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Post by jwtexan on Jul 12, 2021 14:30:28 GMT -5
Welcome to St. Cyrus and week 43 on Elite. This week on the big tour both here on tgctours and for the real pros is The Open. Combine that with the fact that it falls as "The Scottish Open" on our tour schedule (not that we bother following tournament name locations all that often on the schedule), we decided to find a great links course to give us the feeling of an "Open." So why not go to a throwback that won a design contest and combines many great scottish links into one course? Enter PithyDoctorG and St. Cyrus. This was one of my favorites from the CC contest and with the new swing along with conditions I think it plays plenty tough for elite this season. The course features all that you want from a links and more. Double greens, stone walls, burns, and plenty of strategic bunkers. Beware of the the old stone wall as it is in play. But, as the old saying goes, don't argue with why the wall is there, it is older than you. From the designer: St. Cyrus, winner of the 2019 Challenge Circuit Championship design contest, is a links course inspired by the classic links such as St. Andrews, North Berwick, and Carnoustie. The course is not long (6880 yards from the tips, par 71), features wide fairways (a few of which are shared by two holes) and very large greens. Indeed, there is ample opportunity to score well. However, the greens are significantly contoured and often are best approached from a particular angle. If you speed through on “auto-pilot” you may find yourself frustratingly racking up pars. Note: Course is designed with VERY FIRM greens and fairways in mind, but the highlands theme defaults to soft fairways and firm greens. Set terrain and green firmnesses to very firm for the most authentic experience.
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Post by Cecil Harvey on Jul 12, 2021 21:36:50 GMT -5
Hurt to get demoted the week of The Open, but having an excellent Open style track sure did help soften the blow. In with a solid -8 in R1 and then a shoddy -2 in R2. I have no idea how to judge that being on a new tour, so I will just say good luck to all who still have rounds yet to play this week!
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Post by cd06 on Jul 13, 2021 8:16:44 GMT -5
Definitely a good Open host. I think you guys will enjoy this one a lot.
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cobrati
Caddy
Posts: 58
TGCT Name: Joe Magyar
Tour: Elite
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Post by cobrati on Jul 13, 2021 10:51:06 GMT -5
Fun course that can really be taken advantage of if you hit your marks on the greens (and don't red fast on holes with a forced carry, haha). Definitely need to play to a smaller fairway than whats in front of you based on the pins and wind direction, especially on the shorter holes where you're left with pitches in. Either gotta plan to try to shoot as straight up hill as possible or between the ridges on greens and hope you don't pull or push the shot too much.
Opening round was fire for me with a 59. Front 9 just sort of plodded along, gave myself good chances early and got to -4 thru 5 but then no birdies until 11 when my afterburners kicked in. Hit every approach shot exactly as I intended and went -8 on 11-17 thanks to eagles on 16 and 17. 18 I stuffed in the front left bunker and managed a great up and down to save par. Round 2 was a tough go for me on the front. Started with a bogey and struggled through the rest of the opening 9. Red fasted a drive on a hole with forced carry and somehow lucked out and ended up not in the water but my second shot then was in rocks so when I hit it it went about 50 yards backwards over the water and into deep rough. Managed to save par thanks to a chip in. Back 9 I got things going again and went -5 on holes 12-17. 18 I hit a perfect little draw to try and play the ridge on the green but the wind killed the shot way more than expected and left me in the left bunker for the second round in a row. Red fast out didn't even reach the green and the chip for par lipped out. Happy that I don't need to stress about making the cut but feel like I threw away an opportunity at promotion points thanks to the second round.
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Post by Kenny on Jul 13, 2021 15:45:47 GMT -5
Hurt to get demoted the week of The Open, but having an excellent Open style track sure did help soften the blow. In with a solid -8 in R1 and then a shoddy -2 in R2. I have no idea how to judge that being on a new tour, so I will just say good luck to all who still have rounds yet to play this week! You should have let me drive 😉
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Post by bmoregolfpro on Jul 14, 2021 7:23:08 GMT -5
So not sure what happened in round 1, but it only took me 17 putts in route to a -15. A few missed short ones, a couple of key tempo misses, and a few HB wind physics head scratchers crept up in round 2, but still held fairly steady for -22 half way and tied for the pole. I am digging into the vault to dial up my best Van De Velde for rounds 3 and 4. After all, what is an Open Championship without a good Van De Velde!
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Post by mctrees02 on Jul 14, 2021 9:17:58 GMT -5
My tempo and I both sucked this week.
It sucked the most on holes where the pin was tucked against a run off. 4 times I hit the green in regulation and saw my birdie putt run off the green after rolling a few feet past the hole. 2 other times I had 12’ and 17’ birdie putts and my par putt was over 60’. I hit zero putts where I received a red power bar for hitting the putt egregiously hard.
I didn’t find any of these bad spots in my practice rounds but I found all of the wrong spots in my competition rounds.
2 demo marks heading my way 🤦♂️
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Post by HoneyBadgerHacker on Jul 14, 2021 9:55:01 GMT -5
Nothing like a warm up round and shooting 57! Then play for real and shoot 64. Lol Finished -31. Not sure that will be enough for a promo point. Too many lip outs in R3 and 4. Did make a ton of chip ins and even had an ace! Good luck guys. Nice course for the Open feeling this week.
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Post by seamount4life on Jul 14, 2021 13:46:39 GMT -5
Hated the course, and the conditions selected for it (Mainly wind direction and green speeds). It was clear this course was not made for PGA2K21, nor did it take into account the current state of the swing for this game. It also heavily favored certain club distances in regards to Driver and 3w. If you don't have a 290+ Driver and a 250yd 3w in your bag you are basically starting with multiple bogeys per round. Was a disappointing week that I was happy to miss the cut on. Never want to play this course again.
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Post by Leecey on Jul 14, 2021 18:35:56 GMT -5
After a solid but unspectacular 65 in round 1 my tempo completely disappeared in round 2 leaving me at -6 at the cut and staring double demo marks in the face I suspect. It’s really challenging but this is one of my favourite links courses in the game if for no other reason than the dry-stone wall - love it.
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Post by sandbagger on Jul 15, 2021 9:48:48 GMT -5
I think the courses on elite aren’t bad at all. It’s just some of the conditions are a little extreme and over the top. In real major golf.. extremely fast and hard greens with super fast wind conditions would result in postponement. There was one European event where the wind and extreme green speed wouldn’t even allow the players to mark their ball. Without it running off the green
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scottiewalnuts
Weekend Golfer
Posts: 122
TGCT Name: Scott Robertson
Tour: Platinum
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Post by scottiewalnuts on Jul 15, 2021 12:03:21 GMT -5
Just got my Elite card and played my first 36 holes last night. Not a good start! 67-69 for -6 and a missed cut. Only my second missed cut since I joined TGC back in October. And unfortunately will be picking up the first demo mark of my career.
No fault of the course's though, it was a fine tribute to the Open. Let my nerves get the better of me, timing was way off, couldn't make a putt (29 putts in R2.. not sure I've done that since I was in CC-L...). So not a great week/course to be "off", but I take the blame entirely.
For those who made the cut, good luck in R3+4
See you next week!
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Post by jwtexan on Jul 15, 2021 14:49:44 GMT -5
Hated the course, and the conditions selected for it (Mainly wind direction and green speeds). It was clear this course was not made for PGA2K21, nor did it take into account the current state of the swing for this game. It also heavily favored certain club distances in regards to Driver and 3w. If you don't have a 290+ Driver and a 250yd 3w in your bag you are basically starting with multiple bogeys per round. Was a disappointing week that I was happy to miss the cut on. Never want to play this course again.
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Post by patlouvar on Jul 15, 2021 15:27:28 GMT -5
Hated the course, and the conditions selected for it (Mainly wind direction and green speeds). It was clear this course was not made for PGA2K21, nor did it take into account the current state of the swing for this game. It also heavily favored certain club distances in regards to Driver and 3w. If you don't have a 290+ Driver and a 250yd 3w in your bag you are basically starting with multiple bogeys per round. Was a disappointing week that I was happy to miss the cut on. Never want to play this course again. Those long par-3's are about distance control, might have to hit a partial or put a different club in your bag. If you go by the numbers it's playing a touch on the tougher side of the Elite schedule but well within reason. It's a really solid links course that still plays well.
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Post by cd06 on Jul 16, 2021 1:55:12 GMT -5
Hated the course, and the conditions selected for it (Mainly wind direction and green speeds). It was clear this course was not made for PGA2K21, nor did it take into account the current state of the swing for this game. It also heavily favored certain club distances in regards to Driver and 3w. If you don't have a 290+ Driver and a 250yd 3w in your bag you are basically starting with multiple bogeys per round. Was a disappointing week that I was happy to miss the cut on. Never want to play this course again. You forget that someone put a ton of effort and time into designing this course that WON A CONTEST. I hope you're somewhat joking in that above post.
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