2020 Rapture Recap

Despite 2020's best efforts, The Rapture still happened with John's Gray Team ascending to the height of golfing glory.

The houses were decent. The courses were dry. Conditions were good. Layouts were challenging. And the weather forecast was thankfully incorrect (90% chance of rain!).

It was a blow-out... until it wasn't... and Moosite's Blue Team had it won... until they didn't.

Let's remember how it unfolded, based on what little information I retained when you all were Ho-Telling me about your Matches:

Day 1 - Four Ball

Celebration GC played tight and sneaky difficult, and yet was by far the easiest course on our schedule. The shorter holes were defended by small, elevated, and undulating greens. Spraying your tee-ball would usually find a lake or thick trees. This was a day for good ball-strikers.

Chandler was in full Gypsy Magic mode — basically stealing a point away from Dave — thanks to a timely contribution by Gary and the typical choking of Gorecki on the final hole. Adam/John didn't have much trouble with Brendan/Darren, while Reid/Geoff eventually shrugged off Casey/Troy in the final closing holes.

It looked like the day was going to be a clean sweep for Team Gray, but Tall Mike (and JW) started doing Tall Mike things, winning the final two holes to halve with Faz/Danny.

For the second year in a row, we had a beat down on our hands.

Day 2 - Chapman

The day started pretty early for John/Danny, as they agreed to go off at first light in order to play the Match in accordance with Gorecki's demanding personal schedule. Everyone will probably have a lot to say about how the negotiations transpired, but here's the "official" State-Run Media response:

I applaud John, Danny and Troy for agreeing to play at 6:30am. It's better to play all the matches in their correct format, then to have some cloud of doubt hanging over a closely contested Rapture. Any one of those three could have rightfully stood their ground and said "no." But they didn't, and the weekend was better for it.

On the other hand, Gorecki once again continued to selfishly inconvenience his fellow Club Members. Just because a personal scheduling conflict is an issue for you, doesn't mean it's everyone else's problem to deal with.

 

But once an agreement between all parties was made, there shouldn't be continued complaints about it.

Anyway, Troy and Gorecki pulled off a miracle, winning the final hole (with a bogey!) to halve the match. Everyone else had a lot of fun refreshing the leader board throughout the morning. The 5-point lead (through 6 holes!) is the largest blown lead in Rapture history.

For the rest of the day it looked like Blue would sweep the remaining matches. JW/Brendan expelled the bickering duo of Reid/Gary for an easy point, while Dave/Darren and Moostie/Casey had their opponents dormie-2. Considering 17 and 18 were two of the easiest holes on the course, the outlook was pretty bleak for Team Gray. But Chandler/Geoff and Faz/Adam conjured a miracle of their own, winning BOTH holes outright to halve the matches.

*This is the part where I have to remind everyone that if you're not an active participant of a match, you probably shouldn't be distracting the other team, or anywhere near their upcoming shots.*

Day 3 - Singles

While Team Gray only needed 3.5 points to win The Rapture, at one point Blue was leading the singles matches 7-1. But Shingle Creek was playing really long, and it was difficult for most of the players to build a sizeable lead.

-Gary and Geoff continued their abysmal golf, losing 6&5 to Moostie and Dave respectively. 

 

-Chandler put together a mistake-free round, beating JW who hit it solid all day but couldn't seem to gain any ground. 

 

-Troy took an early lead on Danny, until MacCovid won 6 points in 7 holes to improve his already impressive Rapture record. 

 

- Casey finally pulled away from Adam on 14 to win 3 & 1.

 

-Gorecki was 2 Up through six holes before crashing back down to Earth with odd leg-kicks and finger snaps after every bad shot. Which was basically every shot that I painfully had to witness.

At this point Team Gray was winning 8 to 6, with Team Blue leading the remaining two matches. Darren had a struggling John dormie-3, only to miss an important putt on 16, and ultimately meltdown on 17 and 18. It was really a war of attrition all day.

Up ahead Brendan pumped two drives into the water on 18, allowing Reid to win the match (and The Rapture) with a double bogey. The crowd went wildly lethargic.

 

Winners

 

 

Losers

 

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As always, it was a great weekend. Hopefully everyone enjoyed it, even those of you that showed up without a hint of a golf game. I know it's frustrating to play poorly, but hanging out together is far more important than this ridiculous exhibition.

Congrats again to John — who won 2020 with a season title and now Moses smiling down on him until next Fall.

Rapture Week - 2020

Rapture Week is finally upon us. Unfortunately, Orlando got a ton of rain yesterday. If you own multiple pairs of golf shoes, I highly recommend you bring them. Hawk's Landing will have a bunch of cart-path only holes... and they're going to be pretty soggy.

Later today I'll send each team an email with a house address and code to get inside. Check-in on Thursday is 4pm. Bring snacks and whatnot, but we should probably go out each night, especially with the Lightning playing on Friday and Saturday (if necessary).

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Apparently I need to clarify our policy on a player missing an event:

If someone bails on the Rapture before competition, we'll do our best to replace that player with an alternate. 

However, if someone bails on a specific event (even due to injury), then their partner will be playing alone. If it's in Singles, then they forfeit that point.

This is how it works in Club Championships across the country (I'm sure Faz has told you about that one time playing in his brother's Member-Guest). 

Way too much time and planning goes into the Rapture for us to allow the precedent of "one-event substitutions." Regardless of how well-intentioned such a policy might be, we must acknowledge that it would eventually (and probably immediately) be abused. If this isn't the most important event of your weekend, then let someone else take your spot.

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Remember to pick-up your ball and stop playing when your opponent tells you to do so. This rule is really just directed at Four Ball (day 1).

We also do NOT allow players to give advice on putts during Singles (day 3). Obviously people forget and I'm probably guilty of breaking this rule. So if it happens, just remind everyone not to do so.

See most of you Thursday.

Rapture Handicaps

Handicaps are locked. Read this post carefully, since there will be an issue on Day 2 (Chapman)... beyond the format being too difficult for you people to understand.

 

Day 1 - Celebration GC - Four Ball

Gold/Silver Blended Tees

Par 72 - 5,969 yards

Dave (0) & Gorecki (16) vs. Chandler (1) & Gary (5)

Casey (0) & Troy (8) vs. Reid (1) & Geoff (9)

Tall Mike (6) & JW (8) vs. Faz (0) & Danny (16)

Darren (2) & Brendan (5) vs. Adam (0) & John (3)

Day 2 - Hawk's Landing - Chapman

Green Tees

Par 70 - 5,779 (6,179 adjusted) yards

The course has changed a few holes around — mainly the 550 yard par-5 final hole is now a 166 yard par-3 island green. This will NOT be reflected in the scoring app (Golf Game Book). More importantly, the hole-by-hole handicaps for the back 9 will need to be manually adjusted (I'll hold your hand before the round). Whoever is entering scores in the app... it doesn't really matter what you put in... just make sure the result of the hole (won, loss, halved) is correct.

 

Troy/Gorecki (2) vs. John/Danny (0)

Casey/Tall Mike (2) vs. Faz/Adam (0)

Dave/Darren (0) vs. Chandler/Geoff (4)

JW/Brendan (6) vs. Gary/Reid (0)

Day 3 - Shingle Creek - Singles

Blue Tees

Par 72 - 6,213 yards

 

Troy (0) vs. Danny (6)

Tall Mike (2) vs. Gary (0)

Casey (0) vs. Adam (1)

Dave (0) vs. Geoff (12)

Gorecki (15) vs. Faz (0)

Brendan (4) vs. Reid (0)

JW (8) vs. Chandler (0)

Darren (0) vs. John (1)

Blue House Breakfast Menu

I have a blue house with a blue window,

Blue is the color of all that I wear,

Blue are the streets and all the trees are too,

I have a WAG and she is so blue,

Blue are the people here that walk around,

Blue like my golf cart, it's in and outside,

Blue are the words I say and what I think,

Blue are the feelings that live inside me,

I'm blue da ba dee da ba daa

Da ba dee da ba daa, da ba dee da ba daa, da ba dee da ba daa

Da ba dee da ba daa, da ba dee da ba daa, da ba dee da ba daa

Friday Morning: Sausage Breakfast Casserole

Saturday Morning: Deviled Eggs With a Side Cart of Potatoes 

Sunday Morning: Everything Bagel Egg Sandwich

Free for the Pickin's

Gatorades, Two Frozen Pizzas, Wavy Lays w/ French Onion Dip, Tostitos Scoops w/ Salsa and Queso Dip, Fritos w/ Bean Dip, Cliff Bars (take for the turn), Assorted Gummies, and Ice Cream Sandwiches.

All meals are served with an assortment of fresh fruit. Beverage selection of Bud Heavy or Mimosas. This meal plan is intended for the guests of The Blue House only. Guests may request slight alterations to their meals but must do so in writing by noon on Thursday. All breakfast items and other common groceries will be split evenly amongst the participating guests of The Blue House.

Consumer Advisory: Consuming raw or undercooked meats, poultry, seafood, shellfish, or eggs may increase your risk of food borne illness, especially if you have certain medical conditions. Menu items may contain or come in contact with wheat/gluten, eggs, peanuts, tree nuts, and milk. Items on menu should be consumed at the risk of each individual guest and will hold the provider harmless from any legal or medical conditions that might arise.

End of Season Commentary - The Bad

Sorry for the delay but part 2 of 3 is here. This is the middle of the pack in terms of this season's final standings. Stay tuned for part 3, The Ugly.

Chris

A great addition to the league (you’re welcome) in both golf skill and in just being an overall good guy. See what happens when we don’t invite strangers from the bar Mike? A very solid inaugural season in terms of gross scoring with the lowest scoring average (+10.75), identical front and back 9 averages (also known as the anti-JW), rounds of +3 and +4 with the +3 coming at Esplanade for his highest finish of the season (2^nd). He had the best percentage for making par or better (56.944%), the lowest for bogey (27.083%) which of course is good when you’re a low handicapper and terrible if you’re a high handicapper, and third best in terms of making double or worse (15.972%). Lastly for gross scoring stats, had the best par 3 average (3.405), second best for par 4s (4.667), and third best for 5s (5.655). Now for the bad. He finished 9^th in the standings, which was more than 1,200 points behind Mike even though he only missed one event. 10^th best in terms of points/event (77.5) and 12^th best in terms of net scoring average (4.875). Besides his 2^nd place finish at the final, he only had one other top 5 finish (5^th in the season opener) and had to buy a pitcher twice. There’s just not much room for error when you’re a low handicapper. It’s tough to start the “bad” commentary with someone who is clearly good at golf but the line had to be drawn somewhere!

 

Ho

A pretty decent season in terms of gross scoring with the 5^th best average (+16), 6^th best average for making par or better (40.972%), and leading the league in par 5 scoring with an average of 5.483. Excellent attendance for the season with missing only one event, in fact he’s only missed five events in his six seasons as a member. Finished in the middle of the pack for the overall standings, earned 75.938 points per event played with an average net score of +4.75. I think he needs to dial in those fancy pants irons of his because he only made seven pars and one birdie on par 3s (out of 36 attempts), leading to the 13^th best scoring average of 4.056. Also, he made 35 doubles or worse out of 144 holes played (12 of which were triple or worse). No wonder he has so many stories to (Ho)tell!

 

Darren

First of all, it was great having Darren back this season after he had to miss the previous one with a rather embarrassing self-inflicted wrist injury. But I fear the days of The Baron may be gone forever as it seemed like he went out of his way to dispel the age old saying of “beware the injured golfer.” Even with a win (four way tie) he only earned 580 points on the season. This was mostly caused by a slow start, averaging 23.5 points/event during the first five, one of which he owed a double pitcher! Not only was it his first time buying a double pitcher, he’s only had to buy seven in his entire career! For reference, John bought nine pitchers in the Spring ’19 season alone. A very middle of the road season in terms of stats with nothing really too horrible or too great to highlight. I hope he returns to form and helps continue to #keepthechampsdinnersmall.

 

Faz

Always fun to write these things about yourself but here goes nothing. It’s looking more and more likely that not only will I never win a fourth cup (or what would be three in the modern era) but I don’t think I’ll ever win a single event again. I have played 36 events since my last win, which was in the Summer ’18 season, and is also the last season I won the cup. Even though my gross scoring stats (4^th) are always relatively good compared to the rest of the league I can just never seem to play well enough in relation to my handicap when it comes to league events. Since the Summer ’18 season I’ve ranked 13^th, 7^th, T8th, and 12^th for net scoring. Please note, this is in no way me complaining about how hard it is to win with a lower handicap, I’m simply just not playing good golf when it matters. Maybe instead of calling people a “has been” they’ll now be known as a “Faz been.” I’ll see myself out…

 

Brendan

Is there a better person to have in your foursome? Who else can so easily just slap a papoose on the front of a cart in front of course employees and they don’t bat an eye? Who else can get blanked on points in more than half of their events played this season,  rank 18^th for net scoring, 16^th for gross scoring, make par or better 22.222% of the time and make double or worse 41.358% of the time and still be such a pleasure to be around? That being said, it was a feast or famine season for BD. Of the four events he placed in the points, three were top five finishes, including a tie for second in the first event. He also tied his career low gross score with a round of +13 at The Groves. His other +13 round came at Stoneybrook (R.I.P.) where his net score was -16 and may have been the catalyst for the creation of the “good pitcher” rule. Lastly, does anyone have a better hat collection than this man?

 

Adam

Such a conundrum this fella. Solid swing? Check. Great gear? Check. Plays a lot and even practices sometimes? Check. Has a realistic handicap for his skill level? Check. All of these boxes checked and yet last season (Spring) was the only one where he threatened a cup. Something isn’t adding up. I’m convinced that he’ll eventually put enough solid league rounds together to win a cup at some point but this season was definitely not the one. He earned 410.5 points with a win (four way tie) and two top-5 finishes. His round of +9 at The Groves was a new career best in terms of gross scoring but he also had to buy two pitchers. If there’s one area I’d say he should focus on it’s par 3 scoring, where he ranked 12^th this season with an average of 4.054. Club up good sir, club up!

Is Stroking It at the Rapture the Key to Ascension?

In my infinite-part series of combating bad analysis based on a singular observation, we turn our attention to the Rapture. Darren has been convinced since the 2019 North Port Massacre that "teams with higher handicaps have an unfair advantage!" Sound familiar?

The entire premise is a bit ridiculous because so many factors go into how someone plays, regardless of their stroke situation. People get hungover, pulled over, bladder issues, relationship strife, swing changes, back pain, thigh rashes... it's a total crap-shoot. Not to mention the number of strokes received depends on your opponent(s). But if there is a bias, we have enough stats to figure it out.

I originally wanted to get the overall winning percentage of pairings/singles that received strokes. I could then break it down into the three formats (Four Ball, Chapman, Singles). I also wanted to see if a bias existed based on the number of strokes received (in total and per format).

Chapman and Singles formats are easy, since (usually) one team gets strokes and the other gets none. Four Ball is a little different as the low-player(s) play to scratch. So for that format, I used the total strokes for each pairing and adjusted the low-team down to zero.

Seven matches in Rapture history have been "straight-up," and all were thrown out as the results are irrelevant to this exercise. Only one of those seven was in Four Ball — a hilarious (on paper) 2018 contest where each side had a total of 22 strokes: Gary (3) & Gorecki (19) vs. Dave (0) & Danny (22). Four of the five "experts" who made picks went with Dave/Danny, so that tells you the overall Club sentiment. They won in a blow-out 6&4.

Of the remaining matches (77) that had strokes, the pairing that received strokes had a slight losing record: 34-36-7 (0.487). I drilled that down to tiers of strokes-received: 1-4 (40% of all matches), 5-8 (30%), 9+ (30%).

Right off the bat, it's safe to say there's no obvious advantage in the Rapture as a three day event. Even in the extreme case of a pairing receiving 15+ strokes, their record is only 5-3. Two of those involved a Four Ball team of Dave & Darren giving 16 and 17 strokes (they won one, lost one), so I can see where Darren formed his hypothesis after losing on the final hole to Adam & Geoff last year.

But what about a format-related bias? Is the creation of "Super Stroker" pairings (which I'm fond of) the way to go in Four Ball and/or Chapman?

The first thing of note is the sample size of "format-specific data by strokes received" is pretty small. But here are a few conjectures:

Four Ball - This seems to be a format where higher handicappers can shine. Match Play not only ignores their blow-ups, but they can also be saved on those holes by their partners. Of the 6 active Members with winning Four Ball records, four of them have indexes above the Club median: Danny, Brendan, Geoff, Darren.

Chapman - There's a mixed bag here because of the 60/40 allowance. You need two high handicaps together to get any meaningful strokes. JW and Gorecki have been paired together 3 times, only winning once. Overall, it feels like bad players can really hurt good players in this format.

Singles - This is the most important format, as it accounts for 50% of the total points each year. Only JW and Geoff have winning Rapture Singles records and have historic indexes higher than 16.

All of this should result in a fairly even 3-day exhibition. Bad golfers can contribute in Four Ball... potentially drag their team down in Chapman... and definitely aren't getting an advantage in Singles. Without an obvious overall bias, there's only one conclusion we can make about the 2019 Rapture: Chandler is the greatest Captain of all time.