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Post by catcherman22 on Dec 12, 2020 19:29:40 GMT -5
Welcome to week 13 @ Georgia Match Club (Tour) by mattf27This week it's time to test how well you can handle the greens and putt the ball. Hit it close and putt well, I expect you to score well. Miss your targets, or are too aggressive putting... don't expect to shoot well. There are pins and holes to fire at, but there are definitely pins and holes to be happy with your par. I would recommend a practice round this week for those who have not played the course. Good Luck!
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Post by Deleted on Dec 12, 2020 19:34:04 GMT -5
This course is tough. Pay attention!
Played a ton of practice rounds. -8 best round +5 worst. Hit your spots. Play conservative when you have to.
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Post by williamwes626 on Dec 12, 2020 20:59:57 GMT -5
It was a 144-hole week last week, and a long flight to Georgia from Scotland but we made it. Our longest course yet, Georgia Match Club is 7500 yards with plenty of tough greens and this course will play as one of the more difficult ones this season for sure. The 74.2 handicap is jump up from last week’s Royal St. Michaels 68 handicap. Catcherman says this will be a test for putting and I guess these are the toughest greens we’ve faced.
Premier architect Matthew Fritsch says: "Welcome to Georgia Match Club, the not-quite famous spring championship course. GMC features wide fairways and devious greens, with a champions tee and a shorter members tee. Special thanks to Ben, Dan, and Eric for their help."
If you get a chance check 200 yards behind the first tee to checkout the clubhouse, swimming pool, tennis courts, and patio. We’re in a high class place that resembles another high class place. There are a lot of people here to watch the performance. I’ll probably get extra nervous and hit into every pond I can find. He he
The Sand Pit and Royal St. Michaels Links were both average length courses that featured some tight fairways, a lot of bunkers and straight holes. Georgia Match Club is the longest course we’ve played yet on the Challenge Circuit, it’s got wide but sloped fairways, with an emphasis on great approach shots that play along doglegs to more intricate greens. The greens will be playing at moderate and firm speeds with default at 8.2 on the stimpmeter. So driving accuracy was vital last week, approach shots and putting are vital this week. So I focused my notes on the greens a bunch. Personally, I may not always go for the green because some of these lag putts are harder than the recovery shots around the green. It’s to your advantage if you are generally good at judging wind direction compared to fairway slope direction for approach shots. We won’t be standing on level fairways. Driving accuracy and trying to work out the math hitting out of the rough won’t matter much as the drives are usually the easier parts on each hole and there’s more pine straw than rough on the course.
Georgia Match Club Par 71-7495 yards 1) 4-454. Hope you practiced because coming into the first couple of holes raw may not be the best idea. The drive is encumbered by fairway bunkers on both sides but the landing area is generous. The wedge approach is to a highly difficult green where 3-putting is easy.
2) 3-255 (#2 handicap). The #2 handicap hole comes early on – a beast of a par-3 – the longest I think we played this year at over 250 yards. It’s 30 feet downhill to another menacing green. Pins on the left half of the green have a backboard if you knock the ball too far but pins on the right hide behind the 2 greenside bunkers. While an average size green, it’s not easy to hit the perfect spot from so far so our recovery games have to be solid at Georgia Match Club also. A miss right could hit a run off and roll towards a nearby pond. Hitting it too far will leave difficult recovery shots from behind the green. A miss left is the easiest recovery chance.
3) 4-409. A straight drive on this dogleg right hole will leave us on the left side of the fairway for a better angle towards another difficult green fronted by a bunker on the right. Club selection is important on the approach so we don’t have to deal with a lag putt across a very orange/fast 8-shaped green.
4) 5-546. The first par-5 is a birdie chance. Stay left on the fairway to avoid traveling over the bunkers when you go for the green. Landing on the right side of the fairway will force a fade into the diagonal-sitting false front green.
5) 4-511. The 5th has the first water we’ve seen in quite awhile after all the dried up brown turf at the last 2 courses. Those courses made me thirsty. A missed fairway here is a missed green as its very tough to get over the water. The recovery has to be played far right to the fairway or wherever reachable. Luckily, the green is easy to handle so an approach from over water doesn’t have to be in the perfect spot.
6) 3-166. Augusta's Golden Bell reversed. The eight shaped green is tiny when taking this 6th hole on from 166 yards away over water. Luckily the swirling winds aren’t around he he. A high arch and backspin may help.
7) 5-520. A birdie may fly into our lives here after a couple of tougher holes. Playing like Augusta's Pink Dogwood, a draw is a wise choice off the tee. The approach is to a green pinched in at the front by bunkers. The green is tame so eagle chances can occur if you can clear the bunkers and land deep into the green.
8) 4-479. Watch out for this one. The dogleg right 8th is the first tee shot that is haunted by the trees around. A drive straight or left will find the huge pond and a drive right will leave us in a family of trees. The optimal play is a fade drive around the trees and a draw approach around the water and front greenside bunker. The green has a false front to be weary of it on front pin positions.
9) 4-310. I would go for it on this drivable par-4 with a driver fade being the best choice. The greenside bunkers are very deep so you may need an extra club to get out. A par here will lose a stroke to the field since the green is manageable.
10) 5-563. Another birdie opportunity, the drive is straight and downhill, the approach uphill. Another fade is the best bet if you’re going for the long n’ narrow green.
11) 4-502. Hopefully you buffered your scorecard with birdies on the last 2 holes cause these next 2 will play real tough. This is one of 3 par-4’s that play over 500 yards. The long approach may be served better with backspin to avoid a long rollout far from the pin.
12) 3-219 (#1 handicap). Like the 2nd hole, this long par-3 is all about accuracy with a wood or hybrid and focus on the tee. The green is a large enough target to land on and maybe that’s all we can ask for.
13) 5-564. The last relief after two of the biggest challenges, this par-5 is not as easy as it looks on paper. A dogleg left that climbs uphill, any attempts to run the ball up the narrowed fairway left of the greenside bunkers won’t work as the ball bounces right towards the sand. This par-5 is more likely a 3-shot hole so play the second shot to a spot you feel comfortable with.
14) 4-502. A lot shorter than it appears on paper, the drive downhill will carry far leaving a mid-iron approach to a green fronted by bunkers. A missed green on the side near the hole may be a good bet since it’s treacherous, but recovery shots have to be lofted up to the perched green.
15) 3-184. An easier par-3, it should be okay as long as you don’t hit a slow or the ball will want to dive into the water for a swim.
16) 4-471(#3 handicap). Off the tee, it’s very easy to land in the pond on the left on this long par-4. Anything that hits the rough will bound into the water so aim way to the right off the tee. Keep your balance on the sloped fairway and aim right for compensation on the short/mid-iron approach. The green has the most orange of any I’ve seen this CC season. Perhaps some practice putting strokes may help before taking this monster on. A par may pick up a stroke on the field at this hole.
17) 4-381. This dogleg left hole and the 8th require decisions off the tee – a driver tee shot faces water left but leaves the best angle to the green, and a wood tee shot gives the player a more challenging approach around a tree. The shallow green severely slopes towards the deep greenside bunker and water.
18) 4-439. The final hole plays like a shortened version of Holly at Augusta. A fade off the tee is a smart plan and the uphill approach may require clubbing up. It’s not a very difficult final hole like some courses have.
So a new week, and a new division or new tour for some of us. There’s time to play a practice round – I agree with Catcherman – it’s worth it.
Two things that helped me in the last month with putting is to write these notes since it forces me to study each green so I will know them once the tourney starts, and I’ve been using the closeup camera after I judge my target area so I can see my putting stroke clearer. I don’t use the ground level camera cause I lose perspective of how far back I’m pulling the putter. It helped me finish 1st in putting in CC-D last week. I got my first top ten too, and top 200 in the Promo event, but I think it’s cause I feel more comfortable and less nervous now that I’m getting used to the TGC tour and you all have been very accepting of my notes and you all didn't kick my butt too much. He he. I really appreciate that and I hope everyone has a great week.
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Post by twofor22 on Dec 13, 2020 3:15:42 GMT -5
Started off with a -9 first round including eagles on two of the par 5 holes. I was in CC-D prior to the promo event, not sure where I'll end up when it all gets worked out, but likely still in the CC tour.
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Post by SteelVike on Dec 13, 2020 8:13:25 GMT -5
Probably going to miss the cut in CC-F for a second week in a row. Shot -4 the first round and followed it up with E for the second round thanks to a three putt double on the 18th hole (here comes the putter toss). I do believe that I had a bogey both rounds on the par 3 12th as well. These greens are as advertised, and chatting with mattf27 last night he said to thank b101 for the greens and that he (thankfully) toned them down a bit before publish. Leaving yourself below the hole is a must this week. Highlights of the rounds for me were the monster putts that I was nailing because I had at least 4 putts over 25 feet drop and on these greens putts like those felt like draining a 100 footer. It was the short putts and bad approach shots that hurt me the most.
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Post by b101 on Dec 13, 2020 8:20:59 GMT -5
Yeah, definitely wasn’t aiming for CC with this one but should have figured with it being a Matt course. Echo the comment above - stay below the hole and look for mounds and slopes that you can use. It’s not all punitive as there are kickers and backstops out there. Fairways are very forgiving so I make no apologies for making the greens difficult 😀
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Post by Mick on Dec 13, 2020 9:37:39 GMT -5
I don't recall the wind speeds showing at prior events but it was there this time.
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Post by mattf27 on Dec 13, 2020 10:59:42 GMT -5
And, to be fair, I was never aiming for CC with this one either. It was built with the off field event on Masters week in mind. I hope it can still present a fair challenge for the CC group, though.
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Post by up mup kupen nup on Dec 13, 2020 11:01:34 GMT -5
AnnouncementPromo Event time is Cow Hunt time! The new season of the famous Hunt for the Golden Cow kicks off this week! Check the details here and register today if you are interested in competing for the coolest signature trophy of the whole TGCT forum! Cheers, the Secretariat of the Golden Cow
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Post by catcherman22 on Dec 13, 2020 17:38:51 GMT -5
And I take full slack if you don't like the course choice this week... the conditions are mine... But all of Mattf's courses are CC whether he likes them to be or not
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Post by SteelVike on Dec 13, 2020 18:20:11 GMT -5
And I take full slack if you don't like the course choice this week... the conditions are mine... But all of Mattf's courses are CC whether he likes them to be or not I really liked the choice, it had the feel of playing in a major event. Maybe could have slowed the greens down a touch, but like Ben said, the greens need to make up for the wide open fairways otherwise the scoring would be out of hand. I thought it was a good test on a great course. Just need to be wise on your approach shots and hot with the putter.
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LucasEatWorld
Amateur Golfer
I'm not superstitious, but I am a little stitious.
Posts: 225
TGCT Name: LucasEatWorld
Tour: Platinum
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Post by LucasEatWorld on Dec 13, 2020 19:17:41 GMT -5
And I take full slack if you don't like the course choice this week... the conditions are mine... But all of Mattf's courses are CC whether he likes them to be or not Just need to be hot with the putter. My first event is this week in CC-E. Going to take a practice round or two before starting the event. I remember playing this course a handful of times over the past month or two and it can definitely bite. Good luck everyone.
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Post by jahanes on Dec 13, 2020 22:35:00 GMT -5
Looking forward to this. Played my first tournament ever without the meters in the regular qualifier last week and made it to CC-G. Should be fun!
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Post by Griz891 on Dec 13, 2020 22:52:12 GMT -5
Skipping this one....Played about 4 practice rounds and the greens are just way to nasty for a player that can't putt very good to start with...LOL. A little to much yellow and red on pin locations for this cat...See ya next week boys and girls ......GOOD LUCK ALL!!!
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Post by twofor22 on Dec 14, 2020 1:25:16 GMT -5
I had a rubbish second round. Couldn't find any tempo consistency, couldn't keep the bloody swing plane straight on putts either, was a wonder I even shot even par for the round. Not playing any more until tomorrow, hopefully I'll be better then
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