Thanks very much GM - Grove Powerplay

[Alex1975]

Hi all,

Just a quick post to thank Mike and all the GM team for a great afternoon at the beautiful Grove.

It was great to meet lots of forum members and get beat by alot of non forum members! Thoughs who can't, talk about it

Powerplay was fun and interesting though a little odd having 4 people on the green and putting to different holes. The scoring is quite cool and could be quite tactical. It will be interesting to see if it takes off, golfers are maybe not that into change as a group!?

Anyhow 20 points for me so did not make a fool of my self but can play better.


Thanks again!!

 

[USER1999]

Yep, many thanks to team gm, nikon, power play, and The Grove (in great nick as always).

Didn't cover myself in glory, but a good laugh any way.

For those who have not played it, if you ever do, stay out of the foot deep bundu. Five shots, and I'm still in there. Not good.

 

[fundy]

A big thank you to Mike, Neil Jezz and team, a superbly organised day as always

The Grove was as I remembered, and in great nick as you would expect.

Thanks to Daniel, Mark and Sean, really enjoyed the company and always good to play with forumites ive not played with before. Also good to catch up with some other forumites who I havent seen for a while.

As for the golf, somewhere between poor and awful, birdied the first and straight downhill from there, not to mention the frustration of the demise of my motocaddy lol.

As for the format, its not really grabbed me (I think it places too much emphasis on SIs and esp the SI of the 9th) but would happily give it another go, think it suits the pro game better than the amateur game though.

 

[Swinger]

Yep, many thanks to team gm, nikon, power play, and The Grove (in great nick as always).

Didn't cover myself in glory, but a good laugh any way.

For those who have not played it, if you ever do, stay out of the foot deep bundu. Five shots, and I'm still in there. Not good.

-3 for a nett par on the last??

Somebody wasn't listening during the briefing!!

Lucky for me I stayed out of the hay but it really didn't look nice.

I didn't shine in glory either but I did most of the damage on the greens!


Thanks alot GM cracking afternoon all in all. PowerPlay was a good crack.

Thanks also to Neil Tapping, Aztecs and Steve for the game.

Top notch venue.

 

[chris661]

Neil20:


Score aside, what a great day GM put on at The Grove today, thanks to all concerned.

Some observations on the format:

I felt it wasn't a good multi-group format. It was great fun within the group and would probably add an extra dimension regarding the timing of taking a Powerplay if you only had to beat the guys you were with, but there seemed a little too much guesswork in terms of winning an entire tournament.

I thought the stroke indexing made it hard to set up the course. My instinctive reaction was to make SI1 really hard and SI18 really easy and make the low handicappers have a mor difficult decision than just taking powerplays on the holes where they have shots.
Having spoken to a low handicapper on the way home though, he was saying that it was bad enough already with the high handicappers getting a chance at 6 points on an easy hole with a shot.
Valid point.
It does seem however the course is set up, it would favour certain sections of the handicap range.

While the course was in great condition and the tournament very well run and there was the usual buzz around such an event, there didn't seem any EXTRA buzz generated by the powerplay option. Extra frustration maybe but the non powerplay holes lost a little by not being very important compared to what was gained on the powerplay holes.

In light of the above, it would be good if a way could be thought up to balance the stroke indexes more so as to keep the game strategic but fair (There's nothing strategic about 6 HC players picking SI 1,3,5 .... but equally it's not fair if 1,3,5 are impossible)

I'm naturally a little negative though, and don't want to put a downer on what I must stress was great fun in great company.

 

[Alex1975]

Sorry Neil, I did look for a post before making this... But not hard enough it seems

 

[Deleted member 1418]

Yes thanks to the GM Team, the Power Play team and The Grove for a fantastic day.

Also thanks to my playing partners Gary (Region3), Simon and Tim for their company. Was a pleasure to watch Gary play some exceptional golf - 5 birdies in 9 holes really was something to see......and to think he only finished third!!

 

[Gillespie16]

So come on then, Spill the Beans - Who Won???

 

[fundy]

a non forumite, think he was from Mexico

 

[Imurg]

As above - a really good afternoon/evening even if the golf left much to be desired. Company was excellent - thanks to RichardC, Alex Narey and Tom. Some good banter going on. Muchos thanks to GM, The Grove and Powerplay.

At the briefing given by Peter McEvoy, he mentioned that the game is almost more suited to the higher handicapper although that didn't stop Region3 coming within an inch of taking the spoils once more - how many birdies Gary~?
Although I can see the point of Powerplay I didn't really take to it. To me it felt more like a 9 hole after work stableford with some mates. In all honesty that could be down to me playing poorly again at a GM meet but I don't have a need for a shortened version of Golf.
In ordinary stableford, if a couple of putts drop, then you take a 2,3 or 4 point lead over your playing partners. In Powerplay those couple of putts suddenly can put yu 10 points clear. Powerplay doesn't reward you playing to your handicap. A nett par doesn't count for much. So a steady Pargrinder like me - normally - isn't going to score well in this format unless I can par a "shot" hole. So it's an interesting format but in all honesty not one I'll play much should it get off the ground.

 

[SyR]

Great job guys, it was a really fun afternoon on a great course and the burger and chips afterwards was much appreciated.

The Grove is a very nice set up and the course and service were top notch. The free strokesaver, tees, pitchmark repairer and personalised bag tag were a nice touch from the course. I still can't believe the day was free for us!

My golf was sadly very erratic, I think I used up all my good shots with the free golf balls on the range and chipping area.

I thought that my usual draw shot off the tee would suit this courses layout but I pretty much blocked every tee shot right! I managed to plug my ball in the lip of a fairway bunker on the 6th and then went clean under the ball from the rough on the 7th as I hadn't realised the ball was sitting 3 inches above the ground.

I enjoyed the powerplay concept, it was easy to understand the setup but hard to know when was the best moment to use my powerplays. I think I'll have to watch the next pro powerplay event on TV, the format has the potential to be quite exciting.

Thanks to the guys at GM for the great day, it was well run and fantastic value for money. Also big thanks to Rob2, Auburn Warrior and Jezz for the company.

P.S. While I was waiting at the bag drop for my taxi, Fabio Capello strolled past me with his assistants all dressed in their England tracksuits. I gave him a nod and he nodded back. They carried on off down the first fairway into the darkness, I imagine to discuss who will keep the bench warm in the up and coming matches. Very surreal end to the afternoon.

 

[HawkeyeMS]

Yes indeed, thanks to Mike and the team and of course the PPG guys for a cracking afternoon and thanks to Alex, Sam and Stuart for their company. The afternoon got off to a horrible start for me starting bogey, treble, treble for 1 point but I found my game after that and ended up with 24 thanks to 3 x 6 pointers in the last 6 holes. The course was in great nick as expected, the tees being better than our greens and all in all it was a great afternoon.

 

[lesbanana]

Mike, GM team, The Grove and Powerplay Guys I would just like to say a very big thank you for organising such a fantastic afternoon, Thanks to Chris, Matt and Craig for your company through what was an "interesting" match, the powerplay format was certainly more challenging than i had expected (as reflected by my scorecard) although after a net birdie on the ninth by Matt, Craig and myself, we were taken aback by Chris when he completeley cocked it up after telling us that "this is the hole you really must go for" unlucky Chris! but thanks for the tip!
The whole afternoon was a great experience not to be missed, well organised and presented, FANTASTIC!

 

[RichardC]

Fantastic days golf.

Thanks to Golf Monthly for organising a great afternoons golf, and thanks to Imurg, Alex Narey, and Tom Costello (should be joining the forum).

Never managed to get anything going but thoroughly enjoyed the format.

 

[HomerJSimpson]

What can I say. Awesome. Free unlimited range balls, personalised commemorative bag tags, free course guides, pencils and tees. Even the bottles of water were free. Thoroughly enjoyed my day and was happy to play with the winner who came home with a blistering 33 points. He made par on all the powerplay holes for 6 points a piece

Free burger and beer to finish. Happy days. Many thanks to Powerplay, GM, the Grove and Nikon for all their hard work. The course was a different calibre. Their tee boxes were better than our greens. Nothing out of place and the greens were fantastic even if I couldn't get a putt to drop. On the plus side I struck it great but failed to capitalise on my powerplay holes which is the name of the game.

Brilliant day out

 

[Aztecs27]

Excellent afternoon of golf. Can't really add much to what has already been said. Very awesome.

Walked past Fabio Capello on the way out. Was going to punch him, but thought better of it!

Oh, but no thanks to Tappers for trying the hard sell of the new Mizzy ions on the way round! it may have worked (once I sort my swing )

 

[EZprophet]

Yup can't add much more other than to say thankyou to GM for hosting such a brilliant day. Really enjoyed it.

Completely agree with Imurg's view on the format... will probably write more on it tomorrow but too tired now to be honest.

 

[Region3]

Another thanks to GM, Powerplay, and the Grove for the organising and hosting of the event.
A big thanks also to Nikon who were loaning out lasers for anyone wanting to try one. Very handy I'd imagine for any idiots that had left their GPS at home!

Thanks also to Pieman, Tim & Simon (who will both hopefully join us soon ) for your company and encouragement.

I can't ever imagine having a stranger days golf. In the morning at West Herts with murph, Aztecs and RichardC would probably have been in the high 80's if I'd continue to keep score all the way round.
Then The Grove, which I assumed would be harder and with faster trickier greens.

Birdie
Bogey
Bogey
Birdie
Birdie
Bogey
Birdie
Birdie
Bogey

Only 1 birdie on a powerplay hole. No pars!

I love the idea (in theory) of Powerplay, but as others have mentioned I don't think it lends itself very well to handicap golf.

Playing off 8, there are 3 holes in the first 8 where I'd get a shot so I think most would agree it's a no brainer that they would be the PP holes, as it should be easier to par a hard hole than birdie an easy one.
Maybe if I'd been a bit different and chosen non-stroke holes I wouldn't have birdied them because of the more difficult pin positions, I'll never know.
If I played it again I'd still go with the same holes though, and for that reason I don't think there's any scope for different tactics or strategy.

It needs everyone off the same (or no) handicap, but that's never going to happen en masse at club level, just scratch and pro comps.

It's a shame because I'm a sucker for different formats, but I don't know what you could do about it.

Still loved the day though

 

[Imurg]

I got fooled a bit by the greens.
Big notice up stating that the green-speed was 10.5 on the Stimp and they looked slick.
Trouble was they didn't roll that quick, maybe due to growth during the day. So I got it into my head that these were fast greens and couldn't shift that thought until about the 6th hole so most putts were woefully short. Finally got my head round it and that's when I started putting decently.

 

[rob2]

Cant really add much more to what has been said already but thanks so much to GM for giving us opportunities like this. Absolutely amazing.

I quite liked the PP format, it definately adds some spice to the holes which you opt to Powerplay. Not sure that a lot of the old stiffs at my club would agree though, to set in their ways I fear.

Thanks to Syr, Ginger warrior and Jezz for the company.

Rob