Close to the highest of the Coolest Issues I Noticed on the PGA Present checklist was the Toptracer demo vary. I assumed all Toptracer did was offer you very fundamental launch knowledge and a cool tracer for every shot.
As my spouse likes to say, “Incorrect once more, honey.”
Toptracer, the driving vary expertise owned by Topgolf Callaway, really has some fairly cool capabilities past simply tracing your photographs. It has an aggressive recreation mode, so your children can play Indignant Birds whilst you’re making an attempt to straighten out your slice.
However what’s actually cool is its traditional course simulation mode.
You’ll be able to, for instance, get a foursome collectively at a close-by Toptracer-equipped driving vary and play Pebble Seaside.
Or, extra pertinent to right this moment’s dialogue, the Previous Course in St. Andrews.
Backwards.
Severely, backwards.
Toptracer and the Backwards Previous Course
For the remainder of April, you and your buddies can go to a Toptracer vary and play the Previous Course backwards; clockwise as a substitute of the traditional counterclockwise. You’d begin on the primary tee, however you’d be enjoying to the 17th inexperienced as a substitute of the primary. Then, from the 18th tee field you’d play to the 16th inexperienced, and so forth.
The plain query you should be asking your self is why the hell would anybody wish to do this?
The reply is easy. April 6th by way of the 8th, the actual Previous Course, the one in Scotland, can be set as much as play identical to that.
Okay, this wants some clarification.
The fast reply is that since 2023, the St Andrews Hyperlinks Belief has opened a poll for golfers to play the Previous Course backwards over three days in early April. The Belief calls it “The Previous Course Reversed.” Toptracer, because the official driving vary tech companion for the Hyperlinks Belief, is supplying you with the prospect to do the identical factor, solely just about. To rejoice and (hopefully) drive some enterprise to the roughly 1,250 Toptracer-equipped ranges worldwide, Toptracer is organising a simulated Previous Course Reversed. You’ll be able to play it beginning right this moment by way of the tip of April.
Toptracer can also be including slightly motion to your digital spherical. When enjoying the Previous Course Reversed, you’re additionally competing for the prospect to attain tee occasions for 2 on the Previous Course Reversed in 2026.
The actual Previous Course Reversed. The one in Scotland.
That’s a part of the rationale why the hell anybody would wish to do this. The remainder of the reason being historical past.
The best way the Previous Course was
Enjoying the Previous Course backwards isn’t only a novelty. It’s the way it was performed up till Previous Tom Morris up to date the course within the early 1870s. Again then, the primary tee was close to the place the 18th inexperienced is at the moment, and the present 17th inexperienced, the Street Gap inexperienced, was half of a bigger shared inexperienced. From there, the course performed clockwise.
For a century, beginning in 1774 when the course was lowered from 22 to the now commonplace 18 holes, golfers performed the course on this configuration. Golfers would share fairways and hit into giant double greens. When performed backwards, a few of the oddly positioned Previous Course bunkers abruptly make sense.
After Previous Tom up to date the Previous Course, it might nonetheless be performed within the reversed setup occasionally properly into the Seventies. In 2024, the St Andrews Hyperlinks Belief made the Previous Course Reversed an annual occasion and established a worldwide poll for golfers to use for tee occasions.
Toptracer formally partnered with St Andrews Hyperlinks in 2022, organising Toptracer bays on the observe facility and the St. Andrews Hyperlinks Golf Academy. As a part of that partnership, Toptracer is the one platform the place you may just about play the Previous Course at a driving vary. In 2024, greater than 700,000 simulated Previous Course rounds have been performed at Toptracer websites around the globe.
About that contest…
You higher carry your A-game if you wish to win these tee occasions. The Previous Course Reversed is a straight-up gross rating stroke play from the black tees. There aren’t any handicaps and, most significantly, no mulligans. It’s identical to actual life in a simulated world: whoever shoots the bottom gross rating wins.
There are some guardrails in place. The max rating on any gap is 5 strokes over no matter par is for a given gap. Within the occasion of a tie, the winner can be whoever posted the bottom rating first. The prize consists of tee occasions solely. When you win, you’ll need to get your self to St Andrews, discover a place to remain and feed your self. The one freebie is the pair of tee occasions.
Toptracer can also be providing a closest to the pin competitors on the reversed 11th gap. The winner will get some restricted version St Andrews swag.
To discover a Toptracer vary close to you, go to the Toptracer website. You could find out extra concerning the contest here.
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