Most people view a tournament as a place for players to prove themselves. As a designer, I view a tournament as a place for courses to prove themselves. So, which course turned in the best performance at this tournament?
After six rounds, we can do an evaluation of the courses.
Just to get it out of the way, I'll list average scores:
MBN=57.2, MBS=61.0, OSH=61.4, SPC=63.4, TBR=69.1, VRL=60.7.
But average score is not the correct measure for naming a winning course.
And, for trivia purposes, we can look at where par should have been set. Par (Gold, Real, Definitional, Actual, 1000, or Open) would have been around
MBN=47, MBS=51, OSH=52, SPC=52, TBR=56, VRL=53.
If this Par had been used, the leader after 6 rounds would have been 10 over, which would tell him how well he would have done in Open at a big tournament (would have won something).
It is traditional to use Blue par for Ams. This would have been around
MBN=52, MBS=56, OSH=56, SPC=57, TBR=63, VRL=57.
The leader after 6 rounds would have been -20, and Even par would have been tied for 17th place.
But Par is not a measure of course performance either.
One measure of course's performance is correlation of actual scores to expected scores based on ratings. By this measure, OSH barely edged out TBR, even though it gave out lower scores.
MBN=58.8%, MBS=63.0%, OSH=65.2%, SPC=61.3%, TBR=64.9%, VRL=54.5%.
While Correlation is interesting and intuitive, a more useful and precise measure of how well a course sorted players by skill is Scoring Spread Width of Total Scores. By this measure SPC wins.
MBN=16.0, MBS=16.1, OSH=18.8, SPC=19.4, TBR=18.8, VRL=15.5.
The six courses together produced a Scoring Spread Width of 66.9, which means the typical player was tied with just over 3 other players.
A wide Scoring Spread Width is the result of 1) giving out a lot of different scores, and 2) giving them out in a non-random fashion. We can measure how non-randomly a course hands out its scores. By this measure, OSH is the winner, performing better than 98.4% of random results.
MBN=96.5%, MBS=95.3%, OSH=98.4%, SPC=95.7%, TBR=97.7%, VRL=95.6%.
By 1) handing out a lot of different scores, and 2) handing them out in a non-random fashion, and 3) measuring player skills which are not measured by the other courses, a course can enhance the quality of final results. To measure the combnined effect of all three "course skills", we look at Standardized Contribution to Scoring Spread Width of Total Scores.
MBN=6.3%, MBS=4.1%, OSH=9.1%, SPC=4.9%, TBR=6.8%, VRL=3.3%.
OSH wins the title of "Most Useful Course".
