Web5770 Career Thread

[rednu]

First of all, thank freaking god for this game and this community, because I've been playing the sh!t out of this game while doing the social distancing thing. I'm well into my second course design using the feedback that folks gave me on the first one...I'm really excited by the parcel of land that was auto-generated and my hope is that i will be able to do it justice with a championship-caliber routing.

As for the tournaments, the promo tournament went not well...+3 on day one pretty much screwed me, but it was never a tract that I felt comfortable on, so I was quite happy simply to throw a final round 65 up on the scoreboard and finished at like 9-under for the four days. Bottom line, I'm still in CC-C as fully expected.

The regular CC-C stop was crazy...I finished minus-33, so I matched my goal of finishing in the 30's. And still finished 119th. And whoever snuck in late to bump me from 120 up to 119 has my eternal thanks because it appears you spared me a demotion mark. Thank you! It was an annoying week in the sense that a solid Round 1 crashed and burned in a 4-hole stretch. I was sitting at 7-under after 14 holes when something that had never happened before occurred. I hit my shot just off the green and was trying to determine if I wanted to chip or putt from the position, but clicked through to driver by mistake. Why does that matter? Because at least on the PC, that means that when you go back to the wedges, they're now set for a normal shot rather than a chip shot. I didn't notice it. So instead of what would normally be a fairly routine pitch and putt for no worse than par turned into a screaming moment at the monitor as shot sailed 90-some yards away into water and eventually a double bogey...okay..5 under. Playing on tilt, I bogey 16 as well. And then get it together for par on 17. So standing on the tee box of the par 5 18th, all I'm thinking is that I need an eagle in order to avoid carding the worst round I've ever had on this course. Tee shot sand trap. Hero shot out of sand across water...into water. But that's because I swung at 95 percent rather than 100 right? We'll find out, because the drop had to go back to the point of the last shot as there's no good drop area up by the hazard...so, yeah, I Tin Cupped it before learning my lesson, putting it back in the fairway and just licking my wounds for an even-par first round.

I am such a @#$!%%ING IDIOT sometimes. But, hey, I dug myself out of jail with rounds of 11, 10 and 12 under the rest of the week. Dear god, what could have been.

That brings us to Saxondale, a scenic par-69 Dan Griffith layout that looks as though it belongs in Colorado or maybe northern New Mexico. Dan's LA-North and Friar's Head courses are two of my favorites in the game, so totally stoked to see this come up on the rotation. I enjoyed prepping for the tournament this week, but fully suspect that some will not like the layout because there's rarely a flat spot to be found on fairways, meaning that in many cases it feels like you're smacking and praying from the tees. There are at least a couple times in the 10 practice rounds I played (told you, I've been playing the sh!t out of this game courtesy of coronavirus...) where I laced tee shots down one side of the fairway only to wind up in the rough on the complete opposite side of the fairway. There are also an excessive number of greens that slope from front to back rather than the reverse, meaning that a good rule for Saxondale is to subtract a few yards off the yardage you need so that the extra roll puts you where you want to be. There are a couple greens where landing on the wrong level might mean you have zero chance of stopping the ball on the level where the pin is located on certain days.

But it is still a fun course, especially for those of us that harbor no illusion of winning this thing -- which, incidentally, will probably require four rounds in the 50's as very few holes on the course don't readily give up birdie chances if you keep it in play and solve the mystery of the greens on the approach shots. Favorite hole of the week is the 15th, a 371-yard par 4 with three planted islands of rough that, with a tail wind, can get the ball driven onto the green thanks to the slopes. It's a good risk/reward hole where the high line appears to be the good option on the various paths for everything but a tail wind (when taking it over the first mound surrenders a possible roll-down onto the green given the favorable terrain.

My practice rounds have been running between 5 and 11 under from the two back sets of boxes. I'm going to try and finish somewhere in the 30's under again and just see what that does for me, so those who peg your goals off of mine now know where the world's No. 1931 player is aiming this week.

See you on the course folks. Stay safe in these crazy times!

[rednu]

Finished T-96 this week, continuing to protect my spot as a solid mid-table finisher on the CC-C circuit with a 64-65-68-60 showing. The fast greens on Day 3 killed me and I didn't do myself any favors by getting out of position a couple times as well. Obviously, I missed my goal for the week, but the higher wind speeds make that easy to forgive. The world ranking drops a spot to #1932 this week, but I shed one of those annoying little demotion marks and now have just one remaining from my earlier-season disaster. Cue the Stayin' Alive disco music!

There's not much to say. This week we head to August...ah...Firethorn. We head to Firethorn for qualifying. It'll be a fun 4-day play for me, who harbors no illusion of qualifying for the big showcase. There's no need to talk about the course, because if you're playing a golf sim, this is a course you likely can see in your dreams. There's no need to go over a favorite hole this week for sure...it's the whole course! My "problem area" on the course seems to be holes 4 and 5 as I rarely seem to be able to give myself birdie opportunities here...4 is just a difficult par-3, but with firm greens especially is hard to stop a ball near to most flag locations. Hole 5 always seems to give me a slightly different swing tempo on the approach and I often wind up either missing the elevated segment where the pin is located or in the bunker left. Neither are conducive for a good score on the hole.

I've played eight practice rounds this week and my scores have wandered from -1 to -6...I have had rounds where I have destroyed the front nine and limped home up the back. I've had rounds where I sputtered out of the gate and eagled both back 9 par 5's. Hopefully sometime in the next four rounds I'll be able to pair both a front and a back nine together to make something magical happen. But being realistic, I'll lob out a goal of 14-below for the week.

Given the level of crazy in the outside world, this is a great event to be hitting. It will be a little slice of enjoyable to sit back with and fill a void in the hearts of the golf community that often has this section of the calendar circled as required viewing. Be safe and see you on the course!

[rednu]

Well, three bad rounds of tempo could not be saved in Round 4 and I find myself the owner of 2 new demo marks after finishing 145th with rounds of 72, 74, 73 and 64 for the week. So basically all that hard work I've done the last two weeks to eliminate demo marks has been undone. Thrillsville. My world ranking also dips 11 spots to 1943...to be honest, I'm impressed that's all it fell.

This week we head off to Oak Hill (East) and the new 2020 layout. Dave Woods is responsible for the recreation and I love the work here. Woods is also responsible for, among others, the Turnberry Alisa course, Royal Portrush and Bellerive courses among others -- all among some of my favorite layouts in the game. Unfortunately, while I love the recreation, I hate the course. For me, Oak Hill falls into that category of solid-but-utterly-forgettable courses. There's just nothing here to really remember at round's end and not a hole that really cries out to be replayed. It took me a while to decide on a featured hole of the week just because the course seems a never-ending parade of sameness. The entire front 9 seems a parade of par 4's that feature a creek on the right and bunkers/slopes pinching in from the left. Many greens feature slopes in front making it hard to run balls on from short. Many of the pins will be tucked into corners, which will put a premium on either hero approach shots or your ability to hit on 20-30 foot putts from safer landing zones. And since the par 4's come in two varieties...470+ yards and super short almost-driveable, with nary one in between it seems, I hope your long iron approach shots are set for the week.

My feature hole will be the par 4 6th...a 515 yarder from the tips...you drive to a landing area with a creek on the right, which is definitely in play for an errant tee shot. It then cuts across the fairway and runs up the left side of the green. It's a challenging par 4 that walking away with par on will carry no shame at all.

I'm not expecting to do well this week. My practice rounds have been anywhere from +1 to -4, largely depending on how my putting goes. The Day 2 pins seem to be the most conducive to shooting a low number on with more of them in accessible locations. Once again, I find myself thinking this could well be me last week of CC-C action as I am expecting this to be a course that the field plays better than I do. Of course, the last time I said that, I had a crazy good week and lived to fight another day, so we'll see.

Best of luck to everyone. Catch you on the links!

[rednu]

If I could attach a soundtrack to this Career Log entry, it would be Tom Petty wailing out "'Cuz I'm freeeeeee....free fallin'...."

Yep, it happened. I walked back in from Round 4 at Oak Hill and found a red card taped inside my locker. I've died and been sent to the minor leagues. Goodbye CC-C...hello CC-D. Yours truly couldn't cut it and has slid back a touring level after finishing T-161 last week with rounds of -1, -4, -4 and...+2 (frigging wind). The competitor in me is upset that I got kicked down. The realist in my says that's not surprising since I'm not sure I finished upper half in more than one CC-C event that I was in. And, had it not been for a strong final-day Q-school showing way back when this adventure started, CC-D is where I was initially slotted for anyhow. So let's see how this all works out down here in the D's. And just to add to the wound this week, the ol' world ranking backs up 27 spots to 1,970. Bleh.

This week's stop is at Frankston Heath, a Jamie MacPherson designed fantasy course. Before I go any further, let me stress two things -- 1. If you haven't practiced this course, DO NOT step into the tournament and play it blind! and, 2. If you played the non-Tour version of the course and are pondering skipping the tournament because you hated it, give the Tour version a chance, because for me most of what was turning me off about the regular course was fixed in the Tour version. (the Day 3 pin on Hole 10 still has a lot of yellow in the 9-box zone and could be hell if the green speed that day is high/very high, but everything else that was trouble on the regular course on the greens seems to have been mitigated)

That said, there will still be much whining and gnashing of teeth this week, because Frankston Heath will mess with your mind at times. Approach it with a sense of nirvana -- there are going to be shots that you are stoked about that suddenly wind up 20 yards away from the pin and possibly not even on the putting surface by the time they finish rolling. There are going to be crappy shots that somehow wind up very close to the pin. Unfortunately for you, the former will likely outnumber the latter, but I guarantee both will happen at some point during your 4 rounds. For those of you who expand your regular vocabulary when playing video golf as much as I tend to when playing real golf, expect to get some practice uttering your lesser-used combinations of words at times this week. Remember, it is never a good or a bad shot until the ball comes to a complete rest. Spending a little extra time studying the green and trying to determine the best angle for your approach shot so you can position there off the tee will probably result in a stroke or two being shaved off your scorecard this week.

This is a course that lends itself to a broad diversity of scores. "Frankenstein" Heath can rear up like a monster and force you to throw a big number on several holes, but it can also be there for the taking, especially the back 9 and the three closing holes in particular. My prep rounds varied wildly...mid-70s early in the week before I understood the course...mid/low 60s late in the week when I started to understand positioning and the green complexes better. I cannot recall entering a tournament previously where I was less certain about what my likely final score range might be than I am heading into this tournament, which, in some ways, has me salivating to begin competition and see how this thing turns out. Picking a featured hole of the week was tough, because several of them have a personality, but several of them also fall into similar descriptions of "fit your tee shot into a generously wide landing area to allow for the best possible angle to the pin position on a roller coaster green..." I will go with Hole 16, however. This is an easily-reachable par 5 that can yield eagle, but is far from a certain thing. The first choice is off the tee as there is an annoying sand trap in the preferred landing area. It will not be cleared, even with master clubs, with anything shy of a small hurricane tail wind. That leaves you with two choices...that narrow strip of land to the left of the bunker (which has yet more sand to its left) or that really broad expanse of green to the right of it. The broad landing area probably funnels your ball into a second shot that will be greatly influenced by the world's most annoying tree branch. And, yes, it probably WILL reach out and grab your second shot. Avoiding the tree requires working the ball left-to-right against the slope of the land and toward the water if the pin is on the back of the green.. Tee shots played to the left of the fairway bunker do not have this concern and are free to fire at will at the green on their second shots. But the fun is just beginning as the green is a two-leveler with a significant slope up to the second level on the left side. The back level slants hard to the right in places, which means a ball that appears to be tracking well for back-left hole locations might end up putting/chipping from the right fringe before all is said and done. Oh, and there's water behind the green, but this probably won't come into play for anything but the most horrendous wind conditions and/or extremely mishit shots.

Catch you on the course...from the CC-D ranks, where I'm hoping to avoid a demo mark in my first career appearance.

[rednu]

Still free fallin' and threatening to make the shortest run ever in a division...

I had a horrible opening round with slows. It is enough to convince me to never again play a Sunday night round in tournament. Now, granted, I don't know if that has anything to do anything, but a week for of evening practices...0 slows. Three tournament days fired during a different time slot fo the day...0 slows. Opening round of this tournament on Sunday night...multiple slows, and not the first time I've noticed such a trend.

So, yeah, I'm going to go with that working theory after a week of +2, -7, -8 and -8 for a -21 overall. That looks pretty good, but it is still three demo marks. Those last three rounds didn't leapfrog me a whole lot in the standings over the final three days. But, let's be honest. Even if that opening round is a -5 (which is what it trends for if we take out all the slow-swing drama that occurred on water holes in Round 1), I still come out fo the week with a demo mark. Either the fields are getting way tougher or I'm getting worse at these things as I play them. Which is why the ol' world ranking slipped back another 14 points and I"m now sitting at 1984...a very good year, but absolutely not a good ranking.

So now move on to Oxford Greens, a fictional course designed by Wayne Adams, who is either a god mode designer or has entirely too much time on his hands because he's designed A LOT of courses going back to the first iteration of the game. Somehow though, staring at the list, I'm not sure I've played any of the others thus far, so this is my first taste of Adams' work...and it is good. Oxford Greens is an incredibly believable layout that gets rather tight in some places. That said, this is a tract that is entirely there for the taking and I would guess you'll have to push 50-under for the week if you want to win the trophy. That's largely because the greens are rather docile at Oxford, which could be a relief for some after the adventures of Frankston Heath last week. There are very few locations where a person needs to be cautious or contend with huge breaks or swales. Three of the four par 5's will be reachable for possible eagle under most wind conditions. The fourth can add to that list with a tail wind and some fortuitous breaks. There are also 2 par 4's that can be driven, so you get the picture...there are low numbers to be had here and you need to go hunting for them.

My featured hole for the week will be hole 9, a 386-yard par 4 from the gold tees that will be in use for the tournament. There are more exciting risk-reward holes on the course. There are more challenging holes on the course, but for some reason I just love the layout of this hole. The landing area looks incredibly narrow with the sheds and such pinching from the left, a bunker short of the likely landing zone and an angled bunker on the right side hiding a good chunk of the landing area. Visually, it all just works to challenge you to get to a location that should be a fairly easy pitch shot to a slightly elevated green. The front positions on the green are, to me, slightly more challenging as they require one to carry the ball deep enough to avoid coming up short without sailing beyond the pin for an uncomfortable distance birdie putt back down. Like I said, definitely not the most difficult hole on the course or the most challenging, but something about it just works for my eye and my game to make it stand out.

So...this could already be my CC-D swan song week as I need to avoid demo hell out of the Pro tour and into the Am's at CC-E. Let's see what happens.

[rednu]

It was a good week for a change...a week of -10, -11, -8, -6 left me T-52...a career-best finish, but annoyingly short by one stroke of a top-50, and I had a lot of lip skimming putts the last two rounds. It erased a demo mark, so now I'm only down 2. And it raised my world ranking to a career-best of 1,926. Yay for progress!

So this week we're off to Skyfall Links Black, a highlands design courtesy of the mind of Mike Georgiades. It's a fictional course that requires absolutely zero imagination to believe could be very real. And it appears in two distinct halves...the early and late holes that feature water and the middle holes that are completely inland. Most of that water is there more for cosmetic purposes than for actual penal intent, but it will definitely get your attention on the par 3 2nd and 17th holes, which in many ways are the same par 3 with minor length and green slope differences.

The fairways at Skyfall Black are incredibly generous, to the point of you would almost have to be actively trying to miss them in order to NOT land in them at times. Bottom line, if your approach shot on any of the par 4/5 holes is out of the rough...that's probably on you. The par 5's are all of the shortish variety and should be reachable for possible eagle, even heading into the teeth of high wind speeds. (and if any of them is playing into the wind, relax and know that the other two will play with it as a tail wind for at least one of the two key shots). The greens default to a speed of 160 and feature some breaks. In some cases these help to filter the ball to corner pin positions or provide a backstop to enable aggressive approach shots. In other cases, the holes are cut atop or just over the crest of mounds, which makes from some late breaks and, at 187 speeds, annoying rollaways. That said, it is an utterly fair course and there is the potential to go low all four days. For those who peg their scores against mine, I have hit consistently at -4 when jacking the wind and green speeds up and in the -7 to -11 range when leaving everything on default. While birdies will be a challenge at times, bogeys should (knock on wood) be a thing that you really need to mess the bed in order to register too many of.

My feature hole for the week is Hole 4, a par 4 uphill shot that plays 451 from the white tournament tees we are using this week. There is a creek running across the fairway, but ignore it as it is well short of the landing area for either Pro or Master clubs (unless you tee with like a 6-iron for some reason...). The fairway takes a bit of an 'S' right in the landing area...where you aim will largely be a product of wind direction and preferred angle to that round's pin position. Do keep in mind that you're playing slightly uphill to the landing area, so take that into account with your aiming point. Where every you land, you'll want to add a club for the uphill nature of the second shot. The cavernous front left bunker is an absolute red X in the greens booklet that you need to avoid visiting at all costs. This is just an absolutely beautiful hole that just jumps to life for me as a great example of a fictional hole that you'd never be able to contrast from the real deal if you looked at it.

Best of luck to everyone this week. Stay safe. Stay healthy. See you on the links!

[rednu]

SUCCESS!!

Two days of amazing golf and two days of solid golf were enough to lodge my first-ever Top 25 finish as I carded 67-60-59-66 to finish the week tied for 24th overall. It was an amazing week that featured my first sub-60 round (in an official TGCT event I've gone there in practice before) and also a lip-out of a possible hole-in-one on the challenging 15th hole in Round 3. Given that it played as the hardest hole on the course for the week, I'd have worn an ace on 15 like a badge of freaking honor. Buoyed by the outcome, the world ranking shot way the heck up to 1,777th. Huzzah!!

So now we come to this week...the PGA Championship qualifying. And I'm really torn here. On the one hand, its a qualifying tournament for a major, so what golfer in their right mind sits it out? On the other hand, it is a course that absolutely eats my lunch. On the one hand, it's just a game, so who really cares if I get demoted? On the other hand, I'm a competitive son of a....and *I* care dagnabit!! Especially after fighting tooth and nail to erase two demo marks these past two weeks.

But here we are at Bethpage, where I am about to say something controversial...I hate this course. To be clear, I'm not talking about the rendition, which the designer did an awesome job with. I'm just talking about the course itself. I hate it. I find it utterly uninspiring. The best thing Bethpage Black did was hang an ominous sign off the first tee to strike the fear of God into prospective golfers, because without that as a drawing card and a badge of I-Survived-This honor...this course would have little attraction to it. Consider... the greens are largely big pie plate circles...you're either on them or you aren't. Almost without exception, they're on raised little pedestals completely encircled by shaggy rough, but so freaking firm that getting a ball to stop on the forward third of them requires a practical act of god. There's very little creative thought involved the entire round because every hole is essentially gorilla golf swinging for the fences. Hell, one of the biggest strategic decisions you'll have the whole round comes on the first tee when you decide whether to aim down the correct fairway or look way to the right and hit onto a fairway that doesn't even belong to this course, but was drawn in and faithfully rendered (note: if you aim for this fairway, you'll likely fly through the far end of it, but you'll have a relatively simple pitch shot from the rough...the benefit is that if you get screwed on swing tempo and go slow, you'll still be able to have a clear line of sight into the green. Yeah, seriously...that's your big strategic decision for the round and it all runs downhill from there. And then there are the greens, which I swear must be within fractions of an inch from going yellow in multiple places, because my rollaways here are the things of legend, even though the course defaults at less than 187, I swear sometimes it must be running at 192 or higher (and at least on one hole on Day 4, the yellow will literally be IN THE BOX...the thrills of thinking you'll have a tap in only to see a ball on the lip keep moving and not come to rest until it is 9 feet away.

Then there are the mechanical aspects. There are about 6-7 holes where, either on the tee, on the approach or both, I just can't get a consistent swing tempo. I'll go perfect-perfect one round...fast-perfect the next three rounds only to have it revert to perfect-perfect on the fifth round when I finally play for the fast. On some courses, that's not a big deal. On a course like this where you're hitting a ton of mid/long irons into greens, its simply unwelcome variance. This would be a killer course if I knew where my ball was going. When I have to guess short vs. long, left vs. right...the recipe is set for a long bad week.

Look...if you shoot 50+ under par and win this week, you've got my respect for life. Because I"m not sure I could drop my ball onto the green from a helicopter and pull down that type fo score.

But, hey, it's PGA qualifying. It's a major. And you're bored as heck on Day 48 or whatever of quarantine. You're going to play it for the same reason college students drink Mad Dog 20/20 -- you know it's going to hurt by the time it is all done, but it's that shared experience in pain that bonds us all together. Speaking of pain, let's talk about Hole 15, my featured hole of the day and my personal nemesis on this course in probably every electronic iteration that I have ever played it on. It's a par 4...the no. 1 handicap hole on the course. You'll tee to a fairway that bends gently to the left. It's a wide-open fairway...just make sure you hit the dang thing. From there, hit one club more than you normally would to reach an elevated green. Trust me, you want to clear those sand traps that you see between you and the green. Most of the front half of that green is slope back toward the front edge...which is great on Day 3 when the pin position will be located there, but sucks for everything else. That said, putting from the lower level onto the upper one is not the worst thing you can have happen on this green. Being above the hole and having any length of downhill putt...THAT is the worst thing...and good luck getting that putt to stop on the green at default or faster.

Look, I'd give you some words of wisdom here, but I really don't have any. Prepare for an exhausting week where every birdie will pretty much be earned through blood, sweat and tears. Accept that you are going to score higher than you normally do. Accept that you will question whether or not you can play this freaking game by the end of Round 4. Accept that sometimes the course DOES win and that this is one of those times. And then once you've accepted all that, whatever you do, remember to keep the ball below the hole this week. Downhill putts are killer and sidehill lies risk rollaways that will leave you much longer comebacks than you're accustomed to. I am actually going to wait and see where the early scores come in before I commit to playing this one...that auto-demote thing and I'm not convinced I cover the top 200 this week...

Best of luck and see you (maybe) on the links.

[rednu]

It wasn't a Top 25, but it darn sure felt like it after going 70-63-65-69 around Bethpage Black to finish T-39. Not bad for an event that I almost skipped because I wasn't sure I could keep it out of the 201+ auto-demotion category. Serioulsy, there was nothing in my practice play that indicated a round of 63 was within the realm of possibility for the course. But throw in it in the books as official and take that World Ranking up to 1,711...a career-best again!

Now to jump in the RV (I haven't earned enough money for my own jet!!) and set course for Klopp's Pocket. This is a fantasy par-73 countryside course that comes from the mind of Sam Pond. And as you'd expect with a last name like Pond, water figures prominently into the layout. As a course, it works. Nothing feels too hokey about it, despite its fictional nature. There are holes that will make you think, and holes that will make you say a silent prayer for smooth tempo before you step up to swing. Some of the greens have rollaway issues that might consternate on some holes/some locations, but overall the course feels fair. It will penalize a bad shot, but it rarely feels like there isn't one or more options capable of providing a "good" shot.

My feature hole for the week, and probably the signature hole at Klopp's Pocket, is the par-4 3rd, which plays 405 yards from this week's tournament tees. Mark my words, if I am ever hitting my second shot out of the fairway on this hole, it will be evidence that I pushed my tee shot to the right. That would be because there is a big lake down the ENTIRE right side of the hole. There's also no good way to avoid it or a comfortable bail out zone really, so your best bet is to just take aim and pray your ball returns to the earth on terra firma. Achieve that and you'll have a pitch/wedge to a sloping green. Take your par and carry on...there are way better places to get greedy and try to pick Klopp's Pocket for a birdie.

Water will reappear in many locations around the course and it will be up to the player to decide how much risk they're willing to take on. The other thing folks will want to take note of on Klopp's Pocket are the green complex. Coming off of Bethpage Black, players should be used to psychotic rollaways and, suffice to say, Klopp's has a few of those as well. The two that players will most want to take notice of come on holes 8 and 10. Each green features a ridge running through it. Being on the wrong side fo the ridge is not the place to be. On hole 8, the ridge runs roughly from 12-to-5 on the clock face and is just right of the center, creating a left 2/3 of the green and a right 1/3, roughly speaking. On hole 10, it runs more diagonally...10-to-4 or so, creating 3 sections on the par 5 green...a front/left position, an elevated segment in the middle and a back/right portion that will run away from the player. When the pin is front/left, it is vital the player not end up in one of the other two zones. [EDIT -- I screwed this up...hole 8 is the par 5 with the 10-to-4 ridge, Hole 10 is the par 4 with the 12-to-5 ridge...apologies if anyone followed the advice blind and wound up screwed.]

Overall, I found Klopp's to play consistent with regard to tempo. Day 2's pins, in my opinion, are the most challenging set on the course and my scores ranged from -1 to -7 as I practiced for the tournament. The front nine, with its 3 par-5 holes, definitely is more charitable than the back 9, so grab your birdies early and often if you're given the chance to do so. Beyond that, don't let your guard down as Klopp's can reach out and bite you on numerous holes.

Best of luck both here and in the promo event (Kegusta was a fun course on first play-through!)

[rednu]

After a 66-66-62-64 (-34) I finished T-57, just missing a third straight week inside the top 50, but at least extending my top-60 run to four events in a row. My world ranking climbs to 1,680 for a new record pinnacle, and my prize check was the largest of my career (despite finishing 24th a couple weeks back...go figure). In any event, at least I'm a little closer to buying that jet to get around to all these tournaments.

This week, we're off to Horseshoe Bay, a fictional delta layout by Robyn Stone that requires little imagination to see as a real course. There are minor hints to its fictional status, but as I close my eyes it isn't hard to see a lot of the course nestled in, say, the lake country of Texas. The course will play just shy of 7,100 yards and if you want any hope of placing well, you'd better be prepared to go low. Bethpage Black this is not. When the course was used for a tournament in the 2019 season, the winning score was -50 in CC-D where I currently reside. The line to make the top 50 was -29.

Fortunately, there's not a lot to impede a person from going low. The default 178 greens are fairly benign in the slope department. There are few strategic decisions to be made on the course. Honestly, while the layout is fair and fun, I really didn't feel there was a lot to remember here. Even the 18th hole that plays over the course's eponymous bay is fairly easily wiped from memory. My practice rounds for the week have ranged anywhere from -6 to -12, so there are birdies pretty much everywhere for the taking. Unlike recent weeks, there really isn't a hole that I would ever tell someone to just be happy with a par and move on from. That's not to say there aren't certain quirks...the 15th green slopes front to back pretty hard, so play an extra click of loft than what you usually would on the approach, beware getting too close to walls in a couple sand traps to avoid having to play out sideways or backwards, etc.

My feature hole for the week is the 14th, a par-4 that plays 477 yards from the tournament tees, and it is a hole I selected just because it is the most visually realistic hole on the course as I played through the course over and over. A slight dogleg right, you blast your tee shot over a bunker guarding the corner to a generous landing area beyond. From there you'll have a slight uphill shot to a green that rests in a natural amplitheater framed beautifully by the slope of the surrounding land. Props to the designer for the look to this hole.

Keep in mind also that we have a promotion event running this week on Kegusta, a course I probably haven't practiced nearly enough to have a chance at upward movement on this week, but which was a blast to play.

Good luck and stay safe everyone!!

[rednu]

The hot streak is dead. After a few strong weeks, it was back to the grind this week...63-68-64-67 (-26) on the CC-D circuit. On face value it doesn't look that bad, but it was only good enough for a T-158 and only by the grace of god and two late kick-outs did I avoid the triple demo mark and scrape past with "only" a double-down. Great for blackjack, not so great for avoiding relegation. The wind did just enough on the front 9's on R2 and R4 that I didn't log enough birdies. 

But can we pause here a moment and appreciate the strength of the tour. Again, one year ago when this same course was used a -29 on the course was good enough to finish top 50. This year it was...a demotion mark. The winning score was identical to where it was a year ago...there's just a whole lot of people a whole lot closer now. And I wasn't one of them. Which is why my world ranking slipped back 8 spots to 1,688 in the world. I don't know who the 8 of you were...but I'm coming for you!

My ability to get just two good rounds for the week followed me to the promo event as well. I was sitting well at -7 after R2. Then tagged it out with a +2, +2 finish to stay right in the CC-D realm. Tough course. Fair course. And I don't think I birdied that damn downhill 105-yard par-3 the whole @#$%!ing tournament. 

So here we are heading for a links-style course at Ballymoore this week. I'm feeling Ireland here for sure.  The par-71 Rob Ball design plays out to just over 7,000 yards from the tournament tees. It gave me a consistent swing tempo throughout the week of practice, which is good because if it were prone to inconsistencies there would be a lot of places for disaster to occur. 

So where to begin this week's overview? Let's start with this observation...Ballymoore is clearly a fictional course. Fairways come in two sizes -- pinched to the extreme in the landing zone or wide enough to accommodate all of the 405 traffic at rush hour without issue (ask a Los Angelino if you don't get the reference). The greens are comically large in some cases and need to be thought of in sections rather than as whole entities. For the most part, each section is designed to funnel your ball toward that area's pin position (I said most...not all!). Your trick on the approach is to make sure you're within the correct segment. Miss the section with the flag and you're likely to have a heck of an adventure 2-putting, perform that task well and there are a lot of birdies to be had. Every par-5 is reachable in 2 (although strong headwinds will play potentially play spoiler to this). Multiple par 4's are able to be driven (at least with master clubs). You're probably looking at a winning score in the low 50s under par again this week.

In true links style, players will want to pay attention to what is going to happen with the ball after it lands. Playing directly at the pin isn't always the best way to finish near the pin. Take advantage of back stops where they exist. Pay attention to some sinister roll-away areas that you want to avoid. Not everyone is going to like this course. 

My feature hole for the week will be the par-4 16th, which is an almost-driveable (if we get a tail wind on it, it'll be reachable) par 4 with the ocean running down the left side, a very narrow landing area and slopes that are ready to kick your ball left toward the water. You can play back with less than a driver if you want a safer landing area, but we didn't come here to be safe if we know we need 50-under to possibly win. Right? The sand trap really isn't a bad place to be. 

This is definitely a course you'll want to play a practice round or two on to take note of some of its subtleties before diving in on the tournament. In my opinion, this is also that rare situation where pin set 1 are actually the most difficult grouping of locations on the course. For those pegging their scores off mine, know that I've ranged from -5 to -14 (!!) in practice this week. I am quite certain I will regret wasting that 57 on a practice round before the week is done...

For those of you who successfully navigated the promo event and now find yourself playing on new circuits, congratulations! See everyone on the links!

[rednu]

New week, new beginnings.

After playing two events last week (the regular CC-D event and the US Open qualifier) it was an average week. As in my scores for both events put me right on the midpoint of the tournament field. This was...distressing...for the CC-D event, but left me rather satisfied as far as the US Open qualifier, especially considering that I hadn't previewed the course at all and walked in blind. Incidentally, shout out to the designer for some diabolical greens that allowed a lot of creativity...I remember sailing a tee shot long and right on one of the par 3's and watching the ball take an epic journey that would make any Augusta National green blush with envy as the ball practically rolled off the front left of the green before coming to a rest.

Anyhow, the world ranking slipped another 6 places to 1694, so I guess I'll have to do better this week.

This week's CC-D tournament course is Steppingstone, a Delta scheme design by Josh Rieders and it is an absolute work! Measuring in at a smidge over 7,200 yards from the tips, there is very little here to give away that this isn't a real course. The front and back nine are fairly distinctive as the former winds its way through mostly inland environments before the back 9 breaks out into more of a coastal environment (but without the water coming into play on every hole. Visually this is some really good work with the planting. Rieders simply needs to make more layouts for this game IMO, because I don't very often throw a fictional course into my favorited library, but after a couple practice rounds, I simply had to tuck this one away. Frame rates seemed good and consistent from hole to hole. There are some tight fairways where driver may not be the best option. There are some overhanging trees that mean simply being in the fairway may not be good enough. There are some slopes on greens that default to the full 187 speed, but with very rare exceptions, there's nothing approaching what we saw last week on either tour or PGA qualifier.

I'll be honest...I didn't pick a feature hole this week. I simply couldn't because Steppingstone is just a pleasant walk for pretty much the full 18 holes. There are elements that conjure memories of other locations...a single hole that feels like Riviera, a par-5 that yields comparisons to Augusta's 13th in some ways. My only knock on the course is the 18th, which restricts distance off the tee and leaves a blind second shot toward a hidden green or to an equally-hidden layup fairway well off to the left.

Pin sets don't really matter as I feel all four are fairly evenly balanced. All my practice rounds clustered into a tight -4 to -6 window, which may or may not bode well for my week depending on how others do. The first 4 holes or so, in my opinion, are the hardest on the course, so don't get depressed if you find yourself getting off to a slow start. There are strokes to be had coming up later in the round, so stay the course.

And since it has been a hectic week and it worked so well last week, I am once again playing the PGA Qualifier blind, so good luck to everyone and see you out on the links!

[rednu]

Another week, another set of results...finishing at even par in the US Open qualifier (after once again starting well and then wilting on days 3 and 4) and then earning a T-68 in the CC-D event after finishing at -28 for the round. The net result is my world ranking rising to a new all-time record at 1,676 in the standings.

So this week we're off to Helmsley Golf Links, a nice wide-open countryside layout from the mind of Victor Lane, who has designed...a lot!! The Par 71 layout plays to a touch over 6,700 yards from the back tees and features both elevation change and water. Depending on the wind and direction, there are a number of strategic options on the course on various holes. In some cases, a shift in the wind has the potential to radically alter the play of a hole as various landing areas become more/less accessible.

It is a fairly wide open course, so shooting low is going to be a must for doing well this week. While it may appear uncluttered, I assure you there will likely be 1-2 trees you wish you could take a chainsaw to before week's end. The water is potential in play on a number of holes and I've pretty much consigned myself to the thought that 1-2 times this week I'm going to get an unexpected slow on my tempo that causes an ill-timed splashdown. The greens default to 172 and roll nice and true. My rounds have been anywhere from -5 to -12 in prepping for the week. My featured hole for the week is the par-3 12th, which plays 183-ish yards from the tournament tees. It is a Biarritz style hole, which immediately attracts me to it as the 9th at Yale is among my favorite holes in the game (although Helmsley's biarritz is probably visually closer to the 3rd at Chicago CC). It's just a fun strategic hole to ponder and, again, depending on wind and direction, could be all manner of fun this week. 

Not sure where the Open qualifier takes us to this week, but if the two previous qualifiers are any indication, it will be a sadistic little course that I'll be fighting like mad to break par on and loving every swing of things. Good luck all!

[rednu]

After a bad start to the week that saw me drop about 5 strokes over two days due to poor swing tempo on water holes, I was able to pull things back together to showcase a 66-65-60-62 to finish -31 for the tournament and finish T-69 and avoid demo marks. Plus it dumps another $28K and change of fake money into my fake bank account. It also shaved another 20 places off my world ranking, so look at me mom, I'm No. 1656 in the world! The challenge is to keep moving upward, which this week means dealing with Deux Fois Par Jour, a fictional par 72 Swiss design from Jeremy Mayo, who has designed multiple other courses that have been used on tour, including Monterey Bay and Hoback Range. The course can be stretched out to nearly 7,500 yards from the tips, but will play at slightly over 7,000 yards for this week's CC events. 

Speaking honestly, this is a course that I suspect will have some players less than thrilled by week's end. Narrow misses of certain greens can kick the ball into penal (and sometimes watery) locations. Land short on one green on the back nine and you can have the thrill of watching your ball not only roll off the green, but some 70 yards backwards down the fairway so you can try that approach shot all over again. Definitely pay attention to slopes here, or else that modestly good shot you just hit might end up not so great at all. Not all the slopes are bad...some allow for much greater creativity on approach shots, but folks who play strictly straight-line vector golf getting from tee to green might find themselves a little annoyed. This is a course that will reward players who know how to shape shots, who can calculate distances on slopes and, most important on the multiple downhill holes, how to calculate the runout of the ball after it has landed. 

For me, it isn't a course that I go into expecting good things on. Even with tweaks to the graphics, I haven't been able to maintain a consistent hole-to-hole swing tempo on the course. As a result, my practice rounds have gone from -1 to -8 this week and trying to get approach shots closer than 20 feet has been a real struggle. The course ends with a par 3 18th hole. I hate courses that end on par-3's. Don't ask me why, because I don't know...I just always feel cheated not to be able to swing a driver one last time when coming home that final hole. Anyhow, it's a course that I really expect to probably have a demo mark or two on by week's end. I would consider skipping the tournament, but it's only a game and this funny thing happened in practice this week....

...which brings me to my feature hole this week, the slightly downhill par 3 13th, that will play a few yards either side of 154 this week depending on pin position. It was here while warming up on pin set 2 that I lofted a lovely little 7-iron up, dropped it about 5 yards in front of the green and watched it bounce a couple times before slowly rolling right into the cup for an ace, my career 4th on TGC since picking up the game almost a year ago, though I am still waiting for my first in TGC Tour competition). So, of course I have to feature that hole, despite there being other more exciting options available. I need to download a screen-to-video app on the gaming computer so I can share this kind of awesomeness with the masses. 

Not much else to say. Good luck to everyone teeing it up this week, especially the US Open field, of which I am not one (no surprise there). 

[rednu]

It was close, but managed to dodge a demo mark for the week after finishing T-113 with a -21 to show for things this week. I didn't play horrible, but I never threw together the type of round I thought possible on the course (and if you look at all the different holes I birdied in different rounds, it is clear there's a much lower number out there for me). Consistency of swing tempo was just a problem for me and resulted in a number of chips from just off greens and 20-25 foot putts from on greens. As a result, my world ranking severely crashed this past week, dropping me to No. 1691...clearly we have some work to do here once again.

Which brings us to this week's scheduled stop at The Razorback, a fictional autumn design that course creator Jack Reed has envisioned in Fayetteville, Arkansas. Reed has designed a number of other courses, but I'm not sure I've crossed paths with any of them before now. TGC Tour long-timers might remember his Drezden Golf Emporium layout from earlier this year though.

The Razorback is a par-70 layout that is a manageable 6,874 yards from the tips. There's some minor elevation change to account for, mild water risk (though more for look than actual penal potential), and some green slope to pay attention to on some holes. Overall though, this is a course that, with very few exceptions, feels incredibly real and could pass the illusion test as a possible real course if for but one or two things. One of the biggest challenges could come in hitting a couple of the fairways, which narrow at the landing point and could prove a troubling target in winds above 10 mph or so.

Due to life, I only had the opportunity to play the course four times during the week, but as I cycled through the various hole locations, the course was playing extremely consistent for me on all rounds as my scores went from -5 to -7. Approach shots really appear the key on The Razorback as setting yourself in the right location on the greens will yield a number of putts that one can be safely aggressive with. There are definitely low numbers out there to be had.

My favorite hole for the course is probably the first par 3 that one encounters (I believe it was hole 3, but I'll be darned if I can find my notes as I type this up...). It features probably the largest elevation drop that a player will see on the week with a green that slopes fairly hard from right to left with water behind/left. The Day 4 pin at the far right is probably the most challenging as the left-side locations can have golfers using the natural slope of the green to feed the ball toward the hole and minimize flirtation with the water. Distance control for the elevation and any winds will be the keys to having a good look here.

Overall, I don't expect to hear too many complaints this week. There are certainly opportunities for various holes to blow up one's scorecard, but there will be plenty of birdie/eagle chances available if one is patient and finds the fairway off the tee. Good luck to all as I try to throw the world ranking out of reverse and attempt to resume my upward climb.

[rednu]

Another Sunday, another tournament write-up...after 4 days on The Razorback, I was able to post a -31 with a line of 61-65-61-62. I thought for most of Saturday that I was going to sneak through with a promo mark, but, alas, in the final hour, one person with Masters clubs snuck in with a better 4-day total and ripped the green marks away from about 4 of us who were tied for the 10th spot and clinging to hope. Such is life on the tour. The good news is that, with a T-56 finish, I regained all the world ranking places that I lost the previous week so I am, once again, No. 1656 in the world.

That sends us out to Oregon and Bandon Dunes this week, a well-known real course rendered in LIDAR beauty by Mike Ricks. The greens default at 187 and I had zero difficulties with irregular swing tempo practicing for the course this week. In reality, Bandon is one of those must-hit courses if you're a golfing enthusiast (and if you're not a golfing enthusiast, I'm not quite sure how you got here or why you're reading this thread, but, hey, you do you!). Online, it is a course that should probably have a home in your favorites library, especially if other courses you've favorited in the game go by names like Sand Hills, Chambers Bay or Whistling Straits. The course is really wide open -- if you hit a tree this week...wow...you're really out of position somewhere! The fairways are wide for the most part -- in some cases probably a good 50+ yards wide -- but undulating, so take note of the direction your ball might kick after landing. The greens default to the full 187 speed, so take care to stay below the pin as much as possible. Make note of approach angles to the green before you tee off...the preferred fairway landing zone can change markedly depending on pin location on some holes. The other thing to pay attention to is distances as multiple par 4 holes are short enough to drive to within pitching range on, so select a landing area that agrees with a distance you feel comfortable making your approach from. A little thinking-man's golf and playing to your strengths this week can save a few heartaches and probably strokes on the course. The Day 2 pins probably play 2-3 strokes harder, in my opinion, than other days. This is due mostly to a couple of pins being situated on top of hogsbacks and one hole in particular that has yellow within inches of the cup location that will steer even the best misses some 7-8 feet away.

No discussion of Bandon would be complete without talking about its par 3's, however. I am hard-pressed to think of another course with 4 par 3's that are collectively as psychotic as this course. If someone offers you the opportunity to accept even par for the week on the par 3's in exchange for not having to play them at all, take the deal and run, because they're probably doing you a favor. The first of the par 3's is the most benign, but features an abundance of slopes. The next takes you to the edge of the bluff with the Pacific Ocean (and OB) to the left. The next, I'll get to below in my featured hole of the week and the last is a narrow tear-drop shaped green with a harsh fall away to the left that gets worse the deeper into the green you go. The front right of the green is an extreme slope that will kick the ball hard left (inviting it to roll off the green and down said runout area...). Without wind, it is a challenging shot. Kick the wind up into the mid-teens and this could be brutal.

Now, let's backtrack to that third par 3, the 12th hole at Bandon Dunes, my featured hole of the week. It'll play about 220-ish from this week's tees and drops about 20 feet from tee to green. The green is set on a 10 o'clock to 4 o'clock angle with a lone bunker guarding the left side and a bit of a mound guarding the right entryway to the green. The ground in front of the green slopes upward, making the odds of landing a ball short and running it on the green unlikely. But I haven't gotten to the good part yet. You see, the back portion of the green slopes hard away from you. At 187, it takes a ball completely off the green, where it hits a steep bank that runs the ball down into the rough toward the Pacific. Your ball won't go OB, but you'll have a nasty uphill flop shot to execute out of the rough to try and save your par. Trust me...I've "researched" it for you this week. It is a terrible place to play from. My aiming point is the front edge of the green regardless of pin position. If I come up a bit short and have to chip, that's fine and I'll take my chances executing that shot. I'm not going to even start to flirt with the back half of this green.

So, after all that, here's the final scoop on Bandon Dunes -- this will be a birdie festival this week, even if the winds are up and the greens are a constant 187 across 4 days. The par 4's and par 5's are short enough that they'll yield a multitude of chances to golfers. My practice rounds have gone from -6 to -12, so I fully expect that for others the numbers will be even more insane and that a score in the -50's will be needed to lift the trophy this week. So, with all that said, best of luck to you -- see you at Bandon. (and don't forget the extra event this week as well!)