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Post by yaters on Nov 18, 2015 13:39:12 GMT -5
1st tournament for me on this tour, got a invite to play it, normally on CC-A. 64 62 65 70 -27, actually just pleased to make the cut, made some silly errors, last round was hard on them greens. Nice job! I'll take your place on CCA since I just completely stink now
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Post by dorksirjur on Nov 18, 2015 14:20:51 GMT -5
I'm hoping and praying next week is a bit more of a test, that's 3 easy courses in a row. I wanna have to grind for a -5
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Post by bigtallchris on Nov 18, 2015 14:44:57 GMT -5
Two weeks ago, I missed the cut by two strokes with a -16. Last week, I missed the cut by one stroke with a -15. Looks like this week, my -17 is barely going to make the cut.
Count me in the group that would like tougher courses to play on this tour, instead of the birdie-fests we've had pretty much so far. I'd much rather play in a tourney where the winner is around -20, with the top ten in the -15 to -20 range.
This tourney for me: R1 = 63 (-9) R2 = 64 (-8)
R3 = 69 (-3) I had a 5-putt hole (can't remember which one) for a triple-bogey, with four of the putts within five feet of the hole. Damn short side-hill putts, kept going side-to-side barely missing or lipping the hole. Ensuing frustration (i.e., not being able to "let it go!") led me to give up a stroke on the following hole also.
R4 = 70 (-2) Pretty happy with a -2 for this last round. I'd like to have tourneys where all four rounds play like this one. IMO, it makes it much more competitive, funner, and interesting to see leaderboard movements as each round's scoring is revealed.
With my bad 3rd round, I'll probably end up in the 60th to 70th place range for the final leaderboard.
Still not 100% sure that I made the cut this week, but I hope so, because my and my caddy's families are tired of eating Ramen noodles and air sandwiches...we need some cash!
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Post by Doe Coba on Nov 18, 2015 15:21:47 GMT -5
I feel your pain yaters. I missed so many short putts. I just can't read side slopes when it comes to putting, especially down hill. I made 30 putts on my first round and 28 on my second. My putts per hole on the first 2 rounds - 1.611 Yours - 1.694 Best putter (1 round only) - 1.278 That is a HUGE difference. That's 1 less putt every 3 holes!!!! There must be a secret to it!!!! Yeah, that's a big difference for sure. I've never been good at putting but I seem to be getting worse. I think it's hard to tell with the stats who is a good putter and who isn't. Obviously the top guys are good at most if not all aspects of the game. But maybe they have great putting stats because they knock everything close to the hole for tap-ins? Or maybe they are excellent at chipping and get everything very close if not in the hole? I don't know. I suspect the approach shots are the main separator with scoring though. Not only getting it close but landing it on the correct side of the green. I played the PGA event this week (just one round) and played with the leader as a ghost. I was surprised at times how he would go 15-20 feet away from the pin (didn't seem like a mistake - aimed far left or right) until I finally watched one of his 25 foot putts drop in replay. He intentionally went for an area that didn't have much break and was able to make the putt. I, on the other hand, fired it close to about 8 feet and had a 3 grid breaker that I threw-up all over. My problem is when I've tried to be smart about my landing area, I don't do well either. I either miss it or it rolls away to a worse area or I screw up the longer putt. Bottom line is I think I'm kinda at a plateau in my skills and ability to improve. My best bet is to hope I get a little lucky and just 'feel' it with putting that week. Watching the video tips available here just got me more confused as to what people are doing! I think with those observations you are spot on Yates. Overall good planning, judging and execution of shots, great pitching and chipping skills and good course management especially when it comes to where you want the ball on green seem to be some of the key elements. That said, I think you always need to put well to be in contention. I am still amazed how good some players are on all these points, and even though I am improving on all levels, the gap is so big to where I am at. For this tournament, unfortunately for me I am right there with you guys who struggle with putting on these greens. Had 31 puts in round one and a little better 27 in round two. Better in round two due to all the above points you raised Yates. Starting off on round two I knew I had to improve from both practice rounds and my first round 65 if I should make the cut. Right from the first shot I played so well and I was -6 after the first nine. I felt I should have scored better as I had 4 puts on the edge (one for eagle) - two of them short ones, two medium short. On the 10th I was a little too much off and had another on the edge from a sliding medium length put but birdy, eagle on 11 and 12 I thought something good was coming. Then I stalled and was getting pars. I managed to get it together and make two birdies on the last two and with -18 it looks safe to just make the cut. Best of luck to all
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Post by Driver8 on Nov 18, 2015 16:44:18 GMT -5
Do -20 courses even exist?
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Post by Andrea on Nov 18, 2015 16:45:54 GMT -5
I feel your pain yaters. I missed so many short putts. I just can't read side slopes when it comes to putting, especially down hill. I made 30 putts on my first round and 28 on my second. My putts per hole on the first 2 rounds - 1.611 Yours - 1.694 Best putter (1 round only) - 1.278 That is a HUGE difference. That's 1 less putt every 3 holes!!!! There must be a secret to it!!!! Yeah, that's a big difference for sure. I've never been good at putting but I seem to be getting worse. I think it's hard to tell with the stats who is a good putter and who isn't. Obviously the top guys are good at most if not all aspects of the game. But maybe they have great putting stats because they knock everything close to the hole for tap-ins? Or maybe they are excellent at chipping and get everything very close if not in the hole? I don't know. I suspect the approach shots are the main separator with scoring though. Not only getting it close but landing it on the correct side of the green. I played the PGA event this week (just one round) and played with the leader as a ghost. I was surprised at times how he would go 15-20 feet away from the pin (didn't seem like a mistake - aimed far left or right) until I finally watched one of his 25 foot putts drop in replay. He intentionally went for an area that didn't have much break and was able to make the putt. I, on the other hand, fired it close to about 8 feet and had a 3 grid breaker that I threw-up all over. My problem is when I've tried to be smart about my landing area, I don't do well either. I either miss it or it rolls away to a worse area or I screw up the longer putt. Bottom line is I think I'm kinda at a plateau in my skills and ability to improve. My best bet is to hope I get a little lucky and just 'feel' it with putting that week. Watching the video tips available here just got me more confused as to what people are doing! There's even more to add about the "big guns" on TGCTours. I played on exemption this week on Euro and for the first time I turned on a ghost - no other than sir Ian Sweeney's. I kinda witnessed how the best players excel. I can't tell if it is from practice, experience, talent in reading and understanding the game or a mixture of all of that, but the key thing I noticed is that THEY KNOW THE BOUNCES - and I mean all of them. I saw Ian landing his ball on the exact same spot (or a matter of inches from that) in the most challenging holes to allow his ball a gentle roll towards the hole. No matter the wind; I saw him hitting the same spot from 247YD away with 8 tailwind and then with 15 crosswind in our faces. On another hole I saw him hitting the avant green in the perfect spot just to diminish the bounce and stay close to the pin (of course on my two tries once I ended up on the wrong side of the hole and the other just inches too short and bounced back into a bunker ). I felt like I was watching the Neo (from Matrix) of TGC - like he can see the code XD Then from there you can add: every putt from 10-15feet is automatic - maybe past 20/22 becomes a 60-40; 50-50 when the green breaks a lot. 70-80% of the 5-7-8-10 chips from the rough/avant green are money and there you go! Most of the times they didn't even need a great drive or a FIR to get a birdie - that's crazy But guys, seeing that kind of performance (and I can't even imagine the Tyler Duke's -17 in PGA this week) didn't made me give up on TGC - it actually fired me up because what I saw was no magic - just hard work and deep deep knowledge of the game, which I think most of us, with the right amount of work, will somehow accomplish.
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Post by nantez88 on Nov 18, 2015 17:44:50 GMT -5
Really enjoyed the battle in the last round on this course I'm looking forward to playing tough rounds like this where it's ok to take par. Scores for the week 61,60,61,69 for a total of -37. Last round kicked the sh%$ out of me I was up and down like a yoyo and scrambling to make par. I was +1 then I'd get it to -1 and back to +1 I had 2 bogies and a double and really felt like an achievement to finish -3. Best of luck all yet to play
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Post by danandsons on Nov 18, 2015 17:47:44 GMT -5
Really enjoyed the battle in the last round on this course I'm looking forward to playing tough rounds like this where it's ok to take par. Scores for the week 61,60,61,69 for a total of -37. Last round kicked the sh%$ out of me I was up and down like a yoyo and scrambling to make par. I was +1 then I'd get it to -1 and back to +1 I had 2 bogies and a double and really felt like an achievement to finish -3. Best of luck all yet to play Well played nantez
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Post by dh-nufc on Nov 18, 2015 18:11:53 GMT -5
I took everything onboard as I started my 3rd round. I identified a flatter spot on the first and promptly hit it in the bunker. Yes it was flat but not the flat bit I was aiming for! My flop out didn't make the green and I was left with a difficult chip. I managed to get close and tapped in for a highly disappointing bogey. Some days that would be the end of me but not this time. It was followed by 10 birdies. The run was finally broken on the 12 where I got an eagle! It went down hill a but from there but a birdie on the 17th put me at -12. With an easy birdie on the last I was have a sub 60 round. I used the techniques of trying to hit the flat part of the greens but to be honest I was just really close, within 3 feet on numerous occasions. I did make a couple of longer straighter putts. Back to my round anyway. Wind behind but I'll go safe with the 5 wood. It'll go long I know so I just added a fair bit of loft. I didn't notice how small the cone had gone until I hit the ball, I hit outside the cone and promptly went left into the water. Arghhhhh! Just a par on the last I thought. I pitched within 3 feet and then promptly missed a side hill gimme! I have never been so disappointed with a -11! Imagine if I'd birdied 1 and 18 which I have done almost every practice round!
I don't know if I will make the cut but if I do this should take me up a few places until the difficult 4th round.
Talking about the 4th round; I happen to feel the greens are too firm. The only way to stay on some of them is to loft way way up on higher clubs. I don't mind the holes where you can bounce it up but some of the pins are tucked away. I think we need to find a happy medium between rounds 1-3 and round 4 when it comes to difficulty.
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Post by catcherman22 on Nov 18, 2015 19:45:27 GMT -5
Was all set to write about how round 3 was my best round ever on TGC, and then I proceeded to brain fart it into the water on 18 and make a par. Still shot a career low 58, which puts me at -37 through 3 rounds... guess I should go practice the pin 5 course before playing it. Going to be feeling the nerves tomorrow!
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Post by Royce on Nov 18, 2015 20:36:18 GMT -5
I somehow managed to putt an amazing 30 times in round 1 and then went for 27 in round 2, luckily over 2 rounds I had no bogeys & was able to go into the weekend rounds at -19, which I'm feeling really good about considering the massive amount of putts I've taken so far.
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Post by Deleted on Nov 18, 2015 22:05:19 GMT -5
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Post by Driver8 on Nov 19, 2015 2:10:31 GMT -5
Sorry, I meant -20 for the 4 rounds
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Post by feng187 on Nov 19, 2015 3:29:52 GMT -5
Sorry, I meant -20 for the 4 rounds I had a feeling that you meant -20 for the whole tournament, it would be great if the tournaments would be like that but it will probably never happen, it's just too easy in this game to do what is really difficult in real golf. How many guys on PGA tour have shot 59? You could probably count them on one hand, not even sure if it's been done on the European tour, with this game now that is an average score and guys are going lower regularly. It would have been great to see four rounds on that pin 5 setup just to see if the course got tamed after guys copped how to play it.
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Post by Deleted on Nov 19, 2015 4:10:14 GMT -5
The score is out there definitely on Sunday. The designer shot -9 in testing and I shot -8 on my first go. Granted we're both on the euro tour but I'm nothing special, I missed my first 3 cuts on the euros.
And yes, the gameplay is currently far too easy, hence the low scores. This course is a real course in real life. The BMW Championship on the euro tour. Yet people are shooting 50s on it.
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