DPT Rapture Dates

We need to nail down an official date for this year's Ryder Cup Rapture. Here's how the qualifying will work:

- Top 12 people based on Official Golf Rankings, after Week 3 of the Summer season, are selected.

- If we actually have 16 people available for the the weekend we choose, we will take up to that number. I don't think this will happen. And I also don't think we'll EVER take more than 16 people.

- This year we're playing three days, starting on Friday. You'll need to get that day off from work.

- The weekend we choose will be based on the MOST currently ranked player's availability. However, I want EVERYONE to respond. I'll be keeping a chart, probably on this post, and bumping it up to remind you to respond.

- This is something you should be planning around, so if you currently don't have events on the calendar these dates, you should assume you're good to go. We have to plan this far in advance so I can talk to courses and find out their maintenance schedule.

Got it? Comment on this post if you're IN or OUT the following weekends:

August 4th, 5th, 6th

August 11th, 12th, 13th

August 18th, 19th, 20th

August 25th, 26th, 27th

*September 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th

September 8th, 9th, 10th

*First weekend of September is Labor Day weekend. Tell me if you're going to be around, but this might cause some scheduling conflicts with courses in general, as well as affect our ability to get group discounts and home rentals.

Anything later in the year conflicts with football. We should be able to make one of the above 6 weekends work. Get on it!

Response Grid:

Gorecki Memorial - Course Update

Gorecki, bless his heart, attempted to book us at Mangrove Bay next weekend. Unfortunately they were closed to the public for a tournament. He then took it upon himself to call Buffalo Creek... and much to Geoff's & John's delight... they were also closed for a tournament.

At this point he contacts me and says his dad would look into his home course, Tatum Ridge... in Sarasota.

Being your fearless leader, I completely squashed that plan and have booked us at Countryway, a course specifically designed for the event. We tee of at 9:00am on February 5th, at a discounted rate of $24.

Mike was pretty unhappy about a few things: One; I wasn't willing to make the entire league drive an hour-plus to play a course from the old man tees (5,494 yards). Two; I told him his dad wasn't in for points or money this season due to Rule 3.1 (a rule Gorecki pushed for). Three; it's apparently very upsetting when he doesn't get his way, regardless of how it affects the league.

This is another reminder that everyone needs to constantly give feedback. Player feedback is the reason why Rule 3.1 was implemented, in an effort to maintain the integrity of competition. The final tournament of the year has always used an even more strict version of this rule, because people who don't play regularly shouldn't steal potential points from those who do.

And if I'm not constantly reminded of member preferences, you may find yourself driving an hour and 20 minutes to play a course of which Gorecki literally texted: "The league is not gonna let me live this down when we play there." So him knowing it would upset the league still didn't stop him from demanding it. Let that last sentence sink in.

So we have 20 spots currently booked for Countryway. Guests are welcome on a first come, first served basis. Keep your availability up-to-date using the registration link. And openly speak out when you have something to say. Telling me directly doesn't help.

Remember: Moses is watching.

DPT Open - Spring 2017 Recap

The meteorologists couldn't have been more wrong on the rain... but they were pretty accurate about the wind. The entire round saw 20mph winds with gusts up to 30mph. And that makes Southern Hills more of a grind than usual.

Unless you're from across the pond. Then it's apparently a splendid jaunt through a park.

Dave proved that low handicaps can win, shooting gross 75 and carding four birdies. He barely edged out Darren who was impressive with the second lowest gross round of the day (86). The rest of us weren't all that impressive, but Buchert did make an eagle on 16.

At least we got the round in, and the season can continue as scheduled. Which means we're OFF this weekend for Gasparilla. Enjoy the break and don't go to the hospital (or jail).

In two weeks we return for the Gorecki Memorial, allegedly at a "new" course for the league (Mangrove Bay). We'll see what kind of deal Gorecki gets us, but it'll probably be more expensive than Southern Hills.

As of now we have exactly 16 members registered. So be sure to update your availability as it changes!

Golf

In what will be the worst decision ever... Let's make it happen! Bring the rain gear and umbrella!

Sunday Weather

It's not looking good on Sunday, but I haven't cancelled the event yet.

Weather is hard to predict, and if the front slows down over the next 24 hours, then the forecast could shift to hitting us Sunday night instead of Sunday mid-morning. Cancelling and then having the weather be playable is just as bad as getting rained out. We got a schedule to keep and 16 people have set aside the day!

Anyway, it's been a long while since we had a rainout. The first time it happened, we counted nine holes and called it a day. The 2nd time, I was winning my first Major after the turn before the rain hit... which upset you people and you made me cancel the event and re-play it. One season we were able to change venues the morning of the event, driving down to Bradenton where it was dry. That won't be an option this week since everywhere is going to get hit by the front.

Continue to check this blog over the next day and a half. I'll also try to text as many people as possible if/when the event gets cancelled. If that happens, we'll move the Major to the first make-up slot and finish the season with back-to-back Majors (as we did Summer 2013).

Summer 2017 Schedule / Rapture Schedule

Tall Mike is getting a head start planning his family vacation this year, and wanted to work around our summer schedule. I like the dedication, so below are the dates we will play. Please note, the league will take a two week break while the Scotland group is overseas. Normally personal trips like this wouldn't affect the schedule, but eight members are attending which is half the normal field. So use the off weeks to your advantage and take your woman out somewhere nice.

April 30th - Week 1
May 7th - Week 2
May 14th - Bye Week (Mother's Day)
May 21st - Week 3
May 28th - Bye Week (Memorial Day)
June 4th - Week 4
June 11th - Bye Week (Scotland Group)
June 18th - Bye Week (Scotland Group)
June 25th - Week 5
July 2nd - Bye Week (4th of July Weekend)
July 9th - Week 6
July 16th - Week 7
July 23rd - Week 8
July 30th - Week 9



No need to tell me availability yet. You will register using the new procedure once the Spring season is over.

--------------------------------------------

As for The Rapture, rankings will LOCK after the first Major (May 21st) of the Summer season. Not counting Labor Day and assuming no rainouts, we have 5 weekends to get it in before football starts: all 4 weekends in August and the weekend of September 9th.

The event will be 3-days this year, requiring you to take off Friday. So start looking at your schedule in August/September. I'll soon officially ask for availability, and will craft a grid to help us pick a date. The weekend that most top ranked players can attend will be the one we choose. If you're the only person who can't make a weekend, chances are God and Moses are mad at you, and you should probably skip the tournament anyway. Stay tuned!

Reid's Reads - Gorecki's Swing

Reid spent the last few days breaking down Gorecki's newly rebuilt swing. Listen to his expert analysis below:

DPT Open - Spring 2017 Preview

The first Major of the year! Nicer course, more money and points to the top finishers.

For the new people: entry fee is $20 this week instead of $10. Greens fees are $45 plus tax, which is literally the best deal in town.

Once again we're hosting the tournament at Southern Hills. Last year they closed for the summer to install new grass on the greens. They are now capable of  "championship speed," which is needed since they host Web.com and Valspar qualifiers. I was hoping they would also got rid of the Pete Dye signature undulations that give golfers aneurysms while putting. That did not happen. In fact, since the greens run faster now, the "problem" is worse.

Nothing else about the course changed. It's still very open off the tee, and yet every hole has the ability to destroy your round.

We tee off at 10:40am, so get there an hour early and use their practice facility. Faz will probably arrive at daybreak to get a few hours on the chipping green.

Projections:
Three pitchers this week. High handicappers play well here, so the winner will be.... Gary! That's right, his handicap (16) is way too high. It's his home course and he's hitting the ball great lately. If his short game doesn't implode, he'll easily shoot around 82, giving him a net -6.

 See you up there!

Geoff Skins Game - Spring 2017 Recap

Some surprising results coming out of Cheval yesterday. First off, I guess all apps still have the course as a par 72. So adding an extra stroke to everyone, we had 4 pitchers purchased. But three guys broke par (net)!

Gary was lights out on the more difficult back nine, shooting even par on the final seven holes. Despite making triple bogey on the easy 1st hole, he grabbed his first victory since Lansbrook last season.

Reid almost got into the winner's circle with an impressive -3 (net). He had nothing but pars and bogeys on the front, and also played extremely well on the final stretch. It's been 20 events since Reid's last top-2 finish! Long overdue!

And everyone should be worried about Tall Mike. He dominated the league for the entire 2016 calendar year, and finished solo 3rd thanks to birdies on 16 and 17.

Reid and Tall Mike were apparently motivated by the desire to move up from the Gorecki Group... tired of hearing Gorecki constantly talk about Katie's score and handicap. After listening to endless comments about: "how is she in the lead after making two double pars?!?!"... they quickly pointed out: "now you know how the entire league feels about you!" Good stuff!

Speaking of Katie, last week's champ was on her way to back to back dubs... but the wheels on her Magical Mystery Tour bus fell off. Reid is going to analyze her game in his upcoming golf improvement show called "Reid's Reads," but his initial expert opinion was that she hit it too many times. At least one person who followed the round live on this blog agrees:

A few people asked me if Dan is OK. There might be a rash we can't see... but physically he seemed fine. The course is just difficult, and got the best of him for a stretch of holes. I estimate he easily lost 10 strokes by not having seen the course before.

-----------------------------------------------

This week we play on Sunday, January 22nd at Southern Hills. Tee time is 10:40am, giving you plenty of time to get up there and check in. Don't be late! We currently do NOT have any open spots, since Troy is going to bring a friend of his.

For any of the new people, Southern Hills is Gary's club, and probably the best course we play all year. It's wide open off the tee, and high handicaps tend to win there because of it. They put in new greens last year, and it's now even MORE difficult to putt. Expect a ton of 3 putts during your round. Their practice facility is excellent and free, so get there with plenty of time to take advantage of it.

No hats in the clubhouse, and you have to tuck in your shirt at all times. Rules is rules. See you up there!

Geoff Skins Game - Spring 2017 Preview

We included a Skins Game into our league to give the schedule some variety. But it's funny how many people "don't like it," mainly due to the payouts having nothing to do with winning. I kinda like the change of pace, however. Getting my money back for a birdie softens the blow of me finishing last.

Once again we'll divide up into two tiers based on handicap. For the Skins portion only, you'll get 80% of your cap, stroking off the low-man in your tier.

As a reminder... ALL tournaments have a summary and scorecard page. If you ever want to preview a scorecard or look up old results, they're easy to find.

Click on any tournament date in the full or condensed schedule.

Summary page. Click on "Tournament Scorecard" to see results!

Everyone still gets full handicap for the stroke play portion. And those coveted DPT Points will be awarded based on that. So basically... don't even think about the Skins Game until we get into the clubhouse.

------------------------------------

Projections:
Cheval is a lot like Westchase. It'll beat you up if you're spraying the ball. So I expect at least 4 pitchers bought, probably more. Darren putts better this week and beats Katie by a stroke. The entire last group fails to finish their 7-hour round due to darkness.

At least the weather will be great. 11:45am tee time, so get there in time to hit some free range balls and pay up!

Chandler "Ice" Classic Review - Spring 2017

God damn freezing. Temperature was 36 at tee time, the course was difficult, and the scores reflected. My prediction of 6 pitchers was almost true... we had 4, and were damn close to getting 9 of them.

With the most predictable result in the history of this league, Katie beat the shit out of everyone. Chandler (hey, that's me!) tried his hardest to spoil her debut... but a quad 9 on the the 15th hole ruined his attempt.

However, Katie's party is winding down as the handicap formula does its job. She's scheduled to drop almost 3 points by this weekend alone! But don't assume that will slow down her reign of terror (side note: remember when "The Baron" terrorized our league?)... seven guys failed to beat her straight up. Two of those are League Champions. Yeah she tees it up closer that everyone else... but that's because she weighs 95 pounds.

Big John debuted his newly reconstructed swing and new set of clubs with very promising results. Great round by him derailed by a few blow-up holes. Dan continued to prove that the tees he plays doesn't matter... he's gonna shoot low 80's regardless. And Casey had a great first round as a rookie, shooting a 93 despite literally topping 5 drives about 40 yards. The other holes he completely obliterated the ball, so expect him to move up the rankings once he stops thinking so much on the tee box.

Faz won "Club Toss of the Year" this week, so everyone else shouldn't even bother. Thanks again to Casey for finding it 10 yards in a thicket.

----------------------------

Our last group finished insanely slow this week. As in... almost three holes behind the group in front of them. While there's probably a handful of excuses, we ALL need to be cognizant of our pace. When we play nicer courses who actually have rangers that care... it's going to be an issue. So instead of skimming over the next few bullet points, literally take to heart the three things I think would help every group:

1) If you're driving a cart... drop your "cartner" off a their ball, and then drive to yours. Do not sit and wait for them to hit. This is honestly the easiest thing you can do to speed up.

2) I'm tired of the term "ready golf." Call it what it is: play out of turn on and around the greens. If someone is walking to a ball or you feel they need time to line up, just go. Tell them you're going to go first so they have a chance to focus. Faz bladed a greenside bunker shot over the green today, and everyone attempted their first putts before he even got to his ball. It's not disrespectful. It's just efficient.

3) Stop spending 5 minutes hunting for balls. If you can't find it in an open area, you're going to take an unplayable anyway. There's zero advantage to finding it unless you're out of balls.

----------------------------

This week we're heading to a NEW course... Cheval. I'll do a preview on it later this week, but we are officially full (Katie... change your RSVP!). Pairings are already compiled and I'll post handicaps in a day or two. This is a fully private club that is letting us out because, you know, golf courses are hurting for money. So while that's good news for us, just remember there will be a lot of members who pay thousands of dollars a year to not deal with us common folk. We have a late tee time so you should be able to arrive early! See you all then!

December / July Handicap Tracker

Well with the new season just a few days away, it's hard to believe the last DPT league event was almost 6 months ago! Since then several "exhibition" rounds have been played which hopefully has kept the clubs (and our swing) from collecting cob webs. The blog has had its moments of entertainment during the off season but I think we are all anxious to resume league play as I quote Gary from last weekend "Chandler sure is bored!"

So here's one final recap of everyone's handicap during the off season. I'm sure we will all be paying more attention to them now as rounds in league events that have double digit net under par scores will most likely be scrutinized as potential sandbaggers.

December Index Tracker

(sorted by current index)

Listed below is a recap of the handicap index changes since July when we last played a league event:

Net Index Change from 7-15-16 to 1-1-17

(sorted by index change)

So congrats to the over 80% of members who improved their game during the off-season. Good luck to all on the upcoming league events. Looking forward to it!

Week 1 - Pairings

Randomized pairings for this week. Starting in Week 2 we will go out in order of standings.

Remember to show up by at least 9:15am. Many of you people said you were OK with "earlier" tee times, so don't prove my skepticism correct. Also bring cash... $10 for entry and at least $5 for side bets.

Group 1
Faz
Casey
Chandler
Brendan

Group 2
Buchert
Gary
JW
Troy

Group 3
Anthony
Darren
Geoff
John

Group 4
Dan
Dave
Katie
Reid

----------------------------------

I was also able to book us on Cheval for Week 2, at 11:45am (due to a tournament), $53 after tax and includes range balls. This is a new course for the league, and based on current responses we have two spots open for any of the "???" people.

Spring 2017 - Week 1 Preview

The new season is finally here! Football is winding down and all of your shitty teams are eliminated from competition. That means it's time for winter golf: crappy course conditions, higher prices, endless club throwing. What a great time to be alive!

I got a text the other day from Tall Mike stating that it would be fun to have a league event at a difficult course, to see a wide range of positive net scores. He was referring specifically to Westchase... but I kinda feel like most of the courses we play beat us up. Only 4 courses in league history have an average (and median) net score under par. That leaves 33 courses with par or worse average net!

Anyway, he's getting his wish on Sunday. Fifteen people have stated they are IN for Week 1, so we have 4 groups at 9:40am at Hernando Oaks. One spot remains for any undecideds or guests. And we got a great group rate of $25.

I played a scouting round there today to see the conditions. They're... frustrating. The greens are soft, medium paced, and overall pretty great. The rough isn't thick and the ball will sit up mostly. But the fairways are dormant / dry / hard / dead? It is Scotland-esque with how far the ball will roll on those fairways, and how tight the lies are. There are going to be a ton of pitchers bought this weekend. In our practice round, we were +5, +10, +10, and +20 for a total of 4 hypothetical pitchers!

Seriously... when it comes to the fairways... just remember these conditions are normal in MANY places of the world. We aren't used to them... but it isn't really unfair.

Also, be sure to get there early enough to pay your entry fee ($10) and check in. Don't roll up at 9:35am.

------------------------

Local Rule Change:
For this event only, you may pick up your ball from a bunker, rake the sand, and then place it back down. They've put sugar sand in the greenside traps, and the good people of Brooksville apparently don't like using rakes. I'll remind everyone on Sunday of this rule change.

------------------------

Projections:
Katie is going to smoke the field with her 33 handicap. She'll keep the ball in play off the tee and get a ton of roll from the fast fairways. Everyone will struggle around the greens so that will eliminate any advantage the low handicappers usually have. Gorecki will argue in the clubhouse that she only deserves 87% of the payout because she's a woman.

Dave will finish DFL with at least 2 triple bogeys. JW holds a firm grip on the basement spot, but pars the final hole to finish 2nd to last. Six pitchers will be bought.

I'm going to randomize the groups tomorrow and post them on the blog. See you all Sunday.