The TST Member Tournament Play Thread

[Pretzel]

The weekend of the state tournament is here at last. Played a practice round today and am loving the course conditions. It's playing firm and fast, with the greens rolling at around an average of 11-ish. Today they stuck the pins in the hardest locations on all of the greens (there were five pins within two feet of ridges) so it was an interesting day to just see the course. Me and my teammates just went around making notes, rather than playing for a score. Tomorrow is another practice round where I plan on playing for a score, so I'll report back. A few notes on the course: - I landed my ball 15 yards right of the 17th green (a big shove playing to a right pin) and still hit the green. It all funnels to the green from the right. - Baked fairways mean I can reach all the par fives in two if I hit the fairway, and still can reach two if I'm in the rough sitting ok. - The rough is fairly thick, and can be nasty when the ball sits down. A deep lie in the rough prevents you from advancing the ball much more than 150 yards. - The undulation in the green gives you plenty of options on chip shots - Despite playing 7150 yards, it really isn't a long course at all. My longest approach shot into a par four all day was a 7-iron when my ball was buried in the rough, and an 8-iron from the fairway. It's going to be a fun weekend/Monday and Tuesday ahead.

[DeadMan]

What course is state at?

[Pretzel]

What course is state at?

Walking Stick down in Pueblo was where it was at. The final round was today. First day I shot 75 (par 72) and was fairly happy, but the second rain delay killed my momentum. It slowed the greens enough to cause me to three putt the last two holes after the greens were moving fast the first 16. It was an 8 hour round for me all told, as the second to las tee time, including the delays. Second round had terrible weather conditions, with wind between 30 and 40 mph with large gusts. I feel I did decently for the conditions though in only losing a shot per side to shoot 77. I finished placed in a tie for 11th with a couple people out of 80+ players in the tournament.

[David in FL]

Walking Stick down in Pueblo was where it was at. The final round was today. First day I shot 75 (par 72) and was fairly happy, but the second rain delay killed my momentum. It slowed the greens enough to cause me to three putt the last two holes after the greens were moving fast the first 16. It was an 8 hour round for me all told, as the second to las tee time, including the delays. Second round had terrible weather conditions, with wind between 30 and 40 mph with large gusts. I feel I did decently for the conditions though in only losing a shot per side to shoot 77. I finished placed in a tie for 11th with a couple people out of 80+ players in the tournament.

That's solid. Congratulations! :beer:

[meenman]

Club Championship this past weekend. Let's just say with all the rain the days before the tourney - the course would have been shut down if it wasnt for the championship. They opened the range Saturday morning, but could not open it on Sunday.

Day one, a real solid front 9 - could not miss a putt and finished the front with a 46 (course handicap is 23 so i was not feeling bad) - a couple of triples on the back and I finished at 98 and tied for 3rd in my flight.

Day 2, start out bogey,par and feeling real good. Then came the par 5 12th hole (started on the back on the 2nd day.) Just missed the green into the front bunker with my 4th shot, came out of it only to plug into the top of the back bunker. With nowhere to drop (no closer to the hole in the bunker) - i took 2 swings at the ball before leaving a hole i could place the ball in after my 2 drops ended up rolling to the front of the bunker. Shot 10 stayed in the bunker, 11 into a 3rd bunker, 12 onto the green and 2 putted out. Needless to say, I spent the rest of the day playing for skins and fell short on that.

[Golfingdad]

I have my first tournament of the year coming up this Sunday.  It's a GC Am tour event, and is one I played in last year at a course I am very familiar with.  Further, I played a practice round there last week ... so I pretty much have my game plan dialed in (a lot of irons off the tee), and fully expect to do well.

It's a course with, basically, 18 holes that are "islands" surrounded by lateral hazards (or areas that will likely lead to a S&D;).  Point is, keep it on the fairway at all costs. :)

I will come back Sunday evening and post my results.

[David in FL]

I have my first tournament of the year coming up this Sunday.  It's a GC Am tour event, and is one I played in last year at a course I am very familiar with.  Further, I played a practice round there last week ... so I pretty much have my game plan dialed in (a lot of irons off the tee), and fully expect to do well. It's a course with, basically, 18 holes that are "islands" surrounded by lateral hazards (or areas that will likely lead to a S&D;).  Point is, keep it on the fairway at all costs. :) I will come back Sunday evening and post my results. :beer:

Very cool. Have fun! :beer:

[David in FL]

I have my first tournament of the year coming up this Sunday.  It's a GC Am tour event, and is one I played in last year at a course I am very familiar with.  Further, I played a practice round there last week ... so I pretty much have my game plan dialed in (a lot of irons off the tee), and fully expect to do well. It's a course with, basically, 18 holes that are "islands" surrounded by lateral hazards (or areas that will likely lead to a S&D;).  Point is, keep it on the fairway at all costs. :) I will come back Sunday evening and post my results. :beer:

Here's hoping you KILLED it today!

[Golfingdad]

I have my first tournament of the year coming up this Sunday.  It's a GC Am tour event, and is one I played in last year at a course I am very familiar with.  Further, I played a practice round there last week ... so I pretty much have my game plan dialed in (a lot of irons off the tee), and fully expect to do well.

It's a course with, basically, 18 holes that are "islands" surrounded by lateral hazards (or areas that will likely lead to a S&D;).  Point is, keep it on the fairway at all costs. :)

I will come back Sunday evening and post my results.

Soooooo ... all in all I played OK.  Started off quite shaky, then settled down and finished strong.  A few notes:

#2:  Long Par 4 ... topped my first drive into the hazard.  Put my approach into the hazard as well.  Drained a 45 footer (or so) for triple bogey. :)

#3:  Par 5 ... Wussed out and hit iron off the tee (poorly) then hooked my second shot into the hazard.  Made double bogey.

#4,5 & 6: Long par 3, medium 4, short 4 ... hit greens on 4 and 6, fringe on 5.  Used my putter 9 times total on those 3 holes.

Finally made a par on 7, and then settled down and started hitting it well.  Pars all the way through 13.

Birdie on 14.

Bogey on 15 due to a poor pulled tee shot on 15 that lead to a bogey.

Pars on 16 and 17, and then a good drive on 18.  Used my experience playing in the tournaments (and knowing that the winner usually breaks 80) to make the decision to go for the green on 18.  Popped up my 3 wood from 235 (no harm, no foul) but then shanked my LW approach, leading to a bogey.

Final score: 82.  (Good for T4) Could've been a lot better, could've been plenty worse.

[Golfingdad]

This was parked outside the pro shop. No sign, no promotional material of any kind. It was just sitting there all day. Sorry I didn't rotate this. There were 20 in our flight, but they didn't all fit on that screen apparently. :)

[David in FL]

Soooooo ... all in all I played OK.  Started off quite shaky, then settled down and finished strong.  A few notes:

#2:  Long Par 4 ... topped my first drive into the hazard.  Put my approach into the hazard as well.  Drained a 45 footer (or so) for triple bogey. :)

#3:  Par 5 ... Wussed out and hit iron off the tee (poorly) then hooked my second shot into the hazard.  Made double bogey.

#4,5 & 6: Long par 3, medium 4, short 4 ... hit greens on 4 and 6, fringe on 5.  Used my putter 9 times total on those 3 holes.

Finally made a par on 7, and then settled down and started hitting it well.  Pars all the way through 13.

Birdie on 14.

Bogey on 15 due to a poor pulled tee shot on 15 that lead to a bogey.

Pars on 16 and 17, and then a good drive on 18.  Used my experience playing in the tournaments (and knowing that the winner usually breaks 80) to make the decision to go for the green on 18.  Popped up my 3 wood from 235 (no harm, no foul) but then shanked my LW approach, leading to a bogey.

Final score: 82.  (Good for T4) Could've been a lot better, could've been plenty worse.

82 with those holes?!  Good job hanging tough!

[Golfingdad]

82 with those holes?!  Good job hanging tough!

Thanks.  And I forgot to link to me Game Golf round, if anybody cared: http://www.gamegolf.com/player/golfingdad/round/134769

I had 5 birdie putts of less than about 12 feet.  (Only made one and that was a tap in) Was very pleased with my wedge game.  One fatted wedge on #6 (from a divot) and one shank on the #18, (also a mis-club on #1 that I hit OK), otherwise the wedges did me right.

[Golfingdad]

Here's a really good, short article about tournaments (for everybody), written by Mark Willard: http://editiondigital.net/publication/?i=205275&p;=16  (It's on Page 14, in case it doesn't load up directly)

Couple of excerpts:

Quote:

There I was, on the first tee.  Easy par 4, 370 yards, slight turn to the right after a fairway bunker. Not a whole lot of trouble out there. But as I stood over the ball, that tingling sensation rolled through my body. Remember, there is a grand total of NOTHING on the line here. But there were people ... watching.  Don't ya just hate that?

...

A lot of us get a little jittery on the first hole of a golf round, even with nothing on the line. But what I immediately noticed in this tournament was that the slight feeling of butterflies never went away. For the entire 18 holes, no gimmes, no inside the leather, no mulligans.  I'm not a mulligan guy, but who taps in every putt? No one. But we did on this day.

...

After the round, you have the true satisfaction of knowing that the score on your card is real. Maybe not spectacular, but real.

There is also an article in there about course rating.  I've not read it yet, but I know a lot of people here on TST have asked about how courses get rated.  I'll try to find a course rating thread and link it over there as well. :)

[Pretzel]

I suppose it's not technically a tournament, but it still kind of feels like one. I got accepted into a nearby PGAM college program and am heading off for a college visit and a round of golf tomorrow. The golf is free, which is a plus, but it's also with all the other PGAM students and teachers that are there for the tour that day. The worrisome part is that I haven't seriously gone out and played golf (I've worked on my swing indoors, but only have played four nine hole rounds) since the state tournament more than four weeks ago.

I suppose it shouldn't be a large deal since I don't plan on doing the PGAM program, but applied to it anyways in case my mind changed.

[MacDutch]

Played an official fourball betterbal tournament yesterday. It was fun to play under pressure and difficult conditions. Because of the weather we normally don't play from the back-tee's anymore (only april-oktober), but this tourney we had to. The fairways were moist, no roll at all and playing very long that day (CR 73.2, SR 141, 6807Y).

It's a tourney for the better players, winners scored a 68 (-4) and we made an 83 (+11). We ended 33 out of 52 teams. I made two big mistakes in coursemanagement:

On a par5 I measured the distance to the waterhazard incorrect (tree behind the hazard, instead before te hazard );

On a long par4 I decided to go for the green with my 3-wood, ended up as a lost ball, because I tried to do something I am not capable of.

The good news was that I played really well, a lot better then my first official tournament a couple of months ago. Next year I will start playing competition, looking forward to it already

[David in FL]

Played an official fourball betterbal tournament yesterday. It was fun to play under pressure and difficult conditions. Because of the weather we normally don't play from the back-tee's anymore (only april-oktober), but this tourney we had to. The fairways were moist, no roll at all and playing very long that day (CR 73.2, SR 141, 6807Y).

It's a tourney for the better players, winners scored a 68 (-4) and we made an 83 (+11). We ended 33 out of 52 teams. I made two big mistakes in coursemanagement:

On a par5 I measured the distance to the waterhazard incorrect (tree behind the hazard, instead before te hazard );

On a long par4 I decided to go for the green with my 3-wood, ended up as a lost ball, because I tried to do something I am not capable of.

The good news was that I played really well, a lot better then my first official tournament a couple of months ago. Next year I will start playing competition, looking forward to it already

That's a tough course!  Who was your partner....anyone I know?

[MacDutch]

That's a tough course!  Who was your partner....anyone I know?

Hi David, no you don't know him. Its Nico the owner of the Dutch forum Golfchat. Trying to get him to Florida next time :-)

[David in FL]

I started this thread last year as I prepared for the local county senior amateur tourney. They're playing that tournament earlier this year, and I just sent in my entry. Played pretty mediocre last year.....4th in the A-flight, if I remember right. I hope to do a little better this year. Results to follow.... :-)