Rapture - Primer #1

You should all know the pairings by now, but for the lazy ones, head to the Rapture page on this blog to see the match-ups in the results link.

As always, everyone will be on the same tees for this event.

The FBGC Course Setup Committee (FBGCCSC) wants to remind you that this is an exhibition, and the goal is to maximize the number of holes won with net eagles and birdies. Whether you know it or not... all decisions are made for your enjoyment. Silence is acceptance. Fight it if you like it.

All that being said... I think these courses are going to play "long" and difficult. Buckle up, buckaroos.

The Courses

Day 1 (Friday, Sept 25th) - Four Ball - Celebration Golf Club

$52+ tax - 10:06am start

It's tight, a little tricked up, but can produce some low rounds. Lots of water and woods are in play. Some forced carry, forced lay-ups, and narrow chutes to contend with.

Handicaps are 80% allowance.

Day 2 (Saturday, Sept 26th) - Chapman - Hawk's Landing

$65+ tax - 9:33am start

Everyone tees off. Everyone hits their partner's ball. Select the best ball from there and play alternate shot. I said from the beginning this format was too difficult for you people. Every year someone proves me correct.

I've never been to Hawk's Landing. The course has been closed all summer, and scheduled to re-open right before we arrive. The final hole has been changed from a par 5 to an island par 3. The FSGA probably won't have it re-rated, so I'm going to have to figure something out based on their supplemental yardage grids. All of your apps and probably the lead board (GolfGameBook) will be incorrect.

It looks pretty open off the tee. And should be in perfect shape.

Handicaps are 60% / 40% allowance for the lowest / highest handicaps on each team.

Day 3 (Sunday, Sept 27th) - Singles - Shingle Creek

$59+ tax - 9:06am start

Since I played it in 2015, four holes and all the greens have been completely redesigned. I remember it being difficult. Greens were large with multiple tiers. It's has a good mix of short and long holes.

Handicaps are 80% allowance.

The Houses

We're staying in the Windsor Palms gated community in Kissimmee. Each team will have a house with a pool. They're only a few hundred feet apart, but considering this whole COVID thing is still going on... we probably shouldn't all congregate at the same time.

You've paid for 3 nights. Check-in on Thursday is after 4pm. Everyone should carpool. I'll email/text specific instructions when I get them. I also might reserve us a round at Disney's mini-golf course on Friday night.

Payments

You've already paid for housing and gambling. You only owe for the golf each day. Each full point you earn for your team will get you $20. Winning the Rapture will get you a bonus of $60.

Historical Win Percentage

#ContentSeason continues, as we look at more stats in to drive engagement. Not John's pending engagement... just people debating things.

Below is a list of everyone's current Index, and career winning percentage. Granted, not everyone won with these current indexes. They bounce around. But we all know who the "skillful" players are. Comment with your observations:

I'll start:

• Katie won 7 times in her first 21 events. She has zero wins in her next 21 events. Her early dominance was due to quick improvement under the old, and less penal, handicap system (mostly short game). Those days seem over.
• Darren is the ultimate sandbagger. I propose we change his nickname from "Baron" to "Mr. Sandman."
• Chandler's handicap yo-yos from 8 to 12. Wins are in spurts, and then it's hibernation time. Recently, his seven most recent rounds aren't being used by the Index calculation...
  
• Gorecki earned 33% of his TOTAL victories this past season. Definitely due to mental improvement and wide fairways.
• Casey, Troy, and Danny are only one victory away from getting their win % to double-digits.
• Buchert doesn't play enough to win a Cup — but his win % is surprising. I see why he's pushing for low-handicap relief policies.
  
• Ho is either a reverse-sandbagger, or gets really nervous around us. Or both.
  
• Brendan and JW win too much. We should decrease the handicap allowance! </sarcasm>
  
• Melberg has only played in 8 events, so I left him off this list. 
• Overall, this looks like a good spread of "skill." The three "best" golfers on the list (Dave, Chandler, Faz) are all in the top half.

A Good Round Spoiled

There was some comments about Melberg's impressive 75 (gross) on Sunday, and him finishing 2nd place. It's easy to believe that low handicaps can't win on TOUR, but is that really the case?

Maybe.

Dan, Buffalo Ben, and Greg didn't play regularly enough during their short Club membership, so I'm not sure we can look to their records.

In the seasons where Dave played in at least 6 events, he finished: 5th, 10th, 9th, 4th, 12th, 4th, 2nd, 2nd, 6th, 8th. That's 50% in the top 5 final standings, and three (3) of those he missed winning the season by less than 500 points.

In Club history, we've had 21 rounds recorded of +4 (gross) or better. Of those, 12 (57%) won the event. Four of them finished 2nd, and five of them were 3rd or worse:

What sticks out to me is the list of courses where this has happened. Westchase is difficult, and Dave barely lost to a couple of great rounds by Adam and Moostie. Dave's runner-up at Hernando Oaks (which can be difficult) was to Darren who shot 82 (gross). Nobody is ever going to beat that.

Melberg finishing 8th at The Groves is insane (Dave won that round at +1 gross).

The ChampionsGate CC tournament is infamous for many reasons. We haven't played that course since, and we probably should. It'll just get Tall Mike one step closer to his 5th Cup.

End of Season Commentary – The Good

This post is part one of three in a story called The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly. Part one focuses on the players that finished in the top eight this season. Scroll down to the previous post to see the stats I post every season.

 

Mike

Became the first four time league champ by tying for the most wins (3), earning the most points per event (202.278), and by having the lowest net scoring average (+1). While his season winning performance seemed like it came out of nowhere, he won in week two and that put him in the number one spot in the standings. From that point on, he was never worse than third due to playing in every event and only being blanked in the points once. His percentage of making par or better compared to last season improved from 33.333% to 41.975%. His focus (like pretty much all of us) should be on reducing the frequency of making double or worse. He made bogey at the same rate as he made double or worse, 29.012% of the time. Congrats on cup number four Mike!

 

Gorecki

Without taking the time to go back and look, this has to be the closest he has ever come to winning the coveted cup. Three of his ten career wins came this season, which improved his winning percentage to 10.2%, which is eleventh best of active league members. He played in every event and was only blanked once. He started the season with a win and never dropped below third in the standings, holding the number one spot for six of the nine (noice) weeks. Earlier in the season, his bogey percentage was way higher than last season but his performance over the last three weeks brought the numbers down, but still better. He had the sixth highest bogey percentage (40.123%) this season, which was up from 34.259% last season. If he finds a way to eliminate just a handful of blowups each round, he will definitely win a cup since bogey can be net birdie for him on some holes and is never worse than net par. If I was his mental coach, I’d encourage him to treat every course as a par 90.

 

Casey

Finished third in both overall standings and points per event (169.167). It would have been interesting to see what impact he could have had on the cup if he played in more than six events. Also, if anyone needs $40, Casey is looking to donate his unused entry fees for his three missed events. He improved his gross scoring average by five shots since last season, +22.111 to +17.167, which also resulted in a four stroke improvement for his net scoring average from +8.667 to +4.5. Not surprisingly, his frequency of making double or worse improved from 33.951% to 23.148%. Personally, I’d recommend he keeps his $40 for the campaign he’s clearly starting to run for the board next election.

 

Geoff

Poor guy has been coming up short (literally and figuratively) his entire life. I’m the only one that can make that joke in this cancel culture. He had a win (four way tie), a tie for second, and a solo third in an event where Chandler and Gorecki tied for the win. A solid season overall with some close calls and back nine collapses but he always takes it in little strides. He had a great opportunity to destroy his career low gross round in relation to par at The Groves but alas, was only able to tie it with +17. His other +17 round is from the very first season in the summer of 2012 at Countryway. You know what they say, short courses for short horses. Man, short jokes are great!

 

Dave

I was sick of Dave being the best golfer in the league so I recruited Chris Melberg, an actual guest of a Chris also named Chris that isn’t Chris Guest. With Dave’s handicap he’s forced to go low every week in order to have a chance at winning, which he was able to do once this season. His win at The Groves was his first in fifteen events played and it took his career best gross round of +1 to secure the W. Even with the third best gross scoring average (+11.125) and second best net scoring average (+1.875) he was only able to earn 115.313 points per event, which is Kuchar-esque. In other words, it’s very solid play but impossible to win it all unless you get up in the low 200s per event. His average finish was 6^th place and was one of only tree members to not buy a pitcher this season, Troy and Brian being the other two.

 

Chandler

He finished sixth in the overall standings for the second year in a row. Another victim of playing too much good golf outside of league play. He had the second lowest gross scoring average (+11.111), the best back nine average (+4.778), second best par or better percentage (50.617%), and the lowest frequency of making double or worse (13.580%), which was only 22 out of 162 holes with 16 of those being doubles. He also had the best par 4 scoring average (4.648) and was second best on par 5s (5.606), probably because he’s so long off the tee now. If only all of us could install hitting bays in our guest rooms to practice the one plane swing a la Thicc Boy.

 

JW

He got his first win in fifteen events by posting his lowest career gross score of 84. A round of +12 is impressive for nearly all of us. It’s especially impressive for a course handicap of 20. But, it’s one of the best and worst +12s of all time seeing as how he was even par on the front! All kidding aside, really awesome for him to shoot 36, always fun seeing people post personal bests of any kind. In fairly typical JW style, the season was a bit of a roller coaster. The same guy that won with a round of -8 net also posted rounds of +12, +17, and +22 – the ol’ double pitcher! Not many people analyze their own game and their own stats more than JW so he doesn’t need me to tell him that simply reducing the frequency of doubles or worse (40.741%) by say 10% and turning them into bogies would go a long way in improving his chances of taking home a cup.

 

Reid

A pretty middle of the road season for Reid in almost all categories. He came in second by one shot at the Match Play, had three top five finishes, only had to buy one pitcher, and earned a respectable 82.278 points per event. The most exciting part of his season was nearly winning the cup for Gorecki. Most of his stats are about the same as last season except for a nice drop in net scoring average from +7.125 to +4.111. His frequency of making par or better, bogey, and double or worse are split pretty evenly at 37.037%, 32.716%, and 30.247% respectively. He either needs to bump that handicap up or start turning doubles into bogies and bogies into pars if he’s ever going to hold the champs’ dinner at the Jerk Hut. Fun fact, Reid has played in the second most events in league history (141). We all know the schedule maker has played in the most.

End of Season Stats - Summer 2020

Image is best viewed by clicking on it and then you can zoom on your phone.

Highlighted means the player played in less than five events and therefore their stats should be taken with even more of a grain of salt than the others. And in this particular instance, it also means you should stay at least six feet away from them when outdoors and more like twenty when indoors.

Dear Leader EDIT:

Adding a graph of rounds played, bad pitchers, and bad pitchers per round.

We had a Club record 152 rounds this season.

Original author EDIT:

Adding a graph of average rounds played over the last four seasons. Troy's number is skewed by a zero in the Spring of '19 because I don't believe he lived in FL at the time.

I'll get through this... I'll be OK

Well as I cycle through the 7 stages of grief after yesterday's outcome, its going to sting for awhile (Stage: Shock) given how close I was (Stage: Denial) but ultimately the Tall(er) Mike earned it on "Championship Sunday". His back 9 performance was one for the ages including watching him chip in from 50+ yds out for a birdie on the 15th as I get awarded the greenie but gain no traction as I making my late charge (Stage: Anger). I applaud his performance and how he handled the immense pressure, and no flag stick had to suffer his wrath yesterday. Congrats again Mike. 

I'd like to personally thank those individuals that came up to me after the round, at the bar, texted me, etc and expressed your words of encouragement and/or congratulatory remarks on my season performance. That was a true display of your character and sportsmanship and I thank you for that. Oh and also thanks to those checking on my mental health condition as well to make sure no one had to Baker Act me (Stage: Depression). 

So while its tempting to review my season with a "if only" (Stage: Bargaining), I'm going to learn from this overall experience and send out my apologies now as I won't be giving up on this sport and will be returning for at least another season. (Stage: Testing) 

Placing in the Top 5 in 5 of the 9 events, recording only my second sandie ever in my league history, and owing only 1 pitcher this season, I'd say that's quite an improved performance and I'm definitely up for some more golf this winter season. (Stage: Acceptance). 

Thanks and see ya on the links! 

GorecLOVE out.

FBGC Masters - 2020 Recap

I'm still trying to figure out what I witnessed yesterday. The odds of Tall Mike winning the event, and subsequently the season, were insane. Especially after he opened up the round with three straight doubles, falling to DFL on the leader board.

Gorecki also began his round in horrendous fashion — +17 (gross) through the first seven holes. It was so terrible (despite all his strokes) that those of us watching the leader board figured he couldn't control his own destiny. We were wrong, as Gorecki put the wheels back on enough to make it "close."

Reid was going to be Gorecki's savior, officially sending a new member to the Champions Dinner. But he couldn't quite make enough pars on the back nine to pull away, and then he officially ejected on the somewhat easy (and wide) long-drive 17th hole, when he hit his tee shot into a lake that really wasn't in play.

Still, Moostie was barely keeping it together. He got up-and-down for par from off the green on 10 and 11. On 12 he made a 10-foot downhill breaking putt for par that would have rolled 5+ feet past the cup. On 14 he made a terrible double-bogey after a poor drive. And on 15 he chunked his tee shot, only to hole out from 55 yards for birdie. It wasn't a good round by any means, but he was scoring.

This was the 2nd straight year we set a new record for smallest margin of victory on the season. Gorecki lost the Cup by 103 points, which can be sliced up in a few different ways:

• He needed to shoot 3 strokes better yesterday. That would have given him a tie for 3rd, and an additional 112.5 points. Gorecki easily missed three putts under 5-feet. He topped a few approach shots with mid-irons that cost him. And what I personally believe was a round-killing decision: he went with driver on the 160-yard par 3 12th hole. 
• Gorecki has had a lot of success with this out-of-the-box play... but yesterday wasn't the time for it. He pulled his tee-shot so hard into the bushes we thought it was OB. His provisional was popped up to the same bushes. Ultimately we found his first ball, but due to an unplayable lie he ended up with a triple bogey (another short missed putt). He only needed to put an easy swing on a 6-iron to be short of the green and secure a bogey.
• Gorecki lost to Tall Mike earlier in the season at Match Play. This was in essence a 200 point swing. Had they tied, Gorecki would have lost the season by 3 points! Granted... it was a 6&5 beat-down so I'm only bringing this up to emphasize the importance of Match Play.
• Gorecki tied Chandler (hey, that's me!) in a Major at Lakewood National. ONE stroke better for him, or ONE stroke worse for me, and he would have won the season.
• Tall Mike won the first Major at Southern Hills by a stroke over Casey. Had they just tied, Gorecki would have won the season.
• If Tall Mike shot ONE stroke worse at Cheval, Gorecki would have won the season.

I could go on, but obviously every stroke of every round matters. Which is why I yell at certain people for their generous gimmie tendencies.

Anyway, just as a bunch of us have done to Dave over the years, Tall Mike stole the Cup in epic fashion. Two Majors, back-to-back victories, and his final round 83 (gross) was 3rd best in the field. Congrats to Moostie. He's now our second 4-time Champion... and some would say the greatest of all time (so far).

Tall Mike - Summer 2020 Champion

Passing of the Cup between Champions

A BGR "freedom fighter" approves of the winner.

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The Board is going to meet soon to vote on any rule and policy changes. We'll also discuss what to do with the Winter Season, since football is going to be TV only (if it even happens). If you got opinions, I'd suggest making some comments ASAP.

I'll also be switching to Rapture mode, so be on the lookout for many more posts. We did the pairings yesterday, which you all saw, and they look pretty solid. 

FBGC Masters - Venue Change

This season is ending the same way it started... a completely mess. I had to cancel on Big Cypress due to flooding closing a couple of holes.

The Board discussed things and we called a ton of different courses. Most are also washed out and/or can't get us on the course until late in the day. My favorite response was RiverStrand, who said 12:19pm for $74... despite admitting members coming in today were complaining about flooding.

Anyway, we're now booked tomorrow at Esplanade in Lakewood Ranch at 12:52pm. $49 rate plus tax.

CHANGE YOUR RSVP IF THIS CAUSES YOU TO BAIL

At this point, we need to finish the season and all that matters is the two Tall-ish Mikes show up.

See you tomorrow... maybe. 

FBGC Masters - Summer 2020 Preview

Sunday tee time has been moved up to 9:30am. They said we could probably get out earlier.
 

One more event left in this crazy year/season. This is the third time I've attempted to get us on Big Cypress for a Major. And of course, now that we're booked, the middle of the state is getting pounded with rain each day.

If we find it's "cartpath only," we'll be playing "Lift, Clean & Gorecki" rules... just as we do at the soup-bowl that is Grasslands. It's a Lakeland thing, apparently.

Please keep in mind that Dear Leader only controls about 50% of the world around you. He hasn't figured out how to make courses drain better. Or make the management at these courses be more upfront about conditioning. Dear Leader is a simple man. One of the people. He scouts courses, eliminates the ones that nobody should ever see, and then feeds the rest to us on a charcuterie platter. Hopefully the variety is delicious.

Seven Club Members have played Big Cypress, and although most of their "golf memories" are shit, the reviews were positive at the time. This is a Major-worthy venue both in difficulty and with smooth zoysia greens.

The below scorecard is mostly accurate. The ratings/slopes have changed, but you can find those on our event page. Everyone is on the GREEN tees this week (Katie on RED). You are only allowed to move back to BLACK, but I'm not putting anyone back there unless you make a comment or send me a text requesting it.

There are a lot of long forced carries back there through some chutes. And if the fairways are wet, it'll be playing close to an adjusted 7,000 yards. So... you long-dongs are gonna have to request the torture in order to pad your Rapture handicaps.

The leaders go out LAST in this event. Since that's only two relevant guys, I asked each of them to pick someone they wanted in their group. Moostie picked Casey (who was slated to be there anyway), and Gorecki picked Brendan due to his inflammatory op-ed attempting to squash the Resistance. Congrats to those two who get to witness history.

The rest of us will be subjected to the random pairing generator. And hopefully 3 beers deep at the bar before the last group finishes.

See you Sunday. Bring rain boots.

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Buchert asked me about another season if ACC and SEC football were cancelled. After some thought, I've concluded that cancellation isn't even an issue, since they are never going to allow fans at college games.

I'll probably put together a COVD-2020 Season which will start in October. There are a few things the Board needs to discuss in our Winter Meeting beforehand, but we'll figure it out.

Hangover Invitational - Summer 2020 Recap

I don't think I've ever sweat so much on a golf course. And while only part of that was due to the beer and wine from the previous day, most of it was from oppressive heat and offensive course design. Not to say that Cheval "sucks." I don't like it... it's not fun... I don't see why anyone would be a member and want to play there often. But it exists, and since the conditions were decent (when not soggy) we should attempt to conquer it. Every 3-5 years or so.

 

Gorecki locked up a season title by the turn, sitting atop the leader board at -5 (net). Truly an amazing accomplishment. Everyone else was free to go through the motions and attempt to gain some 2021 Rapture points.

And then the back nine happened. Gorecki had back-to-back max holes, firing a 64 (gross) and allowing 1/3rd of the field back into the tournament.

Unfortunately, the final three holes are brutal. The 16th and 17th ejected Brendan. Buchert got kicked in the nuts by those as well as the 18th. And Dave didn't listen to his caddie, resulting in a flight to Ireland after the last (for real... he gone).

We were left with four players who, for the most part, accidentally won the event. Tall Mike had a quad / double finish to fall back into the tie. Geoff doubled the final hole and feels he played it well. Adam skulled a chip on 18 to lose/win with a bogey. And only Darren, who chipped in for birdie on the last green, somewhat chased down the lead. One which he had zero idea was obtainable.

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The train wreck atop the leader board was a "good-case" scenario for Gorecki. Only Tall Mike can overtake him this Sunday, and he must win to do so (no worse than a 2-way tie for first).

If he does win, Gorecki could still take home the Cup with a 3rd place finish.

It's a tall order... and both Mikes are tall. So... should be fun?

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Sunday we're playing at Big Cypress, which is NOT "Grand Cypress" in Orlando (used in the 2016 Rapture).

Big Cypress is a 55+ retirement community called "Cypress Lakes" out in north Lakeland. It's a 1987 Ron Garl design that meanders through a trailer park in a swamp. It's tight, there's lots of water, but the greens were amazing (last December).

It'll be difficult, but hopefully you'll enjoy playing something new to the Club.

Update your RSVP if you plan on skipping. They need our names for the front gate. 

 

Also, I was told we have to double-up carts since they don't have the fleet to handle single riders. When we get there, we can probably steal a couple of single carts for those of you who need them. I'll tell the pro shop we have a few medical professionals and I'm sure it'll be fine.

 

Tee time is 10am, but I'm going to try to get that moved slightly earlier once the guest window opens tomorrow.

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Rapture pairings will allegedly be done after the round... if our Captains show up to whatever bar is selected afterward. I imagine the grill at Big Cypress is closed. That seems to be the trend lately.

RSVPs

We have 4 ???s for the final week... and 4 people who have never updated their status since Week 1, so they have not replied for the rescheduled event. 

Go fix this issue. I got tee times scheduled and I need a better count than 8 unknowns. 

BGR Prescriptions for a Proper and Fair Hangover Invitational

The doctors (not real doctors) are in! The fine gentlemen of the BGR are here to provide FBGC with some much needed leadership in these dire times. Dear Leader claims that none of us will be hungover for play on Sunday, but we at the BGR wholeheartedly deny these claims and know that our fellow club members will adhere to our club's social contract so we can prove that Hangovers Matter. We have used our past observations and proven BGR science to develop a plan for everyone to feel bad by the uncharacteristically late tee time for this event. We'll work our way down the tee sheet. Assume drinks are to be consumed between 9 PM and 1 AM on Saturday night unless otherwise noted.

Group A

Gorecki - 8 TBBC beers of your choice. Wake up early to rake the leaves.

Casey - Have Haven drop by two 6 packs of canned mules, drink them from a table that's 20% higher than anyone else's table around you.

Tall Mike - However many Yuenglings it takes before Vicki notices that you are drinking a lot of beer and says something to you...then four more Yuenglings.

Group B

Irish Dave - 7 Magners on the rocks, White Claws, No potatoes for breakfast.

Chandler - BYOP. All the Port. All the time. You're not done until you're singing Lou Bega songs to Rachael while cuddling with the toilet.

Dub - Show up late and then pretend like you're at Red Dog and buy 2 buckets to "share" and drink all of them as quickly as you can. Night caps of two double vodka sodas because just like on the course you have to make dumb decisions on the back.

Group C

Geoff - 6 fruity vodka drinks and 3 Miller Lites. Throw up on yourself during the last 1/18th of the night..

Ho - Drink a bunch of Molsons while trying not to talk about hockey.

Reid - 8 rum and coconut waters, stay closer to the bar than Dave would be by at least a tee box, sometimes 2.

Faz - 9 old fashioneds. In short glasses.

Group D

Brendan - Fill up the papoose, then empty the papoose.  Just make sure to fill it up again in the morning.

Danny - 4 Hydroxochloroquines and 6 servings of antibodies. Cough all night, make sure it's dry.

Darren - 8 Bud Lights, 2 packs of cigarettes. Quit smoking at 10 PM, start again at 10:15 PM for your second longest streak ever.

Katie - Drink a whiskey drink, then a vodka drink, then a lager drink, then a cider drink, and sing the songs of the 90's devil music times

Group E

Melberg - Whatever everyone else thinks you should drink.

Gary - Coors Light appetizer, hearty red to pair with nachos, and let the old age do the rest.

Buchert - Do what you did at the World Woods house, and ice down two bottles of champagne for the morning.

Adam - see below.