City of Light Tournament (September 16th, 2019)
The next tournament will be the City of Light Tournament in the beautiful scenery of Paris:
We play the holes in the course Parc de Paris, some of you might recognize them for the 2nd Anniversary Tournament or the Metro Tournament.
The holes will appear for practice in Tour 5 and Tour 11 during this week so you can get some preparation before the Qualifying Rounds start on Monday 🙂
Here are some additional tips for you to master this tournament well:
Hole 1 – For Rookie division you will always play it on the right side no matter what in the City of Light Tournament. If your driver can’t make the distance or the wind is not really fortunate, you can bounce it on the rough and add as much frontspin as you can to make sure you can go down the fairway far enough. If you won’t bounce it on the rough don’t add any frontspin or you risk going into the bunker. From here your bounce it over the bunker direcly on the fairway and the green so add some backspin to not come in too hot on the green – the sloping is sometimes a little hard to evaluate so no problem as long as you’re close enough to the pin to get your eagle here.
In Pro or Master division you can pick a more aggressive approach when you have a driver like the Apocalypse and bounce it over the large bunker in the middle by adding topspin and even overpower if you need to (depends on the wind). You might make the ball roll into the rough but that’s no problem because you now have a quite easy second hit to approach the pin directly and get some nice below par points in the City of Light Tournament 🙂
Hole 2 – This is a Par 3 hole in the City of Light Tournament and you can directly approach the green here. There are two ways to play this hole.
The red line is the normal way to play this hole by bouncing over the bunker and adding max side spin and about 2 bars of backspin to not come in too fast when going for the pin directly. If there’s strong side winds you want to add or remove one bar of backspin here.
The blue line is a possible play when you have direct headwind or tailwind and then you can bounce on the small spot of rough next to the bunker. This makes it easier to slow down the ball and approach the pin directly but I wouldn’t play this when you have side wind because it’s simply too risky too mess it up and with no winds from the side you’re almost sure to not mess up unless you don’t make your hit perfect/good 🙂
Hole 3 – it’s important that you play this hole with a Power III ball to cover the distance.
No matter if you play Rookie, Pro or Master division in the City of Light Tournament, this hole is always played in the way shown in the image here.
What you want to do is to use all the topspin and overpower along with some curl to the left with your drive to reach as far down the fairway there as possible.
The thing why this isn’t that much of a risk is that even if you go into the rough at the later part of that drive, you will still be able to reach the green in your second hit on this Par 5 hole.
Your second hit can get a little more tricky, depending how far you’ve reached in your drive and I always recommend bouncing on the fairway portion there with all the backspin you have (normally take 3-5 bars). It’s extremely hard to get the albatross but you will have an easy eagle now.
Hole 4 – this hole is another really interesting hole in the City of Light Tournament and also here the line is the same for all divisions.
What makes this hole so interesting are the bumby spots in between the bunkers where you need to bounce plus the fact that you’re in between clubs if you don’t.
Aim for the spot in the middle of the four small hills and adjust for the wind there.
From that point you need to adjust with sidespin to make your second bounce on the green and not the fairway and this should give you a great land on the green.
Add some curl to the left as well to give your ball the perfect direction to head directly for the pin.
Hole 5 – I recommend playing this hole on the right side in any case for the simple reason that the left side simply has a really tricky second hit that potentially can land you in the water or come in too hot, especially when you’re in between clubs.
What you want to do is to bounce it right in front of the river and ass full frontspin along with a little curl and overpower if you need to (depends on the wind). You want to smoothly roll down the fairway as much as possible.
From here you take your short iron that has the highest backspin and use all the backspin to bounce directly on the green (or the fairway, depends where your ball lands after your drive).
With all that backspin (5+ bars), you will be able to make the ball stop near the pin and have a secured eagle for this hole without risking that much.
Hole 6 – this hole looks a lot more scary than it is and actually it’s one of the holes I enjoy most in the City of Light Tournament 🙂 If you know how to play it right it’s a great way to get some extra below par points and also see opponents fail miserably here.
What you do is you want to bounce over the bunker from your drive and get as far as you can in the second fairway, use a lot of frontspin and some sidespin to the left to neutralize the natural flow to the right.
In your second shot you have trees in your way to the green so you will need a club with at least 40 curl.
Do not play through the two trees in the middle, this is jsut a nightmare risk and rather take the left side with as many curl as possible and bounce it on the fairway to make it reach for the pin directly.
You can now get your easy eagle here.
Hole 7 – no matter what you do, do not bounce the ball over the water in your drive! Yes, this is a hole in the City of Light Tournament where you play a shorter drive than you actually could because otherwise you will have a hill with trees on top right between you and the green in your second shot.
Play the ball gently in between the two bunkers and make it stop at the end before the water, this is the perfect spot to reach the green in your second hit.
In your second hit you only need full sidespin or add some curl if you don’t have the ball for that and you can directly approach the pin.
This is actually a pretty easy hole in this tournament because there’s almost no risk of messing up and enough space if you can’t hit the perfect shot 🙂
Hole 8 – this is a really tricky hole in the City of Light Tournament due to the fact that the green is uphill and on a plateau as well so if you come in a little bit too fast or too slow you will either stick before the pin or roll over the green.
Many players like to directly bounce up there and add all their backspin they have to make the ball lucky bounce into or next to the pin – this often doesn’t end well.
You rather want to bounce your way up the hill and use about 3-5 bars of backspin.
A hole-in-one is really tough at this hole and you rather want to get your secure birdie here so focus on getting as close to the pin in your drive 🙂
Hole 9 – coming to the last hole in the City of Light Tournament
The red line is the way to play it for Rookie and Pro division, the blue line for Expert.
Rookie/Pro: You want to get on the island and as much to the end of it as possible. Don’t put in too much frontspin or you might roll down and there’s no way you can reach the green in your second shot.
For your second shot you will use max overpower and max curl to the left with the Big Dawg to get as close to the green as possible – the green slopes down and if you make it far enough your ball can roll down on it. It’s a risky shot but it can give you some nice below par points in the tournament so it’s worth the risk.
Expert: You’ll bounce the ball over the island and get as far down the fairway as possible to get the best chances to get to the green in your second hit. Also add good curl and maybe overpower here but don’t make it too much so you don’t come in too hot on the green.
That’s it, wish you a lot of luck in City of Light tournament 🙂
