Using the yet-to-be-released version 5.2 of the Game Caddie, I flew through round 3 of my 2022 Open Championship replay, logging 64 rounds of APBA Golf in just a couple of weeks. More about GC v.5.2 later in this post. Recaps of rounds 1 and 2, both actual and as replayed, have been described previously.
Actual Event
You may recall that at the end of round 2 in the actual tournament, Cameron Smith at 13-under par had a 2-stroke lead over Cameron Young at 11-under. Viktor Hovland and Rory McIlroy were tied for 3rd at 10-under.
In round 3, sometimes referred to as “moving day,” Hovland and McIlroy climbed to a tie for first place with a pair of 66’s (-6) and finished the round at 16-under. Kevin Kisner (65) had the low score for the day, yet could not crack the Top 10.
Tommy Fleetwood, Francisco Molinari (not carded), and Trey Mullinax also shot 66’s. Yet, of these players, only Fleetwood moved up significantly– jumping 25 positions to break into the Top 10 and a tie for 8th place. Si Woo Kim (not carded), Bryson DeChambeau, Dean Burmester (not carded), and Thomas Pieters all shot 67’s, but only Kim moved up enough to secure a spot in the Top 10 and a tie for 5th place with Scottie Scheffler (69).
The apparent lack of major movement at the top of the leaderboard was a direct result of consistently low scoring for most of the players in the field and especially those near or at the top of the board. Thus, a very good score in round 3 by those players back in the field did not necessarily assure a Top 10 position in the tournament at round 3’s end.
Here’s the Actual Top 10 Leaderboard after round 3:
Replay
At the end of round 2 in my replay, Patrick Cantlay, Hideki Matsuyama, and Justin Thomas were locked in a 3-way tie for 1st place at 14-under par. Russell Henley had sole possession of 4th place at 13-under.
Round 3 featured Moderate B-column winds, Dry conditions (+10 FW/+5 Green roll), and the pin located at position 6. Once again, the replay golfers shot as well or better than the actual players.
Matsuyama (66) moved into sole position of 1st place with a tournament total score of 20-under par. Cantlay (68) dropped back one notch to 2nd place at 18-under, and Justin Thomas (69) slipped two rungs to 3rd place at 17-under. Kevin Na and Séamus Power matched Matsuyama’s score of 66, but only Power made it into the Top 10 and a 4-way tie for 7th place.
Dustin Johnson, Jordan Spieth, Rory McIlroy, Sungjae Im, Will Zalatoris and Xander Schauffele all carded scores of 67. Of these players, Im took sole possession of 4th; Spieth tied for 5th with Russell Henley (71); and Power, McIlroy, and Zalatoris wound up tied for 7th with Cameron Smith (68).
The third round of the replay saw even less movement at the top of the leaderboard than the actual event. Here’s the Replay Top 10 Leaderboard after round 3:
Following round 3 only Smith and McIlroy are represented on both the actual and replay leaderboards. Nevertheless, the range of scores on both leaderboards is remarkably similar and very good from round to round, whether we are looking at the replay or actual player results. Bottom line: There just wasn’t a great deal of movement atop the leaderboard on “moving day.”
A full set of reports for the tournament to date can be viewed in PDF form at the bottom of this post.
Noteworthy Replay Events
Dechambeau’s Disaster: DeChambeau set my all-time APBA record with 40 putts in a single round. Through the first three rounds, the overall average of putts per round for the field was 31.7, which is well higher than average compared to other tournaments I’ve played. There appear to be at least two contributing factors.
First, I’m using the more difficult Major Tournament Putting Boards, and second, Birthplace (St. Andrews) greens are very large. While there have been more greens in regulation (83.7% for the field and 87.7% for DeChambeau through 3 rounds), this has come at the expense of longer than typical initial putts. As a result, many players have had rounds with multiple 3-putts (or worse). In DeChambeau’s case, he finished round 3 with six 3-putts and a 4-putt.
Spieth Wins the Wheels: Jordan Spieth holed out against the wind on the par 3, hole number 11. At this point in the tournament, he is the only player to have a hole-in-one. UPS, an official tournament sponsor, awarded him and his caddy brand new delivery vans. They can have any color they want as long as it’s brown.
Birthplace only has two par 3’s. Consequently, there just aren’t a lot of chances to record an ace. Hole number 11 has been the more difficult of the two, averaging 3.03 strokes. The other par 3, number 8, has played slightly easier, with an average of 2.86 strokes per hole.
Game Caddie 5.2 Simplifies Birthplace Wind Management
Round 3 was played with Game Caddie version 5.2 (not yet released). As noted, the round featured Moderate winds using the B-column on the course boards. With that particular rating, when going out, the most frequent wind direction is equivalent to a Tail Wind, and when coming in, the most frequent wind direction is equivalent to a Head Wind.
For those who might not be familiar with Birthplace, it has its own hole wind charts for Moderate and Blustery conditions. This requires you to consult the course boards for wind effects on each shot more than 45 yards out. (When conditions are Calm, you use the regular Wind charts that come with the game.)
GC 5.2 can be configured so that when you open the All in One menu from more than 45 yards out: (1) the Wind Rolls menu pops up and (2) automatically rolls the dice each time. All the user has to do is look up the Wind roll result on the Birthplace hole wind table and type it into the “User Specified” boxes on the Wind Rolls menu.
While the process is not as fast or as automatic as using the Game Caddie’s “Standard” method for Calm winds, it’s much faster than doing wind calculations manually and keeps you from forgetting to apply wind effects. Once version 5.2 becomes available, you can activate this new feature using the checkboxes next to the “Modified’ Wind setting in the Game Configuration menu (CTL-O). I think you will find it makes playing Birthplace a breeze under either Moderate or Blustery wind conditions.