Day three, “Moving Day” and Team USA Playing in the WG Championship (5 person team) put them selves in position to take a shot at the title on day four by jumping 6 spots from 17th place to 11th Place.
Team USA in the Invitational ( 2 person team) unfortunately moved the wrong way. Even though they matched their best daily total with a net 157, on moving day if you are not shooting low you are moving backwards and Team USA did just that slipping 7 spots to 15th Place.
The Championship
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| Mark Thomas |
Mark Thomas was day three's superstar by recording a net 64 which is USA’s lowest score of the event and 14 strokes better then his previous low. This has vaulted Mark up the leaderboard in flight 2 eight spots to third place. With one day to go Thomas is only two strokes back of the two day leader Jurie Jerling from South Africa after gaining 11 strokes on day three.
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| Ivan Marin |
If it was not for Mark Thomas, Ivan Marin would have been day three’s superstar. Marin also recorded a much needed round in the 60’s with a net 68. This has put Marin back in contention for a medal by moving 6 spots to 9th Place. Ivan is currently 25 strokes back from the leader Zhen Hao Zhao from China and a championship may be out of reach, but 3rd place is.
MVP??? USA’s Flight one National Champion Robert Neal continues to impress. Neal shot a gross 73 for a net 71 placing him in 1st place with a four stroke lead over Hennrik Bergqvist of Sweden, Sue Dieners of Germany and Jean Pierre Le Roux of South Africa. But most impressive is his gross score over the field, he currently has a 14 stroke lead over the first three days, and increasing his lead by nine strokes since yesterday.
The fourth and final score recorded by USA was turned in by Eddie Stephens. Stephens shot a net 75 which is Team USA’s lowest fourth score to date by 9 strokes. This was a must for USA to move up the leaderboad. “ A team is only as strong as its weakest link” and a net 75 makes for a very strong team.
USA teams total for day three was 279, which was 27 strokes better then day two and 58 strokes better then day one. This team effort of a daily net average of 69.27 has brought their three day average down to 76.01. With the projected team total of 1170 or a net average of 73.125 is what is needed to Win the Championship, Team USA is still mathematically in a position to jump 10 spots and win.
Keys To Victory
David Weatherspoon, David Weatherspoon, David Weatherspoon.......
The bright side to Weatherspoon’s struggles the first three days of the event is that his handicap has been adjusted an additional 14 strokes so on day four, David will be playing with a 35 CH. To compensate for all the different handicap formula’s across the glob the championship has adopted a handicap adjustment policy after each round of the event. (see chart below) Since Davis has a USGA CH of 21 he realistically has the ability to shot a 93 on the final day. If he can pull this off, this will give him a net 58 which will be a huge bust for the team. Then Team USA will also need Mark Thomas, Eddie Stephens and Ivan Marin to shot to their USGA handicaps as well. If they can accomplish this task they will end up with a total score of 1169 putting Team USA one stroke under the projected winning score.(see projection table)
Can they do it? It all depends if you have a “glass half empty” or a “glass half full” mentality. The USGA probability table states that an individual will shoot their handicap one out of every five times they play? You can also apply these probabilities to a group; one out of five players will shoot their handicap. If you have a “glass half empty” mentality you would argue that 4 players out of 5 team members to shoot their handicap on the same day is probably impossible. If you have a “glass half full” mentality you would argue that these five players will play a total of 30 rounds of golf between the World Championship and the USA National Championship. Which means that there will be 6 rounds where a player will shoot their handicap. Thus far in the previous 25 rounds their have been only two rounds played at handicap, leaving 4 rounds to be played at or below handicap on the final day of the Championship.
Can they do it ? YES
Handicap Adjustment | Chart |
Net 83 or higher = | +5 Strokes (max) |
81-82 | +4 strokes |
79-80 | +3 strokes |
77-78 | +2 strokes |
75-76 | +1 strokes |
70-74 | no adjustment |
68-69 | -1 strokes |
66-67 | -2 strokes |
64-65 | -3 strokes |
62-63 | -4 strokes |
60-61 | -5 strokes |
58-59 | -6 strokes, etc |
69-73=No Adj. 67-68=-1, 74-75=+1, etc.
Par 73:
71-75=No Adj., 69-70=-1, 76-77 =+1, etc.
WG Championship Team USA | Projection | |||||||||||||||
Name | Day | One | adj | Day | Two | adj | Day | Three | adj | Day | Four | |||||
CH | Gross | Net | Place | CH | Gross | Net | Place | CH | Gross | Net | Place | CH | Gross | Net | Place | |
Robert Neal (TX) | 1 | 75 | 74 | 2 | 1 | 75 | 74 | 3 | 2 | 73 | 71 | 1 | 2 | 73 | 72 | |
Mark Thomas (MI) | 8 | 89 | 81 | 13 | 12 | 90 | 78 | 11 | 15 | 79 | 64 | 3 | 12 | 80 | 68 | |
Eddie Stephens (IL) | 13 | 109 | 96 | 24 | 18 | 88 | 70 | 17 | 18 | 93 | 75 | 16 | 19 | 85 | 66 | |
Ivan Marin (FL) | 17 | 97 | 80 | 5 | 20 | 105 | 95 | 15 | 25 | 93 | 68 | 9 | 24 | 89 | 65 | |
David Weatherspoon (CO) | 21 | 113 | 92 | 20 | 26 | 110 | 84 | 22 | 31 | 111 | 80 | 23 | 35 | 93 | 58 | |
Team | Daily | Total | 327 | 14 | 306 | 17 | 279 | 11 | 257 | |||||||
Total | score | 327 | 633 | 912 | 1169 | |||||||||||
Daily | ave. | 81.75 | 76.5 | 69.75 | 64.25 | |||||||||||
Total | ave. | 81.75 | 79.125 | 76.01 | 73.06 |
Mary Hauk survives day three posting a net 79. I say survive because despite two bad days, Mary is still with in striking distance sipping only 3 spots to 5th place and only is only 7 strokes off the lead from co leaders Inga Doetsch of Germany and Y. Bok Lim from Vietnam. If it was not for her 6 stroke lead on day one she may have not survived the past two days but Mary has a mid to low 80’s in her game and if she can play well on day four she can win.
Teammate Anders Bengtson may be running out of time. After posting a net 78 on day three Anders slipped to 8th place and 26 strokes off the leader Indur Hirani from India. However if Anders can shoot his to his USDA handicap a record a gross 90 he will finish with a net 63 which may be good enough to medal.
To view all results go to www.9n9.co.za
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