OT Pro-Am Changes from Event 13 (The Brabazon Shield)

This was something I had been contemplating and was looking at bringing it in from the start of next season, but seeing as that is so far away I have decided that the halfway point in this season would be a good a time as any, lol.

I referred to this in the 19th Hole forum in the 'Who is Debbie Driver?' thread. Basically members wanting to play in the Pro-Am's from Event 13 will be required to create and name their own CPU partner. Details of what needs to be done for those that are not savvy with CPU players will be detailed below. With this change the current CPU players Penny, Debbie, Ivan or Charlie will be retired at the close of Event 12 (US Open). I have decided on a cap of 80 skill points for the new CPU partners (5 less than those of the current players).

I hope those that play the Pro-Am will not find this too much of an inconvenience and continue to participate as they have done so far.

So, here are the guidelines to creating your course companion.

Creating a CPU player in Links 2003

Open Links 2003, select Options then select Players and finally click the Create New Player button. You will then be given the option of creating a Human or Computer player, so select Computer Opponent and then click the Next button.

Here you then apply the required animation/clothing/clubs/sounds combination, name the CPU player, apply appropriate pic and also apply Left or Right handed playing style. When completed click on Next.

You will then be prompted to select a default tee option for the player. This is not really critical as the LTS file will determine which tees are used, so pick any tee set you see fit followed by the Next button.

Next you will be prompted to select your grid settings for your CPU player. Again this is down to personal preference if you want the grid on, so select the settings you require and click the Next button.

You then are at the club selection screen but as Links doesn’t allow you to select the clubs for the CPU player, just click the Finish button and your golfer is created. Now all that needs to be done is to apply the skill points for your player.

With your newly created CPU player selected, click the Computer Skills button. You will now be given the skill settings screen where you can apply the skill points to your player. In the top right hand corner you will see the overall total of the combined skill points attributed to your player. Each of the 6 categories have different increment values, so depending on how high you wish to set each category depends on how high the total value increases by. Once you are happy with your selection click the OK button and the process is complete and your player is ready to join you out on the Links.

The minimum total skill points value allowed is 50 and the maximum is 100. For the Offline Tour Pro-Am partners, the new limit for the skill points total will be 80. I will leave it to the individual as to whether they make the settings permanent/hidden, but do remember that you may change the values of your CPU partner for each Pro-Am as long as they do not exceed 80.

Any member playing on the OT Pro-Am tour from Event 13 onwards that submits a score with a CPU partner in excess of 80 total skill points or partnering one of the original 4 CPU Pro-Am partners will have their score disregarded.

If anyone has any questions regards any of the above, please don’t hesitate to post here on the forum or mail me at the usual address.

Nice idea, Daz. I made 4 different CPU-players with different skills and let them playing a practise-round at The Belfry. After that I took the one, who achieved the best result as my partner and it worked perfect as you can see.

JoeSmith wrote: I assume changing it every week is not a problem.

@ Joe,

Not a problem at all sir. That was my main idea behind changing the format like I have. Instead of choosing between 4 'stock' partners week after week, let the players create their own within the skill points limit, and make adjustments if needed prior to the next pro-am event event as long as the 80 point limit is not exceeded.

Kurt wrote:After that I took the one, who achieved the best result as my partner and it worked perfect as you can see.

@ Kurt,

Like you say, your efforts to find the most suitable partner appear to have paid dividends, lol.

Just glad the change hasn't proved too problematical for everyone.

Sorry, I've never changed the aggression at my CPU-players. Don't know, if it brings another result, Joe.

I'm sure I have read somewhere in the past over at LC that the aggression setting for CPU players has no bearing on their style of play, so is effectively a 'void' setting.

Someone like Jerry Garlisch may know better, as he is the CPU master, lol.

Daz