THW Golf Headlines

Friday, May 11, 2012

2012 THW Players Championship

by MacTHW

Tonight kicks off the THW Players Championship at TPC Sawgrass. Four rounds of golf-ey goodness laced with water hazards and sand traps. It should be a Kinecting good time.

Will the young rookie crack under the pressure again, taking a DNF half-way through the tournament, or does he have what it takes to stick it out and play four tournament quality rounds? It’s not a question of IF, but WHO will the Auto-Putt and Auto-Swing affect most this tournament. Will ze5 take part? Let’s find out this weekend at the THW Players Championship!

This tournament poster prominently highlights one of our most favorite features…everyone’s favorite, friendly, easy to use, aiming fist. The winner will be able to enjoy the fist without needing to power up the Xbox.

Look At The Tree

by AshTHW

The boys at Team Housewares hit the links once again for an eventful weekend of virtual gold. Lately it seems that it would not be a Team Housewares golf outing without Electronic Arts earning their award as worst company in America as voted upon by The Consumerist. This week’s blunder was one that caused a bit of controversy within the ranks. Without any notice, they decided to delete the THW Country Club. Rumors were flying, did Mac rage quite the country club? Did the Dude’s awesome scores grab the attention of EA who may have thought he was a little too good? It seems we shall never know, EA is being tight lipped about the debacle.

Now on to the games for the weekend. Our first outing of the night was an adventure on one of the fantasy courses; the Highlands Golf Club. This course appears to be inspired by the Scottish Highlands with features such as grand castles and other medieval type ruins. The difficulty level of this course would even give the Highlander† himself a run for his money. With greens like glass and a variety of difficult hazards the early crew posted some high scores at this club. Dude McSqaured scored the best at the Highlands with a plus fifteen, with Bink of the Clan McDog posting twenty over par and AshMcTHaWsome occupying the caboose with an impressive +42.

Our next round takes us to beautiful Honolulu for a round at the Waialae Country Club. This beautiful course has a smattering of palm trees that grow at some interesting angles which caused one member to spout, “Look at the tree, its growing a 45 degree angle!”-Enderdog. The group started off fast and furious; with four of the five participants rounding the corner at even par. The back nine did not see very much movement but only Dudesquared was the only golfer to remain consistent enough to finish at even par.  The rest of the field finish no too far from the Dude; Bink arrived at the clubhouse with a respectable plus two, followed by Enderdog with plus four and Ash with a plus five, the occupier of the caboose this time around was big Mac with a score of 84.

Now we head to Florida for some fun at the PGA National Championship Course.  Dude starts out on a rampage and puts five birdies up on the front nine; Ash and Bink also play well and finish the front with a minus one and minus four respectively. On the back the Dude was unstoppable with five birdies and, to add insult to injury, an eagle on the 18th.  Dude earns the course pro, and possibly a tie for lowest score ever, with a score of 61. The rest of the field finishes the round with Bink scoring a 66, Ash with a surprising 68, Ender dog with a 78 and MacTHW rounds out the group with a 96.

Friday night comes to a close with a round at the Oakmont Course. This course features some brutal greens so the players needed to dial in their short games for this bout. No one was able to finish the front under par. The best score posted on this front was a +1 by the Ash man. After turning the corner Enderdog was on a charge and did not score a single bogey, this led him to the course pro title and a score of one under par. Closely following the leader was Binkdog with three over, Ash with four strokes over par and Mac remaining in the caboose with a total score of 96.

The gang starts the Saturday rounds with a look at this weekend’s tourney course, TPC Sawgrass. The front begins with Ash and Bink locked in a battle for first but Bink is able jump ahead and snatch the lead after nine holes with three under par and Ash following closely with one under followed by Enderdog, Dude and Mac. The back nine was a prime example of an epic meltdown courtesy of AshTHW, he had a slew of multi-bogey holes and was able to show off his bogey skills by scoring five over on holes eleven and seventeen.  Binkdog was able to narrowly escape this round with a win by scoring one over, with Dude following closely with two strokes over par. The rest of the group was far behind the two dynamos from Texas. Enderdog was the closest to the Texans with a score of 91, then Mac rolled in with a 92 and finally ash limps in with a score of 94.

The final Saturday round features a little course pro title defense by the Enderdog at Blackwolf Run. Binkdog starts out slow but finishes strong on the front nine and Enderdog scores an impressive two under on the front. On the back nine Enderdog putters with his course pro title hanging in the balance. Binkdog plays a strong back nine and saw the course pro honors within his grasp, but alas, he was only able to tie the course record with a score of 72. The other contenders are close behind with Enderdog scoring 78 stokes, the Dude smacks the ball 79 times, Ash was able to squeeze into fourth with 83 and Mac finishes out the evening by scoring an 87.

There you have it, the headlines for last weekend’s golf battles, see you next time.

† Connor McCloud from the Highlander movie series

Sunday, May 06, 2012

New Season, New Scoring and Ranking System

by MacTHW

Last season, the points used to rank players was a simple one - ((number_of_games_played) divided by (player_avg_score)) + .1 for each win

This formula heavily favored playing often over anything else. Example, someone who only played five times but shot a 60 each time would be ranked less than someone who played 300 times but shot an average of 75 each time.

The new formula still favors playing often, but it also rewards those who finish in the top three spots of each round, versus just rewarding the winner. It focuses less on shooting the lowest score. It also rewards extra for winning a Major THW tournament.

I think with the new formula the top spot will change more often, depending on how often a player participates.

With TW13, there are 4 types of game types I have identified. Our normal Friday and Saturday night games, THW Tournaments, Country Club Daily tournaments and Country Club Weekly tournaments.

The new system is a “points-for-playing” type system.

For regular Friday and Saturday night games, the following points will be assigned:

• First Place - 1.00 points
• Second Place - .75 points
• Third Place - .50 points
• Everyone Else - .25 points

For THW Tournaments (these points are in addition to the points earned for playing the four rounds of the tournament)

• First Place - 4.00 points
• Second Place - 3.00 points
• Third Place - 2.00 points
• Everyone Else - 1.00 points

For Country Club Daily tournaments (these points will be scaled back if we run concurrent Weekly tournaments at same time)

• First Place - .80 points / .60 points
• Second Place - .60 points / .45 points
• Third Place - .40 points / .30 points
• Everyone Else - .20 points / .15 points

For Country Club Weekly tournaments (whether these tournaments happen weekly or once weekly per month has yet to be decided)

• First Place - 2.00 points
• Second Place - 1.50 points
• Third Place - 1.00 points
• Everyone Else - .50 points

The updated score system has not yet been implemented on the website but I am getting started on it now. I have saved all submitted scores and screenshots from the new season and stats will go live within a few weeks (faster if someone wants to fund my full-time development of teamhousewares )

 

Thursday, May 03, 2012

Course Pro Records Up For Grabs During Second Week of New Season

by MacTHW

dude comes out of hiding and joins his fellow golfers this weekend. Well, at least for one day of it. MacTHW and dude join forces to create the first new team of the 2013 season but Team binkerton continues where they left off in Season 2012, winning games. The Kinect continues to plague players with troubles while others seem immune. The early shift doesn’t meet so early anymore. Lots of courses have yet to be claimed by a Course Pro. Any hey, where’s ze5? These are your headlines for the second weekend of the new season.

Having regained his composure, dude heads to the tee box at Atlanta Athletic Club to meet up with binkdog, enderdog and MacTHW. Continuing to put on a poker face to mask the impending collapse of Team binkerton, the two ‘dogs challenge dude and MacTHW to a team game. Since the new Tiger Woods 2013 game does not have a real team game built in, score tracking will be done manually, as it was with the Wii during the 2012 season.

binkdog takes an early, being the only player at PAR or better by the turn. Unfortunately, binkdog stumbles as soon as he hits the back nine and his Team Yeehaw team-mate, dude, runs with the ball. In individual competition, dude takes the match by one over binkdog and becomes Course Pro with his 78.

The team game is not pretty and the newly minted Team All-Dude suffers the first team defeat 6 DOWN, thanks to MacTHW not being able to drive the ball, approach the ball or putt the ball.

dude has not rage quit yet, so the foursome tee off at Blackwolf Run. MacTHW makes an instant dash to the caboose, while dude and enderdog battle it out along the front nine. dude takes a turn for the worse along the back but enderdog finds himself defending against a binkdog-charge. enderdog hangs in there, besting the old Texan by two strokes. Daggum! enderdog becomes Course Pro at Blackwolf Run with his 72.

In team competition, Team All-Dude can’t get it together. MacTHW’s poor performance results in the team going 4 DOWN.

Last round of Friday evening is at Royal County Down. dude still manages to keep the rage quit at bay and the four golfers head out to the course. dude shoots an impressive 31 at the turn, followed closely by parental unit binkdog, who keeps within two of the leader. enderdog attempts to join the fray along the back but is beat out by both binkdog and dude, both scoring a 33. Dude’s 64 is good enough for a win and Course Pro record at Royal County Down.

In the team game, Team All-Dude finally manages a victory over Team Binkerton going 3UP.

Saturday sees only three golfers on the links, as enderdog is out with a doctors note—the THW medicine cabinet is empty of AdvilTHW. Ash, binkdog and MacTHW hit the first tee box at Royal Birkdale. MacTHW is immediately disconnected and resumes play offline. Something’s not right but MacTHW leads at the turn. He is unable to hang on along the back as binkdog makes a charges, complaining about being wrong handed all the while. binkdog wins by three and his 74 is good enough for Course Pro record at Royal Birkdale.

The trio next head over to Crooked Stick where binkdog turns in a low, low front nine score of 31. Even though he is over PAR along the back, no one can unseat binkdog from the top of the leaderboard. binkdog takes another victory and Course Pro record at Crooked Stick with a 2-under PAR score of 70.

Last game of the weekend sees the boys heading to Canada, home to Banff Springs. Ash leads at the turn and has his sights set on a Course Pro record for himself. MacTHW offers no challenge and binkdog musters up a charge along the back. The charge makes up for lost ground and binkdog finds himself in first place again after the 18th, beating fellow Team fStop member Ash by two. binkdog becomes Course Pro at Banff Springs.

And that wraps up last weekend’s golf headlines. Tune in again next week.

Friday, April 27, 2012

No Lefties at TPC San Antonio

by MacTHW

You’ve gotta hand it to EA…they know how to destroy a great game. Last weekend was Team Housewares’ first tournament of the new season. The Shootout Near the Alamo (at TPC San Antonio) was mired in bugs, glitches and patches gone horribly wrong. It was anyone’s game. It just depended on who got hit with what glitch at what time. Or who couldn’t hang in there. The players struggled through the tournament, but some serious fixes need to arrived from EA—and soon. These are your headlines for the Shootout weekend.

Trouble arrived early with the delivery of a new patch for the Xbox version of Tiger Woods 2013. With players already struggling to learn the new mechanics of the game, EA pushes out a patch that addresses none of the game’s short-comings, but add disruption in the form of a new aiming marker (the fist of anti-awesomeness) and a bug that screws wrong-handers (lefties), making them have to play right-handed. And, as we have a wrong-hander amongst us, this cast a cloud over the tournament.

Ash, binkdog, dude, enderdog and MacTHW arrive at the first tee box at TPC San Antonio, eager to win the first tournament of the season. dude shoots out of the gate all fired up. He takes the lead by the turn, followed closely by Ash. dude turns on the afterburners on the back nine, smoking the closest competitor by six strokes. dude wins the first round as enderdog comes in second…ten strokes behind.

As dude heads into round two with a hefty lead, problems develop with the Kinect. Instead of working through it, dude decided his boots were made for walking and storms off the links, quitting the tournament and opting for a DNF. This opens a huge opportunity for the rest of the field and bink moves to capitalize. He finishes the round with a 69, which ends up being good enough for a Course Pro record at San Antonio and closes the gap between himself and enderdog.

Round three…FIGHT! All four golfers arrive at the first tee and binkdog is raring to hand out a beatdown to fellow Team binkerton-er, the enderdog. (are they even still together as a team?). binkdog leads at the turn, at one over par. enderdog picks up the pace along the back as bink stumbles. ender crosses the finish line one stroke ahead of binkdog. Ash squeaks by MacTHW, taking third.

It’s round four and binkdog needs to give enderdog a thrashing. Both dogs are tied at the turn. binkdog, needing to gain some ground, runs up against an undeterred enderdog who only gives up three strokes along the back. binkdog wins the round but enderdog scurries off to victory at the clubhouse.

Final standings after four rounds:

TPC San Antonio | Course PAR: 72 | Tournament PAR: 288
POS	Player	Round 1	Round 2	Round 3	Round 4	THRU	TOTAL	SCORE
1	enderdog	80	76	76	78	72	310	+22
2	binkdog	91	69	77	75	72	312	+24
3	Ash	92	79	82	72	72	325	+37
4	MacTHW	106	117	83	113	72	419	+131
DNF	dude	70	—	—	—	18	70	—

It should be mentioned that binkdog played very valiantly, sticking it out through the entire tournament, playing both left and right handed with the odds stacked against him. Who knows what the outcome would have been had dude not dropped out or had the left-handed player not been affected? But it is worth an honorable mention and a hearty YEEHAW! that binkdog overcame the adversity of a lame patch-handicapped situation and beat out two players who had no technical difficulties and came within two strokes of the tournament winner.

Unfortunately, we should not hold our breath that EA will come to our rescue with a quick fix.

To wind down from the tournament, the players headed over to Spyglass Hill where enderdog takes the course record with a 72, beating out binkdog by three strokes and Ash by four. MacTHW limps home with a 93 on the scorecard.

We are still working out some logistics with scoring and score-keeping and team games and, and, and, etc. Stay tuned. More headlines next weekend.