2022 Open Championship

[TheOtherRick]

I am shocked that no one has posted anything about this yet, so i shall break the ice and talk about the 600 pound gorilla in the room. First, let me preface my comments with a question. Is the PGLS Tours class of tournaments supposed to fairly replicate the actual PGA Tour? I had assumed it was, based on the schedule. If the answer to that question is "Yes", then I need to follow with a second question. Is it an actual intended replication or only location based? If it is only location based, then the following rant is probably a waste of time, but I still feel the need to put it out there.

The conditions for this week's Open Championship are, in my opinion, a joke. Not even a good joke, but a bad one. The Old Course at St. Andrews has probably NEVER had a soft fairway or green, unless it is pouring down rain. It has also probably NEVER had a stimp lower than 11, with the same weather proviso. I will say that I have not played many PGLS Tour rounds, simply because of my real life schedule. I just don't have the time to play it as well as the tourneys I enjoy weekly here at PGLS. But still...come on man...9 stimp with soft/soft conditions in round 2 and 10 stimp with Normal/Soft conditions in the final round is just laughable. All that coupled with the fact that not one round was set with windy conditions...only breezy.

Many of the other PGLS Tournaments are set with these cozy conditions, and that is fine. But (again in my opinion) PGLS Tours should be a bit more realistic with regards to mimicking actual PGA Tour conditions. My real life schedule is changing and I was looking forward to actually being a steady participant in the next PGLS Tours season...but if we are not going to try to make that tour more realistic...I might just pass on that.

Rant completed...let the flaming begin...

[Riddler]

I check the weather just before I set the conditions and the wind direction. Two days it showed rain and the weather was cool. Not sure how fairways or greens could be hard if weather is cool, and rain is in the forecast. Weather is not always predictable so can't help it if it changed. I appreciate comments but saying the conditions are a joke is just RUDE! Anytime you would like to take over this thankless job just let me know!

[Riddler]

One other thing. After 2 rounds leader is -13. Out of the first 55 players today only 3 shot over par. I think my conditions were spot on.

[JoeMen]

“I think most of it is see, feel, and try and then you kind of get adjusted,” Scheffler said. “Most of that is because of the green speeds. When we see browned-out greens like they are now in the States, they're usually running like a 13 or 14. Here they're a 10.”

[whattashot]

The wind today in Fife, final round is 12mph. I hit in to 14 mph winds the entire tournament, with one round where every single hole, no matter the course orientation on the earth, the wind was dead straight across at 12-14mph, from both directions, until you swung, and then it was against you, which of course left you 20 yards short on a soft fairway that wouldn't bounce on to the green in a million years. I had 19 birdies and 1 eagle for the tournament. My average putt distance on my first putt on every hole was 37 feet..wind. This is a stat the game does not provide, which is a shame. I'd really like to see just how close those top players are putting from. 37 feet, while hitting 85% GIR!

I think the pin placements were fair. @TheOtherRick, there is no such thing as soft greens in this game. Watch a lot of golf on TV, and even on hard greens they get backspin with 9. 8, 7, 6 irons. This game gives you backspin with the 64W (way too much when you least expect it), the 60W (not consistently), the 52W sometimes, and the PW, most of the time sideways. None of them do if you have a shot from the rough or sand. Interesting how the game says you have a 38% spin loss, and then you get 0. What is that? It should say nothing, because you have 100% loss every time, with rare exceptions from the sand.

[Golferdee]

Anytime you would like to take over this thankless job just let me know!

I really appreciate all the great work that is done giving us these great tournaments to play. And we all play using the same conditions so enjoy and have fun.

[bbbuckshot1]

IMHO, the conditions set up for this tourney very accurately reflected the existing conditions at the Old Course - there was never a day with strong breeze, it rained overnight at least twice, softening the course and slowing the greens - I screwed up badly but that was not because of the conditions, it was my finger farts - yes, there was backspin with the wedges, but the same backspin occurred in the real tourney - great job with the set up and conditions, Riddler! Keep up the good work - you do a great job!

[SJude]

I will preface this by saying I appreciate all of the work all the admins. here do and I thank you for that. I think things might have been taken somewhat the wrong way here as I do not believe that Rick was actually trying to offend Riddler. I do think he was disappointed in the settings as was I, but, it is what it is. I saw in the actual tournament drives running through the fairways about 50 yards from where they landed ( overnight rains did not slow those fairways). In our tournament, very little roll out as 2 of the four rounds were on soft fairways and the other 2 on normal, we never saw hard. I do not think this had anything to do with the final result, in my opinion, the best player will win. Like I said it is what it is, I was just disappointed to have to play on velcro again this week when I feel we should have seen some speed.

[JoeMen]

There is a common misunderstanding that green stimps are high on british links courses, they are usually around 10. It seems to be the ondulations that make them roll so long, and they look fast bc they are brown and yellow unlike Augusta and other US courses like Shinnecock.
Just like Scheffler said who I quoted in my previous post. Conditions in PG was spot on I believe, perhaps except for soft fairways and greens.

[SJude]

For the record, I said nothing about green speed, just mentioned the fairways, stimp totally different conversation.