Golf Sim Clubhouse Forum

The Ballantines Championship has concluded. This was a strange tournament for me and the computer AI. I shot 3 over 75 in round 1. I was playing well until I hit the back 9. I was terrible from the tee on almost every hole on the back 9. I scrambled and made a few amazing recoveries but its just to difficult a course to be scrambling on as many holes as I was and it cost me. Also as Indy says "The kiss of death" for the AI players who are paired with you wasn't their as it usually is. Jim Furyk played with me in round 1 and shot -4 (68) with a bogey on 18. Also the AI thought this course is tough. The leaders were at -5 after round 1 so I fill I still have a decent chance of making the 1st cut.
I knew I had to shoot 1 or 2 under probably to make the cut. I got off to a good start in round 2. I was -2 thru the first 5 holes ( +1 for the tourny ) then I bogey 6 and double bogey the par 5 7th after hitting and incredibly terrible 2nd shot into the creek (WTF) happened. Anyhow I get to the par 5 16th and I'm 1 over for my round (+4) for the tourny and I take a look at the leaderboard and the leader is at -7. Granted their was a few that had more holes left to play then me but many had completed their rounds. I think I still have a chance to make the cut if I shoot under par the final 3 holes. I hit a so so drive into the light rough on the right. I can't go for the green but I can go for the 2nd fairway over the ocean because you usually get a flier out of the 1st rough. I pull my 3 wood the wind is helping and I hit it. Its a solid hit thats easily going to clear the ocean hazard but to my horror it starts going further right then I anticipated and hits the rocks and in the ocean it goes. TOURNAMENT OVER. I proceed to do my Tin Cup impersonation and hit 2 more in the water and get a 10 on the hole. I shot a 78 and finish at +9. As it turns out the leader was at -9 after round 2 so it probably would'nt have made a difference.
Strange things continue as the leaderboard is jammed pack after round 4. Bill Hass & Paul Casey are tied at -12, 4 are tied for 2nd at -11 & 11 players finish 2 shots back at -10. Bill Hass ends up beating Paul Casey in the playoff to earn the 10 points for 1st place. With this win and a tie for 2nd at the Masters Bill Hass has moved into the thick of things for the point chase.
Next up The Players Championship. As you all know this is an elite tournament. I let everyone in this tournament and there's 3 cuts because of this. I will be playing on the new version by Dale Somerfelt. I have only checked out this new version slightly when it was first released so I'm looking forward to see how it really plays.

Indy, Steve, Adam & Jax

Could you guys post your top 5 money winners thus far? Where are each of you in regards to the top spot? It seems like Mickelson, Furyk, Stricker are struggling and Casey is really hot thus far. Following this post with interest - a post now and then about the top 5 would add to the excitement

Sandwedge ! I'll be posting an update on points leaders and money leaders after next weeks The Players Championship Tournament at TPC Sawgrass. I can tell you that most of the real worlds top 10 (Woods, Mickelson, Kaymer, Westwood) are off to slow starts. A long way to go before the season ending World Championship Tournament. I still have to pick two courses to host that event for this season.

I stopped playing for a while, I'm still in the middle of the Mayakoba. Just haven't had enough interest lately.

Top 5 money leaders
1. Matt Kuchar
2. Robert Allenby
3. Troy Merritt
4. Dustin Johnson
5. Spencer Levin

I'm 111th on the list, only making 2 cuts so far with a total of $68,543

My top 5 through 10 events (Doral; Innisbrook is still in progress):
1. Paul Casey $3,833,466 (2 wins)
2. Joe Durant $2,154,070 (1 win)
3. Ryuji Imada $1,984,367 (1 win)
4. Retief Goosen ($1,971,133) (no wins, 2d place in matchplay event)
5. Charles Howell III $1,908,925 (1 win)
7. Me: $1,741,657 (1 win)

Adam! I know how you feel. Last season was my worst BY FAR. I missed cuts at least 75% of the time. It was mainly because I had'nt played much in the previous months prior to starting that season. Also a new mouse and new pad made it fill a little different on my tru swing. I also had to adjust my mouse pointer speed. I'm playing better now but still haven't found that magic that I had 2 seasons ago. If you stop for long your game won't get better. You need to grind it out tell you figure things out.

Well I pulled off my second tourney win at Innisbrook. It was a tough contest despite the final score. I bogied #10 dropping me back to within 2 of Joe Durant who was red hot until the last 4 holes when he only managed pars. I birdied 4 in a row and ended up winning by 5 strokes. Unfortunately for the kiss of death I played with Phil and Jim Furyk the 3rd round, which just killed both of them. Innisbrook is a tough course, but I just played conservative after the first round (-4 with 3 bogies) and took my birds when I could get them. The Transition Championship top 10:
1. Me! -26
2. Joe Durant -21
3. Carl Petterson -19
T4. Bryce Molder, Bubba Watson -18
T6. Charley Hoffman, Charlie Wi, Brendon de Jonge -17
T9. Greg Chalmers, Angel Cabrera -16

For the media, Tiger Woods had his best finish so far this year, T11 -15. He said things are coming together and he's looking forward to Bay and Faith Hill next week.

Bay and Faith Hill good one. Nice shooting their Indy. Minus 26 is good on any course let alone The Copperhead course at Innsbrook. Hope you have better luck then I had at Bay Hill. I had Moist greens and it was like putting on shag carpeting. Also beware of hitting it short by a half to full club.

It's been a while since I played Bay Hill, but I remember the flopped (ie, failed) shots from the "light" rough and the wet concrete putts. I'll be using dry/very dry greens most likely. Doral's greens were very slow on moist also. A couple of things that helped at Copperhead:
1. I had a "great caddy." If I got into the deep stuff and he said use a 3i, I used it and hit close to 100%; the guy was right on 95% of the time.
2. Keep the ball low. Most of my bogies (3 on round 1; then 0, 0, 2) came from overhitting. The greens putted very true uphill or level, but broke less than I expected going downhill. Every one of my bogies was a tap in. A lot of my birds were 10-20 foot putts.

My top 5 through 13 events:
1. Paul Casey 3035674
2. Justin Rose 2985308
3. Matt Kuchar 2984289
4. Kevin Na 2431291 (made every cut)
5. Fredrick Jacobson 2141410

me...8th! I've only made 7 cuts on 13 events but one key win gives me overall earnings of 1897365. My last 3 made cuts I finished T45, T40, 55. Not so good.