How do you win a major (or any tournament, for that matter)?

[barrybridges]

No, I'm not being facetious. I've been thinking about something interesting.

How is a golf tournament actually won or lost?

Is it four days of consistently good performance?

Is it a single wonder round amidst solid average performance on the other three days?

How should a tournament organiser set up the course over 4 days to 'select' the winner?

Watching the Masters I couldn't help but notice that the playing field isn't made very level by the organisers. What I mean is that on day 1, the leader was -5. But, after 4 days, it was won with -10: only double the progress made in the first day.

In other tournaments, however (thinking Ballatines last year), the winner will end up scoring -20 or something ridiculous.

In Augusta, it seemed that the organisers were essentially setting the Sunday up as an easier (!) layout, which means that the hard work on Thursday - Saturday was less relevant than Sunday, other than it ruled no-hopers out. In essence, you play Thursday to Saturday in order to give yourself a chance to win it on the Sunday. Or - in football parlance - a tournament isn't won on Thursday or Friday, but it can be lost.

I suppose my question(s) are then: why aren't the pin positions kept the same for all four rounds, to ensure a consistent test of golf? Also, how is a golf tournament won? Is it about being consistently good for four days, or just hitting the round of your life and not messing anything up the other three days?

Or, looking at it another way: should the tournament organisers be so influential in curating the 'pattern' of the competition, using pin positions to dictate progress, rather than player ability? Why shouldn't the Masters be won with a score of -20?

 

[CrapHacker]

By putting in all the hours and days and moths and years of hard work.

And then getting out of your own way on the course.

Simples

 

[bladeplayer]

they cant leave the pins the same because of wear n tear around the hole , also it might be a bit boring by day 4 , it is consistant tho because its the same pins for all the players on any given day . they cant set it up stupidly hard on the final day because they want excitement not car crash tv with big numbers been rolled out .. they try even it out over the 1st few days with those starting early on thurs , start late on fri etc ..
it can be a mixrture of 2 days very good & 2 days steady , 1 extra brilliant day -10 or something followed by 3 steady days etc .. comps are won im many different ways , but as craphacker said its won in the years & months before hand, then ya need a little mixture of skill & good fortune on the weekend , control the fairway between your ears & then & only then do you have a chance

 

[JustOne]

Avoid using the same putter as Westy.

Score lower than the other guys.

Luck.

 

[Mattyboy]

To use Augusta as an example, there are traditional pin positions for the final day which might be used in any given year, that are a bit easier. e.g. 18 with the slope as a back stop, 16, where the ball gathers to the lower part of the green etc. However, its the same for all and as has been said preparation, staying out of your own way and a hot putter help enormously.

 

[fundy]

Watching the Masters I couldn't help but notice that the playing field isn't made very level by the organisers. What I mean is that on day 1, the leader was -5. But, after 4 days, it was won with -10: only double the progress made in the first day.

The best scores overs the 4 days were 67,68,65,66 so actually was set up pretty equally over the 4 days, if anything the weekend was easier than the thursday and friday. the winner was actually -3,-4,-6 -10 after the 4 days so to most surprise a consistent Bubba over the 4 days prevailed

 

[Ian_S]

Regards -5 to -10, that's actually exactly what you'd expect statistically. It's hard to explain without going into dull maths, but essentially the -5 round is an outlier, and you wouldnt expect the same guy that shot that to shoot the same again the next day. It's a bit like the leader of the premier league often has 12 points after 4 games, but you don't expect the eventual winner to score 114 pts over a season.