January 2, 2010

WESTERVILLE, OH — Although, the 2010 Virtual Tournament does not begin for most of the active 109 players within the Carl Spackler Open Community, the annual update of points for all players has been completed. The 169 members registered for Carl Spackler Open were updated today with a couple of big handicap moves upward and downward.

Trent Cooper is once again loading up after placing 82nd in the 2009 Virtual Tournament with 44.0 points per round. He finished in 65th position in 2008, 63rd position in 2007, and in a tie for 51st position in 2006.

"Backup the truck and load up the points," said Cooper of the distribution of points completed last week. This looks like sandbagging, but nobody would pay to intentionally score this kind of garbage."

Dan Obendorfer will grab a career high point distribution after scoring 45.3 points per round in the 2009 Virtual Tournament. He will open with 2 points for triple-bogey, 4 points for double-bogey, and 5 points for bogey.

Rob Harvey, Erik Shirreffs, and Thomas Henkel are all big winners during the annual point distribution. "These guys played very poor last summer," said Long. "At least when you consider their handicaps on January 1, 2009." The goal behind point distribution is to level the playing field on January 1 to see who is the best and worst golfers of the year.

Chad Long, Jack Schone, and Scott Mealey are the hardest hit. Chad Long is expected to lose 20 percent of his handicap from last January. "He has definitely turned his game around," said Vice President of Grass and Animal Interaction Tom McCauley. "I am anxious to see the results first hand this April."

Scott Mealey will lose 25 percent of his handicap after playing career golf for a period of months.

PostStats LLC, the premier amateur sports entertainment website, announced the Poststats Points for Virtual Tournaments last Friday.

The target of 60 points will be used for golfers with handicaps higher than 20 strokes. The bogey golfer and even more skilled golfers will be granted higher targets to help adjust the improvement scale. "There is no doubt Mike Lewis has more room to improve than Jason Ridgeway," said Long. "We need to capture that in the point target and overall system. Ridgeway's target is 68 points."

The 2010 Virtual Tournament is a season-long tournament with the goal to identify the most improved golfer of season. Poststats Points will remain unchanged with golfers playing better or worse than their handicaps throughout the year.