Quote:
Originally Posted by leoslayer
Alright Stads might as well give us a hole by hole trip report.
How bad is the cliff on the front right of 6? How tough is the back right pin? Front left on 3 did you get to play that pin at all?
The ledge drops off about 5 feet short of it to the front of the green and left of it drops 2-4 feet depending on how far onto the green you are. I would say the entire area of that shelf is about 9 yards wide and 10 yards deep so it is pretty tough to get it back there. I did play a pin way over on the left on 3 on Friday, you just aim out to the right and let the slope bring it down.
Quote:
Originally Posted by KenoVictoryLap
How did this experience affect your perception of your ability to play at the PGA level? More or less confident you can do so?
Favorite pro you spent time with?
Weirdest request from a patron and/or twitter follower?
It didn't deter any plans I have to play at that level. It would have been discouraging if I felt like I went out and played great and missed the cut, but there were a few mistakes I made each round that would have gotten me just back to the cutline. What the week really helped me with was getting comfortable on that big of a stage, I think that will be something valuable when I get to Merion for the Open.
My favorite guy to play with was Watney, with Rory in a close second. Both of them were great guys and really fun to play with. I would ask some other guys questions and they would answer, but both of these guys would talk back to me and have a conversation while we played which was nice.
Strangest interaction with a patron was signing an autograph and taking a picture of this girl who was probably 15-17 and then having her father say "shes still single"...I just replied with "well I'm not", it was funny but kinda strange as well. The girl must have been pretty embarrassed.
Quote:
Originally Posted by mucksandgravs
Stads,
Just wanted to say thanks for coming in here and talking about your experience. This is cool as **** and we really appreciate it.
Looking forward to Merion
Absolutely, I don't mind doing it at all. Kinda helps me remember everything that happened.
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Originally Posted by salesbeast
Way to go Stads! Was your first impression like mine and most that have vistited Augusta HOLLY F IT IS UP AND DOWN! lol I couldn't imagine what walking it would have been like. Did you have nerves teeing up with spectators so close and did you have any thought of OMG don't snap hook and kill someone lol
I had been to Augusta before to watch in 2009, so the elevation wasn't a surprise to me. I wasn't nervous in general with spectators there. Only time I was a little worried was on 15 on Thursday. I hit it right in the trees and Tiger was coming up 17 so there was a huge gallery where I hit it. (15 and 17 run parallel) People were crowding around when I hit and I had a fairly narrow window to punch out through and people were in real tight. I wasn't worried about hitting them on the fly, but more if I were to catch the tree and ricochet it would hit them.
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Originally Posted by UCBananaboy
A few questions of my own:
2 things about the course that surprised you?
2 things about the experience that might surprise us?
Most underrated hole on the course?
If you could replay only a single hole one time, which would it be?
Thanks for doing this!
One of the more difficult aspects to grasp is how the general lay of the land runs to the 12th green and how much it can affect putts. That gave me trouble the first time I was there reading the greens because it had a big affect.
Something that may be surprising is how it is difficult to judge the wind. Holes are basically shaped through the big trees, and if you are in a hole that is exposed on two ends (such as green and tee) to the wind, the wind will feel like it is blowing straight in or down cause it is going through the trees down the hole. So it was important to keep in mind which way the wind was supposed to be blowing and trust that.
As far as the experience, the events that they had for the amateurs were pretty incredible. I probably can't go into too much detail, but some of the people I got to meet at these events were heavy hitters in golf as well as business and politics, it was pretty cool.
The most underrated hole is number 1 by far. The tee shot is one of the narrower tee shots on the course, behind 7 and 17, and the green is not real receptive to the length of shot you hit into it. If you miss the green you will have a tough up and down from just about anywhere.
I would love to replay hole 8, because if there is one hole that caused me to miss the cut, it would be 8 since I went for it in two both days and made bogey. I may tweak my strategy and lay back a little bit. I just gave away shots on that hole and two birdies there instead of two bogeys gets me to the weekend. That was the biggest leak in my game during the week, I gave away shots on easy holes.