We attempted to start a small rivalry with The Pettyman recently. This is how grown men become friends, by making fun of each other with offensive memes and petty lame jokes that ppl have a hard time interpreting lol. I respect the guy, have no clue which of the terrible states he resides in, or if people there even like him or not. Makes no difference to us, the guy builds quality golf courses. At least the hole designs. He is also very good at building greens. Some of his courses have that barren unfinished look to them, probably by choice. Planting appears to not be his thing at times, which I can relate to as it takes forever and spamming ok is not my idea of fun. But then he will jump up and surprise you with a course like Maxwell. The creek and its maintenance crew issues aside, that was a beautiful course and plot bud
. Another example is Cypress Dunes from back in The Golf Club 2019 which was a California coastal course cleverly built in Steppe theme with beautiful, stunning, awe inspiring, crisp, straight, contrasting, dark green...MOW LINES! Ahahaha. Course sucks. (Looking forward to the rumored renovation/restoration though.) Either way, he is a first ballot hall of famer in the community but don't tell him I said that. His courses have the appearance sometimes as looking like there is nothing really majorly going on with the land but then you look at your scorecard after the round and are like +4. They kick my ass and I don't quite understand why which is why I like them. I used to be on team @ryanmcconnell ...now-a-days I am not sure where my allegiances lie, and I'm pretty sure no one cares, including myself.
The formula for this stupid long review will be; list hole numbers and then comment on how they played from round to round in somewhat of a linear chronological order. Feedback along the way, sorry to make you sift through the bad jokes. But I did play the full 4/5 rounds here like I promised...
Never tucked my shirt in once for this guy over any of the rounds we played here as we will never under any circumstances, no matter how formal the occasion...tuck in for
gamesdecent Well, maybe, a Wayne Gretzky 1/3 tuck in. No...never.
Fontlareine translation: Google couldn't find a good one, I saw the joke by someone on the discord.
Translates to gushing hey. I will give you pro tips my man if you want to learn this important technique but it will probably need to be in a private message as I don't think the conversation would pass the censorship algorithm of this fine domain and I already have enough friends in my life but I absolutely need more rivals. So I'll just let you suffer in perpetuity in that delusional little dream world you occupy there where you are the best designer..my friend. I'm thinking it also may be very difficult to find a willing test subject as the Pettyman be like...
imgflip.com/i/1rtwliMy apologies, time to step up the classiness just one notch and get down to business.
My initial impressions after Round 1 were:
-Three playable tees with a difference of only less than 300 yards...bonus marks. (I never ended up playing the shortest tee, could have in windy round 3.)
-Clubhouse looks good. Love the black glass/white frame sections that look like greenhouses or something. Natural light would pop inside there if you were an appearance of consciousness but mindless 2K crowd pylon clapping robot person walking through those corridors. You can never go wrong with exterior brick, it's durable, classy and timeless and it fits in with the heath setting. Don't know if The Young Wolf Robb Stark (tha king-ah-da-nooorff!!) who we bent the knee to and pledged fealty in perpetuity to
b101 or yourself, is responsible for this. Either way plot also was great.
-The "Pub" behind #1 looks dead. Makes sense, there are no parking lots or walking paths to get there. Maybe the guy living there just likes pub signs on his house. Free country, do whatever you want, just don't blast me with your shotty if I knock on your door asking for a Schooner of Strongbow. Or when I hurl on your front lawn during hangover day windy round 3.
- Only 1 par 5 on the front...hate you.
- Roughed up heath areas with worn down walking paths in front of tees look very proper and some of the best recreations of nature I have seen you do to date, I think. The patch in front of 5 ended up being my second favorite. The favorite will be explained later, stay tuned MF.
- #4 is deceptively hard to reach and then hold, that desirable lower right fairway section, with the hole being uphill. Desirable being at least for this pin.
- #5 always good for one hilariously small central bunker on a Brian course that you somehow feel like an idiot for playing into. You have been very good at giving aiming points with trees and and other landmarks with sightlines off the tee in your courses man. I think it is one of your strong suits. Case in point #5 opening in the tree line to hit a wood short left of the bunker. (in later rounds it was a useful tool to use this as a measuring stick on where to play your lines. Lines up perfectly with the bunker and you don't even need to use scout cam.)
- #5, I immediately loved with the Prestwick vibe with the waste area in front. I can't recall the template, it is not a Sahara and the Prestwick hole's hazard is more blind. But I like what you did with the waste and land in front and how it ties in to the fairway dynamics giving the golfer a look at some pins but being blind to others. What template is this?? A Prestwick lol??
-The heath complex with weaving dirt paths to use in the tight routing section between all the greens and tees was pulled off nicely. (Middle of the round, can't remember.) Nice intersection and shoutout to maintenance ppl and their overall convenience & well being. You are growing as a man.
-I yanked a wood off the camber left on hole 1 and then had to thread a chip through the 3 trees section left of the green. I like that area over there.
- The tree left of the tee on #14 is perfectly placed with the right overhanging height to hit a punch driver under it to get to the left fairway.
- Rage quit moment: Yank drive left into trees. Think about taking an unplayable, but don't. Chip a 5 iron directly right "back into play." Leave it short in the rough. "Layup back in play" with a 3 iron to the end of the fairway. Hit it too far through it. Now faced with a downwind downhill 67% lie, to a back pin sitting after a long downslope. Hit SW. Green visited, saw that coming ha. Putt 9 yards back up the hill about 4 of those yards being fairway. Too far. Make a putt, bogey. My fault, good hole can't remember which one it was.
4 under 68 was what I shot in round 1.
The default lighting seemed a bit off to me. The heath is very well done but it didn't pop as well as it could have. The greens seemed a bit bright with the combination of texture colour and the amount of sun shining on them. Little bit hard to see the green grids. May have been intentional or I don't know how much freedom you have to change lighting and textures in this contest and it also comes down to personal preference. I found my favorite setting here though, which I will tell you about later. The course other wise made a very good first impression. It certainly looks and plays like a proper well constructed heath.
ROUND 2
Firming up fairways to very firm. Green speeds to fast (default on PS4 reads as 6.9 or Med.Fast, 155 now). Trying out a morning light cloud look. Medium Gold tees of 7,183 yards. High north winds, pin 2. The fairways/greens settings we stuck with for the duration of our stay here. Thoughts:
-#4. North winds gave you a downwind crack at the green with a wood. Tree is perfectly placed to make you hit a fade around it onto the right-to-left pitch. We ended up short left in the bunker to the left pin sitting in the flat section surrounded by a big curving roll through the green. Which I think was a fine play today to that pin. We like this hole. Good Match Play hole.
-#7 you can use the large bank running through the green coming off the bunker left, to feed your ball back to the front pin nicely.
-What is that short grass area on #12 right of the green? Does this hole have 2 greens (found out no) or is that a green to pull sod from for the maintenance crew?? (Fingers crossed.)
-#12, I 4 putted. Tried to suck back a spinny wedge to the mid right pin, left it high, then had a tough but fun go navigating those counter breaking red slopes. Good green.
-#13, I couldn't get up the hill with a long iron approach then again with a chip and got out of there for a bogey. That's a steep hill there my friends. We approve.
-#14. Fun bounces along the left fairway, hitting it under the tree. Some helping some hurting. In round 2, the first bounce looked bad sending us towards the left rough, then the second bounce looked more promising kicking us more right, then we rolled back left into the rough, about one iron-head-width-deep. Our heart beat went like this: ___M___...hate you. I think you need to avoid that baity lower right speed slot in the fairway that just sends you towards a bad angle on this hole. Iron from the rough rolled up nicely to the back right pin. A fair runway and opportunity to get to it...thanks. If you would have made things difficult for me two shots in a row, I would have called you Jack Nicklaus and Valhalla and labeled you as a penal architect, which is an insult coming from me.
-#15. Hmm...might cause a bit of a logjam with the next tees being right in front of the green and approach zone...scratch that it's a par 5, shouldn't matter. Still a little worried about the safety of other golfers as I always do on these fake 1 player courses. We ended up gutting out a 1 under 71 but we lied and told everyone we shot a 70 cause no one was there to see it.
Lighting didn't seem to improve a whole lot with the different setting. A few holes have really stood out to us so far as being holes we will steal for our next course. A Tara Iti inspired Delta wonderland called "Ira's Tit-E-Tees."
ROUND 3
Hackey is hungovah as sh%$ today and it is time to test his patience & resilience and Stoic Philosophy. Trying out a rainy dusk setting with Very High South Winds and pin 3. Now we have a feel of the course and are dipping into a deeper study of the questions and challenges the course asks of you.
#1 Par 5 - There is a cool rainbow or otherwise stream of photons jetting across the sky. Take on the bunker left or block yourself out from the trees right later.
#2 Par 4 - Switch back or conflicting pitches of the fairway and green. There is a lower left pocket short of the bunker to play to in the fairway but you must hit a good shot and then carry a greenside bunker later if you want to play from there. We bogied it today.
#3 Par 3 - bogey.
#4 Par 4 - I went straight at the bunker in front of the green, into a 1:00 22mph wind with a driver, aiming just left of the tree on the right side and ended up in the rough, just over the fairway bunker, 60 yards short of the back pin haha. I hit a pretty good shot to. She's windy. The roll through the green is no joke and that is a serious example of spacetime. If you putt your ball off the green and then decide to chip it, I believe those next shots still count towards putting stats. Hopefully 2K has this right, if not or I'm wrong, who cares doesn't matter. I tried putting from the left fairway up the hill to the back pin, watched it roll back down to my feet, then chipped and tapped. So that's a 4 putt. I guess you don't want to play from there haha. Fun green and we really like this hole overall.
#5 Par 4 - Putting from the left of the green through the left to right double breaker, to the middle right pin was awesome. I got it so that the ball was rolling towards the hole at about a 3:00 angle right of the pin, with a nice controlled speed and came up just short of making a really fun winding bomb.
#6 Par 4 - Strong downwind finally gave me a chance to get past that pesky uphill bunker. And by past I mean, rolling through it to get to the rough just on the other side of it for a 62% lie. Love the approach concept here. Semi blind over the waste area, landing on a downslope with a punchbowl dynamic left, a plateau right and a deep bailout section behind the green. You can use some of the slopes to get at pins but user beware as leaving it in the wrong part of the green has been difficult to manage.
#7 Par 3 - Played very long into the head wind. I took 30 yards extra and went right at the pin with a 3I and watching my blue pro-tracer cross paths with the rainbow for like a 7 second flight to a pretty tight pin location...was great stuff.
#8 Par 4 - Downwind, left pin, haven't been able to go for this yet, lets take it over the short trees and Alps thing left and see how it plays. Took a massive kick off the mound in front and spit me out to the back of the green. 71 feet putt, 28 inches downhill, initially over a roll and then a giant red slope after that...perfect haha. So that is not a pin to go after. I tried to play the putt cautiously and aimed well left of the slope for another green visited to the fairway haha. That's a par. Out smarted ya there.
#9 Par 4 - Downwind again and tried to DeChambeau the heather in front of the green. Found the bunker at the end of it. Spinny GW Flop from a bad lie downhill to the back pin for a green visited past it, was the best play I could think of. A toolsy Bryson par. This hole we also quite like. Be a fool and carry it, or stay back and have to spin it coming in.
#10 Par 5 - The feeder slope short right in the fairway finally becomes your friend to the front left pin. Brian's a fair guy afterall. At least 25% of the time.
#11 Par 3 - Tree left can mess with your lines. Tough to mess with lines on par 3 designs. Well played Sir.
#12 Par 4 - Tried to hit a delofted driver to the skinny end of the left fairway with a strong crosswind and found the rough bisecting the hole. Don't know if this is a Leven? Classic case of check the pin and choose your desired playing area that coincides with that. Before or after the hazard and which side of it do you play to? Well executed hole design with merits and challenges on all your shots. The styles and variety of the actual hazards themselves were also well executed I thought. A good candidate for one of the better par 4s here.
#13 Par 4 - You don't want to play from the left fairway bunker as the caambah is real in there and counteracts the opposite pitch of the hole and it is tough to judge what will happen playing out of there. I tried to avoid it playing well right, but the vicious crosswind and your nice fairway sculpting just took over and I guess that's my fate today. All good, a true Stoic has an answer all ready set in place for life's many obstacles...this one being: Play from the bunker to the right rough. Avoid all that early green, red slope madness. Bad lie now, but with a great angle in to the back pin. Then you can funnel a pitch off the backstop and make a delicate testy downhill slider for par, "Take that bunker, you ain't gonna bring me down." "There is a space between stimulus and response. You have the power to choose your reaction, in this space."
#14 Par 4 - Driver punch into the 24mph wind right under the tree left and watching it balloon in the sky and then barely make it under the tree, for a total distance of about 205 yards... was awesome. 237yds downhill into the wind off ball-above-feet-caambah, with a hole pitch to the left and a pin tucked behind a right bunker...was not. I smashed a 3 wood "over" the bunker and the wind dragged it down well short in the fairway haha...take it. Tough hole today. Also love this hole.
#15 Par 5 - Some of the more extreme land movements of the property. Green contouring and pitch mirrors the fairway as well as the two central bunkers, which align with the mound and slope running through the front middle of the green. We approve.
#16 Par 4 - Great angles with the placement of trees, bunkers, and camber and the deceptive width. But the actual reality, of needing to be accurate, to navigate the tightness of the playing angles. The hole really shines playing it downwind. Standing on the tree you question whether shaping it around the tree, or bombing it right or trying to play a runner past the central bunkers is the right play. And you don't want things to get away from you. A good golfer hates not knowing how his ball will react to the ground and the unpredictability of where it could end up. We elected on hitting an intuition breaking slight draw of a 3wood around the tree and the fairway naturally took us to the center with 160 in with a great angle directly downwind. Perfect. Par today, don't know if we have birdied this hole yet, putter failed our chance today.
#17 Par 3 - I really like 17 it's a nice spot. It feels like the sand and heath wants to get all up in that green. But the green set its perimeter, but it will allow you to play to its fun pockets if you are smart enough and nice enough. My kind of girl. The wind made sure she wasn't in the mood to be hit today. High right in the rough was definitely not the line she wanted to hear and we just had to hit a max height/spin SW chip shamelessly past the hole off the big bank, missed the comeback and...point taken...back to the drawing board...have yourself a nice day miss, I just wanted to see what your smile looked like, you need to smile more. I did not come correct. This par 3 is beautiful.
#18 Par 5 - Finally a chance to smash one downwind. Oh... that rolled for days right into the right rough haha. @!$# Brian you just don't like making things easy for me do you haha. Just gonna hit a 3 iron from this terrible lie...barely clear this heath in front, land on the downslope and roll alllll the way through the green...green visited, count it haha. I love golf holes that play downhill, with downslope landing zones, and then front pins. Seriously messes with depth perception, distance control & spin and leaving it short is way worse than long. But long is no way to birdie it either. IMO, works better on a par 4 then a 5 as a guy can just play long and then two shot back up the hill for a relatively safe birdie and almost guaranteed par.
Tough sledding out there today, don't see how it could get much harder without just maxing out the green speeds. We battled the wind to a plus 4 76. I loved the moody darkness of the environment and the chilled sound of rain throughout the round in dusk/rain. Along with the "rainbow" that came and went throughout the skyline.
Course has really grown on us even more so than its first impressions. We are starting to learn her secrets and idiosyncrasies and have a few holes "cased." I think it is time to fit 2 more rounds into one and invite Hackey McDufferton's soulmate and conspirator Miss Fera-Wei for a final evaluation.
If you have ever played as a female golfer in these games, the swing is weird, especially the chipping and bunker shots. I cannot relate, as I do not own a pair of who-haws clued to my chest that get in the way. David Leadbetter told me years ago to pretend that I do and to squeeze them together with my biceps to keep my arms connected to my spine angle. Thank you David for giving women an excuse or reason to do this besides pleasing your partner or creating a nice mailbox slot to slip a 1 dollar Merican bill in Las Vegas Peelers into. It seems chicks with big cans would have a hard time swinging a golf club to me and the animation for the female in this game looks like they are wrapping the club around their body on way way way too shallow of a swing plane to help with this. But I digress.
Miss Fera-Wei if anyone is wondering, is a petite fun-sized blonde firecracker T.H.O.T., P.A.W.G., of a Birarritz created in the Powerhouse archetype. Don't blame me for this foul talk, blame your own damn generation and country. Miss Fera-Wei has a nice firm low center of gravity and loves wearing tight hoochie gear to show it off, along with her camel toe. She plays a King Cobra driver for obvious reasons. Hickory/not a Hickory woods as she likes the slapping cracking noise the old wood makes. We have no puns for her irons and wedges but she definitely plays with a blue ball as she loves slapping that around as well. What else can we say, she's a bit of a Sadist but she has a good sense of humor and a kind heart. Hackey is a Woodsman and with her being a Powerhouse, together they make beautiful bouncy bounce and he is the only one she will ever play with as they are in love and he passed the test. So don't even try and talk to her.
ROUND 4
Dawn light clouds we are trying. (It was the best setting, hands down. Heath popped, nice shadows casting on the course, greens were easy to read, only about one glary hole, sun peaked through trees nicely.) Medium west winds, pin 4.
The letters are the scores on the hole with Hackey first and her second.
#1 - P5 - The approach is very fun to a front pin, hitting a little cut and using the backstop to funnel it in. E/B.
#2 - P4 - Got distracted at home, forgot to take notes, holes fine. B/P
#3 - P3 - Green sits nice in a clearing and all the contours and mounds etc make a lot of sense. One simple bunker that is only really out of play for a back left pin is all you need to defend this hole. The land movement and sculpting does the rest. We hit a punch at this pin up the left side in round four and it rolled for days and settled nicely in the back right of the green for albeit a long putt...but an honest fairly straight up the hill look at it. B/P.
#4 - P4 - Right-to-left cross wind and the back right pin, was a good combo to test how the tree plays. We hit a high fade around it with her Powerhouse skills and ended up back left, just over the green surrounds in the rough. He also played the hole straight up by hitting a hickory/not a hickory 5W down the left side to open up the pin tucked behind the Maxwell roll. P/B. Its the old adage on a reachable par 4. "Give me a reason not to go for it or I always will." I will trust my short game and scrambling skills. Much easier to achieve this for a real life architect than a video game one, but I think this hole does a great job making it still tough and rewarding to get a birdie. One of our favorite holes here and also one of our favorite short 4s to come out at least in recent memory.
#5 - P4 - You can get some great roll and bounces for distance if you hug the left rough and it will naturally bring you back to the middle of the fairway. Front pin in round four was the most fun to play to using both a spinny suck back off the backstop/half thumbprint contour, which crushed us in other earlier rounds pin locations. Or, playing a punchy low shot up to and off it. Leaving the ball high above the hole leaves a deceptively tricky downhiller which she almost putted off the green as well as a testy slider from below the hole for him. B/P.
#6 - P4 - She achieved greatness by hitting a power fade with a helping 9-3 wind and getting the ball to stay on one of the few level spots up the left side of the fairway for a good look in. Then she carved a punchy 3I over the dune to the lower left punchbowl pin and we got a half chubby for a split second there and can see why Hackey likes her and why we like this course. Hackey didn't see the shot cause he somehow went from center of fairway to well left behind the cluster of trees left of the green with a short club in his hand. Then he manufactured a "floppy PW fade" off caambah around and over the tree to the green. It was looking like it would be a heroic Seve Save but your pin placement had a very tiny subtle late break that denied us. Another strong suit of yours I have learned over your courses. You are very good at Pin Placement and how that ties into the entire hole strategy. B/P.
#7 - Par 3 - Small suggestion...you could have tightened up the large bailout section right. I know it is there for the next tees but to me it just seems a bit off for some reason. I don't see anyone hitting it that far right. I think you maybe could have brought the heath a bit further in from the right or brought the treeline a fit further in from behind. But take it for what it's worth from me, nothing. The rest of the look around the green looks great and it is a nice sandy clearing in the trees and a great spot for a par 3. Hole plays good. B/BOy
#8 - P4 - The large sweeping fairway area right of the green is very cool. We tried to get to it downwind one of the rounds to see how it would play, but couldn't seem to reach it. There is no way you would hold that green anyways but it would be a very entertaining green visited to say the least. We at least tried to chip a 5 iron to the back right pin from the left rough short, and it rolled up nice for her. B/P.
#9 - P4 - P/P
#10 - P5 - Best par 5 here? Was never able to reach the lower fairway section over the hill up the right side to open up the green. Punching a wood under the overhanging tree to the left pin down the hill was the most enjoyable approach. P/B. Really good playing angles here and overall playing downhill to that green tucked behind the trees was good stuff.
#11 - P3 - Nice tight routing here fitting the green where it is around the corner of the trees and between other holes running beside it. P/BOy
The Moment When Doobies are Lit and Hands of Dates Are Held or in Other Words, The Moment it Hits You That You Are In a Nice Pocket of Nature on a Very Nice Golf Course:
With our backs to the bushes sitting down in the heath just left of the front tees on #11. Emerge from there hit your shots over the vastness of Heather, run your hands through it as you walk the dusty trail carved through it. Nice spot.
#12 - P4 - P/BOy.
#13 - P4 - I just clipped the top of the tree this time with a 3wood but still found the fairway. Still scared to play down the right side.
#14 - P4 - B/B.
#15 - P5 - Nice mound in the layup zone, can see in clearly in dawn/light clouds now. This is a good three shot par 5 and doesn't let you get to an easy wedge distance in, as the rough and heath is placed at the perfect distance, tempting you to play a heroic shot over or force you into a 9/8/mid iron in. Miss Fera-Wei hit a "layup" to the mound and missed her mark, kicking her into the bunker left and was not happy about it. She doesn't like your deception either. We on the other hand hit driver-off-the-deck to the back left pin that settled about 12 feet away and said, "He's a little creepy but nice guy once you get to know him." B/B.
#16 - P4 - The back left pin in round 4 played the toughest. He found the left bunker for a failed Seve and she was teased of greatness but then rolled down the large slope for a green visited on her approach and then tried a max putt from the fairway that almost made it but rolled back to her feet. She didn't like this hole either. I do. B/D-BOy.
#17 - P3 - We didn't tell her about our infatuation with this hole for obvious reasons. Still secretly love it. B/P.
#18 - P5 - One small gripe about this hole is it was already somewhat done on #15 with the Sahara template thing affecting your choice on your second shot. Solid closing hole though still different, gives you a chance to shave off a stroke or two or leave you shaking your head that you just bogied a par 5. B/P.
Here is some raw data if you are in to that sort of thing.
STATS R1 R2 R3 R4 R5* AVG
FIR 85 71 50 85 76 73.4%
GIR 66 72 38 77 61 62.8%
Proximity to Hole 32 32 44 33 40 36ft
Scrambling % 66 50 63 25 28 46.4%
Total Putts ? 30 27 insufficient
Long Putt ? 13 8 26 26 26ftx2
Three Putts 0 1 0 0 1 2
Eagles 1 1
Birdies 6 6 2 8 5 27
Bogeys 2 3 4 3 3 15
Double Bogeys 1 1 2
Number of Greens Visited: 11 total.
Score 68-4 71-1 76+4 65-7 74+2 70.8avg
*Played with Boobs McGee and her weird technique.
Holes with trees affecting shots: 1 approach, 2 drive, 4 drive if going for it, 6 recovery if left, 10 approach, 14 drive, 16 drive, arguably 18 drive. Could be more. Didn't have any disastrously bad misses.
That's how the course played for me. I try to shape a shot and play for the ideal playing line based on the day and deal with the consequences later if I miss. I typically take on the risks the course offers as I don't play competitively or defensively and want to see what the shot values and the results of those are, on the course. Play the most entertaining shot. Also a lot of the times I will play away from pins on approaches to test how the ground game and sculpting plays. I only really hit spinny approaches with irons if the shot calls for it.
So, there you go. Course is really nice man. I am thinking of setting up a Society (on PS4) and need to schedule at least one heath track and this is a strong, strong candidate to get that coveted slot lol. I am only going to schedule 42 of them and they are all going to be really good courses.
Give the man his Gold Jacket or Green Jacket or whatever jacket a fake Hall of Fame for designers gives out...if he doesn't already have one. Sure, he may be the Dan Marino of TGC as he has NEVER WON A "SUPER BOWL." But that is not the end all, be all. I knocked the digital dust off of 2K21 a few weeks ago as I was getting bored playing this games courses and I wanted to study some architecture from the past on un-ported courses stuck in limbo. I played Cypress, Fishers, Oldstones, the old Augusta one, Pastimes the original version before you did the renovation/restoration/refurbishing/re-release/renamed/rebranded/replayed Bevery Club...and they were all bangers. With the exception of that death trap right of the par 3 on Maxwell, that course has also gotten a workout and these are all classics to me. But you got a long catalogue and history of being elite against your peers in the era of your time and it ain't over yet. You are definitely an Architect to reckon with and have some great hole designs. I honestly think planting on original creations may be the only thing holding you back from winning a contest. I think you are just slightly 1 notch below the very elite in this category, below the scottish's, badgers, heisys, Matty and wolf-uk's of the world. That's just my opinion whether right or wrong or uneducated enough or unnecessary to even say it. I want to see you win as you deserve it and it will only make my playing experiences better, if you do. The competition is only getting stronger I will say though and the curse still lives on and I am not ready to bury the hatchet anytime soon. I am just gonna be that annoying fly that follows you around and keeps you on your toes and questions you, but with the intentions of making your life better, not worse. Much respect Brian, good luck in the contest, team Matty is still the team you need to worry about...go @!$# yourself.