Chandler Classic - Stats & (Un)interesting Facts

Since I slacked off so badly last season I decided to do an extensive stats post for our first event of the new season.  In reverse order of finish, here's a little something about all 13 players in the Chandler Classic.

Also, here's a little look at our illustrious president or commissioner or whatever he is and this event's namesake.  I'm not sure if this swing or his current one is harder to watch.

Gorecki achieved the rare feat of two 10s in one round, something he’s somehow only managed to do one other time in league play.  Shockingly, two 10s is not the worst in league history.  Big John pulled off three 10s at Lexington Oaks last summer and Geoff racked up three of his own at Heritage Harbor several seasons ago.

Stoneybrook continues to be a nemesis of mine.  I have six official rounds there with 88 being my all-time low score.  Tough to play well when you take 8 penalties and are able to throw a wedge further than you hit it on the par-3 4^th hole.

Darryl – welcome to the league!  Darryl got off to a pretty rough start with a 56 on the front-9 but improved by 9 shots on the back for a 47.  He was also only one of three players to make par on the difficult 8^th hole.

Tall Mike had a fairly average day in terms of overall score (+1) but had a hell of a closing stretch.  He made four straight pars to close his round, which includes being the only player to par the very difficult par-3 17^th hole.

JW hit the ball better than he scored, which was still a very respectable even par.  He could have very easily shaved 4 or 5 strokes if it weren’t for a few silly mistakes and unfortunate bounces.  Even par is his best score posted in league play since July 19^th of last year at none other than good ol’ Stoneybrook, where he posted a -3 and earned a 2^nd place finish.

Gary played a lot of good golf with an unfortunate pinch of bad golf thrown in the mix that killed his chances of a higher finish.  He made a total of 10 pars and played holes 9-16 in +2.  Not that he (or anyone) had a chance of beating Brendan, but he could have contested for 2^nd or 3^rd place if he hadn’t played holes 4-8 in +9.

Reid posted a score of +23 gross with 15 of those extra strokes coming on 5 holes.  He’s another one that could have made the fight for 2^nd and 3^rd a little more interesting if it weren’t for some all too typical blow up holes.  His birdie on the altered par-5 16^th was one of only four birdies made all day by the entire field.

Chris Guest began his round by sinking a 20-30 footer for birdie, which was his first in 106 holes of league play (2^nd hole at River Strand, 8/9/14).  The fun was short-lived though as he proceeded to make triple bogey, double bogey, and bogey over his next three holes.  Despite the roller coaster of a day, his 71 was good enough to earn him solo 6^th.

Buchert posted the lowest gross score of the day, 81, helped by playing the par 5s in even par.  His net 68 was very solid and a little extra impressive due to the fact that I don’t believe he ever played the course before.  It’ll be interesting to see if he can keep up his good play and overcome the challenge of often having the lowest handicap in the field.

Chandler had the next best gross score of the day, 82, helped by playing the par 3s in even par.  Unfortunately for him he saw his league record for low net score (-10, also at Stoneybrook) not only disappear but be completely annihilated by BD’s -16 performance.  He can still hang his hat on having the record (shared with Geoff) for largest margin of victory, which is 10 shots.

Darren continued his strong play by making 7 pars and not having anything higher than a 6 on his scorecard for the day.  Seeing as how last season’s average winning score was -5, his score of -6 would typically put him in a good position to win.  Alas, Stoneybrook is not normal.  The worst winning score ever posted there is -7.  Still a very solid start to the season for the guy attempting to be the first repeat winner of the cup since Chandler (first 2 seasons) when the league was an even poorer excuse of a league than it is today.

Geoff “Buddy Kane” Leighly made quite the reappearance to league play.  On almost any other day he would have grabbed his 9^th league victory and second at Stoneybrook, where he won the Jamaican Open with an identical score of -7 just over a year ago.  He played exceptional golf for the first 16 holes and was the only player with a realistic chance at challenging Brendan until finishing double par, double par.  Great to have you back out, hope you stick around!

Last but certainly not least, Brendan.  This f’ing guy.  In his 17^th official start finally earned his first victory by completely embarrassing the rest of the field.  He set an incredible record for net score (-16) that is very unlikely to ever be matched.  I believe he also posted his best 9-hole (41) and 18-hole (85) gross scores of his life.  He only had three 6s on his card, two of which came on par 5s and the other was on 18, a veteran move to try and limit the impact to his handicap.  Not much else to say except congratulations and good luck with keeping up the great play.