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Winter Tournament Course Set up--FAIL!


jaxbeachpackerfan

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Golf Channel Am Tour this past weekend at TPC Sawgrass.  One round on the Valley, one round on the Stadium.  They had overseeded the Valley Course this year with rye grass since they're tearing up the entire course in March in a major renovation (I guess overseeding is not good for the summer health of bermuda grass greens, so this was an unusual step).  I played the Valley Friday before the tournament and Tuesday, two days after the tournament.

 

So they set up the course for a tournament and greens were cut short.  Oops, didn't work so well on the Valley with the rye grass!  Staff said they ended up stimping at 12. Fast, but not usual.  But, for whatever reason, not only were they fast, but the ball would not stop!  I've played fast greens, including both the Stadium and the Valley the day after their respective Players and Web.com championship events this year.  This was entirely different.  You'd hit a putt allowing for a very fast green and on the way to the hole it would perform as you would expect.  But then, it would just keep going and going and going, even if it was barely moving as it went by the hole.  Woe to you if there was a downhill slope after the hole.  We had uncountable five to 10 ft putts turning into 30 foot putts coming back. Needless to say, multiple four putts from guys who rarely ever three putt. It reminds me of McCord's quotes about putting on the hood of a car or the bikini wax one.  It must be something with the winter environment and/or rye grass (we've had days affected by the polar vortex recently).  It's like there was no friction to stop the ball once it got rolling.  

 

We had two threesomes and played a two man net best ball two weeks in a row.  The week before, 14 under won the match.  Friday, 7 over won!

 

Golf Channel has awesome stats on their site for these tournaments.  All the player stats and complete course stats.  Turns out the stats reflect what we observed in our play.  Scores were off the chart!  Valley Course over most brackets averaged 3 to 6 strokes more than the Stadium Course.  I looked at the December event stats, including one at Innisbrook, and the Valley course scores seemed to be 5 to 10 strokes higher.  Champion flight (0 to 3.9 index) averaged 19 over par on the Valley, 10 over par at Copperhead (per round).  

 

More than once, we had someone saying "go, go" to a putt only to have it creep by the hole and keep going and going, turning into a "stop, stop!"

 

Going to play again tomorrow.  It's been real cold, so I'm guessing the grass won't have grown and we'll be putting on glass again.  

 

By the way, when your second putt rolls 3 ft off the green, does your chip back count as a putt??

Nonchalant putts count the same as chalant putts.

In my Ogio Ozone XX Cart Stand Bag:

Ping G400 10.5 Deg Driver, stock Stiff shaft
TM Rocketballz 19 Deg 5 Wood, stock Matrix Osik Stiff shaft
TM Rocketballz Stage 2 21 Deg Tour 4 Hybrid, Rocketfuel 80h Stiff shaft 

Callaway Apex CF 16 Irons, 4-P, Stiff Shafts
 
Scor 48 and 55 degree wedges.  
Renegar 60 Deg Steel Shaft Lob Wedge

TM Ghost Spider Si 38" Counterbalanced Putter

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That's very bizarre. It would be cool if there was a video of it.

I'll see if I can get one tomorrow that's representative of it.  They're projecting a 2 hour "cold delay".  Even if it doesn't get below 32 deg, they delay things until temps are above 40 or so.  Should be 60 by the time we finish.

Nonchalant putts count the same as chalant putts.

In my Ogio Ozone XX Cart Stand Bag:

Ping G400 10.5 Deg Driver, stock Stiff shaft
TM Rocketballz 19 Deg 5 Wood, stock Matrix Osik Stiff shaft
TM Rocketballz Stage 2 21 Deg Tour 4 Hybrid, Rocketfuel 80h Stiff shaft 

Callaway Apex CF 16 Irons, 4-P, Stiff Shafts
 
Scor 48 and 55 degree wedges.  
Renegar 60 Deg Steel Shaft Lob Wedge

TM Ghost Spider Si 38" Counterbalanced Putter

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Share on other sites

I'll see if I can get one tomorrow that's representative of it.  They're projecting a 2 hour "cold delay".  Even if it doesn't get below 32 deg, they delay things until temps are above 40 or so.  Should be 60 by the time we finish.

Even though its not "growing" weather, there was enough growth on the greens in the two days such that the greens today were merely very fast.  But the extended rolls and weird results were not there today.  The putts acted basically normal today.  Actually made a few!

Nonchalant putts count the same as chalant putts.

In my Ogio Ozone XX Cart Stand Bag:

Ping G400 10.5 Deg Driver, stock Stiff shaft
TM Rocketballz 19 Deg 5 Wood, stock Matrix Osik Stiff shaft
TM Rocketballz Stage 2 21 Deg Tour 4 Hybrid, Rocketfuel 80h Stiff shaft 

Callaway Apex CF 16 Irons, 4-P, Stiff Shafts
 
Scor 48 and 55 degree wedges.  
Renegar 60 Deg Steel Shaft Lob Wedge

TM Ghost Spider Si 38" Counterbalanced Putter

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