TGC Spring Tour - Valero Texas Open

[ProTee United]

TOUR CHALLENGE
2 rounds at Chicago Golf Club - final ed



RULES
Gimme : within 2 yards / 1.8 meters
Handicap : Not required
Wind: OFF
Green Grid : ON
Club Suggestion is ENABLED.
Boost: OFF (+/-5% max on club settings)

The Valero Texas Open runs from TODAY - April 24.

Purse: $5,500,000

HOW TO PLAY
From the main menu select PLAY-> PLAY TOURNAMENT -> ALL TOURNAMENTS -> SET FILTER TO PUBLIC COMPETITIONS

You can play by yourself, offline with friends or ghost players or online.

GOOD LUCK !

[ProTee United]

[MainStGolf]

Had an opportunity to play a few practice rounds here this weekend since I finished up our week 1 tournament early. I like this course. It is a LOT more open as far as being able to miss off the tee, however there is plenty of rough out there to help make up for it. I didn't really think any of the fairway bunkers came into play at least for me that I can remember. A number of the green side bunkers did. Some of the greens are pretty tough to keep a play on, but because of the thicker rough they barely roll off if they do.

My problem with these greens was really a lack of being able to see the "bigger" picture on the green and maybe that's a lack of function with the software or an ignorance on my part to know how to use the right buttons. In all my practice rounds there were 2-3 chips that went a LOT longer than I was anticipating and when the ball stopped rolling it was because the green sloped away from me behind the pin, which I could not find a way to "see" that. I'm using SkyTrak with a PC, so maybe someone can shed some light on a good way to see the entire green especially when you are off the green. Maybe I just need to use a different club with one of the small yardages. But I noticed KS-man's videos he flies by the hole and then is able to backup the view. I haven't been able to find out how to do that for SkyTrak/PC combo. What am I missing?

Still having some issues with breaks. Had one putt that I thought would break a country mile that barely broke at all and then a couple of putts that I thought would break a few inches that ended up breaking 2-3 feet. That's frustrating that I can't seem to get a handle on that. But that makes a HUGE difference this week as a LOT of those putts were for par saves or bogie saves. Not a lot of birdie chances for me, although my scores were pretty consistent. I think I had, 83, 83, 81. I did manage to hit one of the par 5s in two in one round.

Par 3s are LONG! I may rethink my club usage this week. Right now I have a 4-iron, but I don't use it to stay within the 14-club limit. I may take out one of my wedges and put in my 4-iron this week due to the length of some of these holes.

Fun course that I think we could see some more low scores due to the open-nature of the course. I did find the fairway bunkers to be more punitive than other courses. I don't know if that is mental or if that can actually happen based on designer's wishes. I hit some very solid shots out of the sand that came up about half the distance of what I was expecting and trying to get myself to commit to those longer swings has been difficult :-).

I'm anxious to see if I can find my way back into the 70s this week, but it's going to be difficult for me if I can't keep my driver in the fairway, which I continue to struggle to do. I was anywhere from 235-280 based on swing and whether or not I hit the fairway :-).

[rsuslow]

Can't wait, this will be my first tourney on the tour. Looks like I got the ST just in time as I only missed the first tourney of the tour.

[Shardak]

I played a practice round on this weeks course. Much easier to play than last week. There are some long par 4's and long par 3's, but things are so wide open that you can really lean on your tee shots without too much risk. There are some big slopes on greens, but not so bad that its annoying.

I will say I had a really hard time holding greens. Had a 155 yard 7-iron into a par 4 that hit the front edge of the green and rolled out over 30 yards to run off the back. I didnt land on a down-slope or anything obvious like that..ball just took off after it landed. Shot info showed about 5k rpm, which is my average for a 7 iron. I know its a bit lower than ideal, but I never see this much roll-out in real life. I have seen others complain about this as a bug in TGC...this is the first time I have really noticed it being this bad. Multiple greens just felt very slippery.

It also seemed like this course doesnt look very good compared to others. Not sure exactly what is going on, but grass in the distance looks blurry and strange..like its lower resolution than it could be. Anyone notice this?

Overall I like this course, I wont be adding it to my favorites list but it is at least playable for a wide range of handicaps (unlike last week).

Good luck this week everyone.

[Mickey]

A bit spotty in the distance. Still fun to play but you're right it doesn't look as good as others.

I have a crew coming in to reconfigure my sim room. Theyre redirecting the ducts to give me a perfectly symmetrical room - no more hitting to the right side of my screen.

Hope it's done in time to play the Valero Open.

[V8burble]

Just played my rounds and really enjoyed this course. A complete contrast to last week. Some tough greens to hit and hold but a good, fun course to play.

[ks-man]

Played Round 1 today. If anything I felt this course was a little plain however I definitely enjoyed it more than last week's course. Agree with Burble about the greens being tough to hold. I had a few shots that I thought would play nicely but ended off the back.

[MainStGolf]

Round 1 down and I had it dialed in for about the first 13-14 holes and then the wheels fell off a little bit. Needed on more roll of the ball for a birdie. Lipped out a par putt and had two brain farted wedge shots. Couple like mentioned above that didn't hold the green. I hit a SWEET 8 iron on an approach on the back side and hit a few yards short of the pin and rolled 20-plus yards off the back side :-(. Ended up +6 with a pair of double bogies. Did finish with two or three birds this round. I shouldn't be disappointed, but I'm just too dang competitive.

Now we'll see if I can come close to that in round 2 instead of my meltdown like last week ;-). Man I'm lovin' this tour!

[rsuslow]

Ugh. Not a good showing in my first tourney. Those greens were tough to hold. Hope there is a trophy for last place! Don't think two 99's will get me far haha.

[Ironstrokes]

Ugh. Not a good showing in my first tourney. Those greens were tough to hold. Hope there is a trophy for last place! Don't think two 99's will get me far haha.

Haha chin up, there's definitely a nice learning curve, especially with the short game. I was in the 90s when I first started playing on sims and its just gotten better and better since. And you won't be able to help getting better with the new addiction that you'll have now! Haha

[Ironstrokes]

Round 1 down and I had it dialed in for about the first 13-14 holes and then the wheels fell off a little bit. Needed on more roll of the ball for a birdie. Lipped out a par putt and had two brain farted wedge shots. Couple like mentioned above that didn't hold the green. I hit a SWEET 8 iron on an approach on the back side and hit a few yards short of the pin and rolled 20-plus yards off the back side :-(. Ended up +6 with a pair of double bogies. Did finish with two or three birds this round. I shouldn't be disappointed, but I'm just too dang competitive.

Now we'll see if I can come close to that in round 2 instead of my meltdown like last week ;-). Man I'm lovin' this tour!

The tour really is great, isn't it. We all know it's in good fun but that still doesn't take away the competitive spirits we have. It gets the blood flowing, makes you concentrate on your shots more, and it actually even gets me nervous over some shots as well (especially when I know I have a good round going and don't want to blow it). Sim golf is a big part of my life now since I built mine. Playing at 1am after work as I do almost every night is priceless (it's still insane to me that I get to go play rounds of golf in the middle of the night whenever I want haha). I mean how many hobbies are out there that we can say we actually do almost every day, its at our houses, and take so much pleasure in.

Definitely a big thanks to the guys in the background making this tour go and picking the courses and all. The real MVPs

[MainStGolf]

Yes very appreciative of the powers that be to make this happen! The only thing is that I wish I had this at my house, but we use ours as a side business, so it's in our business building. I don't get to play as much as I would like :-).

[Sascha1818]

I 2nd that. Thanks to all the guys who spend much time , afford an thoughts on this. It's highly appreciated. Love my skytrak, TGC and the tour ! Couldn't be happier with these choices !

[ks-man]

Played my second round today. Had some issues with my driver throughout the round with a number of low backspin drives (800-1500 RPMs) which lead to nosedives off the teebox. TGC penalizes the distance way more than the GC2 indicates for those types of drives (100-120 yard carry in TGC vs. 180 indicated on GC2). Still held things together for an OK round.

Second Round

[mthunt]

Played my second round today. Had some issues with my driver throughout the round with a number of low backspin drives (800-1500 RPMs) which lead to nosedives off the teebox. TGC penalizes the distance way more than the GC2 indicates for those types of drives (100-120 yard carry in TGC vs. 180 indicated on GC2). Still held things together for an OK round.

Second Round

I hope they fix this. I took my gc2 outside and those low spin drives fly forever.

[goatbarn]

Yes they do. I am taking most the summer off of playing sim golf, but I hope to find time to do some research on this and provide any data I find to Protee for them to fix.

Between this, and the over-exaggeration of side spin, I hope next sim season TGC algorithms seem more accurate.

[ks-man]

Let me ask, if I'm seeing numbers of 138 ballspeed, low launch angles (maybe between 8-11), low ballspeed (800-1500) and sidespin around -1400 I will usually see a carry distance on GC2 around 185. On TGC I'll see carry distances around 120 and if it lands in the fairway it will roll to about 160yds.

Any guess based on what you are seeing with your numbers what I should expect a real drive like that to do? Thanks.

[mthunt]

Goats numbers are a little different but same principle. If I get 150 ball, 1000 rpm and 500 draw it drops.

Goat, I already did the research and gave it to Charkes.

[mthunt]

I was told low spin fix is on the radar.

[ProTee United]

Fixed in the next update: http://golfsimulatorforum.com/forum/...e-status/page2

[mthunt]

See. Protee support. Top shelf.