2017 Newport Cup Matches at Talamore Resort (Pinehurst, NC)

[iacas]

48 minutes ago, Golfingdad said:

We ruled out the first few holes just because since it was a brand new concept, we wanted to kind of feel things out - not to mention, concentrate on our own matches - for a bit before we considered it.

I think it would have been brilliant for someone to have done it on the very first hole.

48 minutes ago, Golfingdad said:

In a match that was literally decided by one of these balls, this could have made the difference.

Well… the matches were decided by how all 60 points were divvied up.

[Golfingdad]

2 minutes ago, iacas said:

I think it would have been brilliant for someone to have done it on the very first hole.

I wondered all morning if somebody was going to do that.  It would have been especially interesting, and perhaps effective, if one of the teams that went out first did it ... while EVERYBODY (including Roger ;)) was standing there watching.

[Pretzel]

@DeadMan and I joked and thought about it, but ultimately decided the hole would be too easy for people to par. 

[jsgolfer]

11 hours ago, coachjimsc said:

I just set my Driver face to straight. 

As far as the dance moves, I was just tryin to kill some time as we were waiting on the tee, heard the music coming from 15 and went for it. I still got some Jersey in me. 

It was awesome playing with you for two days. Your play was exactly as I expected from someone who plays tournament golf every weekend. Your up and down from behind 15 green at Talamore was a thing of beauty.

You might want to speed up your play some... you take waaay too much time to hit the ball...LOL! 

You might need to make that dance move your new avatar.  

Yeah, I think I said in my v-log that if you weren't paying attention you might miss me hitting my shot.

9 hours ago, phillyk said:

This for sure! I mean, the whole 3sec to step up and hit a shot is way too long! 

Was it really that long, damn I need to play faster. 

[jsgolfer]

After thinking about the challenge ball more, and being a little biased as @bkuehn1952 and I made a par on 17 with the challenge ball, it actually made our match's much more interesting as both of our matches finished on 16. Normally we would've either quit or played in for fun, but we got challenged on 17 and we challenged them on 18.  So definitely added some drama to our matches.  

[bkuehn1952]

I initially felt that the Yellow Ball idea added an unneeded element to the competition.  After some further contemplation, I have changed my mind.  The yellow ball was just another strategic challenge that one could use to advantage or miss.  It was similar to the "Property Line" rule.  Some players used that option to save a stroke or hole, Others (like me and my popgun driver) got -0- benefit from the local rule.

In the future I have to believe @iacas will introduce further wrinkles and all the 2019 Newport Cuppers will need to be ready.

 

[DeadMan]

59 minutes ago, Pretzel said:

@DeadMan and I joked and thought about it, but ultimately decided the hole would be too easy for people to par. 

Ironically, I think our opponents both made 6s on that hole... I'll keep their names out of it and let them admit to the 6s themselves if they want 

[Pretzel]

22 minutes ago, DeadMan said:

Ironically, I think our opponents both made 6s on that hole... I'll keep their names out of it and let them admit to the 6s themselves if they want 

Hindsight is 20/20...

[RandallT]

As a spectator, I loved the Snell yellow challenge. 

As someone who tuned into 2015 and 2017 finishes, the 2017 mathematical possibilities for outcomes in the final holes was a ton more interesting and dizzying to think through.

In 2015, you could watch a few matches for 1/2 to 2 point swings. Dramatic yes.

In 2017, every match seemed to have swings of 1 to 3 or 4 possible. That’s an even more dramatic finish when it’s close.

Regarding cheapening the singles:

To me, it’s a feature- not a bug. I like the idea of an entire point on just a few swings (or one bad one). The “moment” concept Erik mentions works for me. 

It fits the whole “thing”of the Newport Cup. Quality play, sportsmanship, friendship- by adding this “randomness” or small sample size, it kinda makes the atmosphere less like we take it all so seriously.  It adds fun (in my mind) and still lets us play hard at the beginning of the event to keep things close. 

At the beginning, it’s more about rounds of traditional competitions to get things started. If people play to their handicaps, it’ll be close for the final day. The final day works as a more variable thing, give a team that’s behind a chance, and let crazy scenarios play out. Give us something to laugh and drink beers about. But the team that wins should still hafta play good golf- not a coin toss. The challenge works for the overall spirit of Newport Cup in my mind.

Caveat: I don’t really play competitively yet, so my thoughts here might not be in line with those of you who do battle out on the course. This is strictly from a guy who has watched the last two NCs closely. 2017 rocked

FYI: I took the liberty of making my tag line: “Newport Cup Historian”.  This might give me street cred on this issue!!

[DeadMan]

3 hours ago, iacas said:

It's $84 on Prime right now, FWIW. No reason to get the LIVE if you don't want to use the GPS feature.

You might surprise yourself.

OT:

Hmm, that might be worth it. It is almost my birthday after all, and it's not like I just did anything all that special like a 4 day golf trip including a round at a US Open course... 

I am curious if you mean something by surprising myself. To me, it's clear that my driving and putting are my two biggest weaknesses, and I'd expect game golf to show that. Did you see something different? Or are you just saying that seeing the hard data could surprise anybody?

[mchepp]

4 hours ago, iacas said:

I think it would have been brilliant for someone to have done it on the very first hole.

@kpaulhus and I discussed this idea but after we'd teed off. The only trouble is the first hole wasn't very hard. But we thought the drama would have been excellent.

[kpaulhus]

10 hours ago, klineka said:

I would be interested to see any of the scorecards if people had them, or possibly GameGolf/stats on rounds from the individual matches if anyone used them?

Also, I hope the captains do a writeup of their observations again like they did for the 2015 Newport Cup, I enjoyed reading that and loved to learn observations from golfers much better than myself.

I posted all 3 rounds I played on my own ball on my game golf 

[cipher]

On 10/22/2017 at 3:17 PM, DeadMan said:

Shout out to both @cipher and @NCGolfer for putting up with me for 3 and 4 rounds, respectively. They were both great fun to play with. 

You put on quite a show the final two days.  Fun to watch man.  You found your long game and were putting to one of those oversized holes I think!    I just wish my long game would have been settled enough to give you a closer match.  I had a blast, learned a lot and enjoyed competitive golf for once.  

18 hours ago, NCGolfer said:

Man it was a great time.  Really enjoyed the golf and company.  @coachjimsc and @cipher, I had an awesome time playing and patterning with you both.  Wish I could have helped you out a bit more but in the end, Blue was victorious.

It was great to play with you and learn from you @NCGolfer.  I truly enjoyed our pairings.  Hopefully I was not too much of a distraction out there with my long game struggles.    Thanks for being a good sport about it if anyway.  

I really enjoyed playing with @bkuehn1952 as well.  I had a very tough first nine out there but Brian kept things positive and we battled through it.  We played much more competitively the second time out as shown in Drew's scorecard post.  We found a way to make our abilities work together, and it was a lot of fun! 

I enjoyed meeting everyone else and a lot of the guys I have not had a chance to yet.  I want to mention @jsgolfer who was my roommate and our MVP.  I wish I was able to see Jerry play more.  What I did see was a treat to watch.  He is also one of the most kind and considerate people I have met in a long time.  A true class act.  

Yellow ball or white ball I take responsibility for my shots out there no matter how much weight was on each individual one.  I had a 10' putt or so for a half point on the front Saturday that I lipped out after I thought I put a great stroke on it.  I should have put that one in.  I sure hit some bad ones off the tee and I am just thankful that I did not cost my team the cup.  

Finally I just wanted to say one more time, thank you to @iacas and @mvmac.  I know that this was a lot of work for you organizing and making this a truly special experience for us all.  I hope everyone who was there could see how much work this must have been for them and how it was done to give an incredible experience to the participants.  Thank you guys so much!  

[cipher]

I also want to thank @RandallT for making the trip down to record and track everything and for all the work he put in to keep everyone informed.  It was great to meet you Randy!  

[bkuehn1952]

41 minutes ago, cipher said:

I also want to thank @RandallT for making the trip down to record and track everything and for all the work he put in to keep everyone informed.  It was great to meet you Randy!  

Well said and I echo the thanks to @RandallT.  How many miles did you put on your cart??

[coachjimsc]

Let’s see if I can summarize the 2017 Newport Cup experience from this past weekend:

Weds:
•    Arrive
•    Meet everyone
•    Get golf swag
•    Back to the condo, discuss hole/course strategy
•    Go to dinner and talk about pairings
Thurs:
•    Get up, eat breakfast and talk pairings, 
•    Warmup and play golf
•    Have lunch, talk about previous matches, talk strategy
•    Warmup and play golf
•    Go to dinner, talk about golf events of the day
•    Go back condos, talk about more golf and watch NFL
Friday:
•    Wakeup, go to breakfast, pick teams and strategy
•    Warmup and play golf
•    Wait a very long time for lunch, talk about strategy and pick teams
•    Warmup and play golf
•    Go to dinner, talk about golf events of the day
•    Head back to condo, watch ALCS and talk about golf
Saturday:
•    Wakeup, go to breakfast and pick teams
•    Warmup and play golf
•    Go to early dinner, watch college football and talk about golf
•    Head to Pavilion, drink beverages, watch College FB and talk about all the golf happenings of the week

So if you are not fully into golf no need to apply.

I would like to give a big thank you to @mvmac and @iacas for organizing this outstanding event. I run one of these golf outings every year and it is no easy task. This was by far the best golf outing I have ever been a part of and it's not close.

All the goodies or “swag” were unexpected and really appreciated. 

The golf and condo facilities were outstanding even with the little mishap at lunch.

Big, big thank you to @RandallT for coming out and helping with the scoring and pictures. Really enjoyed meeting you and hopefully that neck heals up so you can be a participant next time out.

Also @GolfLug great meeting you with a surprise drop in. Remember to get to “Greenville” next time. 

I really enjoyed meeting everyone on the Red team @Golfingdad, @Pretzel, @mchepp, @phillyk, @kpaulhus, @DeadMan. Top notch young gentlemen all around. I think having the application videos beforehand really helped us get to know one another before we actually met.

And last but certainly not least are my Blue team playing partners and roommates. It’s hard for me to describe how much fun we had as a group and it didn’t have anything to do with golf. The golf was just the icing on the cake.

@bkuehn1952 – The events elder statesmen. Great getting to know you. I believe you did a lot better than you thought you were going to do. No surprise here.

@cipher – Blue team’s youngest member. I’m sorry I did not get a chance to play with you. It was cool we both have the body shop background in common.

@DaveP043 – I am really glad we got to play together in the singles match. We did pretty well on our challenge ball together. A true gentlemen and thanks for suggesting that area for the NC. Looking forward to playing with you in the future.

@jsgolfer – Yo yo yo dude! (18 tee moves go with that)  What can I say about my fourball partner? I know I’ll have to say it fast or you will be gone. Man did we have fun together. And as I predicted you were the anchor of our team, Mr. MVP, it was well deserved. Looking forward to playing with you again in the near future.

@NCGolfer – My roommate Dave K. who does not snore. Can’t ask anymore from a roommate. I had an absolute blast playing alternate shot with you. Yeah we could have played better but didn’t really matter we had a lot of fun both on and off the course. Looking forward to catching up with you in the spring and playing in Charlotte.

In conclusion, as we were all finishing up on the 18th hole of the event, Erik looked at his phone and said, “Blue team won 31-29”, there was no yelling or hollering or high fiving and no Champaign flowing. The event come to an end just about as close as it started. 12 guys going at it as hard as they could for 90 holes and it came down to 1 point. The Newport Cup is so much more than winning or losing. So the Blue team has bragging rights for two years. Okay great. More importantly we have formed friendships that will last a lifetime. 
 

Edited October 24, 2017 by coachjimsc

[jsgolfer]

3 hours ago, cipher said:

I enjoyed meeting everyone else and a lot of the guys I have not had a chance to yet.  I want to mention @jsgolfer who was my roommate and our MVP.  I wish I was able to see Jerry play more.  What I did see was a treat to watch.  He is also one of the most kind and considerate people I have met in a long time.  A true class act.  

Thank you, that was very nice of you to say that.  Didn't think I did anything different than anyone else.

38 minutes ago, coachjimsc said:

@jsgolfer – Yo yo yo dude! (18 tee moves go with that)  What can I say about my fourball partner? I know I’ll have to say it fast or you will be gone. Man did we have fun together. And as I predicted you were the anchor of our team, Mr. MVP, it was well deserved. Looking forward to playing with you again in the near future.

12 guys going at it as hard as they could for 90 holes and it came down to 1 point. The Newport Cup is so much more than winning or losing. So the Blue team has bragging rights for two years. Okay great. More importantly we have formed friendships that will last a lifetime. 
 

Love the moves. 

Indeed it was a lot of fun in the fourball and definitely look forward to getting in a round of golf with you again in the near future.  And you teach me how to hit the golf ball so straight. 

And +15 (1 for each of the players, coaches and of course our NC Historian) on having made friends that will last a lifetime.

Cheers to all!  

[cipher]

1 hour ago, coachjimsc said:

In conclusion, as we were all finishing up on the 18th hole of the event, Erik looked at his phone and said, “Blue team won 31-29”, there was no yelling or hollering or high fiving and no Champaign flowing. The event come to an end just about as close as it started. 12 guys going at it as hard as they could for 90 holes and it came down to 1 point. The Newport Cup is so much more than winning or losing. So the Blue team has bragging rights for two years. Okay great. More importantly we have formed friendships that will last a lifetime. 
 

Jim, this is stated so well.  We have a great amount of respect for all the guys who participated.  

Edited October 24, 2017 by cipher