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Post by catcherman22 on Jun 19, 2021 18:49:33 GMT -5
Welcome to week 40 at East Neuk Links (Tour) by RA_1203Making his TGCTours Debut with this beaut. Some modifications in the tour version to make it slightly longer and a wee bit tougher... but still an enjoyable track. Conditions start out fairly tame (depending on the default winds in round 1), but ratchet up as the week goes on.. similar to what you would expect for a links course. Good Luck!
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Post by twofor22 on Jun 20, 2021 4:01:37 GMT -5
Opened with a -9 this week which contained two eagles one on the 1st hole), six birdies and a stupid bogey on the 16th after landing in the bunker. Overall happy with the round but couldn't quite keep it going after starting well at -6 after the front 9, so it would have been nice to go into double figures under. No dramas with tempo other than those of my own doing. Putting was pretty good, although I did have a couple that either broke more or less than the beads indicated which cost shots. Nice course too.
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Post by cd06 on Jun 20, 2021 9:56:27 GMT -5
Enjoy this one! Really like this course, hope the players enjoy it as much as I (non-competitive player) did. Great job from RA_1203 here.
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Post by deacondrake on Jun 20, 2021 13:42:33 GMT -5
Back on the practice site fighting off a stye that may be just too damn annoying to try and compete with. Pirate-me seems to play pretty good though.
1. Should be one of the easier starting holes. Default wind is slightly at your back, so even a slight misfit will have you chipping for eagle. Make sure you get the jitters out so you don’t red fast into the wall.
2. Go with whatever you’re most comfortable club is whether it be driver, three wood, hybrid, or long iron off the tee. Anything to the left is full on Kenny Loggins. I played just to the right of the bunker with my driver and left about 150. It does help to be closer so you can loft in a short iron over the bunker, but a run up with a little risk is much better than being out of bounds on your Tee shot And being behind the eight ball before the round even starts.
3. I love the layout… the windmills are gorgeous. The bunkers will steal a few drives over the course of four rounds but I feel your best option is the bomb one out there and try to play Eagle. Right now I am playing the best golf I have in ages… must be inspired by Torrey Pines. Nothing too sinister on your approach but the green is large so you don’t want to leave yourself 150 feet to lag. Par here is definitely losing a stroke to the field.
4. Choose your club correctly and you’ll end up on the correct tier but I could see this hole getting a little bit trickier with some wind.
5. Interesting concept with the stakes to mark your tee boxes. Even though it looks straight away I felt more comfortable shaping a draw right to left. Fairway bunker should be out of reach except with the strongest of tailwinds. There is a little bit of length to this hole. You can get yourself in trouble in the bunker on the left or forcing yourself along lag By hitting the wrong end of the Green.
6. Part three with a little length and some decision making on how you want to play… could be an opportunity for a bump and run. Definitely some terraces to the green that will make longer putts challenging. Thus far The rough hasn’t been really challenging.
7. Another hole where left is wrong. I only pushed my drive out about 270 on this one but was still able to run up a 90% hybrid for an easy putt. Some poor tempo will definitely bring in the out of bounds and that short bunker in front of the green.
8. If you are red fast on this front nine you are screwed. Don’t be long with your pitch where you bring in the back of the green which is a little gnarly.
9. Once again, err right. The fairway bunker is a nuisance but the fairway on the right is contoured to hold. Might even recommend 3W to keep the pot bunkers out of play. Green breaks every which way. They are quick in these conditions, but seem predictable. 10. So I shanked one in the front fairway bunker, but it’s far enough short to allow for a full splash. Very successful out. The green side bunkers look a little more treacherous. A four iron that it’s just short of the green will end up being perfect.
11. Great layout for a short par 5. Distance and openness scream mash it. However location and distance will be critical getting around that front bunker. You want to be a little left to be able to take it out of the picture. Once again, it’s positioned to allow for a full splash, so even if you hit it, Birdie is still in the cards. Two bunkers on the other hand and you start running the risk of letting it get away from you.
12. The hill on the left should keep you from getting penalized too bad if you go fast. Approach is slightly uphill you don’t want to mash your driver too long as to bring in all those bunkers. 275/180 seems effective. Manage to avoid the front bunker but it looks pretty tough.
13. The green has some tough ridges… play to the correct quadrant. The bunkers upfront will make it very difficult to play to a pin on the opposite side of the green.
14. The default club selection will tell you not to try to hit down into the narrow part of the fairway really bunkers are… Boldly go. The green is pretty open and will except a nice little bump and roll-on.
15. The Tee shot will favor a nice right to left draw to shorten the hole significantly. The approach is uphill and well defended and might even warrant laying into a safe spot to work a Pitch in.
16. I feel like I am at Saint Andrews… beware the shared green and where the wind may potentially push you. That front bunker is like a Hoover.
17. Another good strategy hole. Obviously a miss hit can put you in danger. However I nutted a hybrid straight into that bunker… thought I had a little bit more assistance from the wind. I could definitely see some conditions where players would want to go for this green. It is a pretty easy birdie from the fairway though.
18. Lots of bail out room to the right but you can make the hole a lot longer than it needs to be. Most of us will get more in trouble going short left or right then accidentally getting knocked long, but definitely don’t belong on your approach.
All in all practice conditions today were pretty easy. I only had one or two miss hits that were punished. Scramblers should be able to recover and keep their scores under par. There have been a couple courses recently where that was not quite possible. Probably the best recommendation I can give is don’t force a ball where it doesn’t need to go. The course is short enough and open enough to give you plenty of options to play to a safe position and still make Birdie. They were very few pin positions that I felt were difficult, but some thought needs to go into what angle you want to approach it. A number of balls that hit pin high to 10 to 15 feet short rolled through… better luck in the 15 to 25 foot bump and roll.
For the most part I would say tempo was about 80 to 90% reliable today. Spent most of the week doing course design work and hit a crap ton of balls to simulate out some conditions on some of the holes… not game speed but still good practice. Seems to have helped.
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Post by deacondrake on Jun 20, 2021 13:44:31 GMT -5
We even the first round... nary a bad practice swing but as soon as the ball was down, tempo betrayed me. Had 1 short putt miss, and 3 other 8-15 footers lip out. Could have been much better. Think I'm going to ride the momentum.
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Post by twofor22 on Jun 20, 2021 19:54:27 GMT -5
Couldn't find myself on the leaderboard, turns out I moved up to kinetic this week 😂 so I'll play the rest for practice if I have time after my other rounds. Better get going on that course I suppose.
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lazarides
Caddy
Posts: 52
TGCT Name: Michael Lazarides
Tour: Challenge Circuit
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Post by lazarides on Jun 20, 2021 20:54:41 GMT -5
Couldn't find myself on the leaderboard, turns out I moved up to kinetic this week 😂 so I'll play the rest for practice if I have time after my other rounds. Better get going on that course I suppose. Long overdue - Congratulations. You've been killing it for weeks now
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Post by twofor22 on Jun 20, 2021 21:14:33 GMT -5
Couldn't find myself on the leaderboard, turns out I moved up to kinetic this week 😂 so I'll play the rest for practice if I have time after my other rounds. Better get going on that course I suppose. Long overdue - Congratulations. You've been killing it for weeks now Cheers mate, nice little reward for some consistency lately. Hopefully I go well there too, might be back here at some point if I don't 🤣
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Post by wseitz26 on Jun 20, 2021 22:39:54 GMT -5
I’ve had a number of friends reach out to me saying that Pin Set 1 has been used for all 4 Rounds, can anyone confirm if this is the case? Disappointing if so, put a lot of work into this as my first publish and in creating the Tour version I tweaked a number of the greens and pin positions ahead of this week. I've only played round 1, but the conditions for round 2 show that the first pin position is being used again. Bummer. Can confirm for round 3 as well.
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lazarides
Caddy
Posts: 52
TGCT Name: Michael Lazarides
Tour: Challenge Circuit
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Post by lazarides on Jun 21, 2021 0:05:20 GMT -5
66-68-69-63 (-14)
First and last rounds were definitely my best. Lost tempo and concentration in the middle two rounds. I am scared of some of the low scores that will be posted this week. Course is very gettable with only 1-2 holes requiring you to flush your driver for birdie chances.
I should be making the cut with -6 after two rounds in CC-G from what I can see with the early scoring. Will remove my demo mark which will be nice.
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Post by Giraffe72 on Jun 21, 2021 3:18:26 GMT -5
Is the same pin set being used the same on all platforms? No biggie for us players if so. Feel bad for the designer though, it's clearly just an honest mistake but I can understand his annoyance. Played the first round last night and really enjoyed it, very nice course.
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spiggott483
Caddy
Posts: 21
TGCT Name: Spiggott483
Tour: Challenge Circuit
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Post by spiggott483 on Jun 21, 2021 6:03:32 GMT -5
A really nice course with a distinct St Andrews feel to it, very enjoyable to play. 69 in the first round which could have been so much better if not for chipping across the green and into a bunker on 10, then taking three to get out
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Post by scootmcgoot on Jun 21, 2021 6:05:08 GMT -5
71-61 for the 1st 2 rds. Winds were a bit of a pain in rd 1, couldn’t seem to get the distances dialed in. Rd 2 was just on point. 2 eagles including a near alby on 15. I’m a lowly CC-L player but good lord that 2d rd was just nutty.
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Post by deacondrake on Jun 21, 2021 11:28:46 GMT -5
E/-1... right on the cut line again. My 6 year old son is my caddy on some Sundays here and as my score began to balloon toward +5, he complained that all my practice swings were perfect, but all my regular swings were "really awful". Gee, thanks kid. But then he told me to stop taking practice swings and just use the good swing for the ball, and then I played the next 27 holes -9. Still occasionally catch a red, but more like 90%+ perfect perfects, which really boosts the confidence. No water here to scream at, though.
This game...
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Post by wseitz26 on Jun 21, 2021 17:35:49 GMT -5
Is the same pin set being used the same on all platforms? No biggie for us players if so. Feel bad for the designer though, it's clearly just an honest mistake but I can understand his annoyance. Played the first round last night and really enjoyed it, very nice course. I think we need to get an answer on this and I hadn't thought of it. I'm on Playstation and we're getting the #1 pin for all four rounds (or at least the first three, so I assume four), we should probably know if that's true for all platforms. Not sure what the resolution would be though, so maybe it doesn't matter.
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