MasterCard Colonial

Never have played this course well - I just don't have the skill set for it - Oh well onward.

Thank god - I thought we had lost you onward

Round 1 Some courses are just not meant for these conditions and this is one, upside down saucer greens impossible to stay on some make the game a lottery, did not enjoy this round whatsoever. Nobody will get anywhere near winning this event if the conditions are similar in remaining rounds IMO of course. Bob your game is not in tatters just look at the scores posted. Onward.

Guys, I think I've messed up with the conditions for this tourney. I saw the length of the course and decided to make them really tough. In fact, Round 1 may be the easiest this week!! It looks almost certain that a pro will win this week, and I was hoping that would be the case as there haven't been many pro wins in the Spring Swing. But I wasn't expecting the carnage that we've gone through so far - and will continue to suffer over the next three rounds. Many apologies!

R1. You guys almost psyched me out with all the moaning. As it turned out, I hit the ball well and I putted really well. Difficult greens and conditions, but I managed my game well. I may join the moaning after R2 though. We will see. 

R2. As predicted, I did not score as well in R2, but I won't blame the course or conditions. When I struck the ball well I played well. But my swing timing left at some point. I even stopped and took a number of practice swings to try and get back in the groove; but nothing seemed to work. The swing timing remained erratic. So I limped in; not too disappointed with my score considering the circumstances. I wish I knew it was just me. But it happens so often, even when I am swinging well like in R1, that it makes me suspect something else is going on. It's like there is something built into the game to make sure you cannot get in the groove and stay there for very long. Then again, it could be just me. The Master Clubs are reported to require very precise timing. So maybe just a small difference in swing timing makes a big difference.

Thanks, Ian. I too enjoy playing the tough conditions. And I have no complaints about course selection. If I am playing well, I don't really care what courses we play. I expect to hit a few offline shots and not hit every fairway and green. I have no complaints on that score and I fully support the concept you guys have implemented here. But the swing timing at the start of the downswing has me baffled, and it is not shot dispersion (right and left) as much as distance loss. I don't expect to hit every green, but I do expect a 170-yard club to go around 170 yards from the fairway or the tee and not 140. When the swing timing goes for me, I get slows at the bottom, 90% and 95% power. These take so much distance off the shot that I am sometimes 30 or 40 yards shorter than expected. And you can imagine the result if I am playing an approach shot across the water. It doesn't bother me that much when I get a fast at the top and hit long left. I can generally feel when I have pushed the mouse too fast. But the slows and low percentage power at the bottom seem totally random to me. I'm not sure I even know what to change to fix these. In general, fasts and slows seem to come from how fast or slow I am pulling or pushing the mouse. Power loss seems to come from starting the downswing too early (before the backswing is completed). The basic fix I implement is to watch the golfer closely and time the start of the downswing just as the club reaches the top of the backswing and try to push the mouse with the correct speed. But it is not entirely clear to me what produces the slows and power loss at the bottom. Basic swing timing should not be a dark art. In other games, you almost always know what you have done wrong and can work on correcting it. I have not found that to be true in TGC 2019 for this particular issue. I may give the Pro clubs a try.



Good luck next week and best wishes for some positive developments.