and that, wind, length, fair, not fair, slope, speed, is chatter of the amateur, this is golf at it's greatest and finest. Biggins your the man......
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