Kentucky Derby Scramble – Saturday, May 5th

Ah yes, the glitz, the glamour, the pageantry! On Kentucky Derby Saturday, we’ll combine the sport of kings with some swings on the links. Swing on out to Hart Ranch for a fun 9-hole 2-person scramble, and you’ll have a shot at picking the best horse for the Kentucky Derby!

$10 Entry Fee

$5 Goes to Golf Finish, $5 to Kentucky Derby Finish

Kentucky Derby Party at the O.C. from 2-6pm

Top finisher gets first pick of horse, second gets second pick and so on

Dress to impress! Suits, dresses and gigantic hats are highly encouraged!

No need for USGA Index – Peoria Handicapping

Play anytime before 1pm Saturday – Scorecards must be turned in by 3pm

Derby Post Time is 4:34pm

Here are the current odds:

Justify (2-1) 
Magnum Moon (4-1) 
Mendelssohn (9-2) 
Bolt d’Oro (5-1) 
Good Magic (7-1) 
Audible (10-1) 
Vino Rosso (12-1) 
My Boy Jack (16-1) 
Enticed (18-1) 
Solomini (20-1) 
Instilled Regard (20-1) 
Noble Indy (24-1) 
Hofburg (30-1) 
Lone Sailor (40-1) 
Flameaway (40-1) 
Combatant (40-1) 
Free Drop Billy (40-1) 
Promises Fulfilled (50-1) 
Bravazo (50-1) 
Strike Power (50-1) 
Restoring Hope (50-1) 
Firenze Fire (60-1) 
Snapper Sinclair (75-1) 
Dream Baby Dream (100-1)   

I don’t know about you, but I like Free Drop Billy, which means he’ll finish last. Hope to see y’all Saturday, and good luck!

The post Kentucky Derby Scramble – Saturday, May 5th appeared first on Hart Ranch Golf Course.

How Do You Practice?

How Do You Practice?

Do you hit 5, 10, or even 20 shots in a row with the same club?

Is driver the first club you take out of the bag?

When you hit a bad shot, do you immediately scrape over another ball and try to hit a better one?

Does it take you 10 minutes to hit a large bag or bucket of range balls?

Do you always have a target?

If so, does your target ever change?

Ever hear of alignment sticks, or at least clubs on the ground?

How about a practice station?

Do you only hit shots you’re comfortable with?

Do you only use the clubs you’re comfortable with?

Do you only aim at targets you’re comfortable with?

Do you ever try to hit it low, high, left, right, draw, fade, hook or slice?

Do you ever hit balls out of divots?

How about out of the sand, e.g. our driving range bunker?

Do you ever practice your pre-shot routine?

How about your post-shot routine?

Does your practice look or feel anything like playing on the actual course?

Do you hit a lot of shots on the range but fail to see your score drop?

The thing is, you don’t have to hit balls for hours upon hours to get better at this game. The #1 rule when on the range is quality over quantity. Join us from 12-1:30pm on Saturday, April 28^th for our Practice Clinic, where we’ll go over the best ways to practice, so you don’t waste your time and money. Click here to sign up. See you at Hart Ranch!

The post How Do You Practice? appeared first on Hart Ranch Golf Course.

What Would a Tour Pro Shoot at Hart Ranch?

What Would a Tour Pro Shoot at Hart Ranch?

A valid question I’m sure you’ve come across, no matter where you play. What would the average PGA Tour player shoot on your home course?

First, a quick reminder of rating and slope:

Course Rating: Course Rating defines the USGA® mark indicating the evaluation of the playing difficulty of a course for scratch golfers under normal course and weather conditions. It is expressed as strokes taken to one decimal place, and is based on yardage and other obstacles to the extent that they affect the scoring ability of a scratch golfer. Course Rating is equivalent to the better half average of a scratch golfer’s scores under normal playing conditions.

Slope Rating: A Slope Rating is the USGA’s mark that indicates the measurement of the relative difficulty of a course for players who are not scratch golfers compared to the USGA Course Rating (e.g., compared to the difficulty of a course for scratch golfers). A Slope Rating is computed from the difference between the Bogey Rating and the USGA Course Rating. The lowest Slope Rating is 55 and the highest is 155. A golf course of standard playing difficulty has a Slope Rating of 113.

Here’s a handy chart to show you how your Index stands up:

Handicap Index	Percent of Total	Cumulative
+1.0 or better	0.92%	0.92%
+0.9 to 0.0	0.68%	1.60%
0.1 to 1.0	0.95%	2.55%
1.1 to 1.9	1.26%	3.81%
2.0 to 2.9	1.62%	5.43%
3.0 to 3.9	2.07%	7.51%
4.0 to 4.9	2.60%	10.11%
5.0 to 5.9	3.20%	13.30%
6.0 to 6.9	3.77%	17.07%
7.0 to 7.9	4.35%	21.42%
8.0 to 8.9	4.76%	26.18%
9.0 to 9.9	5.13%	31.31%
10.0 to 10.9	5.43%	36.74%
11.0 to 11.9	5.66%	42.40%
12.0 to 12.9	5.72%	48.12%
13.0 to 13.9	5.69%	53.82%
14.0 to 14.9	5.47%	59.28%
15.0 to 15.9	5.10%	64.38%
16.0 to 16.9	4.69%	69.07%
17.0 to 17.9	4.33%	73.40%
18.0 to 18.9	3.78%	77.17%
19.0 to 19.9	3.34%	80.51%
20.0 to 20.9	2.96%	83.47%
21.0 to 21.9	2.62%	86.10%
22.0 to 22.9	2.30%	88.40%
23.0 to 23.9	1.98%	90.38%
24.0 to 24.9	1.68%	92.06%
25.0 to 25.9	1.43%	93.50%
26.0 to 26.9	1.19%	94.69%
27.0 to 27.9	1.00%	95.69%
28.0 to 28.9	0.82%	96.52%
29.0 to 29.9	0.68%	97.19%
30.0 to 30.9	0.54%	97.74%
31.0 to 31.9	0.45%	98.19%
32.0 to 32.9	0.36%	98.55%
33.0 to 33.9	0.29%	98.84%
34.0 to 34.9	0.24%	99.08%
35.0 to 36.4	0.92%	100.00%

 

Hart Ranch’s men’s course rating from the tips is 72.8, has a slope of 129 and plays at 6,833 yards. So, on a good round, a male scratch golfer would be expected to shoot around 73 or below. The thing is, PGA Tour Pros are far better than scratch.

Bubba Watson carries a +7.7 index at Isleworth CC in Florida (77.7 Rating, 137 Slope), while Phil Mickelson (+5.2), Paul Casey (+6) and Martin Kaymer (+6.6) carry their indexes at Whisper Rock GC in Arizona (75 Rating, 145 Slope). To even consider playing on Tour (and that includes Web.com), you’d probably need to be at least somewhere in the +5 – +7 range at Hart Ranch.

Here’s another helpful chart, showing some of the more difficult courses on the PGA Tour:

And here’s what you’d be expected to fire at Augusta National (although they don’t release Course and Slope Ratings, see more info here):

Considering Patrick Reed finished at 15 under this year, or 3.75 under per round under enormous pressure, you can see just how good the best in the world are. Yes, they have caddies, swing coaches and usually course knowledge if they’ve been around for awhile, but it’s still remarkable.

So, if one of these fellas played Hart Ranch (in the middle of the summer) for the first time, without the benefit of a caddy or course knowledge, what would they fire? I’d put it somewhere in the 66-70 range, especially since the speed and slope of the Hart Ranch greens and South Dakota winds can give anyone some trouble. If they were to play 3+ times, they would probably shoot 65 or below. Hart’s current course record is 66, which is an excellent score from the back tees, but it wouldn’t take long for a PGA Tour player to smash it. I’m just saying they’d probably need to play a couple times.

As always, please let us know your thoughts. Like you, we’re ready for some warm weather. Happy Golfing!

The post What Would a Tour Pro Shoot at Hart Ranch? appeared first on Hart Ranch Golf Course.

2018 Masters Preview

Masters Preview

Ladies and Gentlemen, welcome to the best week of the pro golf year! We’ll all be jealous watching the best in the world play one of the best golf courses in the world, but it should make for awesome viewing. Jim Nantz said this is his most anticipated Masters in 33 years of covering the tournament, and there’s good reason. If you haven’t picked submitted your Masters Champion for a chance to win some awesome prizes, click here. Read on to find out a little about the course and field, and of course, some incorrect predictions!

The Course

Augusta National Golf Club, Augusta Georgia

Par 72, 7,435 Yards

Bentgrass Greens

Ever hear of this place? One of the most famous golf courses in the world, Augusta National has hosted the Masters since 1934, and the tournament is the unofficial kick-off to the golf season. Augusta always plays significantly longer than 7,435, as wild undulations prevail around the course.

The greens are about average size for a PGA Tour course, but are some of the fastest and craziest these guys will play all year. You will be seeing some missed 2-footers. As difficult as the putting is, some notoriously bad (for them) putters have found a lot of success at Augusta. Sergio Garcia and Adam Scott, for example, are not known as the best putters on Tour, but both have won here.

Since there is no rough (only pine straw, which can be tricky, but not as bad as really thick rough), there will be very little clubbing down. Players generally hit driver on almost every non par-3 (13 out of 14 holes), so distance is usually a premium at Augusta.

The weather looks fairly good all week, with the exception of Saturday, where rain and 15mph winds are forecasted for late afternoon. Early-round leaders could struggle a bit as they play into the late hours Saturday.

The Field

Of course, it’s a decent field, and is more pronounced with the return of a certain player. There are only 87 golfers teeing it up this year, the smallest field since 1997, when said certain player won by 12 strokes. The top 50 and ties make the cut, along with anyone within 10 shots of the leader. Also, there are 4 amateur players (check this out) and past Masters Champions are invited back for life. You’ll have Olazabal, O’Meara, Woosnam, Weir, Immelman, etc, who can pretty much be counted out. Bernhard Langer, Angel Cabrera and Fred Couples are probably the only ones with a shot of making the cut.

The bigger story is the top-echelon. There are basically 20 guys you could pick out of a hat and have a good shot at winning. Mickelson, DJ, JT, Rory, J-Day, Jon Rahm, Bubba Watson and Paul Casey have already won on the PGA Tour this year, and you also have Justin Rose, Rickie Fowler, Jordan Spieth, Sergio Garcia, Tommy Fleetwood, and many more. Oh yeah, and that certain player we mentioned before. Here are the odds as of Tuesday, April 3^rd:

Jordan Spieth 10/1
Tiger Woods 10/1
Dustin Johnson 12/1
Justin Thomas 12/1
Rory McIlroy 13/1
Bubba Watson 15/1
Phil Mickelson 15/1
Justin Rose 16/1
Jason Day 22/1
Rickie Fowler 25/1
Paul Casey 28/1
Jon Rahm 30/1
Hideki Matsuyama 35/1
Sergio Garcia 35/1
Alex Noren 40/1
Henrik Stenson 45/1
Matt Kuchar 45/1
Patrick Reed 50/1
Tommy Fleetwood 50/1
Ian Poulter 60/1
Louis Oosthuizen 60/1
Adam Scott 66/1
Bryson DeChambeau 66/1
Marc Leishman 70/1

Predictions

I’ll be honest, this one is almost impossible to predict. As stated before, driving will be at a premium. With the weather being fairly nice all week, you’ll want to choose a bomber, even if they tend to spray it once in awhile. Some key stats to look at:

Strokes Gained: Ball Striking and Approach (Here’s a handy chart for the readers):

Strokes Gained: Par 5s

Strokes Gained: Around-the-Green

Driving Distance

Course History

Notice that we don’t have putting on here. While putting is definitely difficult at Augusta, it’s much more important to hit greens and be able to scramble when necessary. Look for players that strike the ball well, rather than putt well. I could go with a plethora of players here, but I’ll take Big Jon Rahm. He’s flying under the radar, but has all the goods to go the distance. Of course, we’ll all be rooting for Tiger to do well, but I see more of a top-10 to top-15 for him right now.

Losing Draftkings Lineup

Jason Day

Jon Rahm

Louis Oosthuizen

Bryson DeChambeau

Hideki Matsuyama

Tyrell Hatton

 

Have a great Masters week, good luck and happy golfing!

The post 2018 Masters Preview appeared first on Hart Ranch Golf Course.