FBGC Masters - Spring 2024 Recap

Geoff won the season on the first hole at Feather Sound, just by watching Dave fill his pants after a good drive. The resulting double-bogey eliminated Geoff's need to finish top-4, as it was clear Dave wouldn't win the event.

Geoff still almost finished top-4, capping off an impressive season of consistency.

He was consistently decent... and the rest of us weren't. It would be difficult to confirm this, but Geoff is probably the first season Champion to increase his handicap from the start of the season (20.0 to 20.5). Which means he's in a great position to defend his title in the Summer.

A lot could be said about all the other guys who "could've" won the season. I firmly believe Topor had it locked up if he didn't parkour his knee into dust. He only played the first three events, and still beat 14 guys in the standings. Gary, Dan, and Brendan could have made it interesting if they attended both events at Silverthorn and Bloomingdale  — two rounds where Geoff shot +3 (net) and somehow earned 683 points. Casey and Chandler would have brought 10 potential Members into the mathematical mix on Sunday if they both didn't go into the water on 17 at Bloomingdale.

That's a lot of meaningless coulda, woulda, and shouldas. Geoff showed up... played how he typically plays... and won the damn thing.

I didn't mention Dave above, because he had a respectable season, and greatly benefited from difficult courses and conditions.

Back to Geoff... the narrative that he never improves is incorrect, based on his historical scoring average per season:

Looks like improvement to me, albeit slow and steady.

So congrats to Geoff on his second Championship in Club History.

2024 Spring FBGC Champion

Would not recommend.

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Few notes from yesterday:

• Brendan, Casey, and Gary all had nines without anything worse than a bogey. This helped lead to an impressive 3-way tie at -4 (net). Granted, Brendan ejected on 18... Casey missed a short putt on 18... and Gary seemingly played for the tie on the final hole.
  
• Gary ended a record streak of 70 events without a victory.
• We thought JW's previous record of 61 was unbreakable. All eyes now shift to Crum.
  
• Current streaks without a victory:
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• 10 month's ago our consensuses about Feather Sound was it's great, but probably $20-$30 too expensive at $134. Yesterday, it felt like a deal at the same price.
• We set a record for cost per round, at $74 for the season.
• In 2019 Spring, it was $47 per round. We played three of the same courses (Hernando Oaks, Temple Terrace, and Bloomingdale). But we also played Southern Hills, Grasslands, Scepter, and University Park! Unbelievable.
• Thanks to JW for organizing. I wish it wasn't such a pain in the ass to get six groups out there.

We start back up May 19th, the weekend between Mother's Day and Memorial Day. I'll get the schedule and RSVP link working soon. 

Check back for some outing opportunities. I'll probably be touring a few shit-holes to see if anything is of decent value. Let me know if you're interested in seeing what else is out there.

Great season, everyone!

FBGC Masters - Spring 2024 Preview

10:20am at Feather Sound. We're still working out the pairings based on all the FS Members we need, so everyone should be there ready to go by 10:20. Don't come rolling in at 10:50 because you *think* you have a late tee time. They have a great practice facility so you might as well arrive early.

 

Everyone owes JW $134 for the round (he has to put it all on his account). Be sure to pay him no later than tee time Sunday morning.

We're also attempting to craft groups to be the least embarrassing for the FS Members hosting us. Which means some of you might need to play at a normal pace, instead of your typical antics. Get off your phones, be ready to play, read your putts when it isn't your turn, and if you're driving a cart... you're in charge of keeping you and your cartner moving (ie: drop them off at their ball).

Feather has a lot of teeing options. Last time we set the "Feather" (which is a combo) as the base tees. I'm fine doing that again, based on the scores that were posted last year.

I've preemptively also moved the following people back one set to "Member" tees (6,575): JW, Dan, Melberg, Adam, Crum.

 

The Set-Up Committee is also going to allow the 55/25 to play the "Founders" tees (5,783). Send me a message if you're in that club and want to move up.

If anyone else wants to move, let me know sooner than later.

Skins Game - Spring 2024 Recap

Geoff has been telling us for weeks that he's the man to beat. Nobody listened. We had good reason not to:

• He's always overly confident on the golf course.
  
• He's historically a late-round choker (as is the case with a lot of us). 
• He's an Original Member and yet only has one season Championship (which totally counts... don't listen to the "Modern Era" conspiracy theorists who also think we didn't land on the moon).
• Since his Championship in Spring of 2014, I can't remember a time he was mathematically in the mix for the final event.

But we were all wrong... too quick to crown Dave as a back-to-back Champion. In the 7 tournaments before this past Sunday, Geoff has gone: 17th, 5th, 3rd, 2nd, 3rd, 2nd, 2nd! If you've played with him, you might have noticed his driver has become a weapon... decent distance and always in play.

This has led to him to score big points on very difficult days. His handicap didn't even take the 2nd place finishes at Lexington Oaks and Silverthorn. It barely took the victory yesterday at Bloomingdale. Geoff's handicap is 0.3 higher than it was at the start of the season!

I don't see a path to victory for Dave next week at Feather Sound... needing to outright win the tournament and have Geoff place 4th or lower. It's also not that daunting of a track, which is good since we need a break from getting our brains bashed in!

Bloomingdale would have been decent if not for the inexcusable pace of play, caused by bad management. But the cold front that began to move in kicked up the wind, and ejected all players with a realistic chance to catch Geoff.

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Dave made a max 10 on the 5th hole on Sunday. The last time he made a max score was on the par-5 14th at Plantation Palms — one of the most difficult holes on TOUR — back in February of 2023.

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JW is getting us out at Feather Sound this Sunday, starting at 10:20am ($125 plus tax). They're requiring him to have one Feather member per group, so pairings probably won't be set until later this week as he figures out how to handle that. More on this later... but update your RSVP now so he can provide our names to the club.

Spring 2024 - Skins Strokes

Strokes for tomorrow for group-specific Skins Game:

Group A

Dave - 0

Melberg - 2

Faz - 5

Group B

Chandler - 0

Buchert - 1

Casey - 2

Brendan - 2

Group C

Troy - 0

Crum - 1

Reid - 1

Group D

Billy - 0

Gary - 0

Geoff - 2

Gorecki - 7

Bloomingdale Intel

JW reports there are some bare spots… but in general, conditions are much better than Silverthorn and Temple Terrace. 

John wants to remind Group A that if they see some bullshit tee setups (no grass etc)… feel free to move the markers to a better section before teeing off. We might as well do the courses work for them. 

Skins Game - Spring 2024

We're at Bloomingdale this week for the first time in 5 years. I haven't been there since then. Reviews online are it's "decent," so don't expect to be blown away by conditions.

They punched the greens last Monday, so it'll be 2 weeks recovered and should be ok.

Since it's brutally slow out there (7 minute tee times), we're going out at 9am in hopes to have a decent pace.

Scorecard is here. Everyone is on WHITE unless they ask to move back, which might change what group you're in.

We're one person away from dropping down to 4 groups... so if you're going to bail... do it now.

Long drive on #4.

Shrink the Game Index

Somebody come up with a better title for this.

I always find myself checking a handful of courses — ones that we've historically considered to have top-notch conditions and for the most part good layouts. 

 

And when I see current rack rates, I book us at some much shittier course. 

 

So to eliminate all the constant "what about..." questions I get each week... I've added a space on the bottom right of the blog that lists Sunday morning rack rates of select courses. Let me know if there's one you think should be included on the list.

At some point paying $150 per round is going to be a deal. But we need to update our expectations of what "good" courses charge.

Jamaican Open - Spring 2024 Recap

Dan played a near flawless round on Sunday, shooting a new course record 78 (gross), with only one double-bogey on the day. There were a lot of guys near the lead at the turn, but Silverthorn ultimately ejected everyone except Dan and Dave on the back nine.

 

With his first ever Jamaican Open victory, Dan now finds himself in contention for his first ever DPT Cup. Depending how he plays in two weeks, it might also be the first time Dan's been mathematically in the mix. Exciting to see a near Original Member potentially etch his name in the annals of history.

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Conditions were pretty bad. Greens were fine... I'll even say "good." Despite being slow they rolled better than a lot of place we've seen. But the "rough" and bunkers were atrocious. Even a handful of fairways were just rock-solid hardpan dirt.

I was glad to hear (and see) so many people embrace the suck. Lots of talk about putters and mid-irons used around the greens... and even putters out of bunkers resulting in sandies! You might want to think about using the same tactics on well-conditioned courses too (if we every play one of those again). Creativity leads to lower scores.

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Miscellaneous things from the day:

• It was a slow-ish round... about 4:20 from my calculation. Posted sign at the course said pace should be 4 hours. Guy inside said it should be 4:15. None of that matters. Pace of play should be one thing only: keep up with the group in front of you. All of our groups waited on 18 tee so I'd say we did our job. Congrats everyone, there will not be a Group Z next event.
• Going off last ironically helped Dave, since he knew he needed a birdie to get into 2nd place. But knowing and achieving are two different things... so you gotta give him credit for making it happen.
  
• Dave did however add "boorish behaviour" [sic] to his bag of tricks this season, rudely (and loudly) pulling up to the 17th tee box while Group C was teeing off. Ho was driving so he's also to blame. Please be mindful of groups in-front of you during slow days. Hang back unless you know people aren't in the process of playing.
• We also had too much noise/talking on the 1st tee when Group A was finally allowed to start. Don't make us add "self-awareness" to our Reeducation Program.
• There is a very real possibility Dave wins the season without a victory. Darren, Chandler, and Dave all won previous seasons with only one victory.
  
• A bunch of people asked about our WD policy, which was implemented in our Fall 2020 Board Meeting:
• If the WD is official (as JW did Week 2), then it's treated as if the Member never showed up. There's also a 1 net stroke per hole penalty added to current net score for pitchers owed calculation. I personally don't think this penalty is severe enough, and said so on the record at the time... but that's what the Board approved.
  
• If there's only a few holes remaining and a player "quits" (as JW did yesterday on 18 tee), we can just max them out with +5 (gross) per hole. I suppose it's really up to the player on how they want it counted.
  
• Since JW's early exit isn't considered an official WD, our count remains at 8:
• Darren - Summer 2014 Week 9
  
• Geoff - Summer 2016 Week 6
  
• Gorecki - Summer 2016 Week 6
  
• JW - Summer 2019 Week 9
  
• Reid - Spring 2020 Week 4
  
• Ho - Summer 2020 Week 8
• JW - Spring 2021 Week 9
  
• JW - Spring 2024 Week 2

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We're off this week for the Masters. Enjoy if you're watching... or have fun with the family if you aren't. Ho says he has a handful of tee times around 7:30am at Lake Jovita on Sunday if you're interested. If you want to get together to watch golf that afternoon... shoot me a text.

See you in two weeks at a course TBD.

Jamaican Open - Spring 2024 Preview

Long drive on #7

Reservation reduced to 16 players

 

9:40am tee time this week. We've had a bunch of you change your status to OUT... so I might drop us down to 16, once Gary makes his absence official. 

Let's do long drive on #18.

Dave is planning a practice round on Friday at 2:30pm. There's a couple of spots open if you'd like to join. 

 

Recent reviews say the course is decent... however most are commenting how it's just "much better than last year." That doesn't give me much hope for conditions, but that's the unfortunate reality we live in.

 

I'll update with any other course info after the practice round.

See you Sunday.