The Sound of Air Escaping an Open Balloon
I just played in back-to-back NADGT B-tiers in the MA-40 division (I'm 49) at Meyer Broadway Park (Three Rivers, MI) where there are two 18-hole courses on a beautiful property. The north course is more open and easier with some elevation, but not nearly as much as the south course, which is also a lot more difficult.
I felt like my rounds 1 and 2 (Saturday, north course) and round 3 (Sunday, south course) were me playing at my potential and doing fine. Then the air let out of the balloon for round 4 and I shot my worst-ever rated round in 24 years of sanctioned play.
I came back from lunch and found myself tight all throughout my core, lower back, and my usual bad left hip. I hobbled. Couldn't shake it, and also couldn't throw hard at all. Found myself in the schule a lot. The only thing that didn't really suffer too badly was putting, but that's what I do.
I remembered that this also happened to me at both of these events last year at age 48.
I couldn't help but wonder if this happened to anybody else playing either MA-40 or MA-50 both days at 2022 and/or 2021's Meyer Broadway NADGT events.
There were a total of six participants who played both days in either 2022 or 2021 (all MA-40), and I was the only one who did it both years. It turns out that everybody who played on both days did worse in their 4th round than their 3rd. 4 out of the 6 participants had their worst round of the whole weekend for that 4th round. Nobody's 4th round was better than 3rd best out of 4.
Here are the round ratings of all participants, both years.
2022 (north course, then south course)
Me: 900, 917, 906, 822
"JK": 872, 850, 841, 835
"BA": 829, 837, 854, 835
2021 (south course, then north course)
Me: 927, 927, 921, 866
"JS": 866, 927, 948, 907
"TL": 878, 878, 880, 744
To be fair, the differences between BA's rounds don't vary enough to be significant. He played essentially the same all weekend. You could say that JK's difference was small, but it's interesting to see a 1 or 2 stroke slide between each of the rounds.
The rest of us really tanked between rounds 3 and 4. I remember that both JS and TL had gotten hurt somewhere in their legs over the course of that final round. It was stiffness and fatigue for me for both years.
The point of all this? For one, I am done playing back-to-back tourneys where I'm going to play a fourth round in two days.
Second, maybe a good discussion to have is holding age-protected amateur tournaments with just one round? Yes, this includes juniors, especially the younger ones, like MJ-12 and younger. My son has played in a couple of Eagles' Wings regional juniors tourneys (Holland, MI) which are just 1 round and it's fantastic..
I played in a 1-round flex start c-tier a couple of years ago and loved how it was done after one round. In fact, I won the MA-40 division that day out of 5 or 6 of us and the round rating was tied for the best I've had since coming back to play as an old guy. Strangely enough, though, it's tied with a two-round, one-day event at Flip City, where I also shot a pair of 935's. I can't fathom coming back to play a second day of 2 rounds there!! (Meyer Broadway south has comparable elevation.)
Thoughts?
I just played in back-to-back NADGT B-tiers in the MA-40 division (I'm 49) at Meyer Broadway Park (Three Rivers, MI) where there are two 18-hole courses on a beautiful property. The north course is more open and easier with some elevation, but not nearly as much as the south course, which is also a lot more difficult.
I felt like my rounds 1 and 2 (Saturday, north course) and round 3 (Sunday, south course) were me playing at my potential and doing fine. Then the air let out of the balloon for round 4 and I shot my worst-ever rated round in 24 years of sanctioned play.
I came back from lunch and found myself tight all throughout my core, lower back, and my usual bad left hip. I hobbled. Couldn't shake it, and also couldn't throw hard at all. Found myself in the schule a lot. The only thing that didn't really suffer too badly was putting, but that's what I do.
I remembered that this also happened to me at both of these events last year at age 48.
I couldn't help but wonder if this happened to anybody else playing either MA-40 or MA-50 both days at 2022 and/or 2021's Meyer Broadway NADGT events.
There were a total of six participants who played both days in either 2022 or 2021 (all MA-40), and I was the only one who did it both years. It turns out that everybody who played on both days did worse in their 4th round than their 3rd. 4 out of the 6 participants had their worst round of the whole weekend for that 4th round. Nobody's 4th round was better than 3rd best out of 4.
Here are the round ratings of all participants, both years.
2022 (north course, then south course)
Me: 900, 917, 906, 822
"JK": 872, 850, 841, 835
"BA": 829, 837, 854, 835
2021 (south course, then north course)
Me: 927, 927, 921, 866
"JS": 866, 927, 948, 907
"TL": 878, 878, 880, 744
To be fair, the differences between BA's rounds don't vary enough to be significant. He played essentially the same all weekend. You could say that JK's difference was small, but it's interesting to see a 1 or 2 stroke slide between each of the rounds.
The rest of us really tanked between rounds 3 and 4. I remember that both JS and TL had gotten hurt somewhere in their legs over the course of that final round. It was stiffness and fatigue for me for both years.
The point of all this? For one, I am done playing back-to-back tourneys where I'm going to play a fourth round in two days.
Second, maybe a good discussion to have is holding age-protected amateur tournaments with just one round? Yes, this includes juniors, especially the younger ones, like MJ-12 and younger. My son has played in a couple of Eagles' Wings regional juniors tourneys (Holland, MI) which are just 1 round and it's fantastic..
I played in a 1-round flex start c-tier a couple of years ago and loved how it was done after one round. In fact, I won the MA-40 division that day out of 5 or 6 of us and the round rating was tied for the best I've had since coming back to play as an old guy. Strangely enough, though, it's tied with a two-round, one-day event at Flip City, where I also shot a pair of 935's. I can't fathom coming back to play a second day of 2 rounds there!! (Meyer Broadway south has comparable elevation.)
Thoughts?
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