May 24, 2007

JACKSON, MI — The Carl Spackler Open will be held at Grande Golf Club in Michigan. The tournament fee will include yardage cards each day of play.

"Yardage cards are yardage books that are printed on tri-fold cards very similar to scorecards," says Brian Long, Vice President and Online Scoring. "The cards will be available each day and provide much needed yardages to very deep greens."

The entire yardage card and photographs of each hole are available online. Photographs were taken to be represent the entire course to the field of players and fans around the world.

Scorecards contain green shapes and depth. They also contain the 6 pin placements of the Grande Golf Club.

"The green depth on some holes is major," said Long. "What club do you use from the 150 yard stick in the middle of the fairway? How about 200 yards? A handful of greens can change shots by 50 yards depending on pin placements."

Many of the holes at the Grande offer tantalizing risk/reward situations, and the 412-yard 9th hole is the prototypical example. "This is where the yardage card comes in handy," says Jason Watson. "It’s a classic cape hole, sweeping from left to right around a gaping wetland." Golfers can bail out left, and face the jeers and catcalls of your playing partners. Or, they can live like Tin Cup, gird your loins, and smack the living snot out of the ball and end up a 2/3 sand wedge from the green. Watson added, "Of course, if the golfer cannot putt, it would be a club-throwing bogey."

The yardage cards also provide green size, shape and tiers. They provide distance to hazards from the tees and layout of each hole.

"We will be playing the second shortest tournament in our history behind Thunder Hill," said Long. "The blue tee is our choice tee and expected to result in very high point totals."

Each green has 6 possible pin zones. Greg Long has selected the pin placements for the tournament. Pin zones will be 4, 3, and 2 with pin number 5 selected for the practice round.

"My favories are Hole 6 on Thursday and Hole 4 on Friday. My personal selection for the final round is Hole 14. I would imagine maybe one or two guys has seen anything more unique or difficult in their personal golfing history."

The tournament would be played from 6,443 yards. Seniors will play from 5,911 yards. The shortest total yardage since Thunder Hill, which was 6 yards shorter.

The 2007 Carl Spackler Open begins in a couple of weeks. Daily Pairing Sheets for the Opening Round will be distributed at the Mandatory Player Meeting on Thursday morning.