Harbour Town makes sense as it probably has both the smallest and flattest greens of any regular tour stop by a wide margin, so there will be fewer GIR but a high % of up and downs. My many years playing that course on Links LS is my source.

Harbour Town definitely has the smallest greens and was the site of 3 of the 4 lowest 72 hole putting totals in PGA Tour history.

I remember logging hundreds of rounds at Harbour Town on Links 386, noob.

Is there anywhere to see strokes gained putting for each tournament or is it only available for the season like on PGAtour.com?

Harbour town is one of my fav courses on the PGA tour. I would love to play there.

Come at me br0. I played 386 plenty as well, but Links LS was a massive upgrade in terms of graphics and realism, not to mention being able to play online. Still by far the best golf sim ever made, a full decade after the last release. EA is such a joke, ugh.

Harbour Town was definitely a 386 OG course though, along with Pebble Beach, Firestone (awful), Castle Pines, Torrey Pines, Riviera (I think), and good old Bountiful Municipal. One of these things is not like the others. There were a lot of other courses too but those are the ones that came immediately to mind.

I played the hell out of this one:

an and.... he finished at 287, -1 18 strokes out of the lead. which tells you all you need to know about total putts.

miss greens, total putts go down. its a misleading stat.

Gay is very good putter strokes gained last season 0.559 ranks him sixth. Of course he HAS to putt well. he was ranked 176 in total driving which means he hits it short AND crooked.

Strokes gained in putting guys ranked high here win tourneys. (which Gay did this year)


clear example.

Lee Westwood 2012 stats.

ball striking ranks 3rd.

GIR 69.75 ranked third.

strokes gained putt -0.429 ranks 174th! so he loses 2 strokes a tourney if he makes the cut due to his crap putting.

zero wins.

D Johnson

ball striking 59th

GIR 65.75 ranks 78th

strokes gained putting. pretty good 0.216 ranks 51st
so 1 stroke per tourney. over the field. If DJ hits greens he has a shot to win because he can putt.

Lee hits FW and Greens and cannot win because he simply can't get the ball in the hole. He has to stiff it all day long for 4 days to have a chance and winning.

TW strokes gained putting.


2013 0.995 7th
2012 0.332 36th
2011 0.258 45th
2010 -0.033 109th so average with a bad knee 12 events
2009 0.874 2nd
2008 0.833 3rd
2007 0.711 3rd
2006 0.438 22nd
2005 0.577 9th
2004 0.775 2nd


\

I know BO is gonna tell us to bring it to the video game forum but the old Links games bring back awesome memories.

My dorm-mate freshman year had LS on his comp and we would battle it out on Championship difficulty where around even par was a decent round. I can't stand the new style golf games where -20 is a standard round and -22 is good.

As far as the original 386 courses, without looking anything up, they also had Banff Springs, the Belfry, Pinehurst #2, Innisbrook (this weeks venue), Barton creek, and Mauna Kea. There were a few others I'm forgetting and I had them all.

Good times.

fwiw you can set the new games up to be pretty damn hard. default settings are a joke ldo.

Yeah, I play the newer Tiger games on the hardest settings and they're OK, but my swing is perfect every time, my putting is obscenely good inside 15 feet, and it just doesn't have anything close to a realistic feel.

FWIW I just went to linkscountryclub.com and downloaded the entire Links LS 2003 game with 6 courses in about 5 minutes. Best $10 I can remember spending. Off to go play that **** til the sun comes up.

Played it with my Dad once, confirmed great course. Would love to go back.

Move this **** to the video game forum!

BO

With the short putting do you have the green grid off? 5-10 footers are still way too easy in the game mostly because you're never misaligned, if you want to start it left edge you will. However putts over 10 feet should be a lot less consistent on tournament speed with no grid, especially at places like Birkdale.

If you download the new TW14 demo they have a new setting called simulation mode where you have to hit a fade or draw every swing (by swinging diagonally) and cannot zoom to your target to aim. It also gives you a wind direction but not an MPH so there is more uncertainty there. Looks to be a major improvement in degree of difficulty with the long game, however the putting to me seemed like it might be easier than '13

You have to get a rough wind speed though right? I mean in real life you can feel the wind and approximate how hard it's blowing obviously. You never step to the tee and wonder whether the wind is blowing 1mph or 40 mph

Problem for me is that I much, much prefer the social aspect of playing online with others, playing solo - even if in a group event where you post rounds - was just so...lonely. I remember guys would make custom sound files with clips from TV broadcasts that would replace the default file. The size of the sound file was only like 3-4 megs but on dial-up it would take a long-ass time to download.

By far the most fun I have ever had in online gaming was playing Links LS with others. Especially two man team match play vs. formats like scramble and alternate shot.

Ha, I was a regular on a Links LS forum and used to troll the **** out of the Pro level players, mainly the really good ones. Championship mode yielded scores that you would see on tour - I only ever broke 60 once, a 59 at Kapalua Plantation - and in tough conditions you'd grind out an even par round and feel like you did something remarkable. Pro is for people who like bowling with inflatable bumpers in the alleys. It's fine when you're learning but embarrassing after you've gotten good.

The ball flight mechanics and particularly the effect that lie and stance had on the shot were something that TW hasn't come close to replicating. Nor do they seem to have any interest whatsoever in making that a priority. Thankfully Links LS is ageless - I don't care about playing with a pro's avatar - the course library deep, and the APCD allowed for people to make a lot of great courses.

So you can't play Links LS online anymore?

Yeah that's what I was wondering as well. The screen for online matches is still there but I can't seem to connect. Not sure if its a problem on my end or the feature is no longer in service.

BO must be so pissed right now.

BO is a purist, he only plays the earliest text-based golf games

I like the course they are playing on this week. Nice oldschool woodland course.

It's given me a new idea for a bumper sticker.

Those who can golf play golf, those who cannot play golf video games.

Heh heh. Just a joke son.

BO

lulz

Well the Tampa Bay open just not doing it for me after last weeks WGC

Is the broadcast on in the US?

Yes. Golf channel, right now. Every PGA Tour event is on in the US afaik.