August 26, 2010

COLUMBUS, OH — Major championships tend to put just a tad bit of pressure on players. That is not evident inside the Virtual Tournament, as new leader John Dages went from shooting a 54 points to open the season to scoring 74+ points per round over and over and over again.

He now sits on top of the 2010 Virtual Tournament leaderboard with room to spare. Right now, it’s Dages and everyone else. The next closest player to him is Pat Boland, who is a full point back with 69.2 points per round.

"He has risen at the right time," says Brian Watson. "He is one April back nine from slamming the door shut on the season-long event."

Watson is referring to Dages opening round at Foxfire Golf Club where he carded a 33-over 69 on the back nine. The Ohioan experienced a Bartlett-like 47 strokes on the final 5 holes.

Dages, a.k.a. Failstar, has drastically turned things around since April. "He suddenly dropped 20 strokes off his game and kept it off," says Tim Hibner. "To card 6 bogeys and 3 pars in a single round is genious."

Failstar has averaged 75 points since Memorial Day while still putting up lots of quadruple and quintuple bogeys along the way.

John grabs the top spot with 70.3 points per round. The monsterous play has shocked the Golfapalooza fans and nearly caused a handicap processing error.

"The 9 bogeys and 2 pars during his previous round can easily be perceived as cheating," says Jason Watson. "He absolutely should be considered a front runner to win the MELC Championship on September 28."

Failstar receives 2 points for triple-bogey, 3 points for double-bogey, and 5 points for par.

The 2010 Virtual Tournament is a season-long tournament using scorecards posted in the 2010 calendar year. The format includes the average points scored using previous 10 scorecards. Tournament elibility requires 3+ scorecards.