The Prize Round-Up!
See the next series of posts for each prize. And, please note, the trophies are still at the engravers, but I expect them to be finished in a couple of days or so.
Any questions about Prizes, please respond in the thread or by PM. And, if replying to any of the following prize posts, please quote selectively, or we may be overwhelmed!
Here is the FINAL OVERALL LEADERBOARD
Corwyn comes out top with a 274 (6 under par), a margin of 11 shots, and matches Hans' achievement in TIO1 of playing every round in par or better.
Cerino came in 2nd place with +5 (his best 72 hole result in TIO), and Ben (bhoese) improved upon his +15 from TIO2 with a +8 finish this time, to secure 3rd place honors.
Russ finished strongly for fourth spot at +12. Neil (unclenewy) ended with a disappointing, time-pressured round of 81 at Merion to drop to +15 for fifth, while Ian (Legaci), took sixth spot at +17. A big group of JayO, Wes, JMan, Inigo, Fred, OneEye, Slayer, and Kurt clustered from seventh to fourteenth place with just four shots separating them.
In all, the tourney saw 10 rounds (out of 103) of par or better (compared to 10 in TIO1, and 13 in TIO2), with Merion proving the 'easiest' course, yielding 4 of those. It was also the course where no fewer than 9 players shot their best (or level best) rounds of the tourney. Cerino and Russ (ColumbusStorm) joined Corwyn in being the only players to achieve an under-par round with their 69s at Merion. This time around, only Wes consistently improved his score relative to par from round to round (with his last round tying his 3rd); indeed the more common pattern was for remarkable consistency: for example, Kurt shot 75, 76 in every round, and Jay had 3 75s and a 76. Some players had clear course favorites, such as OneEye, who shot 71s at both RSG and Merion, but disappointing numbers at Oakmont and Oly. Overall, we were a combined 665 over par for the 22 finishers (avg +30, slightly worse than in TIO2)
But perhaps the greatest achievement of all was to have so many players guts-it-out, and complete the tourney. Although personal circumstances led to the withdrawal of several players towards the end, 22 of you finished all 4 rounds in some of the toughest conditions possible in WGT. From a field of 32 that started the first round, that's a 69% completion rate (a little lower than TIO2's 78%).
And, finally, a special thank you is due to all of our wonderful sponsors. Once again, the prize pool made this tourney very special, and encouraged everyone to keep toughing-it-out. Special mention must go to Ben for coming up with a range of course-specific prizes, and helping to spread the wealth: in the end, at least half the finishers will end up walking away with a sleeve or more. The organizers, Cerino and I, put up the 7,000 cr of the main prizes (placings, and GIR and Ave. Distance to the Pin), but at a rough calculation (assuming a 450 cr value for ball sleeves), all the other special prizes combined added approx 15,000 cr to the tourney pool, making an approximate total of nearly 22,000 (not bad for a starters tourney!).
Thank you all for your incredible generosity!
Corwyn:Tourney organizers are covering the main prizes, which are as follows:
1st place: 3,00 credit purchases in the Pro Shop
2nd place: 2,000 credit purchases in the Pro Shop
3rd place: 1,000 credit purchases in the Pro Shop
1st place: Corwyn
2nd place: CerinoDevoti
3rd place: bhoese