Links PGA Tour 2026 - Valspar Championship

[dko]

Yet again, I lied.

The discussion on green speeds for different settings has always bugged me a bit. The significant disparities between the two charts shown in the sticky message in the Playing Links forum, and my suspicions about the stimpmeter reading in the bottom chart for F(C)/F(C), led me to look for other discussions on this subject. I found this link from Adelade, someone for whom I have great respect regarding Links matters:

https://linkscorner.org/phpBB/viewtopic ... 325#p15325

I don't know if any of you have ever seen this, but I think its rendition of the F(C)/F(C) setting more accurately depicts its behavior in Links, and it's a setting that I don't think would ever be used in a pro golf tournament in our lifetimes. The rest of the settings seem reasonable for our uses.

Worth the two cents I'm charging, I think...

[dko]

Geez, I can't stop. I don't sleep well at night, so I tend to stay up late and nap in the afternoon. So, my mind keeps grinding and, since I'm physically challenged, I tend to REALLY love Links as an entertainment source and conversation topic.

I fooled around a little bit with the RTS, but I just couldn't get past driving, as subsequent shots required developing touch, and as I found when I first started playing Links using what is now the classic swing, it takes a LONG time for someone like me to do it. So, I've stuck with classic for all these years. As I've thought about it, I remembered a brief lesson I received from a pro when I played real life golf fairly well (many, many years ago.) He said that something I did really well was the wrist snap at contact with the ball (he had a fancy camera to show it.) It makes me think of trying to "hit the six" when using the classic swing, and it makes it feel like a real swing to me. Trust me, I miss it plenty when I'm playing at champ level, with predictable (and to me, realistic) outcomes.

My belabored point is that, if you want scores that are closer to the pros, perhaps consider playing at champ level (I can't even imagine elite.) Not sure if this is a non-starter, or if it will even make enough of a difference, but there are certain courses where it may make sense, especially where the rough is not particularly difficult.

This, of course, offers no help to RTS users (sorry, dwg.)

[Pinseeker]

Final round, high winds and first time playing with no windows open... trying a new challenge. Manged a 73 plus 2 and quite happy with that considering the challenging conditions.

The round: https://youtu.be/TqnDMqMOQB8

[JimEvers37]

Got in my final round, started slowly, hit the green in 2 on the first hole, 3 putted off of it for a frustrating par, pars until the 6th hole when I hooked the tee shot into the trees left, took 2 punches to get out and ended up making a triple bogey 7, birdies at 8 (a 56 foot gift putt) and 9 to finish the front 9 in 37, back 9 started with a lipped out birdie putt on #10 from 12 feet, all pars until a birdie at the last to come in at 34 for a 37-34=71 even par final round.

Onto next week,

Jim

PS-I never knew about changing the size of the ball on the display, I did it and enjoyed being able to see the ball flying on the screen and my old Win7 machine will not handle tracers smoothly within Links game play.

[Southcitygolf]

[dwg]

I tried a round on Fast (challenging) on a Linux system. On Linux the mouse requires far more movement that on Windows, on the short to medium putts it helps as you get more fine tuning of the swing. On anything downhill I am finding that you either end up hellishly short or potentially off the green, the margin seems to be very fine even with the greater mouse movement required.

Des

[JimEvers37]

Yeah the Fast (challenging) is usually way tooooo much for me to be able to handle, and it might just be me but it feels like just barely missing the snap causes it to miss the cup completely and go rocketing away. I am a clicker, from your message it appears your using the RTS method, I've not tried it as I don't think I have the desk space to appropriately use it.

Jim

[dwg]

I decide to try it on my oldest system in use a Gen 3 i3 running Linux. At Fast challenging speeds if you are below the hole without too much side slope it works reasonably well, although I am sure some up hill putts picked up speed :) Down hill or side hill putts proved to be particularly treacherous, quite a number ran off the green despite being struck fairly softly.

As always I use RTS,

[dko]

SGC, I want to thank you for setting up these tournaments.: clapping: They're so much more fun than playing on my own against a computer ani and often involve challenges I don't usually subject myself to. Pretty nice camaraderie too.

[dko]

I decide to try it on my oldest system in use a Gen 3 i3 running Linux. At Fast challenging speeds if you are below the hole without too much side slope it works reasonably well, although I am sure some up hill putts picked up speed :) Down hill or side hill putts proved to be particularly treacherous, quite a number ran off the green despite being struck fairly softly.

As always I use RTS,

Des, I get the attraction of RTS. When I first tried to use it, I thought this is really cool for the instant feedback and realism. But since old habits die hard, I just couldn't stand the thought of trying to relearn everything.