Career The Augusta Challenge: Ian Vs Foxy - 18th Hole Results

[Ian]

Good hole @Foxy, nicely played. 

[Kanegan]

This is travesty!!! You two are playing for a draw!!! Where is the competitive spirit!! End this farce right now😂

[broodje kip]

Great season Foxy well done

[Titjes]

Another draw? When will someone make a mistake finally 

[Mr Tree]

quality. got a feeling the next hole will be child's play for you two, too. looking forward to the first slip-up though - surely you won't be tied at -17 going into the last...

[FuddledFox]

Thanks for all the comments on both my post and @Ian. It’s great to see you are al enjoying following along so far.

It’s all looking good plain sailing for us both at the moment but looking ahead to the rest of the outward 9 there are some tricky ones coming up with some good potential for the leaderboard to start to shake up a bit.

[samhardy]

Another halved hole and it's still as tight as it possibly could be after the first 3. Can hole 4 break the deadlock?

Ian comes in the overall odds for the first time after matching Foxy so far if not slightly outperforming him.

Overall Odds

@Foxy - 4/5

@Ian - Evens

Hole 4 is a tough one to call as a birdie is achievable but someone could easily fall short and maybe even do worse. Another half is perhaps still the most likely outcome but this really could be the one where someone finally takes the advantage.

Hole 4 Odds (Flowering Crab Apple)

@Foxy - 6/4

Hole Halved - 19/10

@Ian - 6/4

[BatiGoal]

I feel this Flowering Crab Apple is going to throw a rotten apple at one of the two. £100 there's 1 par and 1 birdie on this one. Can't tell who but it's coming. 

[FuddledFox]

 

We move onto hole 4 neck and neck and with the crowd desperate to see someone slip up after three straight birdies from @Ian and myself.

This is the first par 3 on the course which gives a good birdie chance but it will take precision if we are to do so.

Remember as it’s a par 3 we just need to play the first half of the season in order to post a score. The aim of this challenge was to get to the halfway point of the league season with a goal difference of as close to 60 as possible, anything above +35 will be a par and above 50 is birdie territory.

The Challenge

As this challenge is about being as balanced as possible I decided to spend big on a defender and a striker (Zaniolo joined in Jan after the challenge was over) in the hope of scoring plenty but keeping them out at the other end as well.

 

Transfers out.

Spoiler

With the huge amount I spent and an already top squad I was hopeful I could hit my target although this is a tough challenge.

August

Losing the Community Shield wasn’t great preparation but in the three league games we played we got results although only one clean sheet and no big winning margins.

Current GD: +5

 

September 

The season really starts now and again we are getting the wins but not necessarily the big winning margins that I need to boost the GD. Even when we score 4 we conceded two which is frustrating.

Current GD: +12

 

October 

It hasn’t been a bad start and a par looks possible as we have yet to lose or draw but I need a couple of really big winning margins in order to really boost my birdie chances.

A 3-0 win over Palace is good but only the one goal win over Arsenal and two against Leicester leaves me well behind in curve if I want to birdie this hole.

Current GD: +18

 

November 

Only three league games in November but all look good fixtures with Forest, Swansea and Southampton being nice weak teams.

Clean sheets in all three games was a real bonus but I could have done with getting more goals in at least two of the games.

December is a busy month and it is absolutely now or never if I’m going to get a birdie.

Current GD: +26

 

Spoiler

December

This is the final month of the challenge with 6 league games to be played. To get a par I need 9 or more goals and to get a birdie I need a miracle 24 more goals.

I got my biggest win this month as I popped 5 with no reply past Aston Villa but only one goal winning margains in the final two games made it impossible to get a birdie.

I had to settle for a par and was 12 goals short of a birdie in the end.

Final GD: +38

 

Not the birdie I had hoped for and this has opened the door for @Ian to go 1up if he can have more success scoring goals than I did.

Hole 4: Par

Current Score for the Round: -3

The Rest of the Season

Spoiler

The league was a massive success in terms of results as we only dropped 6 points all season and remained unbeaten. In the cups I managed to pick up the Euro Super Cup and League Cup but lost in shootouts to Man Utd and Liverpool in the FA Cup and Champions League respectively.

 

Player Stats

Thank you for reading and most comments are appreciated.

[Gunners Rishi]

That’s a tricky hole well done on the par 

[Woody]

Its a tricky hole that but it was a solid par. 

[Nucleus]

I’d be happy with that Foxy, it’s a damage limitation hole  

[FuddledFox]

@Woody @Gunners Rishi @Nucleus

I’m happy enough with a par but it would have been nice if I could have converted a few of those wins into bigger margins of victory and got a bit closer to a birdie.

Whether it’s a good par or not really depends on how Ian has done...

[Nucleus]

I’ve always been confused with this hole actually. Are you meant to smash the +60GD or literally get as close as possible to it? For example, would a +80GD still Net you a birdie? @samhardy

[BatiGoal]

Well played, Foxer.

Definitely no easy task this. Mainly because it's the first season and the AI managers haven't had the chance yet to fek up all the squads. 

 

[Kanegan]

That was nicely done. Par is a good outcome in this one. 

[broodje kip]

Nice try Foxy a par is quite good here. Myself could probably got a double boogey 

[Ian]

Nice Par there @Foxy!

Some fantastic signings and Mbappe in particularly is worrying for me. I already have Zaniolo who I picked up at the start after having so much joy with him on last years game. 

[FuddledFox]

@BatiGoal @Kanegan @Lord Danish

Thanks for the comments. A par is decent enough but of course we always want better. Ian might bogey and suddenly I go 1up and it looks a great result or of course he might birdie and then not so much...

1 hour ago, Ian said:

Some fantastic signings and Mbappe in particularly is worrying for me. 

Mbappé did great for me although I’m not actually sure how well he fits into my plans for hole 5 which is tricky as I am going to need him in the future 🤔

[samhardy]

17 hours ago, Nucleus said:

I’ve always been confused with this hole actually. Are you meant to smash the +60GD or literally get as close as possible to it? For example, would a +80GD still Net you a birdie? @samhardy

Yes 80 would still be birdie. When creating the challenge I didn't think it would be realistic for anyone to actually get over +60 😂

[Ian]

Yesterday we saw @Foxy hit a nice Par which does slightly open the door for me if I could manage to continue my early run of Birdies. Upon looking at the challenge I really fancied I could hit a Par purely based on my goal differences from the previous seasons but the Birdie seemed a touch too far so we’ll see how I fared.

Transfers

With Salah, Mané and Firmino all leaving I really felt we needed a couple of new attacking players so went big on Ricardo Orsolini and Bruno Fernandes. If I’m honest I’m starting to think there’s a bug with the graduates because I’m almost certain I declined them all but yet they are showing here. I’ll keep a look out for that over the next couple of seasons.

Spoiler

Checkpoint 1

The first four games certainly went to plan as we scored 11 goals without conceding to put us into Birdie territory. Apart from the tricky Chelsea game you’d feel the others were favourable games so I wasn’t getting ahead of myself at this stage.

Checkpoint 2

We suffered our first hiccup at Newcastle as we conceded two late goals which at the time felt like a kick in the teeth. We responded well though and after 10 games we had a goal difference of +29 but I still didn’t think the Birdie was on as I couldn’t see us keeping this defensive record up and we had a couple of tricky away games back to back against Man City and Spurs in December which you’d think would be tight games.

Checkpoint 3

The next three league games were won but none by a great margin so the Birdie was starting to look out of range.

Checkpoint 4

I was losing hope of the Birdie at this stage but then the boys put on a bit of a show and claimed the massive victory that you’d feel is important on a challenge like this. The goals just kept flying in during the first half and we went in at the break 7-0 to the good. The second half was never going to be as good but we did add a couple to claim a 9-0 win which put us in a truly great position to take the Birdie.

The two tricky away games against Man City and Spurs could hardly have gone much better as we won both 2-1 and then a 3-0 victory at Anfield over Boro left us in a position whereby winning the final two games would give us the Birdie.

Checkpoint 5

I played a half and half kind of team against Arsenal in the League Cup quarter final as I did for all of the cup games and we paid the price as they dumped us out but I can’t say I was overly bothered. The two all important league games happened to be at home which certainly filled me with confidence and it turned out to be a formality as we beat Everton 4-2 and Leicester 5-1 to claim the Birdie.

Rest of Season

I switched my focus after the challenge was done in preparation for next season. The system I used for this hole featured Inverted Wing Backs which won’t be no good for the next hole you’d think so I tried a few new things out and put more focus on the cups and finished up winning the League and all of the cups except the League Cup as mentioned above.

Spoiler

Score

Hole 4 (Flowering Crab Apple): Birdie -1

Running Total: -4

So that Birdie puts me into the lead but there is a long way to go here so I won’t be getting overconfident.

 

 Hole 5 Preview

Spoiler

 

Challenge - Buy two American wing backs. They must get as many combined assists as possible in one season and can't play any higher up the field than DML/R. Allcompetitions.

Birdie - 50+ assists

Par - 30 assists

Bogey - 20 assists

Double Bogey - Less than 20 assists

 

Thanks for reading and most comments are greatly appreciated.

[BatiGoal]

On 11/12/2019 at 00:38, BatiGoal said:

I feel this Flowering Crab Apple is going to throw a rotten apple at one of the two. £100 there's 1 par and 1 birdie on this one. Can't tell who but it's coming. 

@samhardy you owe me money!

Well played Ian. Nerves of steel when it mattered. Tho I'm not so sure I'd like having a hungry fox chasing me. 

[Gunners Rishi]

Well played really well done

[FuddledFox]

Very nicely done @Ian but a long way to go yet...

[Kanegan]

Nicely done Ian. Great play there and taking the lead although I am sure Foxy will be gearing up to reclaim it. 

[Ian]

@BatiGoal, @Gunners Rishi, @Foxy, @Kanegan

Thank you all for the comments! I’m just enjoying my position in front at this stage after a great start.

I had been assured that Black Cat Betting were a decent reliable company before we started so I’ll be interested to know whether you got your payout Bati!

[samhardy]

43 minutes ago, Ian said:

I had been assured that Black Cat Betting were a decent reliable company before we started so I’ll be interested to know whether you got your payout Bati!

He will be getting his "payout", don't you worry about that.

[broodje kip]

Great season Ian seems like tou’ve beaten Foxy this time

[Woody]

Well done Ian a nicely played hole.

[Ian]

17 hours ago, Lord Danish said:

Great season Ian seems like tou’ve beaten Foxy this time

Thank you Lord, I’ve won the battle with this hole but plenty of golf still to play.

8 hours ago, Woody said:

Well done Ian a nicely played hole.

Thank you Woody, I think the hole suited me as I had a system and first team just perfect for it. I’ll need to use a different system next hole though with wing backs and I have no idea how it’ll go tbh.