RYDER CUP HALL OF INTERVIEWS

TODAY: AVATARLEE

" You can look at all the stats in the world, but until the final round is played and all the scores are reported… they mean nothing!"

Q: Welcome to the Ryder Cup Hall of Interviews. We’ve already had the chance to talk to the two Captains so now let’s have a chat with a few of the key players. Thanks for coming, Lee.

A:  Hi Seve, Thank you for having me!

Q: When did you join WGT?

A:  My profile says October 25, 2008 but it’s been longer than that.  I was around in the old charity challenge days, but unfortunately I missed out on the closed BETA portion of this release.

Q: And had you reached the Top Ten on any other golf game before?

A:  Aside from the Charity Challenge, no.  WGT is the first on-line golf community that I’ve joined.

Q: If you ask anybody on here who are the best two players, most people would say “Tibbets and AvatarLee”. How do you feel about always being second best?

A:  It’s a blast!  Always something to strive for, I relish the competition and seeing someone above me just makes me work that much harder knowing that if he can do it… so can I!  I’m still at awe though on just how consistently he performs.  I’ll probably never reach that level, but it’ll be fun trying!

Q: Is there really a big difference between you and Tibbets? Does he always win when you play him?

A:  I’d have to say the biggest difference is consistency in tournament play.  He is a true master at the one-play tournaments.  I find that sometimes I just try too hard and end up making some key (aka stupid) mistakes.  But in multi-player I think it’s a pretty close matchup, I’d have to give him the edge, but I do catch him on the odd off days. =)  Big difference there though… no pressure!  The other thing I have to mention is how astonishingly quick he is on picking up on new courses, conditions and features.  He is always the best out of the gate, and everyone has to play catch-up.

Q: Despite Tibbets you’ve won a few prizes on here. What is the best prize you’ve won at WGT?

A:  I’ve yet to find out really, I have a couple of trips coming up in the early fall, one to Arizona to play with Parker, and the other to Wolf Creek.  Those, I’m sure, will be great fun as I’m not really able to get out and play the real thing as much as I’d like to these days.

 Q: Score weren’t as good as expected in the U.S. Open and it could have been a great chance for you to win the first ever WGT Major. Was your 70 a big disappointment?

A: Yes, I have to say I did disappoint myself in that performance.  A couple of things caught me by surprise during the round, but the fact that I was not able to adjust is by far the most disappointing to me.  I felt I should have done better, but in the end I’d say it was nerves that got to me.  I have a great deal of respect for NASAGolfer for keeping his cool in the final round, my hat is off to him, Congratulations NASA!  As well to those who were able to shoot under par on the final round as well, it’s a great accomplishment!  And of course thanks to WGT and the USGA for bringing this dream to life (well virtual life anyways).  I now have a much greater appreciation for what the real guys go through on the final Sunday.  And yet the pressure we felt in this round is just a micro-fraction of what the pros feel in real life, I could see how that could get to some people.

Q: Lots of people look up at you guys at the top of the leaderboards and say: how do they do it? Is it a matter of having good reflexes and hitting the white line on the swing meter or is it more important to know the course and know where and how you’ve got to hit the ball to get a perfect result?

A:  Hmmm about 60%-40% in favour of course management.  The real key is knowing all of your shots and how each club/shot type is going to fly.  It is important to be able to hit the mark a lot of the time, but more important is knowing your own tendencies.  Are you a late clicker or are you an early clicker?  Are you dead on with slower meters or do the fast meters mess with your timing on the slower ones.  You’ve got to know your own game and constantly improve on it through practice.  If you know you hit late with fast meters adjust your aim accordingly, it’s all about the probability of where the shot will end up.  But of course you need to know where you want to put it first, and what club/shot type will get you there.  After that it’s all execution, but if you don’t know what it should do, how on earth are you going to execute it?  Of course all of that gets thrown out the window when outside factors come into play… but that’s a different debate. When that happens you just need to shrug it off and recover, it can be really frustrating when it happens at key times, but you’ve got to remember it happens to everyone else too, maybe not at the same time or in the same way… but it happens.

 Q: Many people have probably been surprised when they found out you were playing for Team World. What would you say to those Americans who expected you in their team?

A:  “Sorry guys, but I have to even the field just a little bit!”  LOL, no disrespect intended to either side, it just turns out that I am somewhat of a hybrid when it comes to nationality.  I was born in the US, raised in Canada, my career started in the US, and now I find myself back in the Great White North working and raising a family.  So where do I really belong?  You’re guess is as good as mine.  I figured I’ll keep it easy and just chose based on where I call home at the moment.  But don’t think for a minute that that lends to any sympathy for the other side…. I assure you, I’ll have my game face on!

 Q: And if the Ryder Cup was played again next year, would you still be on the same side?

A:  I guess that would depend on where I’m calling home at that time, but the way things look right now… I’d say yes, I’ll still be around.

Q: You’re supposed to be Team World’s best player and, I must say, you’re expected to win all your games. Will the pressure get to you?

A:  Pshhhh… Not at all! (hands… shaking………. can… barely… type…) 

Q: And, finally, how do you see Team World’s chances of winning?

A:  We have a great chance!  You can look at all the stats in the world, but until the final round is played and all the scores are reported… they mean nothing!  The only stats that count are the ones after everything is said and done.  I think Mr. Lucas Glover and Mr. NASAGolfer proved that point without a doubt.

Q: Thanks very much for coming and good luck with the qualifying.

A:  Thank you very much for having me, and good luck to you and all those qualifying as well.

Honestly though, there will always be pressure to live up to how you’ve performed in the past.  It’s the nature of sport, and it’s how you handle it when everything is on the line.  Win all my games?  Idk…  maybe, maybe not.  There are a LOT of good players trying to make the US team, and they have a great captain who I actually consider to be one of the most clutch players on this site.  So it’ll be hard, but I assure you this…. I will come to play!

RYDER CUP HALL OF INTERVIEWS

TODAY:TALLACEPAUL

 "THE PRESSURE IS ALL ON THE U.S."

Question: Welcome to the “Ryder Cup Hall of Interviews”, Paul. Thanks for coming and congratulations on your election as Team World Captain.

 Answer: Thank you very much for inviting me along for a chat and a big thanks to everyone who voted me in as Captain, it’s a real honour.  I’m really excited about the challenge ahead. Thanks’ also to Nivlac for starting off with an entertaining (though blinkered) interview.

 Question: I will ask you about that election in a moment, but let’s talk a bit about you. How long have you been at WGT?

 Answer: I’ve been playing at WGT since October 08 after finding it by accident. Being a big sports fan I had been looking for as realistic a game as possible to have a go at and having played a lot of golf as a junior (and loved the game) coming across this site was a god send.

 Q: You’ve almost certainly qualified for the U.S. Open and you’ve been elected Captain. Would you say that your last month or month and a half has been your best here?

A: Being made Captain is great and my game is really coming together, but it takes lots of practise. I felt that if I was to lead the team, and automatically qualify through being Captain, it was important that my game was up to scratch and I was not being carried. More importantly I want to make sure that my pressure game is good, no point in hitting in the 60’s in practise and falling to pieces in the competitions.

 Q: How many hours (or minutes) do you play every day?

 A: That varies greatly. I tend to play very little at the weekends, but a lot week nights. It’s good to get in 2 hr sessions so that you can get into the zone where you don’t even think about the driving, layups and short putts and concentrate on the approach play and putting. Recently I have been trying to play as much as possible in preparation for the US Open. Next to the Ryder Cup it is the most important competition of the year and everyone wants to win it.

 Q: Do you have a best friend at WGT?

 A: My friends list is up to about 60 now and to be honest it is nice to play with lots of different people of all standards. There are lots of really good people playing this game. I do have a few people who I catch up with more regularly but I am starting to try and play with the World Team probables on a regular basis. Played with Nivlac recently and he seems a very nice guy.

 Q: What do you like most about the site?

 A: I think the site is fantastic. The quality of the graphics is great, the game play is second to none and WGT do an amazing job. The development they are putting into the site is awesome and always moving forward. How they put up with the amount of moaning and whinging that goes on is unbelievable (I’m not blameless myself here!). People said that it was ridiculous that players were shooting under 60, so they make the courses harder, and people complain they are too hard, it must seem like they can’t win at times.

But what is obvious in this is that there are a lot of people who play this game and are passionate about it, WGT have actually created a community here which is probably their biggest achievement.

 Q: Will we ever have a TallAcePaul-organised-tournament?

 A: Yes I think so; I have a couple of ideas in mind but will need to have conversations with yourself and Nivlac as to how to go about it.

 Q: So… the Ryder Cup. The question everyone has in their minds: Is Team World capable of winning?

 A: This is where I think that Nivlac is a little blinkered. I am always checking out how people are getting on in competitions, both WGT sponsored and not. I have a good idea of the top bands of players, I’m not talking averages here its competition that counts. At the moment there are 2 outstanding players. One will play for us and the other I am not sure whether he will play for the US or not. Then there is a band of about 10 players just below this who are exceptional on there day. Of these we will have 2-3 hopefully in our team. Below this there are probably another 30-40 players of a very good standard and who always post competitive scores. We have at least 10 in that bracket. My job is to make sure that from the 14-15 World Players in the Top 50 all are playing for a place in the team, and make up the team. If that is the case this will be very competitive.

We also have the advantage of having a good number of those expected to be in the team playing together in the up and coming NA Challenge so we will get some early bonding in and get to know each other. I think we all know that you actually play better with some people than others and we need to start working this out.

 In reality the pressure here is all on the US to win

 Q: Who will be, in your opinion, the key players from each team?

 A: There will be no key players, this is a team game and it is important everyone plays to the best of their ability.

 Q: Most people who voted for you as Captain said they had done it because of your energy put into it and because you really want to win. Do people really know you or would you have said that your main strengths aren’t those?

 A: I’m a very friendly easy going guy but I hate losing, love the buzz of competition, enjoy playing in a team and never believe I can’t win. If you can’t imagine you can win you might as well stay at home.

 Q: And how big a role can you play as a player and as a Captain in this Ryder Cup?

 A: I think the lost important part I am going to play is putting the team together initially. This is going to be the difficult part. There will be tactical decisions to be made in the competition but that will be done in consultation with the team.

 Q: A message for all Team World qualifiers from their Captain?

 A: Post your scores and done chuck on bad rounds, you know who you are!!! The courses are tougher out there and just because you’re not hitting mid 60’s does not mean it’s a bad round. Practise hard and, to use an American expression, ’Lets kick some butt’.

 Q: Thanks for coming, good luck and I hope to talk to you again in September.

 A: Thank you very much Seve for putting this together and by the way start getting some scores in yourself!!!

RYDER CUP HALL OF INTERVIEWS

TODAY:NIVLAC

 “The Euros have a bunch of good guys competing, but they’re not going to be able to stack up to the American squad”

Question: Welcome to the "Ryder Cup Hall of Interviews" and thank you for accepting to come here, nivlac.

 Answer: Nice place you have here.

Question: We will talk about the Ryder Cup in a minute, but, first, let's learn something about your general experience of WGT. How did you get to know about the existence of this site?

Answer: I went to the mysterious land of Google and asked the wizard, “What is the most realistic golf game in the world?” He boomed, “I’m feeling lucky” and the next thing I knew I was being magically whisked away to my new permanent residence. Back then it was just the PGA Charity Skills competition, but I’ve really enjoyed the pleasure of watching them grow into what we have today over the last 18 months or so.

Q: You have been here since January 08, you have played in almost every tournament possible, you have won 639 dollars, and you have posted nearly a thousand posts on the forums. Not many people can say they have explored WGT like you. What do you like most about this golf game?

A: The accurate scoring. We’ve all played Tiger Woods or other games in the past that really made golf look ridiculous. In my opinion, shooting 40-anything (and low fifties) is making a mockery of this wonderful game. World Golf Tour has restored the challenge and the difficulty back to the game. Folks complain about the lack of distance and what not, but the bottom line is that the scoring is realistic. Birdies actually mean something here, especially now that we have four tiers in play. I also very much enjoy playing the courses themselves. They’ve done a spectacular job of really bringing these venues to life in all their might and majesty. Kiawah Island isn’t terribly far from where I live. One day I will play there and thanks to World Golf Tour I’ll already know the course as if I’d already been a member there for 15 years.

Q: And what do you like the least?

 A: Folks that don’t have the foresight to envision the end product. There are way too many people complaining about the things I mentioned above. They don’t really understand what “BETA” means so instead they complain about the game as if the latest update is the last one we’ll ever see. They don’t understand that any changes made are not permanently set in stone and that the entire game could be turned upside down at any moment. I’d like to see these folks try to have a little more patience.

Q: What do you think has been the best improvement that has been made to this site since you joined?

 A: The tournament prizes/purses offered have improved immensely in a relatively short amount of time. Back in the day a tournament win might net you a hat or a shirt. Nowadays players have the chance to compete for golf vacations, $500 gift cards, real golf gear and much more.

Q: You are usually in the Top Ten of the WGT Ranking. Do you consider that your final objective should be to be Number One?

A: No, not anymore. Now that we have both easy and very difficult courses averages don’t really mean too much anymore. A player’s average will only be a reflection of the golf course he or she plays the most. Besides, I’d rather see my name on the top of a tournament leaderboard than in the #1 spot on the Top Ten any day. 

 Q: One last thing before we talk about Ryder Cup:you are known by some people as "the guy who organises the Match Play Tournaments". Tell us something about those tournaments: the amount of hours you put into them, what you like most about organising them...

A: I enjoy being able to do the community run tournaments. It gives folks a chance to meet and play with other players in a semi-competitive format without the need to pay an entry fee. Community tournaments afford us the luxury of being able to do some of the more non-standard stuff that you see, such as this Ryder Cup or the North American team challenge. I do put quite a lot of work into most of the tournaments. The graphics that you see and all the updates are all done by hand and that can sometimes be painstaking. The Bracket Challenge was an immense amount of work to keep up with because of the all the bracket graphics. That was especially tough in the first round because updating all the brackets would often take 30 minutes for each and every result. Some days 5 or 6 results would come in and I’d be editing graphics for 2 and half hours, so yeah, at times it’s a LOT of work. It’s worth it, especially when I see people making new friends and generally having a really good experience with the whole thing. But what I probably love the most about organizing is declaring a tournament a success when it’s completed.

 Q:Perhaps you will go from being "the guy of the Match Play Tournaments" to "the guy who led U.S.A. to victory" because you have recently been elected Captain of the American Ryder Cup team. How does it feel to represent your country in this way? And why do you think so many people voted for you?

 A: It feels awesome. No other word can really describe it better. It may be a virtual stage, but it’s our stage and this is our time to shine and represent the United States of America. This isn’t just any old community tournament. This is the Ryder Cup and I’ll treat it like so. I think that’s why I was able to garner so many votes. Folks know me for my organization and ability to follow through. They know they can expect a 110% effort from me and I’ll do my best not to let ‘em down.

 Q:In the "real life" Ryder Cup, U.S.A. have nearly always got the best players, but the Europeans seem to play the rounds of their lives and sometimes end up winning. Due to the large amount of American players on this site, U.S.A. are probably the favourites, so, are you afraid that the "European Ryder Cup spirit"(Team World spirit in this case) might have the same effect that it has in real life?

A: The Euros have a bunch of good guys competing in the qualifying now, but I’m afraid that pound for pound, they’re not going to be able to stack up to the American squad this year. I may have just thrown some fuel onto that fire there, but I want this to be a knock-down drag-out 10-round fight to the finish, so fanning the flames may be a good thing after all.

Q:At the end of August you will have to take a difficult decision. You will have to pick two players who haven't qualified, and the people you choose will be part of the team. Will you be nervous about these two players? What if they underperform?Do you think you would be blamed?

A: Heh. I’ll only be blamed if we lose, but I won’t be nervous about the selections. Sometimes folks have bad days. I’ve been there a few times. The bottom line is there’s a lot of fine players out there who are going to be left out because there’s just not enough room for all of ‘em on the team. I’d take ‘em all if I could.

Q:I know it's difficult to predict this, with so some months still to go, but could you give me your personal opinion of what the final score will be in this Ryder Cup?

A: Hard to say. Anything can happen on WGT in any single game, but I’m going to have to give the nod to the American squad by a score of 17.5 to 10.5

Q:Well, thank you very much for the interview, nivlac, you will now have three long months during which you can relax before the tension of the Ryder Cup arrives. Thanks again and I hope to see you here again in September.

A: Thank you and good luck to all players in the qualifying!

 The first ever Match Play Tournament has now finished and I think I can say, without a trace of doubt, that it has been a total success. There were some difficulties with timetables in a few games, but everybody had great fun, and we assured each other that another Tournament will be played early in 2009, so you're all invited to join.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to all.

http://spreadsheets.google.com/pub?key=rXE5ebHEHx0f5bU8JqsxZYQ&output=html

http://spreadsheets.google.com/pub?key=rdoOFWA6Y-rzhC68rcxhA-g&output=html

http://gamesurge.net/chat/

2.  Type /join #WGT

 http://docs.google.com/Doc?docid=0AaWI_nBIethiZGc0M2JrZjVfMXQzbTJxcWRx&hl=en

 Come on everybody! Make sure you get a place in the first ever WGT Match Play Tournament. Go to the forum, click on the Match Play Tournament thread and get your name on the list.

You've only got untill tomorrow 21.00GMT and there's only six places left, so hurry up!