Tours instead of Tournaments

[Deleted]

I think it will be highly unlikely that we get different pins from HBS, they seem to have stepped backwards not forwards with the latest update for a number of reasons.

I'm asking management to consider the ability to switch to tours and play the same courses with different pins and or tees for the same tournament.

I see this as more fun then needing to have a correct scorecard for each and every round, we can still verify and require an accurate total score in tours.

Once a course is selected, the designer gets to set the pins and the tees as they wish and off we go. IMHO, it would be more real, more fun, less grind. I'm thinking moving day pins Sunday pins etc. TGCtours would give general direction to the designer and have veto of course and should develop a criteria for pin setting ie, degree of slope near the pin, distance from edge etc.

Good idea, bad idea, thoughts?

[Deleted]

What exactly are the cons of using tours?

[fuzion]

I thought I read somewhere that with tours they can only verify the total score, rather than round-by-round scores...?

[Deleted]

Jan 7, 2015 11:10:05 GMT -5 fuzion said:

I thought I read somewhere that with tours they can only verify the total score, rather than round-by-round scores...?

Correct that 1 and only con out weighs the pro's by a 10 factor to me.

Edit just thought of another con, the cut, that's a big one, but I have trained my whole entire working life on no focussing on problems but solutions, 2 tours of 2 rounds per week is the solution.

[Oblong]

If you did Tours you would have to have it broken into 2 parts. Thur-Fri to confirm the cutline and then Sat-Sun for the final 2 rounds.

I love the thought of multiple pins but I am also acutely aware having run leagues in the past that the more moving parts the greater the likelihood of a problem. I fear that course reviewers would need to verify pin placements, there would be more to setting up tourneys, more chance for confusion for players, and increase chance for a glitch. I am a big fan of keeping things simple, especially early on and then adding more as things get easier to manage. HBS could certainly step up by making the game software allow tournaments with different courses, problem solved.

[Deleted]

Management here are the best there is, I'm certain they could figure out a way to make this work if there was a desire.

[jwfickett]

Thanks for the compliments and the suggestions, Steve. Of yet, Oblong's post is pretty much where I stand (mostly) as the person in charge of picking courses. With that said, we are probably going to try this out (by "this" I mean doing a four course tour) at some point in the not-too-distant future, as a test run. It presents certain challenges. I would like to do it for The Masters with CLV's remarkable Magnolia courses, but we will have to do a test run first in order to see what logistics problems may present themselves before we unleash something like that in a Major Championship with so much on the line and no margin for error on our part.

We will discuss this internally and, as always, keep the community updated to the best of our ability.

Keep the suggestions coming; we are listening/reading.

[fuzion]

I'm sure everyone would be more than happy to play with different tees and pins if given the opportunity.

[Doyley]

This suggestion becomes infinitely easier to implement if we can create tours and then save them with a publish date - and across all 3 systems at once. Those two things would make it a no-brainer.  Or as Oblong suggested - HB adds ability to do tournaments w/ different courses.

As it stands now, this would require us to pretty much double our tournament creation, requiring our TM's to be available to publish tournaments across 3 systems twice a week in a timely manor. It's very difficult to do that consistently.

Doing it the other way (1 tour - taking R1 & R2 scores on honor system) is doable but more open to gaming the system. Also increases the amount of "I didn't record my scores, how do I find them out" emails we get - which over 1000 members strong, is a pretty common issue with Q-School.

There are currently a select few courses that are ready for multiple pins.

That being said - It's something that we want to do too. I think doing it weekly will stress out our guys too much. Doing it for special events (majors, WGC's, one-off's) is definitely in our plans.

[Deleted]

i like the 2x2 idea, both tours can be opened on the same day so everyone can play all 4, but when the cut hits, you just dont count the bottom scores in the final 2 rounds, just like normal here in the tournaments.

4 pins and different teeboxes would make for some great fun and would really set things apart come sunday, where the best of the best need to show face each and every time.

[Doyley]

Jan 7, 2015 17:20:24 GMT -5 @tastegw said:

i like the 2x2 idea, both tours can be opened on the same day so everyone can play all 4

That's probably how it would be done.

tgctours.com - PGA - W01a
tgctours.com - PGA - W01b

With a having rounds 1 and 2 and b having rounds 3 & 4.  Create them both at the same time. and let members have at them like we do now.

Still is a lot of coordinating between getting the courses ready and creating the events etc - so it's only likely to happen at special events but it's definitely on our radar.

[mossy144]

I like the idea off a/b but in light off the first week on the web .com tour would like to no if you would consider adding a/b/c A: first two rds then the cut b: bein top 70 and money winners c: bein best off the rest type senerio for non cut makers . This way everybody will get to look forward to final 2 rds I for one would have enjoyed that this week probally just missing the cut by a shot or 2 by looks off things . And it would also stop ppl posting there rd 3 and 4 scores in b if they never made the cut .

[thrangar]

This type of post interests me greatly because I think it represents a play factor that is directly related to HB's ability to control the future of and the income of their game.

IMHO I do not think we will see an implementation of publishing tours because it give groups(like TGCTours) to much appeal and detraction away from HB and their up and coming take on tours and tournaments and carreer play and therefore also less reason, appeal for us to buy any DLCs that will be ultimately attached to this process

[schatuk]

Jan 8, 2015 12:52:44 GMT -5 thrangar said:

IMHO I do not think we will see an implementation of publishing tours because it give groups(like TGCTours) to much appeal and detraction away from HB and their up and coming take on tours and tournaments and carreer play and therefore also less reason, appeal for us to buy any DLCs that will be ultimately attached to this process

Could be.

A touch cynical on their part if true, but certainly its feasible.

That's part of the fun though, seeing how all this pans out and evolves both from the point of view of TGCT and HBS. They may surprise us and come up with something awesome (awesomer?)

[thebleedingred21]

After first tournament, it is VERY clear, this needs to be done someway, somehow.

Playing the same 4 pin locations makes it so easy to score low. Heck, even in the Champions tour we shot low 60s.

In the Euro tour, I saw a guy shoot 3 rounds in the 50's with a 55, that is crazy and to me, no fun. Luckily, I am in the Champions tour.

I think with different pin locations/varying winds, we will see scores more realistic.