As of the 2012 release, you may have as many as 16 different types of virtual golf balls in your bag.  Now is a good time to take a look at all of them to see what’s right for your game.

Golden Tee’s site gives you a nice little graph showing the expected performance of each ball in regards to 4 factors: distance, backspin, curve, and loft.  So, at a high level, you can glance at the charts and see roughly how they compare, but I wanted to find out the numbers behind those charts.

When measured closely, you’ll find that the performance ratings vary quite a bit more than meets the eye.  Click here to open this spreadsheet in a new window.  In terms of pixels, the raw numbers you see in column D represent the length of each bar.  In the top center is a grid displaying the raw ratings.  Now, if you assume that the stock ball has average performance in each category, as seems to be indicated by the graph, then the stock ball should have a rating of 5.0 on a scale of 0 to 10.  Using this as our base, we get a better performance rating grid, as seen in the upper right.

From there, you can break down each of the 4 categories, sorted by highest-performing at the top (or left of the chart).  Now you can see more accurately how each of these balls stack up against each other in each category.

So, what categories are the most important to consider when choosing your ball?  In my opinion, distance is king and must be considered first.  Extra distance on straight shots alone can make the biggest difference in your score.  Curve is probably next — you want your ball to be able to curve sharply on your A1 and C3-type shots to give you even more potential to reach locations not otherwise possible with a lesser-performing ball.  Backspin is also important, but you’re probably looking for something in the middle — too much backspin can be hard to control, and not enough makes it difficult to stick some greens.  Finally, loft doesn’t seem to be much of a factor when choosing a ball.  You will learn loft much more from club selection than you will by changing balls.

Moving back to the grid in the upper-right, you can also see why most players choose Hurtles as their ball of choice.  They are among the longest in distance, and they have decent backspin and curve ratings.  According to the chart, they don’t have much loft at all, but that doesn’t seem to be the case, or a significant factor, when playing them.

Of course, all this analysis is contingent on the data being accurate, and according to many pros, some of the data is off base.  The distance ratings are solid — you can see proof of that with your distance marker off the tee as you change between balls.  Curve ratings should be pretty close.  For backspin, many believe the Hurtles rating should be higher (at least in the middle), while the Straight Jackets spin more than the Streaks.  Finally, the loft ratings seem to be off, lending even more support to the argument that this factor shouldn’t much be considered.  The Air-Os seem to have lower loft, while the Streaks and Hurtles have plenty of loft, it seems.  And there’s the final point why most of you should be playing the Hurtles in 2012 — they are long and don’t seem to have any weaknesses.

No, that’s not a typo — I’m going to give you some advice on using the new spin option of bite with Golden Tee’s 2012 release.  Now that everyone’s hopefully played a few rounds on the 2012 courses, you’ve learned a little how bite works.  This can be incredibly useful on hard-sloping greens and/or with tough winds where backspin or no spin would otherwise not give you a chance to stick it close.  Let me break it down more for you so that you can know what to expect and when to use this great new spin feature.

Bite essentially causes your ball to stop and settle once it hits the ground.  You’ll notice that it stop/skips twice on contact, and then it rolls out from there.  But how much will it behave like backspin, and where will it roll afterwards?

Let’s focus on the backspin portion first.  If you haven’t noticed already, bite is more like backspin when you hit the ball hard, and more like a check-up when you hit it smooth.  So, the harder you hit the ball with bite applied, the more like backspin it will behave.  But how much?  Here are some guidelines:

Using a no pull back, regular thumb shot, you will get about 10% of normal backspin. This is not much at all.  So when thumbing a shot into a green with bite, keep this in mind.

With a hard thumbs, no pullback shot, or a smooth push shot, you will get 15-20% of regular backspin.

Using a pull back, smooth palm shot, you will get 20-25% of normal backspin.

Pulling back and hitting it hard will get you about 33% of regular backspin.

So, that should help you know what to expect when the ball first hits the green.  You probably have a feel for what backspin is going to do already, so keep these percentages in mind when thinking of how bite is going to behave differently.

Now, where is the ball going to end up after it’s done biting?  First, let’s talk about the loft of your club.  Keep in mind that bite, just as with backspin, is stronger with higher lofted clubs.  The percentages at the top still hold true, but a lob wedge into a headwind with bite will certainly come backwards, whereas a 2-hybrid would actually continue forward after the bite is done.  It’s due to forward momentum — a lob wedge would be coming straight down, while a 2-hybrid will still have strong forward velocity.  These concepts were the same with backspin, so if you have a handle on backspin in regards to loft, you can carry this knowledge forward with bite.

That being said, wind and slope are the other two main factors, so let’s focus on those and look at some examples of how bite would behave with something like a 5-iron:

1) Tailwind into a flat green — expect the ball to end up slightly forward of where it lands.  The momentum of the wind is more than a couple skips of bite can overcome.

2) Headwind into a flat green — expect the ball to come back slightly backwards of where it lands.  The combination of wind and bite should overcome the forward momentum of the ball.

3) Bite into an upslope — expect the ball to come back slightly backwards of where it lands.  The combination of bite and slope should overcome the forward momentum of the ball.

4) Bite into a downslope — expect the ball to end up slightly forward of where it lands.  The momentum of the ball and slope of the green are more than a couple skips of bite can overcome.

5) Tailwind into an upslope — expect the ball to come backward just a bit.  The wind will be carrying the ball forward into the green, giving it forward momentum, but the bite and upslope will cause the ball to stop and settle backwards a bit once it hits the green.

6) Tailwind into a downslope — the ball’s distance will only be slowed a few yards.  This can be a great shot into a green where the pin is in the back.  Where backspin would bring the ball back up the slope, bite just causes it to settle and still roll down a bit towards the pin.

7) Headwind into an upslope — your shot will look like it has backspin on it.  This can sometimes be a good option into a big green where the pin is in the front.  Whereas backspin would pull the ball back off the green, bite gives you a softer roll back down towards the cup.

8 ) Headwind into a downslope — expect the ball to come backward just a bit.  The wind will be slowing the ball’s forward momentum into the green, and the bite will cause temporary backspin, but then the slope of the green will cause the ball to settle forward a bit more.

9) Wind blowing left, slope going right — if you don’t cut the ball into the wind, expect the ball to end up just short of where it lands.  The wind gives the ball momentum left, and bite will initially pull the ball left as well, but then those factors expire and the slope pulls the ball right again, settling just short of where you land.

10) Wind blowing left, slope going left — this can be a great use for bite if the pin is also on the left.  Land the ball just slightly above the hole to the right, and the bite and slope will cause a slow movement back towards the cup.

As a final note, just picture what backspin would do — if you don’t quite like it, then consider the slope and wind factors and decide if bite is a better option for you instead!

Many of you may have recently played in a big Golden Tee tournament featuring some of the best players in the game.  While you never expected to compete with these guys, you expected to at least hold your own, because you know your ability.  But then qualifying is a disaster, and then you find yourself knocked out early in match play the next day.  What happened?

Too many people chalk it up to just having a bad day or a bad weekend.  After all, we all have good games and bad games, but mine just happened all at once.

In reality, there are a lot of reasons you didn’t play as well as you should.  Let’s take a look at some of the things you can’t control, and then we’ll focus on what you can control so that you do better next time!

First, you’re in a foreign venue surrounded by lots of players who are better than you.  This is intimidating.  You might not have pedestals with flat-screen TVs in your local bar, and you certainly don’t have them set up everywhere.  Even if you do, the elevation and size of the monitor will certainly differ.  And you can bet that pedestal has a trackball that rolls smoother than anything you play on.  SO, get there early, bang out a few games on several different machines, and get comfortable with the surroundings — you’ll be here a while!

QUALIFYING:
When the action gets underway, you’ll usually be paired with 2 or 3 other guys to play each course of the qualifier.  You will have several dangerous tendencies here — mainly your desire to show off your skills to others in your group or to try to mask your weaknesses.  You won’t even realize what’s happening until you’re completely embarrassed by shooting a score that you never would have shot back home.

BE YOURSELF.  Play your own game.  Don’t go pin-hunting just to try to show off; give yourself a putt.  Don’t try to do what someone else just did if you aren’t comfortable with it.  You’ll see a lot of new shots here that you haven’t even tried yet — don’t try something for the first time in a tournament!  Save it for next time.  Don’t lay up in a particular spot just because everyone else did.  Don’t hit a bump-and-run chip just because you see everyone else doing it.  If you do make a mistake, even a blow-up hole, shake it off!  There’s a long way to go, and you’ll see soon enough that everyone else makes mistakes too.  Qualifying won’t matter for most of us amateurs, because we’re not going to make the cut with the top guys anyway.  Allow qualifying to settle some nerves and give you confidence that you belong to be here.

MATCH PLAY:
Most of us amateurs will end up in the “Purple” bracket, meaning we didn’t make the top 32.  This is a good thing!  Now you get to play matches against other players who are of a similar skill level.  It’s a lot of fun to win matches, and you can do it if you are mentally tough!  More so than before, your opponent is going to make mistakes.  Your goal is now not to have a blowup hole or any dumb mistakes.  Play safe and smart.  Give yourself putts and don’t press until you absolutely need to.  Your opponent will be nervous too!  Have fun, be respectful, and play your game — you’ll do fine.

I’ve been to many tournaments and have my own experiences as well as those of other tourney amateurs I’ve seen, and there’s just something about a tournament that causes inexperienced players to be off their game.  Learn from my experiences in this and other tourney articles on this site, and you’ll be ready to go enjoy one yourself!

There are three parts to this discussion, but they have been up for debate for years.  Let’s start with spin on putts.
PLAYER CLAIM: Applying roll or backspin to putts affects the putt.
IT CLAIM: Spin has no effect on putts.

Many pros believe that spin absolutely has an affect on the putt.  Some players are completely sure that applying roll on a putt helps it out of the fringe.  Others believe applying roll to a putt reduces the chance of a rollover on a steep downhill putt.  Some believe that backspin helps slow a putt and gives you a better chance of reducing rollovers.  And many pros just laugh because they think that spin simply has no effect on the putt.  The stance from IT has been that spin SHOULD NOT have any affect on the putt, because spin has not been programmed into the game to affect the putt differently.  Yet the pros are the ones playing on a daily basis, so their opinions and results are certainly basis for this debate!

Finally, many pros believe that distance balls putt faster and farther than normal balls.  The evidence behind this is pretty easy to see by doing a couple tests.  I haven’t heard IT refute this one.

THE TAKEAWAY: Do what “you believe” helps you.  If you think that you make more putts by applying spin, then by all means, continue doing so.  But know that there is no true evidence to support this behavior, at least from the programming point of view!  Also know that the farther your ball goes off the tee, the farther it will go on the green during a putt, albeit not a very significant amount.
PLAYER CLAIM: Pulling back to A or C on downhill putts helps prevent rollovers.
IT CLAIM: This behavior has some affect, but it’s not programmatical.

It’s widely believed that you need to pull the trackball back to A or C on downhill putts to help prevent the chance of a rollover.  I follow this advice and I believe in it.  However, IT also claims that nothing is programmed into the game to support this theory.  IT did bend on this claim for another reason, though.

Due to the trackball design, it’s possible that a pullback to A, but especially C, slows down the putt due to the design of the trackball.  Angled pullbacks create different reads on the sensors of the trackball, so the evidence supporting this theory may just be physical, due to the design of the trackball and NOT the programming of the game.

In addition, most players hit downhill putts with less force anyway.  When you slow the putt down, it’s got the best chance to go in.

THE TAKEAWAY: Continue pulling back to C on your downhill putts of 5 or more, and try to hit them softer than normal putts.  The combination of the physics of the trackball with the slower velocity should certainly help you minimize your rollovers.
PLAYER CLAIM: Backspin adds elevation to your shot, while roll reduces it.
IT CLAIM: Spin has no effect on the height of your shot.

This one isn’t much of a debate.  While IT says that backspin and roll have not been programmed to alter the height of your shot, there’s overwhelming evidence supporting the contrary.  Specific player tests have proven that backspin gives you a little more elevation on your shot, while roll makes your shot fly a bit lower than with no spin applied.

THE TAKEAWAY: If you are ever in need of a bit of extra elevation, put backspin on your shot.  To reduce the height of your shot, apply roll.  This is, of course, considering distance and the function of the spin itself in addition to elevation.

It’s happened to all of us — we pay that extra dollar to give Prize Play a shot, shoot a great score of about 5 strokes better than average, but still end up out of luck in 21st place.  Wouldn’t you like a chance to have your handicapped scores pitted against others with a REAL chance to win some prize money?  GoldenTeeFan has the league for you!

We’re now recruiting players to join the GTF Tour with a chance to compete, compile statistics, and win prize money in handicapped league play each week!

Signup Instructions:

Simply visit http://goldenteefan.com/league/. From here, you can view a link to all the league rules, make a deposit to fund your account, and email us with your account details.  We’ll take it from there!

Each week of play begins on Thursday!  Sign-ups will be accepted until Wednesday the night before, and you can join any time for each successive week of play!

The first quarter of play will run through October 5, with the next quarter starting on October 6.

Please feel free to email us questions or post suggestions on how to make this league a more enjoyable experience for you and everyone – thanks!!

Ready for a hardcore dissection of angles and alignment?  My buddy Jeremy Olson has you covered!  The PDF document below speaks for itself and will almost certainly get you thinking about things you’ve never before considered while playing Golden Tee.

Yes, it’s data heavy, but it will certainly be beneficial to those of us still learning the game.  It’s true that you develop a feel for shots as your experience improves, but while you are still struggling for consistency, check out this analysis to see which aspects might apply to your game!

Thanks Jeremy for the awesome write-up and analysis!

Golden Tee Principles of Alignment

Consider this a “best of” collection of everything that I feel can be immensely beneficial to those still learning the game, all within a few pages!  There are hundreds of articles on this site, and while categories and the new search button on the home page can help you track things down, it’s still easy to miss something.

Click here for the GTF Tip sheet — a printable 5-page guide to the absolute best tips that I’ve collected over the years to help all of us get better!  Armed with this knowledge and the write-ups of how to play each hole in Golden Tee 2011, you’ll be on your way to beating your friends in no time!

Some of the toughest shots in this game come when you are right in-between distances with two high-lofted clubs.  Many of us use the Hawks, and most of us dread shots from 80 yards out — this is because the 9-iron sets up for 100 yards and the Sand Wedge sets up for 60 yards.  So, you either try to muscle up the SW or thumb the 9-iron, but that doesn’t always work out so well.

With the introduction of Golden Tees, we now have more flexibility to fill those gaps!  You don’t often think of changing the tee height with high-lofted clubs, but it can be extremely beneficial in some cases and save you a stroke or two.

Let’s talk through a couple examples where I applied this strategy recently.  First, I had a setup on Timber #8 where the flag was on the front left, narrow portion of that green about 90 yards out, with a wind of 10 in my face.  I had to use a 9-iron, but I couldn’t use backspin with that wind, otherwise the wind + spin would suck the ball right into the water.  I was also uncomfortable not using backspin, because that shot would require perfect distance control for me to have a short putt.

My solution was a high-teed 9-iron with backspin.  I knew that as long as I landed anywhere on the green with this combo, the ball would back up just slightly.  I knew the ball would go a bit farther, and I knew there’d be just a few feet of backspin once the ball landed.  Sure enough, I landed towards the back of the green and saw the ball back up to the center, leaving an easy birdie putt.

Here’s an even better example from Timber #16.  I had the pin at the front of the front circle of this awful green, 80 yards away, with a tail wind of 10.  SW sets up at 60 yards to land short in the water, and 9I sets up at 100 yards to land long on the hill.  I knew that I’d be able to hammer the SW and reach that first circle, but I had no idea if the ball would stop on the green since that portion is so small.  I’d have to just barely land the front of the green with no backspin and hope it stopped — a very difficult task.  9I was also a bad option because it would be hard to thumb it softly enough to land short of the hill on the green.

The solution here was a low-teed 9I with backspin.  I knew the low tee would take off distance to keep from carrying all the way to the hill, and backspin was a must to draw the ball back towards that tough pin spot.  Sure enough, that shot landed just short of the hill and spun back in the middle of the green, giving me an open birdie putt.

Keep in mind that Golden Tees also allow you to move backwards, and sometimes forwards, to further assist with distance control.

Finally, it’s worth reminding that you can also take off a bit of distance by playing a B1 or B3-type shot.  When you aim for a target straight ahead but start the ball our towards 1 or 3, you can expect to drop a few yards in distance.  Of course, it’s harder to control your accuracy and these shots require practice.  Keep in mind that a typical B1 shot with a high lofted club will NOT return all the way to center, so you’ll have to pull back a bit left of center to stay on target (revisit the “schwerve” article here).  This shot should be another one you keep in your back pocket when you need it.

SO, the next time you’re faced with a tough, short par 3, keep in mind all the ways that you can alter your distance and shot type to give yourself the safest shot possible in that situation!

Now that you’ve hopefully got many games of 2011 under your belts, you have a pretty good idea of the holes on which you score well, but more so, you probably know which holes are giving you fits.  Ever wonder if other players like you are struggling on the same holes?

Better yet, wouldn’t it be nice to know for sure if laying up for birdie on a tough par 4 will net you a better overall score than if you alternate between the tough eagle and the disastrous par or worse?  If an average player knew that a good player only eagles certain holes a small % of the time, he could decide to play the odds and take the safe birdie.

Well, a short while back I was approached by Jeremy Olson, a statistical analyst from Chicago who plays under the name NIGHTRAIN !.  He had developed a model to handicap each hole on the course based on certain variables and the scores he was shooting on them, but he needed a larger data set.  With the help of the GTF community, we’ve gotten many volunteers to give us access to their hole-by-hole scores on the 2011 courses, and with this data, Jeremy has been able to develop some awesome-looking spreadsheets and dashboards with great statistics for each hole!

SO, let’s take a look at some data!  These statistics are from 7-8 players whose handicap ranges from 15 to 21, which turned out the be the ideal audience for this type of analysis.  Also, the first few rounds played on these courses and any obvious outliers (blow-up rounds at 2AM, for example) were excluded.

First, pop open this spreadsheet and browse over the first tab.  Each course has all its holes classified into one of 5 categories, as defined below (remember that GT Par is the best score you can normally shoot without holing out — we used a slight modification of GT Par and called it “Potential”):

Easy:  75% handicap or better.  Only unforced errors can lead to dropped strokes.
Moderate:  50-75%.  Player is NOT faced with a decision whether or not to lay up.  Probability of GT par is reduced because of course variables, but chance of a penalty stroke is minimal.
Risk/Reward:  40-55%.  Player IS faced with a decision whether or not to go for GT par. Average score should be within +/- 0.10 of birdie (meaning the risk of getting Eagle is in balance with the penalty of par).
Professional:  40% or less. GT par is very difficult.  Risk of bogey outweighs benefit of Eagle.
Difficult:  50% or less.  No option to lay up with significant danger.  Probability of GT par is negative.  Chance of bogey high.

The % column shows how often players score the potential value (normally GT Par) on these holes, and the Avg. Score column shows that value for these holes.  You may find that “Potential”  is flexed a little bit towards what average/good players can realistically be expected to shoot on particular holes.

Now, click the Scorecards tab.  Here you see the hole-by-hole breakdowns for each course.  You’ll see an additional column for Handicap — the holes have been handicapped based off players’ percentage of realized Potential on those holes (again, you can also think about this as the ranking of a player’s average score on this hole relative to GT Par).  We didn’t always want to use GT Par as the standard for handicap because there are certain holes like Alpine #7 that may have a low GT Par %, but they are not necessarily difficult to birdie.  Now you truly know which holes are causing players in the 15 to 21 handicap range the most trouble!  You can use this knowledge to help with course management, and you can also use these ratings when playing with your buddies to know where to give strokes if you want to even things up based on your handicaps!

That’s the overview, but it gets bigger and better — each hole is analyzed in further detail in the write-up for each course!  Alpine and Grizzly are done and will be published soon, so be ready to head on over to those sections to see even more detail.  I’ll also soon be rolling these stats into a new format for each hole’s write-up!

Finally, we’ll be updating these statistics at various times throughout the year to keep them up to date, so hopefully this data can help your scores improve!  We’ll normally be pulling the 100 most recent games to get a good representation of how all our volunteers are currently performing.  Thanks big time to Jeremy for putting in the effort to gather up this valuable data for us!

By now you’ve probably seen the grid that the guys at IT put together to compare Distance, Backspin, Curve and Loft for all available virtual balls in Golden Tee 2011. It’s certainly a nice resource, but it might scare you away from trying different types of balls if you establish an opinion based solely on those numbers. My buddy Juan Schwartz took to the course to give six of the longer distance balls a test drive, and the results should help you even more when matching a ball with your club set!

Here are his notes — notice how many of these differ from the published ratings:

Spinnys hook 50% more than Hurtle, Streak, and Maniax (conclusion — amateurs shouldn’t use these since they are hard to control)
Straight Jackets hook 50% less (making this ball virtually unusable as well, since A1s and C3s act more like B1s and B3s) and also appear to go lower than Hurtle and Streak.

**At this point, we can eliminate these two from being good options. Now let’s take a look at the Trackers, Maniax, Hurtles and Streaks.

They all appear to go the same distance when teed high.
Tracker has a slightly lower trajectory than the other three.
Hurtles go a tad further on thumb shots and have noticeably more backspin than Maniax.
Maniax actually appear to travel the same distance as Trackers.
Streaks and Hurtles appear close to the same in most aspects (except for the Streaks having a lot less backspin and roll, actually making them the balls to use when using the Ripper clubs), while Maniax and Trackers also seem to be about the same.

Applying these notes to the base ratings from Golden Tee, we now find that the balls compare more closely to the ratings below:

CONCLUSION — Everyone with a handicap of +22 or worse should stick with the Hawk clubs and the Hurtle balls for all 5 courses in 2011 since they offer the best ratings for distance, control and consistency.

You may have seen some pretty awesome YouTube shots this month where you saw someone (probably Putz) drive a par 4 that you never thought possible, just by hitting it straight.  I’ll point out four pretty sweet examples:

Timber Bay #15
Grizzly Flats #7
Falcon Sands #6
Falcon Sands #7

I don’t even have examples of shots from Timber Bay #2 and #14 and Laurel Park #2 and #6, which can also be driven straight in some cases.  And don’t forget about some of the par 5s where the extra distance off the tee can help you reach the green in two!

After seeing these examples, it’s pretty tempting to want to change to the Air-O balls and show off with these long drives in front of your friends!  But not so fast – let’s take a look at how these balls can both help and potentially hurt your game.

First, you have to understand how the Air-O balls work.  Introduced last year (as the red box balls), these balls have all the same properties as stock balls except for one important difference – if you hit a straight 180 shot off the tee, you get a big distance boost, resulting in somewhere around a 10-15% increase based off the club you select.  The driver, for example, can average around 50 more yards than if you hit the normal stock balls.  So, all of a sudden your 350-yard drives are now going 400 yards!

It’s not quite as easy as it sounds, though – you have to be very accurate with your pull back and follow through to trigger the distance increase.  If you don’t create a straight line from your pull back angle through your follow-through angle within a degree or two, you won’t get the distance boost.  I’d say pros trigger the boost 90-95% of the time, but players like you and me might only be in the 75-80% range, especially when you are trying to angle the shot off to the side (actually, sometimes straight back and straight forward can be challenging too)!

When you consider the fact that the penalty (water and par) can exceed the reward (an eagle putt) in some cases, you might second-think that shot – how confident are you?  It certainly adds a fun but potentially stressful aspect to the game!

And here’s another issue you’ll come to discover – the balls can be a hindrance on par 3s and normally drivable par 4s.  How so?  Well, you may be put in a spot where you really want to hit a B2 shot with a particular club – but, now you have to adjust your strategy because that B2 could trigger a distance boost where you’ll overshoot the green!  You either have to hit the same club with a little bit of cut, club up and thumb the shot, or club down and hit the B2 planning to use the boost.  While having to learn and use different kinds of shots can help amateurs get better down the road, it’s certainly frustrating to have to veer from your comfort zone.

Finally, since the Air-Os act like stock balls in every other situation, you may be losing back to the field in several other situations – especially cut shots and some approach shots.  This deduction is not significant enough to figure in for amateurs, but you could theoretically drop another fraction of a stroke from the benefit shown for pros.

All of a sudden, the Air-Os might not seem like the best option for amateur players, but how can we know for sure?  Let’s break down each course to see if the potential benefits outweigh the downfalls that these balls can cause.

Click here to view a breakdown of each course and how amateur players might see their scores change as opposed to pro players using the Air-Os.  The sheet makes the following assumptions:

• You won’t always get a setup where you can take advantage of the extra distance.  Column D is my best guess for how often the hole sets up to potentially give you a stroke advantage.  As you can see, some holes very rarely set up for it, so you’ll only get the chance to benefit every once in a while.
• On some holes, the Air-Os may offer a significantly easier approach shot (a chush, for example) without risk of getting in trouble.  Where this is the case, I’m assuming that’s worth a quarter stroke.
• If the balls give you a shot at an easier approach but come with risk of losing a stroke, I’m assuming you’ll be smart and lay up, so there’s no advantage there.
• Judging from the surroundings, a missed boost could cost you either 0, 1 or 2 strokes.  If it could be one or the other, I’ll average those instances.
• Column I assesses the impact on amateurs who effectively trigger the boost 75% of the time.  I’ll also assume that even if you trigger the boost, you’ll only accurately nail the landing area you need 75% of the time.  Pros get 90% for both.  I also have a column of the accuracy required to break even, and what you could expect if you were perfect 100% of the time.
• For normal par 3s and normally straight drivable par 4s, amateurs will be penalized a quarter stroke if you could lose 1 stroke, and you’ll be penalized a half stroke if you could lose two strokes.  This is assuming you’ll have to adjust from your normal B2 shot half the time, and half of that time you’ll lose a stroke or two because of it.  Pros lose a tenth of a stroke for 1 and two tenths for 2.

So, let’s take a look at row 5 for Alpine hole #4.  This hole offers one of the most significant advantages on any course if you have the Air-Os.  I’m guessing that 80% of the time you’ll have a shot to stick this green where people using other balls won’t.  However, there’s chance of a snow plug or even water if you mishit the shot, so it could cost you a stroke (water and par) or nothing (snow plug or long with a chip and a birdie).

Let’s say you play this hole 100 times and use birdie as the base.  It sets up 80% of the time for the boost shot, so you’re at +80.  Of those 80 attempts, you’ll miss the boost 25% of the time (20 times), with it costing you par half of those and birdie (no harm) the other half.  So that’s -10 more, putting you at +70.  Now, even when you do hit the boost correctly the other 60 times, you’ll be inaccurate 25% of the time (15 times), putting you at +55.  So, in summary, you can expect to eagle 55% of the time when others are getting birdies.

Pros are 90% accurate, so when you plug in 10% and 90% instead, they gain a stroke 69% of the time they play the hole with the Air-Os.

In summary, this grid shows how amateurs and pros may expect their scores to differ on each course by using the Air-Os.  You’ll also see how accurate you have to be with your shot-making just to break even using these balls, and how you could potentially benefit if you had perfect control of this shot!

So, while it may be fun to play a few rounds with the Air-Os, you’ll likely see your game suffer over the long haul.  Stick with the Hawks or Flares and the Maniax and continue to focus on shot-making!

You won’t find any tips in this article, but I thought it’d be fun to share the process that GTF goes through when preparing for a year of new courses and new features!

First, I soak up all the teasers and previews that start coming out 2-3 months before the release date.  I like to consolidate everything into a preview article with links to the specifics on GT.com.  Here, viewers can have one place to get at all the new features and pictures of the upcoming release.

Then, the course previews start coming out.  This is when I start making categories for each of the new courses, adding all the detail that’s out there into an intro article for each course.  I’ll also start drafting up a post for each hole.

Beta testing is a fun time where we start seeing YouTubes of several of the holes.  IT will do some testing and upload YouTubes, so it’s fun to catch those replays if you can, but they are usually cleaned up within a day or two.  Still, you’ll have players in the Chicago area showing the first solid replays of holes on the new courses!

The most hectic time is the first couple weeks after the official vendor ship dates.  Now everyone is starting to get the update locally, and a flood of YouTubes starts coming in!  Just like everyone else, I can’t wait for the update to come to my local bars, and I’m out playing as soon as I can after the games are updated.

I’ll bring my camera to capture a picture of each hole – this is important for reference, and I’ll upload the pics to each hole post.  During my first few rounds on each course, I’m also taking notes on strategies for each hole, which I eventually bring back and update on the site.

The most work, yet the most beneficial aspect of the site, are the YouTube replays.  I like to capture an example hole-out of each possible shot on each hole, and usually within the first 2 weeks, I have most of what I need.  It takes a long time scouring for YouTubes, but it’s worth the benefit of having examples sorted out for each hole!  It’s easiest if I focus on one course at a time and sort by Upload Date – then I can tell what I’ve already viewed and what’s new.  Eventually I can recognize from the thumbnail what hole the replay is for, so I can skim along a little more quickly looking for what you need ?.

I’m also checking the forums to see if there are discussions about specific holes that contain useful information.  If I have questions about how to play certain holes, this is probably the time I’ll post them hoping to get feedback from the better players.  This is also a good time to see what club/ball combos people prefer to use on each of the courses.

From this point forward, I work on refining my advice for each hole, especially after I learn new things from each round I play.  This helps build a nice little article on each hole with the strategies you should use along with an example of how to hit each shot!  At this point, I won’t scour for YouTubes anymore – this is where I rely on AK and the rest of the GT community to share their great shots with the rest of us, whether on Facebook or in any of the GT forums!

With all that said, here are some of my favorite (but mostly lucky!) YouTubes from the first couple weeks of GT 2011 that you may not have seen!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3bTZ-imlN7o

The always highly anticipated new year of Golden Tee has arrived!  September 29 marks the release of Golden Tee Live 2010 in many locations, with the rest of the world catching up whenever your vendor gets the software installed!  So what’s new in Golden Tee 2010?  I’m glad you asked!

First, view the trailer for the new release, and see how many things you can catch!

Next, click here to view a summary of the new features for 2010 — it’s exciting stuff!

You can also click here for a handful of still shots from the new courses.  And if you click here, you can read about how the faces of some of Golden Tee’s current living legends have now been incorporated into the game!

Next on the list, click here to read about how Jim Nantz and Peter Jacobsen have added a ton of new commentary to the game!  We as players have wanted this for a long time, and Golden Tee 2010 delivers!

And finally, click here to see how IT’s own Adam Kramer ranks his top 10 features in Golden Tee 2010!

UPDATE — B MAN gives us some screen shots of the holes on Bella Toscana — pause after each one to study it in a bit more detail!  He apologizes for the delay in the middle from like 0.23 to 0.48, but it’s great to get a look at some of those holes — click here to check them out!

Now, what are some of the pros saying who have been lucky enough to pilot the 2010 courses early on?  Click here to get some early reviews!

As more 2010 features are revealed, I’ll be updating this post with the latest news!  So, check back here periodically as we eagerly await the release of Golden Tee 2010!

Here’s a bit more advanced concept that, as usual, requires some practice — but, once you start to get the feel for it, you’ll be able to save yourself a stroke or two per round!

Some pros use this concept on a regular basis for their chipping into sloped greens, but for us amateurs, there are really only a handful of situations where I recommend attempting this type of shot.  You’ve got to find yourself in the unfortunate situation where there’s an extreme slope to the right with the pin on the very left edge of the green, or vice versa.  If this is the case, a normal chip stands no chance of ending up close to the hole, and you’ll likely be left with a long, difficult putt afterwards.

Fortunately, there’s a way that you can get these chips much closer to the hole!  Picture Great Wall #18 with the pin all the way at the top of the green.  Your drive was a bit too long, and now you’re in the rough or sand to the left, just about pin high.  You’re looking at a short chip into a right 10 slope with no green on the left with which to work.

Instead of bailing out, give this a shot — rotate once to the right and play about a 3/4 C2-type chip with backspin.  Because of your lie, you have to hit it a bit harder than if you were hitting off fairway, since hook kills distance from bad lies (even chips).  With this shot, you’ll actually have the ball working back up the hill with the backspin, and it should settle nicely around the hole!

Practice will be required to nail the distance, so this might be something to play with on chip shots where hook might not be required, if you don’t think you can make the chip shot anyway.

Let’s look at another fantastic example — Southern Oaks #16, the treacherous par 3 sloped towards the water.  With a left-blowing wind and the X-22s, I often find myself bailing out to the right in the sand with my 9-wood.  With a straight chip from here, it’s very difficult to keep the ball on the green, since the lie kills your backspin and the slope and wind are pushing to the water.  To combat the situation, I rotate once to the left and play an A2-type 3/4 chip with backspin.  Now I do have some action working against the downward slope, and it’s much easier to get the chip to stick on the green!

So, add this type of shot to your arsenal and give it a try when faced with one of these tough situations.  With a bit of practice, you’ll impress your friends and help your score!

It happens every round — you’ve put yourself in a situation where clubbing down and hammering a shot won’t quite get there, but clubbing up and hitting a smooth thumb shot goes too far.  I think this is one area where the casual player can make big gains on the scoreboard with a little smarts and a little practice.

First of all, you can reduce the number of these types of approach shots by being smart off the tee.  Know the gaps in your clubs and put your drive in a place that gives you a comfortable approach instead of just blindly pounding a drive out there.  You know to try to line up with the wind if you have options off the tee, but you should also know the distances of the clubs in your set — lay back for a more comfortable approach instead of putting yourself in a position where you’re not sure which club to use!

On the other hand, you don’t have control of where you’re placed on the tee box.  On par 3s and drivable par 4s, you may be left with a tough decision to make.  First, look for danger short of the green and behind the green — this should be the most important information when choosing your club.  If there’s trouble long and you’re afraid an easy thumb shot might carry too far, then club down.  If it’s safe long, then take the longer club.

So what if there’s water short and long?  Here’s where you need to add another shot to your arsenal — the 2/3 touch shot.  I call it 2/3 because you’ll generally be pulling the club back 2/3 of the way in order to take enough distance off the shot to be safe.  Let’s say you’ve got the X-22s and you need to carry 175 yards to an island green with a strong cross-wind.  Your 5-iron is very risky only going 160 yards, and your 9-wood will go too far at 190.  The solution?  Grab your 9-wood, pull it back 2/3 of the way in the direction you’d normally be aiming, and thumb it forward at normal easy-thumb strength.  This will create the 175-yard shot you’re looking for!

Another note — the length of the pullback is NOT proportional to the distance of the shot.  Be careful not to pull the ball back, say, 80% of the way, because you’ll hardly be taking any distance off a full-strength shot.  To get the desired effect of reduced distance, you’ve got to be between 50-75% of a full swing.  I like to try to use 2/3 as a good baseline, because I know that will take the desired 10-20 yards off the distance to give me the shot I want.

As always, this shot takes practice, but I believe it’s easier to utilize than trying to finesse a very-soft thumbs shot that will most likely go too long or way too short.

There are several examples where this shot comes in handy — most often par 3s that have trouble all around the green.  So instead of trying to superman a lesser club or finesse a longer one, use a shorter pullback and take your normal thumbs follow-through to take away some of the guesswork!

With the introduction of the dynamic distance indicator in Golden Tee Live 2010, players now get to see how differing conditions affect the distance of any particular shot.  The amount of rain in combination with the lie of your ball triggers a formula that calculates the number you see on the distance marker with any specific club/ball combo.  Sure, we all know that rain kills roll when the ball lands and that you can’t hit the ball as far out of a tough lie, but have you ever stopped to pay attention to all the situations that Golden Tee takes into account?

I’ve been working on this project for a while now, and it’s still got a ways to go, but I wanted to report my findings thus far.  This attached file has a ton of information across many tabs, but I want to focus on how each specific lie/weather combo affects your distance.

The tab I’m most interested in completing right now is the “X22s-Gamer2s + Conditions” tab (now Flares and Trackers).  These are the clubs and balls I’m currently using on each 2010 course, and so I’ve started recording the distance that shows on the distance marker with each club in that set.  There are many situations I haven’t come across yet, as you can tell.

Now, if you pull just a specific club and a specific ball, like my 9-wood and the Gamer 2.0, here’s how the grid now looks (distances in blue are confirmed, while distances in black are best guesses):

Now if we order the possible conditions by distance, we end up with this grid:

There are many things to note when looking at this data.  The first thing that confused me is that you see a longer distance from the first cut (or “shortcut” grass that exists on several courses) than from the fairway!  I asked around and found out that the ball is somewhat ‘teed up’ on the taller grass compared to the fairway, which gets the club under the ball better (also referred to as a ‘flier lie’) — so, that’s pretty cool that IT incorporated this aspect of golf into the game! You can see how mud cripples your distance, cutting it in half, while dirt, dust and sand cut off between a quarter and a third of your distance.

I never knew so many unique conditions on the course were measured so acutely!  You don’t just have rain — you have wet, light rain, or heavy rain.  And I’m sure I haven’t captured all the possible lies yet either (snow and ice aren’t included, for example, and neither is tall grass).

And if you think you can find just one number constant and use that as a factor in which to calculate the reduction in distance — think again.  I tried, and the reduction factor differs per club!  And if you think about it, it should, because of how each club is shaped and functions.  So whatever formula the guys at IT are using to calculate distance given these conditions cannot be easily cracked!

Hopefully this article opens your eyes to the wonderful complexity of this game we all love.  Let me know if you can help me fill in some of the gaps in my distance grids, and I’ll keep the attachment updated as I gather more data!

Alright – we’re quite a ways into 2010, and maybe you’re looking to expand your Golden Tee experience beyond stroke play.  Maybe you and your friends are ready to quit worrying about the blowup holes that ruin your round.  Maybe you are ready to put your focus on each hole individually instead of your score as a whole to make the entire 18-hole experience more exciting.  If so, you’re ready for Skins Play!

Skins can be played with anywhere from 2-4 people, but in my experience, 3 people in a group works the best.  With 2 people you don’t really have the group competition going on; with 4 people, you’ll probably see too many carry-overs and it’s much harder to win a hole.  But with 3 people, you have just the right blend of individual glory and tough carry-overs to make for an exciting round!

A fun way to get started with the skins game is to have everyone throw down $18 on the table (easily adjustable, of course, based on your financial situation J).  A dollar from each person goes into the pot before each hole starts.  If you win the hole, then you win the pot.  If it carries over, you each throw in another dollar for the next hole until someone wins a hole, and then that person takes the pot.

If you’re playing for fun, you should take advantage of the built-in Skins game offered with Golden Tee 2010 – it will do the work for you!  If you’re playing for money, though, you can go either way – you might want to just play stroke play and track skins on your own.

Okay, so you’ve got your 3 people and your money ready to show – so what’s your plan of attack?  Let’s break it down into general strategies, situations where you should be aggressive, and situations where you should be conservative:

GENERAL STRATEGY:

• Be long off the tee.  This is very important, especially on holes with a difficult approach shot.  If you’re closest to the pin off the tee, then you get to watch everyone else go first, which will feed into your decision on how aggressive/conservative to be on your approach shot!
• Play your game.  Just because you’re not playing stroke play doesn’t mean you need to abandon the things that work for you, especially if you’re going outside your comfort zone just to try to match a great shot.  You’ll do best by sticking to your game, and your rewards will come with your opponents’ mistakes.  Don’t give up easy strokes!
• Never give up!  So you got wet on the par 3 and your opponent hit the green?  You never know what’s going to happen – he could 3-putt or even put his putt off the green.  Remember, the pressure is now on him to finish the hole, and he might open the door back up for you!  Plus, you always have a chance to chip in for the tie.
• Have fun!  The beauty of skins play is the friendly competition amongst your group and how every hole is a new opportunity.  Don’t get caught up in the results of one or two holes, because the next hole is another chance to win!

BE AGGRESSIVE!

• The hole is pretty easy and a birdie is sure to carry over.  In these cases, let your opponents make their birdies – take aim at the pin or the green and go for eagle!
• Your opponents already have birdies locked up.  In this case, you can do no wrong, because they are going to cancel each other out anyway.  Take a good run at the cup!
• The pot is small.  In this case, it’s okay to take a risk towards getting eagle, because you don’t have much on the line, but your reward is more than you invested!

BE CONSERVATIVE!

• The hole is difficult and birdies are unlikely.  In this case, you want to make sure you get your par so that, at worst, you force a carry over.
• Your opponents are in trouble.  If you’re last off the tee or last on the approach, and you see your opponents make mistakes, take the route that gives you the best chance to 1-up them.  Remember, you don’t care about your score alone – you only care that it’s 1 better than the other guys on this hole!
• The pot is large.  Now, if your opponent has already put the pressure on you, then you must try to answer.  But, you cannot be the guy who goes first and puts his ball in the hazard off the tee.  Force your opponent to make a great shot to beat you, but don’t hand it to him by playing foolishly!

UPDATE — The Gamers are here!  So what does everyone think?  I’ve rounded up the opinions of many and here is a summary of how best to describe them:

DISTANCE — Players seem to have more “feel” with these Gamer v2s, allowing them more distance control on thumb shots (especially when taking off distance).  Compared with the D2s, the Gamer 2s travel up to 30 yards farther on full-full shots (A1 or C3) and 10-20 yards farther on hammer shots (B2).  Thumb shots are almost identical, and judging from the distance marker, you should gain one extra yard on these shots.  However, some people still insist that thumb shots fly shorter, so you can determine that for yourself.  Also, drives into the wind seem to carry 10-15 more yards than the D2s.  Of course, the red balls give you the boost distance on B2 shots, but if you’re having consistency issues with that ball, then the Gamer 2s should be in your collection as the longest ball of 2010.

CURVE — The Gamer 2s curve better than the D2s, and many agree that the curve is very similar to the Orange balls from 2 years back.

SPIN — Spin is comparable to the Freaks from last year.  There’s enough of it, but not so much that it’s hard to control.

OVERALL — Some people think that these balls actually travel higher as well, especially with a 3-wood, so pay attention to that next time too.  It can provide benefits on some holes, but it can also endanger skipping over water!  The height issue is just a theory at this point, though.  Overall, this is the most consistent ball of the bunch.  With distance and curve, they are playable under most all conditions.

ORIGINAL TEXT — I don’t know that there’s ever been so much anticipation for a new piece of equipment being released in Golden Tee than there is with this virtual golf ball!  Not only that, but this may be the first time new equipment is introduced in the middle of the “season.”  Golden Tee wanted the release of the Gamer 2.0 to coincide with Top Flite’s release of the actual ball to the public, so here we are, waiting for January 15, 2010!

A lot of people have been frustrated with the selection of the 2010 virtual balls, and most people are hoping that this ball will be the one to use for them on Golden Tee 2010.

So what’s all the excitement about?  Well, if you have a little history of the game, then this ball is best described as a combination of the orange balls from 2008 and the Freaks from 2009.  The “Long and Soft Distance” (Orange) balls from 2008 were my favorite from that year, because they added distance while also maintaining a good amount of spin.  And the Freaks from 2009 were my favorite from that year also because of the increased distance you got while still being able to hold the green and curve shots.

The expected result is that we’re going to end up with the longest ball of 2010 (besides the B2 hammer shots off the tee with the red balls) that also provides you with enough spin to get the job done on almost all your shots!  We’re counting on that consistency and performance to help elevate our games for the rest of the 2010 season.

Please provide me with feedback after you’re able to play a few rounds with these highly anticipated virtual balls, and I’ll gather feedback from the community as well to share with you!  Good luck and good golfing!

Every week or two, I’d like to put focus on a specific hole that may be giving some of us lesser players some difficulty.  For most of these, I’ll pose the question to the pros in the GT community to see how they are attacking the specific hole, and then I’ll bring the results to you!  Whether it be a new landing spot on a par 5 or an approach into a par 4 that you hadn’t considered before, I’m hoping that discovering more about these featured holes will help shave some strokes off our games!

Click here to go to the Featured Holes category, which you can also find in the normal Categories section on the right.  We’ll start with Bella Toscana Hole #5, a par 5 that had been very difficult for me to eagle until I learned of a great new layup spot off the drive that makes it much easier to eagle!

Check back here every week or two for a new featured hole, or sign up for our newsletter by entering your name and email on the home page — you’ll get notified every time important new information is added!

A fellow GT’er emailed me a while back asking for tips on how to skip the ball across the water, and I figured this would be a good opportunity to break down the variables that determine whether or not you’ll safely skip across or see your ball sink to the bottom!  Golden Tee has done an amazing job taking into account all the factors that determine whether or not your ball will skip, and most of them would apply to skipping a rock across water as well.

Loft of club:
Lower lofted clubs are much more likely to skip than higher lofted clubs.  In fact, I don’t think I’ve ever attempted to skip across water with a club other than driver, although I know a 0-hybrid would work, and anything up to a 2-iron may work as well.  I’m not sure about a 3-wood — does anyone know if it would skip?  I’d be scared to try it.  So, if you need to skip a shot but the distance calls for something less than a driver, stick with the driver but take some distance off of it.  Be careful though because of the next variable…

Velocity of shot:
How hard you hit the shot definitely has an impact on whether or not the shot will skip.  You can’t hit a little half-speed punch shot and expect it to skip, but you can get away with taking a little bit off the shot.  Full power shots are sure to skip, but a skip will also work if you need to take a little off the shot.  That is, so long as you maintain the next variable…

Angle of shot:
You really need to maximize the angle of the shot to ensure the success of the skip.  Normal A1 and C3 shots won’t always work, so you’ll want to create as much angle as you can while also ensuring your shot will be accurate as it can be.  A 3/4 speed A1 driver will skip even if you thumb it out to A, so long as you’ve pulled back to the left of 1 as far as you can register.  Remember that you can pull back left of A and shoot forward left of 1 — there’s more angle there for you to take advantage of, and it’s especially important on skip shots.  When lining up your shot, think about the next variable…

Spin:
I think that spin helps a ball skip as well, whether it be roll or backspin.  Spin helps create skip when it contacts the water, so I always try to apply roll or backspin when planning a skip.  I don’t believe that a skip shot would fail without spin, but honestly I haven’t tried yet — have any of you?  Anyway, picture where your ball will end up when it hits land after the skip, and apply the type of spin that best helps you towards your target.  Now, consider this often overlooked variable…

Wind:
Wind is important and can kill your chances at a successful skip.  If the wind is blowing in the direction of your angled shot, then you’re good to go.  If it’s blowing against you, though, you may want to second-guess that shot.  A wind in the face of your shot will straighten out the shot, decreasing the angle of the shot which is so important to the success of the skip.  Wind doesn’t matter as much on shorter shots, but the longer the ball is in the air, the more time the wind has to straighten it out.  That brings us to the final variable…

Distance:
Distance comes into play most often in combination with wind and loft.  Shorter shots with a driver, for example, don’t get as high off the ground.  So, as long as you have enough angle behind it, the ball stays low enough to skip successfully.  Longer shots that are lacking angle, however, do have a greater chance for failure, especially if wind is involved.  You could see your buddy skip a long drive across to the fairway, but when you try it, you plop in the water and wonder why.  Well, you probably didn’t create as much angle on that long shot as he did, and when you combine that with the distance he gained by hitting a fuller A1 or C3 shot, then you start to understand why you came up short.

You also need to have a good idea of where your ball will be making contact with the water.  You can’t skip it twice, so you need to make sure that your ball will touch land after it skips.  A skip followed by a plop isn’t good for anything!

For most of my 2+ year Golden Tee career, I’ve had the pleasure of playing almost every round with the “old birds” — the 2005 hybrid set.  These clubs are preferred by a large percentage of players because they provide a nice set of distance gaps and have a lob wedge, and in general the lower-lofted hybrids are easier to control than low-lofted irons.  After playing several rounds on 2010, however, I’ve realized it’s time to make a change.

Below you’ll see a breakdown of each course and you’ll learn why you should be playing the X-22s and the red distance balls on every course, with Monument Valley possibly being the exception where the D2 Feel balls could benefit a bit more.  As you’ll see, the distance balls and the option of having a 7-wood or 9-wood available can help you shave strokes off a lot of holes in Golden Tee 2010!

THE GREAT WALL
Off the tee: The 7-wood can make your tee shot easier on holes #5, #7, #9, #12, #15 (up onto The Great Wall), and #17.  The distance balls can rarely make #1 and #16 driveable, they can allow you to drive past the square landing area on #4, they can allow you a more lofted club on #15 if it’s tight, and they can make #5 and #14 driveable where they might not otherwise be.
On the approach: The 7-wood can make the approach shot easier on holes #2, #11, and #16.
As a bonus: The 4-wood can be an excellent option on every hole on the back 9 except for #13 and #17!

BELLA TOSCANA
Off the tee: The 7-wood can make your tee shot easier on holes #8, #12, #14 and #17, and it can make #7 driveable where it might not otherwise be.  The distance balls can rarely make #1 and #2 driveable, they make #4 a lot easier by allowing you to go over the trees, they can give you a shorter approach shot on #6 which helps over the river guarding the green, they can help you drive the second fairway on #11, they can help you drive the grassy pods on #13, they can help you drive the second fairway on #16, and they can make #17 driveable where it might not otherwise be.
On the approach: The 7-wood can make the approach shot easier on holes #6, #9 and #11.

TAHITI COVE
Off the tee: The 7-wood can make your tee shot easier on hole #11.  The distance balls can make #15 driveable, they can allow you to drive straight down the fairway on #5 for a shorter, unimpeded approach, they can help you drive past the neck of the fairway on #16, and they help with the tee shot on #7, #9, and #10.
On the approach: The 7-wood can make the approach shot easier on holes #4, #10, and #16.
As a bonus: The 4-wood can make #14 driveable with the distance balls in setups where the 3-wood clips the hill and the 5-wood clips the trees.
On the contrary: Holes #6 and #18 would be easier with a 2-iron available.

MONUMENT VALLEY
Off the tee: The 7-wood can make your tee shot easier on hole #12, and sometimes on #16.  The distance balls can rarely make #1 and #15 driveable, they can make #9 driveable from the back box with a 5-wood over the top, and they can make #4 always driveable over the top where it might not otherwise be.
On the approach: The 7-wood can make the approach shot easier on hole #10.
On the contrary: The D2 Feels can rarely make #2 driveable.  They can make the tee shot and approach shot easier on #5.  They can really help curve your shot off the tee on holes #7, #14, and #16, sometimes making them driveable where they might not be with the distance balls.  The 2-iron can also be an advantage on #14 and #18.

SOUTHERN OAKS
Off the tee: The 7-wood can make your tee shot easier on hole #16 .  The distance balls can rarely make #1 driveable, they can help set up an easier approach on #2, and they make it much easier to drive the green on #7 and #14.  They can also enable you to use a more lofted club on #17.
On the approach: The 7-wood can make the approach shot easier on holes #11 and #15.
As a bonus: The 4-wood gives another option to drive the green on #18.
On the contrary: The D2 Feels make it easier to drive the green on holes #4 and #18, and #16 can be much more difficult if the wind is in your face or blowing left.