Darren was a very deserving champion on Saturday seeing as how he was the only guy in the field to beat his handicap. He did so by almost completely avoiding major blow ups, making bogey on all the par 3s, and having the 3rd best par 4 scoring average of the day. He was the only player to make par on the difficult 3rd hole while the rest of us were a combined +10.
One of the funniest things I've seen in a while was when Darren decided he didn't like the look of the challenging 16th hole and simply chose to skip it. Apparently, he was such a fan of the 14th fairway he wanted to play it twice. You see, the secret to limiting the damage on this very difficult hole is to blast your tee shot way to the right of the water hazard and then hack it up the 14th fairway and eventually work your way back to the 16th green. It might not produce a par but it works for making 6 and tying for lowest score of the day on that hole. The final results might have been a little more interesting if he took the max double par he deserved.
As a group, we only made par or better 24% of the time but limited the major blowups to 5 double pars, which is less than I expected. Gary and Faz tied for best 9-hole score of +6 with Gary's coming on the front-9 and Faz's coming on the back, which was our first 9 of the day.
Best Par 3 Scoring: Gary +3
Best Par 4 Scoring: Faz +10
Best Par 5 Scoring: Chandler +4
Worst Par 3 Scoring: Reid +8
Worst Par 4 Scoring: Reid +16
Worst Par 5 Scoring: Geoff/Darren +9
| Category | Result | Difference |
| Easiest Hole | Par 4 12th | 0.667 |
| Toughest Hole | Par 4 16th | 2.833 |
| Easiest Par 3 | 17 | 0.833 |
| Toughest Par 3 | 13 | 1.333 |
| Easiest Par 4 | 12 | 0.667 |
| Toughest Par 4 | 16 | 2.833 |
| Easiest Par 5 | 1 | 1.000 |
| Toughest Par 5 | 14 | 2.333 |
| Par 3 Average | 4.067 | 1.067 |
| Par 4 Average | 5.463 | 1.463 |
| Par 5 Average | 6.708 | 1.708 |
| Birdies | 1 | |
| Pars | 25 | |
| Double Pars | 5 |
Interesting and sad personal facts - I made double on the easiest par 3 but birdied the toughest and made QUAD on the easiest par 5 but par on the toughest. Not sure what to make of that...
Lastly, the Copperhead course truly lived up to its name when I was searching for my ball near the water on 16 and scared a copperhead out of a plastic drainage pipe, instantly causing me to turn into a 7 year old girl. I not only blame that little bastard on my ensuing triple bogey but for my epic collapse as well.
For those of you that didn't play... definitely consider buying the deal next year.
ReplyDelete$115 includes the round and a ticket to the Valspar Championship. If enough people buy it we'll host the finals at Copperhead again.
I'll be playing out there Saturday. I'll try to keep two sets of scores: one with the DPT rules, and one with the more forgiving for going OB Salami rules to see how I would have compared. My gut feeling: I'd have been buying a pitcher had I played in the DPT Masters.
ReplyDeleteThere really isn't a ton of OB. Just a lot of wooded areas that can be tough to find balls in. Pretty good amount of water hazards too. If you're hitting your three wood decently off the tee I'd recommend using it a lot.
ReplyDeleteYeah if you go OB... you really earned that extra stoke penalty.
ReplyDeleteI still contend my shot on five (I think) was in bounds.
ReplyDeleteThe driving range is never in bounds. If a lesson has to be halted so you can hit your shot, you're probably somewhere you shouldn't be.
ReplyDeleteDarren is always places he shouldn't be.
ReplyDeleteThat's why I wanted you to come look at it. There was a small grassy area between the woods and where the range started. That's where my ball was. And there were no stakes.
ReplyDelete