Whew…a heart in the throat round that was very tense…but surprisingly easy. Like…it felt like disaster was looming on every shot…but they all went…mostly where I wanted them to go. It is really fun taking one or two clubs off and playing the breaks of the green from far off. Probably one of the cleanest rounds I’ve ever played a -9 round to come in at -11 after the 2nd round.
Have you been going for the green in two on the 18th hole @keets? In both rounds I was right on the edge of being able to make it…hitting a driver out of the fairway just, just, just barely cleared the water…LOL…I mean…like barely. I probably won’t try that on round 3 and 4 if I have any kind of a lead though. But that is a great eagle opportunity if you can make that second shot.
My approach shots haven’t been great. I can see from the stats you land much closer with your approaches than I do.
On the 18th, both times I’ve gone for it. I tried the first time from the rough in between the two fairways and paid for it landing just short of the beach in the water.
The second round, I was in the semi rough on the right hand branch of the fairway so could take the 3 wood and only just carried the water.
This is such a great course, definitely my favourite that I’ve played in this game.
You must be getting good distance on your 3-wood. It didn’t look like I could make that 18th green with a 3-wood…even from the fairway. Definitely not from the rough. You can tell when it comes out of the rough with that flat trajectory that bad things are going to happen…LOL… I actually had two shots in that last round where I took a 5 iron and laid up to a safer spot because I wasn’t sure I’d be able to get the club through the rough with the 5-wood. Best of luck on Round 3. Round 4 winds should be…interesting…!
Yes…yes it was. When I started Round #3 I was feeling a bit of the “yips”…man…after the second hole (bogey), I was thinking maybe I should put the X-Box controller away for the night and just come back in the morning to finish up the round. Then I settled in…played a consistent rest of the front nine…and then all my approach shots were just working out on the back nine…giving me 6 to 9 footers for birdies. It is a weird course in that it looks a LOT harder than it plays…
Another great round, tearing it up!! You’ve got this course nailed…
I’ll check what my 3-wood is. I think it’s the one in the list you put up there before. Not that you need anymore help.
edit: Round 3…
Looking at your round 3 score, even just to keep pace was going to be a challenge. Fortunately I managed to avoid the first hole bogey. However I couldn’t catch a birdie. Putts on the 2nd and 3rd went past the hole without dropping.
I managed to drain a long putt for an eagle on the 4th just to keep pace and thought I’d get a chance on the par 5 5th, but a poor approach shot left a difficult chance which I couldn’t sink. I was still 2 shots off your lead at the turn. Knowing how good your back 9 was, it was tricky not wanting to drop any shots whilst balancing the risk of needing to keep within a shot or two.
The first three on the back nine, you started to pull away and I was lucky to stay that close having put my approach on the par 3 out the back of the green. By the 16th hole I knew I couldn’t catch you.
On to the 18th, I aimed for the lower fork of the fairway, played a decent second onto the green and had a mid range putt for a fortunate eagle, but still a long way to go on the last round.
@BeachAV8R - wood update (never thought I’d ever use that phrase ), try the Taylor made Max 3 wood, the one with the better distance but same swing plane as the Mavrik.
The distance gain for par 5’s is really handy.
Obviously try on a non Mudspike tourney round first.
Alright man…the door is definitely open for you in the final round…! The wind is pretty crazy…I felt like it mostly lengthened the course. The holes that it shortened I felt didn’t really get as affected as those it lengthened. Some of the par 4s were unreachable in two. I three putted one of the par 5s (I think #13) and missed a good opportunity there. Overall…no disasters…but nothing spectacular either.
There are times when you might have to play a whole fairway width out to the left or right to account for the wind. I tend to just aim off instead of clawing against it with some fade or draw since I can rarely properly judge that against wind. I think you can take it on this final round…there are opportunities I missed…
Usual first hole, then a birdie and I was thinking the wind wasn’t that bad, golf is an easy game, I’ve got this. Big mistake.
Hole 4 I gave my approach too much mustard and rolled out of the back of the green out of bounds. Then followed it up on the next hole with a bogey. Fortunately you’d also dropped a shot on the 5th, so it wasn’t as bad as it could have been, but I was struggling to get close enough to the pin to pick up shots and was still 4 shots adrift at the turn.
Another dropped on the 10th, followed by a birdie. The make or break chance was the 13th. I could and should have eagled this, the ball lipped and any chance of making the shots back was gone. By the time I got to the 17th, when you powered out of sight, I’d have needed two eagles, which was never going to happen.
Congratulations on a well deserved win. I really enjoyed the course and the chase. The conditions you picked were superb choices. That last day, especially after the setup of the previous 3 rounds made it.
Great event man! It was fun being so close to the end - particularly knowing we had that windy finale to contend with. I too really enjoyed the course…it felt like a bit of a puzzle, but not one that was too difficult…but also one that would severely punish gross errors. Watching the ball track with the wind was really cool and always satisfying when it actually ended up where you were hoping it might go. I got lucky with some of my WAG shots where I was calculating both how wind and the higher or lower slope lie of the ball at your feet would interact with the wind. And @Rhinosaurus is 100% right - the flop shot is the saving grace of the game. If I can flop instead of chipping I will 95% of the time.
Do you want to select the next event and parameters? I’m already looking forward to it - these rounds are a great meditative break each day!
The Honors Course (by bearforlife73) - White tees. A nice tree lined course with some lakes. BTW, don’t confuse it with the course he’s done called Honors GC Yeti Creek CC Black - Black tees. I think this could be the one to try. Cabot Cliffs (Lidar) The signature hole has to be the 16th. Though this is wide fairways in the main
Whilst looking for Cabot Cliffs, I found this one: Cabot Country Club - Its a fiendish course with a lot of blind tees. You may like it, as its very tight in the trees and some of the greens will benefit your good approach shots.
I did a practice round on all… On the first course this happened.
Woot…! I had one of those back in TGC2019 or whatever it was called. Haven’t had one since. I’ve hit the flagstick on a par 3 once…but no holes in one in PGA Tour 2K21…
I’ll check out The Honors Course and Yeti Creek (sounds cool)…
That is a beautiful course! Made me want to pack up some skis, fishing poles, canoe, and a tent…! Nice layout and beautiful details in that course. Should be a fun one. I put it on the calendar - I think starting today and running five days:
This time we will start with miserable conditions…high mountain winds but clear-ish skies…so the greens and fairways will be firm. Round 2 moderate conditions with low wind speed. A bit of rain on hand for Round 3, but medium winds and softer conditions. Clearing out on Round 4 with medium conditions across the board - a good final day to try to make some moves. Round 1 will definitely be the hardest and if we can keep it tight through that round the rest of the event should play out close one would think…!
So that was all bad…! I shot an 80. For no other reason than I just wasn’t really concentrating. A lot of lazy, lazy shots. It will be a struggle to get back into this one…
Oh no…the end of the event snuck up on me with all the flying I did this week (it looks like it ended yesterday). I logged on this morning to play my rounds and saw it is unavailable…
Would you like me to reset it as the next event. I will duplicate my 80 score on the first round and we can take it from there…?
- I did the same. I managed to get the 3rd round in, but it timed out before I finished.
Just reset it for this week. Your score was an anomaly, I know you can play better than that. Call it a mulligan. It might be worth re-jigging the nasty weather to the last round though.
I haven’t forgotten our golf matches @keets! Been under a bit of a deadline for the magazine the past two weeks and haven’t had a moment to get that event set back up. I should be back to “normal” in about three more days and we will press on with more events! Apologies and thanks for your patience!
before. Not that you need anymore help. 
I really enjoyed the course and the chase. The conditions you picked were superb choices. That last day, especially after the setup of the previous 3 rounds made it.
