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RECENT Rising Averages And "Slumping" Performance - As Of February 2010

• AtlantaCoaster 645 Posts

  Thu, Feb 11 2010 4:13 AM

  Hello All....

  I have noticed a recent rise (not tragic) in my own average.  After about 45 days floating around in the 64-66 range I notice that I am suddenly UP to around 67-68.

  Curiously enough, at least FOUR other WGT Members have contacted me about this same issue with their own games.  "I can't hit the ball my average is rising YOU are a MASTER do you have any tips?" - this sort of thing.  The truth is it has happened in MY GAME as well.  Never presume Master TIer is "bullet proof" - we are not.

  AT FIRST upon noticing this, I immediately started to keep an eye on my play.  Why is my performance slumping?  I have come to the conclusion that my performance has not changed much AT ALL.

  I think I can attribute this recent trending to ONE THING all by itself:

  WE ARE ALL NOW PLAYING RANKED ROUNDS ON BETHPAGE WITH THE NEW PIN POSITIONS.  Up until the most recent update, these new pin positions were always relegated to Practice OR Match Play - which have NO impact on our averages.

  I must say that I REALLY DO LIKE the variance that the new pin positions have brought to the game.  It is unpredictable and there is an element of surprise in every Bethpage Round.  (I can HOPE we see some variety of Pin positions on Kiawah sometime as well!)

  So what of our Rising Averages?  Here is what is happening when we play Bethpage Black:

  1.  Our approach shots are often to newer/less practiced/unfamiliar pin positions.

  2.  THIS causes us to "discover" sand traps we have never played out of OR ROUGH we have never chipped out of.  "Cozying" an approach shot up to the hole is much more difficult with a lesser-known pin position.

  3.  Due to 1 and 2 ABOVE - we are OFTEN faced with LONGER putts for Birdie or to Save a PAR.  

  4.  And with a newer/unfamiliar pin position -  guess what?  These longer putts (and even the shorter ones) are usually rolling across unfamiliar less-practiced portions of the green.  We are far more likely to MISS these putts, currently.  We are less practiced with them.

  All of these factors MUST result in a RISING impact in our averages - and this is what I am recently witnessing in my own game...and I BET it is what many of you are seeing in your own games as well.

  AS ALWAYS - only with PRACTICE will any of us learn these shots and putts.  And at that point the averages start to fall again.

  Bottom Line:  I'm not worried about it.  I continue to practice my game and enjoy myself.

  Thanks,  AtlantaCoaster

   

• geordieles 516 Posts

  Thu, Feb 11 2010 4:45 AM

  very good point im all for anything wgt do to make this game more realistic, and different pin locations on kaiwah and every other course thats introduced in future would be most welcome,as in real golf you don t have the same pin positions day after day.

• dorkfeatures 712 Posts

  Thu, Feb 11 2010 4:51 AM

  Hi Atlanta,

  Yeh - I think you got it pretty well right.

  I'm really struggling with my own game at the moment to. Not only do you have to cope with moving up a tier, and some new clubs, different swing meter speeds - then they decide to randomly choose the pin positions :-(    lol

  I'm not even going out on ranked rounds at the moment. I'm really just staying on the practice fairways. I'm not protecting my ranking one bit, thats not the issue. I just don't see the point of going out and shooting poor rounds just for the sake of it. I would rather spend my time practicing and trying to come to grips with my game - which I'm certainly not at the moment.

  These "Very fast" green speeds are not that easy to get a grip of either !!

  As you correctly say - practice is the only solution, and trying to control my frustrations lol

  Cya on the fairways

  Doug

• ncviz 527 Posts

  Thu, Feb 11 2010 5:09 AM

  I don't know if I fully agree with your premise that the pin positions are creating higher scores. Outside of the par 3s, I have the same success or failure with shots really regardless of where they're at. There are a few notable exceptions, #7 is the first that comes to mind. Of course as said the par 3s are a different animal alot of times and takes time to settle on what works.

  The number one thing that is responsible for rising averages is the Ready Gos IMO. You no longer have players dumping scores like they used to. They have a reason to finish, credits of course, which btw is a good thing.

• GITrDONE 701 Posts

  Thu, Feb 11 2010 6:34 AM

  ncviz:

  The number one thing that is responsible for rising averages is the Ready Gos

   

  Thats what I think it is too.The last two ready go's tthat I played in I had this happen:

  When I drive the ball at Kiawah I either hit the ball late or early,I do not move the aim cursor at all.Never had a problem once I learned how to do this,just lazy I guess,lol..The first shot on the first tee of the first RTG  resulted in a lost ball.I hit it exactly like I hit it in my practice round.I had a 14mph right to left wind so I hit it a little late like I always do but for some reason it went directly to the right and was lost.I quit that one right there on the spot.Very angry now.One of those nice Tour GI SD Gold balls.

  I waited about an hour or so and got to thinking that I must of just thought I hit it like I always do and must of let the meter go to the end of the scale by accident to have the ball become lost.I decided to enter another RTG and try it again.The exact same thing happened.first shot resulted in a lost ball.

  I was wondering what all the complaining was about up until that point.I haven't played since that last lost ball shot about 3 or 4 days ago.I'm fixing to go try it again because I love this game and the competition but only when the game is working half way decent.I'll report back with how it's playing today.

• AtlantaCoaster 645 Posts

  Thu, Feb 11 2010 7:00 AM

  Counterpoint regarding Ready-Go's:

  They have been in existence for 45 days.  I noted no significant change in my own average during the first 30 days or so that I played (December 20- late January).

  My own average started to creep UP around the time of the most recent WGT Update - which included the new Bethpage Pin Positions for RANKED play (which affects averages).

  It is instructive to note that TWO (of the 4) WGT members who contacted me regarding their own rising averages do not participate in Ready Go Tournaments as the tournaments are disallowed in the state/location of these members.  As such, the Ready Go's don't (in and of themselves) come up on my radar for the overall UPWARD TRENDING of averages.

  In short - the Bethpage Pin positions apply to ALL Members.  Ready Go participation does not.

  I DO AGREE WITH THE POINT about how Ready Go tournaments do encourage round completion - and from this, there certainly may be some effect as well.

  I am enjoying the discussion - thanks to all who are participating.

  Regards, AtlantaCoaster

• YankeeJim 25,827 Posts

  Thu, Feb 11 2010 7:01 AM

  You're shooting yourself in the foot, G. You have 8 holes left to do something and it only takes a par score to get your money back, most of the time. If you're going to throw the $1 away at least see if it gets any better during the round. I have experienced the same thing, actually starting off bogey-bogey. Talk about PO'd but that silly $1 keeps me level headed enough to face a different challenge-the next 7 holes. Wound up cashing $1.33  :-)

• ncviz 527 Posts

  Thu, Feb 11 2010 7:39 AM

  They're certainly part of the rise Atl. Another part I had forgot too is the Match Play effect. Not having an absurdly low average so to not scare players away. Most of this is really being honestly done though. Example, before one would dump just average rounds, now after would keep those to keep the average more in the line. Some of the players still keep the average lower than they probably average, but there are less and less players like that.

  To me this is how I see it broke down...

  1... RGs

  2... New pins

  3... Match Play

  1a... MultiRounds, helping keep the average down, so reverse effect

  MP used to be at the top before the creation of RGs, but since you can really make more in RGs, the MPs have taken a bit of a backseat, at least from what I've seen.

  This is not to say some players wouldn't feel the effect of new pin positions more than others. Alot depends on how you go about remembering shots and/or recover from bad positions. As long as my shot can carry onto the green, I feel like they can put the pin whereever they want and I'm going to have the same success.

• neildiamond11790 1,115 Posts

  Thu, Feb 11 2010 7:40 AM

  I can tell you from my average going up 3 strokes in 2 days, its the ready go-s to blame.  I started playing the full 18's on bethpage and kiawah, kiawah is the killer because they have been "heavy" winds and standard greens, which to me has been a -4 at best.  Thats my excuse.

• tiffer67 1,764 Posts

  Thu, Feb 11 2010 7:48 AM

  Yep I can agree with that. Last Friday my average was a reasonable 65.45, after a weekend playing every Ready-Go available my average stood at 70.11. Thankfully I am now back down in the 66s and still trying to gain some credibility in Ready-Gos.......