Season Play Results

[JaxDuffer]

@Indy - believe me, I am editing the course conditions. I would stand no chance unless things were at the simplest of settings. I decided, through thick and thin, that I would keep the pros where they were at. if I only make a few cuts and make some money then so be it. I will probably dumb them down after this tour. The thing is that, I am not a re-creator so my driving distance is punished next to theirs and there is no way of making that up so I figure dropping their stats a little simply levels the playing field.

I find that the 50s & 60s players file is the most fair. Typically, for a round, you have people at -7 all the way to +7 which seems about right.

I appreciate the work you did in making the file and you did nothing wrong, just this game came from a time when there weren't so many guys driving 320+.

[Indy Anna Jones]

Mmm, I certainly understand what you're saying about driving distance. IIRC, I set 12 pros at 300 yards (maximum for this game) which actually took between 1 and 15 yards off their average. I'm not a recree either; my average is 276.7 (115 of 122) but my accuracy is 81.9 and putts (I don't know if it calculates putts/GIR or just total avg. putts) is 1.42. Playing regularly with a recree long hitter (Jack, The Wizard) I've learned it's the approach shot that matters the most and frankly my game has fallen apart there since Pebble a couple of weeks ago. Lol, it's all in the wrist.
****
I've completed the Mayakoba; since only 75 golfers played there was no cut, so now all my players have completed at least 2 events (of 8.) I played it straight through on the computer with no cameras so it took all of maybe 10 minutes to complete. Bo Van Pelt (-19) got his first win of the season (no multi-winners yet and none of the top 32 money winners participated.) The rest of the top 10:
2. K. J. Choi -18
3. Chad Collins -17
T4. Garrett Willis, Josh Teater -16
T6. Carl Petterson, Jeff Maggert -15
T8. Ben Curtis, Kevin Stadler, Vaughn Taylor -14
****
Update the WGC-Match Play Championship. My event concluded as follows:
Jones/Hogan bracket: #36 Joe Durant beat #28 Bubba Watson 3&1
Player/Snead bracket: #22 Retief Goosen beat #15 Pat Perez 1 Up

Championship round (at Arcadia Bluffs GC) #36 Durant beat #22 Goosen 1 up. It was a good match (except for the persistent poor putting.) Goosen won the first two holes; Durant brought the match back to even on #7, went ahead by 3 on #11 and was dormie after 15. Goosen won 16 and 17, but a par-par on 18 gained the 1 up victory for Durant. (Just for perspective, in the real event the #36 spot is held by Jones Div. [top flight] #9 Anthony Kim.)

[SteveHorn]

Well another Masters has come and gone on my World Tour. After a non eventful 1st round of
-2 ( 70 ) 4 birdies & 2 bogeys on L,D,G I was filling pretty good. I choose to play this Masters on the 2001 version by McHale so shooting 70 with dry greens and gusty winds seemed like a good start to the tourny. Then round 2 came in to kick me in the rear in what is probably the weirdest round I can remember having. Conditions for round 2 L,D.S and I start the round by shooting a -3 front 9 puting me in the hunt at -5 for 27 holes played. Then everything and anything that could go wrong did.
#10 BOGEY
#11 BOGEY
# 12 DOUBLE BOGEY I hit a lofted 7 iron that landed between the green and water and rolled back into the pond
#13 DOUBLE BOGEY A crappy tee shot, I'm in the bunker over the green in 3 and a downhill shot out of the sand that comes out a little hotter then expected and rolls down the slope and into the creek.
#14 BOGEY
#15 EAGLE ( Chip in from 40 ft )
# 16 BOGEY Hit tee shot to within 17 ft, chiped to 2' and missed the 2 footer with one of those mushy putts that happen from time to time.
#17 BOGEY
#18 BOGEY
The greens weren't the reason I had so much trouble although I kept finding myself with difficult par saves. Their was no one thing that kept happening it was all sorts of things. Bad tee shot , or a bad approach or whatever it was like the golfing gods were against me.33 on the front 44 on the back for 77 and another missed cut at the Masters.
The winner was one of the young guns on tour. Probably not who you might think. The young 24 year old Aussie Jason Day has won with a -17 beating Jim Furyk and Bill Haas by 1 stroke
Next up the Maybank Maylaysian Open. I choose Whitsunday Island to host this event. Another 1st time tourny course.

[Indy Anna Jones]

Wow Steve, that stinks (I mean that it happened! ). Been there done that on the back 9 more than once. I've made the cut more than once but never finished in the T10. Just a question, why do you prefer McHale's Augusta over Polslads?

Just a comment on AI players. I continue to be terribly disappointed with "live" players poor putting. I used to "season" players by having them play live rounds and generally that got the "yips" on short putts out of the way. But throughout the match play event it remained a problem. I'm sure that had I "refereed" the event and conceded anything inside 6' (I did use 36" gimmees) probably 1/3 of the rounds would have had different results. I always feel sorry for the guys who play the first and second round with me; probably 90% of them miss the cut because of the horrible short putting. Said it before, say it again, putting and chipping (can't recall ever seeing a chip in either) plus the "drop" are the only 3 areas the Headgate designer team really fell short with in PGA2K/99... which means it's still an incredibly good design.

[SteveHorn]

Judy. The AI does stink at times for no reason. I also have NEVER seen a AI player make a chip in from any distance. I have chipped in Hundreds of times and they never have. In one recent round the AI player 10 putted from about 15 ft on a sloped putt but it wasn't that severe.
As far as McHales version of Augusta over Davids, I guess I've just fallen in love with that version over the years mostly. I have many of Davids courses and I think he did a fine job on Augusta but the closing holes 16 thru 18 are just a little off mostly 18. 18 is much steeper of an uphill hole then what David made but its still a fine version that most players perfer.

[JaxDuffer]

I put 4 incredible rounds together and won the Honda Classic at Doral. Amazingly, it put me 3rd on the money list. I am dead last in driving distance and scrambling but first in driving accuracy and putting. I have only made the cut in 3 out of I think 7 tourneys so far but am 3rd in money thanks to the win. Should be an interesting season.

[Indy Anna Jones]

It's a pretty unrealistic thing to get excited about, but dang it feels good to win one of these tourneys, doesn't it. Congrats to you! I'm still looking for my first major; I came close at Augusta a few years ago then an AI went nuts on the back 9 and birdied 6 of 9 holes and I lost by 2 strokes. IIRC it was Duval.

[SteveHorn]

Nice going Jax. Keep it up and keep us informed.

OK! I'm about 30% thru my season and have 1 major complete so lets take a look at some stats

PGA WORLD TOUR POINTS LIST

STANDARD TOURNAMERNT POINTS
WINNER = 10 POINTS
2ND PLACE & TIES = 7 POINTS
3RD PLACE & TIES = 5 POINTS
4TH PLACE & TIES = 3 POINTS
5th THRU 7TH PLACE & TIES = 2 POINTS
8TH THRU 10TH PLACE & TIES = 1POINT

ELITE TOURNAMENT POINTS
WINNER = 17 POINTS
2ND PLACE & TIES = 12 POINTS
3RD PLACE & TIES = 10 POINTS
4TH PLACE 7 TIES = 8 POINTS
5TH PLACE & TIES = 7 POINTS
6TH PLACE & TIES = 6 POINTS
7TH PLACE & TIES = 5 POINTS
8TH PLACE & TIES = 4 POINTS
9TH PLACE & TIES = 3 POINTS
10TH PLACE & TIE = 2 POINT

MAJOR TOURNAMENT POINTS
WINNER = 24 POINTS
2ND PLACE & TIES = 16 POINTS
3RD PLACE & TIES = 12 POINTS
4TH PLACE & TIES = 10 POINTS
5TH PLACE & TIES = 8 POINTS
6TH PLACE & TIES = 7 POINTS
7TH PLACE & TIES = 6 POINTS
8TH PLACE & TIES = 5 POINTS
9TH PLACE & TIES = 4 POINTS
10TH PLACE & TIES = 3 POINTS

POINTS & MONEY LEADERBOARD THRU 02-27-11 MASTERS
TOP 20 IN POINTS MAKE SEASON ENDING WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP
NAME TOTAL POINTS NAME DOLLARS WON
JASON DAY 39 JASON DAY $3,059,047
MATT KUCHAR 33 STEVE HORN $2,794,176
EARL EDWARDS 33 MATT KUCHAR $1,824,511
JIM FURYK 27 RORY MCEILROY $1.725,674
STEVE HORN 27 EARL EDWARDS $1,656,688
BILL HAAS 24 EDOARDO MOLINARI $1,579,953
LEE WESTWOOD 22 ALVARO QUIROS $1,570,322
DUSTIN JOHNSON 22 RYAN PALMER $1,551,576
STEVE STRICKER 20 JIM FURYK $1,508,500
STEVE GUEST 19 STEVE STRICKER $1,496,095
5 TIED AT 17

WGC ACCENTURE MATCH PLAY TOURNAMENT INFO
MUST REACH BRACKET FINALS FOR WORLD TOUR POINTS
1ST PLACE = 17 POINTS & $1,400,000
2ND PLACE =12 POINTS & $ 900,000
3RD PLACE = 10 POINTS & $ 600,000
4TH PLACE = 8 POINTS & $ 400,000
ALL BRACKET FINALIST LOSERS RECEIVE 7 POINTS AND $ 200,000 EA.
3RD ROUND LOSERS RECEIVE $ 150,000 EA.
2ND ROUND LOSERS RECEIVE $ 100,000 EA.
1ST ROUND LOSERS RECEIVE $ 75,000 EA

[Indy Anna Jones]

Wow you're a lot more liberal with your "loser" purses than me. 1st round losers got $12,000; they stunk, why reward them? 2d round got $48,000 (12+36k). (This is about the equivalent of a 21st place finisher in a standard tourney.) And so on. Winning purse was 1.4M+change and second was $1M+. I didn't do a consolation round but 3rd and 4th made $600K each.

I think I'm going to use your points tables. There's another WGC event in August plus the championships in September that I hadn't given much thought to. I think I'm also going to conclude the season with another match play event since 7 events doesn't give a very good picture of the top dogs really.

[SteveHorn]

Judy! My World Tour is more like a marathon then a race to a playoff where the top 125 make it. The September playoff tournaments are treated in the same manner as all the others except some may or maynot be considered elite. I also include the fall series and then the regular tour championship is the week before my World Championship event which is always played on 2 courses. The Tour Championship is the last chance for the field of a max of 40 to make a move to reach the World Championship.