[oldalum]

Of the four other teams that teed off at the same time as Northwestern and Kent State, #11 South Carolina is in seventh, #13 Miami is in 12th, #9 Furman in 18th, and #8 Duke is in 19th.  And two of the nation’s top ten teams aren’t in the tournament.  So I don’t detect ah advantage in the 1:36 tee time.

And we, along with Alabama and Florida, played only four holes before NW and Kent State teed off.  We played those holes in +2.  Northwestern played them in +6, Kent State in +3. 

You inadvertently illustrated my point quite well! ( Best explanation is that they had more favorable playing conditions for the holes they are playing than the other groups. (weather is the same all over the course, but affects the holes differently), because the group of SoCarolina, Furman and Duke that teed off at the same time as NW and Kent St and did so poorly actually started on the 10th hole (as did we), while NW and Kent St started at the same time on the first hole. And the first four holes of the course that we actually played better than NW and Kent State: we played them much later than them, rather than 4 holes ahead of them. So NW and Kent State did in fact have much different and presumably better conditions for the holes they played at the times they played them than we did or than the even better comparison group you cited. And we know the weather changed, because the Duke website's recap says they started on 10 and played their first nine holes in a heavy rain. Based on this round, I would say that the back nine plays much worse in bad rain than the front nine. So while NW and Kent State certainly played well, I doubt they were playing that much better than everyone else.

[oldalum]

Of the four other teams that teed off at the same time as Northwestern and Kent State, #11 South Carolina is in seventh, #13 Miami is in 12th, #9 Furman in 18th, and #8 Duke is in 19th.  And two of the nation’s top ten teams aren’t in the tournament.  So I don’t detect ah advantage in the 1:36 tee time.

And we, along with Alabama and Florida, played only four holes before NW and Kent State teed off.  We played those holes in +2.  Northwestern played them in +6, Kent State in +3. 

You inadvertently illustrated my point quite well! ( Best explanation is that they had more favorable playing conditions for the holes they are playing than the other groups. (weather is the same all over the course, but affects the holes differently), because the group of SoCarolina, Furman and Duke that teed off at the same time as NW and Kent St and did so poorly actually started on the 10th hole (as did we), while NW and Kent St started at the same time on the first hole. And the first four holes of the course that we actually played better than NW and Kent State: we played them much later than them, rather than 4 holes ahead of them. So NW and Kent State did in fact have much different and presumably better conditions for the holes they played at the times they played them than we did or than the even better comparison group you cited. And we know the weather changed, because the Duke website's recap says they started on 10 and played their first nine holes in a heavy rain. Based on this round, I would say that the back nine plays much worse in bad rain than the front nine. So while NW and Kent State certainly played well, I doubt they were playing that much better than everyone else.