One was Great, while 2 were Grand,
A King dubbed three Royal with his mighty hand.

Two Eagles soared high with majestic Crests,
While a Falcon and Kiwi flew along as their guests.

A Crawdad approaches, not one you can eat,
A Scorpion and Rattlesnake slither at your feet.

A Buckhorn, A Moose, and a Kangaroo near,
But a Coyote and Grizzly should bring greater fear.

Crimson, Red, and Auburn you’ll find,
These Greens are Painted with color in mind.

One was Black while two were Blue,
Don’t forget we had Indigo too.

3 Oaks, 2 Palms, and 2 Pines dominate
While Cedar, Cypress, and Maple await.

There’s Willow, Laurel, and Timber too,
Arbor Day loves this Woodland view.

Yes, Sylvan Woods are a common theme,
Both Rustic and Mystic in their gleam.

Water all around can be quite harsh,
Bayous and Swamps kick off this marsh.

The Ocean will see if you have what it takes,
Try dodging the Sea, 3 Creeks, and 3 Lakes!

Dropping Anchor in any of 5 Coves is no safe Haven,
5 Springs and a Falls – your balls need a savin’!

Let’s not forget the 2 courses with Coral,
And 3 Bays will have you and your game in a quarrel.

Aspen and Alpine, it’s getting hilly,
Tundra and Glacier, it’s downright chilly.

A Mountain, a Summit, and 2 Peaks ahead,
A Mound and 3 Hills is where you’ll be led.

Two Stones, a Wall, and a Side make a Monument,
A Rock and a Sapphire help complete your repent.

Canyons are common; there have been three,
There was also a Gorge as deep as can be.

Oh it can be Tropical or even Tahiti,
Where you’ll find Sunny, Shadow, or Misty.

Hungry for a bite to eat?
Coconut and Cu-Cumber makes a great treat!

Cactus and Saguaro fill the 2 Sands,
The Savannah is Dusty to challenge your hands.

A trip to the UK may enter your mind,
Where Balmoral Castle and Waterford shine.

From Bannockburn to the Shire to the Moor,
And two Links courses are never a bore.

If Southern Lands are where you take your gear,
Heather, Bonnie, and Bella will cheer!

Some of us will be Suerte enough to have a Vista
Of the Horizon, even Toscana, where your gal first kissed ya.

Meadows Rolling through the Heartland,
A Grove and 2 Acres make the scenery grand.

Five spacious Valleys where the going gets rough,
While a Glen and a Hollow show off their stuff.

Around 3 Bends, 4 Ridges, and Flats,
All could make permanent habitats.

To the Park and its Bridge, including the Trail,
A Farm and 2 Ranches may leave you pale.

So Run Long, preferably not with Sword’s,
3 Pointes may have you Whispering swear words.

From Alpine to Woodland and all in-between,
Oh what might we see in 2013?

CLICK HERE to view the complete Golden Tee Course History!

The drive
The recovery

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

St. Patrick’s Day – 07FEED0317
Christmas – 0333333333
Winter Holiday Gear – 1412252010
Halloween – 04B0000000
New Year’s Day – 0520102010
New Year’s 2011 – 12ACED2011
Valentine’s Day – 06BABEBABE
Thanksgiving – 13FEEDF00D
Mother’s Day – 1158115811

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

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!

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!

This basically means “mistake”!  And what do you know — it’s right!  Your ball never should end up here, so that’d definitely be  an errant shot!

And these symbols form words like “sand” and “bad”!  Yes, the sand is bad, so keep your ball away from here!

Kudos to the IT design team for incorporating funny, meaningful symbols into the course whose translations would otherwise go unnoticed!

1) Get there early!
If you’re arriving on Friday night, this might not be possible; when you get to the bar, you’ll probably see action on all the Golden Tee machines already. That’s okay – walk around and look for machines that could use an extra player where that group is wrapping up their current round. Most guys would be more than happy to invite you in for the next round!

On Saturday/Sunday, get there before the bar normally opens. With the tournament action going on, the doors will probably open early, and you can snag an open machine right away to practice before the tourney games start.

2) Play safe early on
You’re going to be nervous when those qualifying rounds start, so make things easier on yourself by playing safe and draining a couple putts. Before too long, you should fall into the flow of things.

3) Play at your own pace
Most of the pros play incredibly fast, and hitting ‘Quick Shot’ after every shot makes things move even faster! It’s easy to get caught up in the speed of play, and you may feel pressured into playing faster than you’d like. Try to maintain a comfort level by taking your time before each shot, especially putts!

4) Watch what the pros do…
You’ll be teeing off last in your group for most of the round, which gives you the advantage of seeing how the other guys are attacking each hole. This can help you make the right decision if you may have otherwise been unsure. Also, if you see a shot missed long, short, left or right, it may be a clue that you want to overcompensate a bit to avoid the same mistake.

5) But don’t watch what the pros do
If you’re trying to pay attention to how hard the shot was hit or the exact angle of the shot, forget about it. Not only do some of these guys disguise the angle on their shots, but they strike the ball so smoothly that the power of the shot is really deceptive as well. No one knows better than you how the ball behaves based on the angle/speed of your shot, so trust your instincts over what you think you just saw!

6) Stick to your game
So you just saw a pro thread the needle between some stone pillars on Black Hills. Does that mean you have to try the same thing? Of course not. If you’re not comfortable trying the same thing, it’s much better to play safe and preserve a birdie rather than shooting a high-risk, low-reward shot for a chance at eagle. The same goes for chip shots around the green. The pros are great at holing out chips around the hole with a lower-lofted club, but if you’d rather finesse your lob wedge, then do it! That’s your game, and it keeps you out of any further trouble. Finally, if you can thumb a shot and get the same results as a pro who pulls the ball back, don’t be embarrassed about it!

7) Don’t miss to the dangerous side
It’s easy to get too aggressive on an approach shot and miss the green altogether. I’ve made a habit of looking left, right, long and short to see where the trouble lies. A good rule of thumb is to try to place the ball on the green such that you put the flag between the trouble and your ball. For example, this means missing long, in the middle of the green, if the pin is on the front of the green.

8 ) Never give up
Four of my last five head-to-head matches went down to the 18th hole, and I won 3 of them when I was trailing after 17! The best example was during my first match in the Purple Bracket, where I was down by 2 and hit my drive in the water on Black Hills 18. A couple roll-off putts by my opponent later, I had a 1-stroke victory. Anything can, and does, happen!

9) Have fun!
If you fail to follow this advice, then you really have wasted your money and time. You’re surrounded by a bunch of great Golden Tee players who always know how to have fun, so follow suit and you’ll fit right in, no matter what your score!