We were given a 30-page (!) training PDF and attended a 45 minute training session, so yes, I’m certain of what the Tour officials’ instructions were.
All 3 players introduced themselves to us (me and the standard-bearer) on the first tee, and thanked us for volunteering at the end of the round. Plus of course gave us their autographed golf balls.
That looks like a lot of fun. Did you guys get any rain yesterday?
Walking scorer orientation/training last evening.
They are now using custom-programmed Samsung Galaxy 5Ss to track scoring. These were just rolled out in the past couple of months, and only on the Web.com tour for now. They said that they’d be rolled out on the PGA Tour and Senior Tour later this season. Seemed to work pretty well - simple to operate, if a bit laggy at times.
http://i1268.photobucket.com/albums/jj573/Zcd1/FullSizeRender_zpsd1miv1re.jpg
Weather is looking good overall, though the predicted high for Saturday is 95 degrees (!!!)
Where is this tournament being played? Which club? Just looked. Yep, thats the one. Pretty cool.
My buddy played in a buy.com pro-am at Ivanhoe yesterday. Said he had a blast. Lots of former Bears players and their groups pro was a super nice guy. Erik Barnes?
they’d never tell you to stand 10 yards behind a player when he hits a shot.
Try it tomorrow. The player will whip something at you. So maybe you worded it poorly. That’s why I asked for clarification.
The tour tells you to walk behind them (you and the standard bearer). When you’re walking off the tee, or walking to the green. They don’t tell you to stand 10 yards behind the player when he hits shots.
Don’t forget, I’ve done that job on the pga tour 11 of the past 15 years. You’ve done it for 2 days at a nike tour event.
It has been fun!
Rained for about an hour or so Thursday, but never rained hard. Just enough to soften the greens slightly for those who played in the afternoon.
Today was hot (~91F), and it got quite breezy as the day wore on, leading to VERY slow play and some big numbers in the afternoon. One of the guys in my group was 5 under and 2 shots out of the lead when he started the day, but shot 82 to miss the cut by 6 shots. Ugh.
Cut line teetered between Even and minus 1 all afternoon, finally settling at minus 1. 67 players made the cut.
Oh and the course record is still intact…and nobody whipped anything at me all day, so there’s that…
Will it be 100 there tomorrow, like it will be in Va? Good luck, should be more fun times!
Thanks!
Forecast is that it will “only” hit 92 today, but I’m going out this morning, so I’ll miss the worst of the heat.
BTW, if you can, watch the replay of the Golf Channel coverage of the tournament. The announcers and players have been very complimentary about the course, and it looks great on TV…
Glad to hear everything is going well. It’s a whirlwind of activity but tons of fun as well for all involved I’m sure. Glad to hear the weather and conditions have held up well for you. That’s such a toss up every week, and every location is going to have it’s own set of challenges to go along with it. I know you all had to of really hoped for good weather in your first event.
Any clue about the number of spectators in attendance thus far? I’m sure it’s been interesting to watch the crowds grow each day from inside the ropes.
What was the guess between you and other members for what they’d shoot out there? -14 through 3 days is pretty strong. It’ll be interesting to see what the winner ends up at. I’d like to see Steven Fox or Jason Millard make a strong finish tomorrow.
Yall are bent fairways too, correct? Are the greens penncross or a newer variety (a-1/A-4) if you happen to know, just curious.
Hole in one at the tournament!
This is a downhill roughly 200 yard par 3 with a green that slopes severely from back to front. Great shot!
[https://www.facebook.com/IvanhoeClub/posts/1126921304037397
Yeah, it’s been fun.
Crowds have been typical Web.com Tour, which is to say sparse. We probably didn’t do enough promotion before the event, but that will be corrected for next year. That said, the exposure on GC has led to several direct phone inquiries from area residents regarding membership, which is great!
Yes, all bent grass, no idea on the specific type.
We figured the course record would be broken, but that hasn’t happened yet. The par 5s are all reachable in 2 for most of these guys, and there have been a fair number of eagles as a result One guy put his tee shot in the water on that par 5 I posted a photo of, then promptly HOLED his 3rd shot from about 200 yards for the unlikeliest of eagles!
We were thinking about mid-teens under par, and the leader is at 15 under, but has a 3 shot lead. The 2nd place guy is 2 shots ahead of the 3rd place guys. Friday, the players thought 14 under would be about the number. Breeze is up today, and the temps will be 60s and 70s, rather than 90s, so we’ll see what happens.
I’ve spoken with about a dozen of the players, and to a man, they really like the course. It’s not a bomber’s track, but instead requires precise shot-making, which everyone seems to appreciate.
Highlight reel from Saturday:
https://www.facebook.com/WebDotComTour/videos/10154391398842590/
Headed out again in a couple of hours for the final round. I’ll be at the 18th to watch the last 5 or 6 groups finish, which should be fun!
The course record (64) lives to see another day…
There was one 65 and several 66s yesterday but also quite a few “others”. One player was at eight under going into the 18th (the hole in the pic below) and promptly made a quadruple bogey 9 by dumping 2 shots in the lake. Ouch.
Not this guy, though. He’s Mark Anderson, super nice guy, who hit this 210-yard 2nd shot to about 20 feet to set up a closing birdie on this par 5. He shot a 2 under 70. The other 2 guys in my group shot 77 and 78. (One was 5-time winner Aussie Matthew Goggin)
Groundskeeper told me that the tour told him to speed up the greens even more starting today, so they should be rolling around 13 on the Stimpmeter. THAT’S gonna make things interesting!
Fun stuff to be there right with the players inside the ropes!
http://i1268.photobucket.com/albums/jj573/Zcd1/image_zps0mg7eipx.jpeg
why were you 40 yards away from him? Was there another player beside you? I always stand pretty close.
Right up paralell to them, yardage wise. Never behind his back, never to his right (or left if leftie) down the line. Basically they don’t want to see you. If you’re where you are there, you’re in their field of view out the corner of their hat. You’ll notice other players and caddies tend to get up beside the guy when he hits his shot. Or they get way up front and out of the way liek the other guy in the group there.
I don’t mean counting his freckles close, but 10 yards from him.
Assuming he’s hitting a shot on the white line across the pond…
White X good
Red section very bad
White squiggly section slightly bad…try to move up.
http://i375.photobucket.com/albums/oo193/sakimano/image_zpsxjstfqsq.jpeg
Tour officials told us to stay 10 yards behind whichever player was hitting.
Thanks for the tips, tho…
behind? yikes you may want to confirm that. or do you mean to the side but not parallel? I ask players or caddies at teh beginning of the round and they almost universally say ‘just get up even with us out of sight’
p.s. now that you’ve been around a few times…I’m sure you’ve had the ‘Thanks for going with us’ at the end of the round. That’s pretty weird eh? I’ve never heard that expression other than out there.
We were given a 30-page (!) training PDF and attended a 45 minute training session, so yes, I’m certain of what the Tour officials’ instructions were.
All 3 players introduced themselves to us (me and the standard-bearer) on the first tee, and thanked us for volunteering at the end of the round. Plus of course gave us their autographed golf balls.
That looks like a lot of fun. Did you guys get any rain yesterday?
Spoiler alert! (on the off chance that anyone has recorded the tournament and doesn’t want to know the outcome…)
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
These players know their stuff. They thought 14 under would be the number, and the winner ended at minus 13, after shooting 67 in a final round where the field average was 73.1!
The rough was thick, the breeze up and the greens lightning-fast, so 5-under was a superb round for the winner Max Homa. He was actually on the PGA Tour in 2015 after graduating from the Web.com tour, but didn’t keep his card. This win may be enough to push him back to the big show when all is said and done this year. Everyone, from the Tour officials to the players and caddies couldn’t say enough about how much they liked the course.
I walked with Martin Flores, who is number 11 on the Web.com money list and Zack Fischer, who’s lurking just outside of the top 25 who get their PGA Tour cards when the season is over.
2nd hole, Fischer putting for birdie from just off the green. Close, but no cigar:
http://i1268.photobucket.com/albums/jj573/Zcd1/b0e663c6-fce9-4a10-89f2-5cf4d48f229b_zpsk7vrkozy.jpg
12th hole, Flores putting for bogey. (3-putt - ugh):
http://i1268.photobucket.com/albums/jj573/Zcd1/8bfa2900-7355-4975-8089-e34eb4d5e0b9_zpsljd0pvll.jpg
Flores shot 75, and Fischer a gritty 73, with a spectacular approach at the 18th to about 2 feet to set up a closing Birdie. Flores stuffed his approach to about 4 feet, but missed his putt.
Check today’s pin placement on 18 - about 6 feet from the edge of the green, and maybe 15 feet from the water:
http://i1268.photobucket.com/albums/jj573/Zcd1/IMG_7447_zpsvukjs2af.jpg
3rd round leader Josh Teater came to 18 needing a par to tie Homa and force a playoff, but pushed his shot just slightly to the right and it bounced off the bank into the water. He got up and down for his 5, but finished 2nd. Double ugh.
All in all, it was a great tournament, and I had a blast - can’t wait to do it all over again next year!
PS: Despite this tour being a “…smoke show”, the course record was not matched, and remains unbroken…maybe next time…;D
Congrats on a great first year. Sounds like things couldn’t have gone much smoother (at least from your end / experience). And most important of all, there was some great golf to be had by all.
I’m sure the event will grow for future years with better exposure. Probably a great time of year for you all as well. I know the Evansville and Koxville web.com locations bring in 40-60k spectators through the course of the week, but they’ve both been around for a while. Granted both are pretty small towns comparatively.
Pretty impressive that the course record held up, I know that had to make a lot of your members happy lol. It sounds like the weather certainly played to your favor in making it as challenging as possible.
It is pretty shocking when you get into the Web.com’s roster and start realizing just how many of those guys “made it” at one point in time or another (or you know are right on the verge of making it for the first time). It’s something like 78% of PGA tour players played on the Web before making it to the PGA (which is obvious given how the structure is setup).
Hey if any course plays firm and fast it can have teeth. Sounds like the weather cooperated to protect it.
P. S. I am not sure on the validity of your polling methods re players liking the course. We will let the player survey at the end of the year tell the truth.
