While investigating the determination of pin locations in game, Sir_Tyler and I stumbled upon what we think could be a more reliable, easier, and most importantly faster "route" for 18 Holes. (All the holes are still played in order, we just found a way to play them faster)

For clarification: "pin" refers to where the hole is found on the green. I'll only use hole from now on to refer to one of the 18 Holes.

The main premise is this: by wasting enough shots to Give Up on Hole 1, you can manipulate the game to give you easier pin placements throughout nearly all of the run. The minimum time loss to Hole 1 Give Up comes out to only around 6 seconds.

Here is what Hole 1 looks like on the new route:

The rest of the run, just play normally! It's that simple.

About pin placements

You may have noticed during runs that the pin on a hole can appear in several different locations. This is partially random, and partially decided by your score upon entering that hole. For every hole there are 2 sets of 3 pins, which makes 6 total pins (besides Hole 1, which has only 3 pins, and Hole 18, which has only 1). A random pin from the "A" set appears if you're score is "good", and a random pin from the "B" set appears if your score is "bad". Here is a rundown of the scores needed for A/B pins.

≤ means "less than or equal to" and ≥ means "greater than or equal to"

Hole 1 does not apply

score ≤ -2 -> Hole 2 A pins score ≥ -1 -> Hole 2 B pins

score ≤ -2 -> Hole 3 A pins score ≥ -1 -> Hole 3 B pins

score ≤ -3 -> Hole 4 A pins score ≥ -2 -> Hole 4 B pins

score ≤ -3 -> Hole 5 A pins score ≥ -2 -> Hole 5 B pins

score ≤ -4 -> Hole 6 A pins score ≥ -3 -> Hole 6 B pins

score ≤ -4 -> Hole 7 A pins score ≥ -3 -> Hole 7 B pins

score ≤ -5 -> Hole 8 A pins score ≥ -4 -> Hole 8 B pins

score ≤ -5 -> Hole 9 A pins score ≥ -4 -> Hole 9 B pins

score ≤ -6 -> Hole 10 A pins score ≥ -5 -> Hole 10 B pins

score ≤ -6 -> Hole 11 A pins score ≥ -5 -> Hole 11 B pins

score ≤ -7 -> Hole 12 A pins score ≥ -6 -> Hole 12 B pins

score ≤ -7 -> Hole 13 A pins score ≥ -6 -> Hole 13 B pins

score ≤ -8 -> Hole 14 A pins score ≥ -7 -> Hole 14 B pins

score ≤ -8 -> Hole 15 A pins score ≥ -7 -> Hole 15 B pins

score ≤ -9 -> Hole 16 A pins score ≥ -8 -> Hole 16 B pins

score ≤ -9 -> Hole 17 A pins score ≥ -8 -> Hole 17 B pins

Hole 18 always has the same pin

An example of the difference in difficulty can be seen here for Hole 9: Notice how the A pins are all on a slope or high hill, while the B pins appear in valleys.

You can find pin pictures of every hole and a deeper explanation here: https://www.speedrun.com/wsr/thread/0t4mu

Know that horrible pin in the middle of the slope on Hole 5 that everyone hates? With this new route, you will be guaranteed to never see that pin again during a run.

The New Route

The purpose of this new route is to take advantage of these easier pin locations. If you Give Up on Hole 1, you end up with a score of +8 after 11 shots. This means that even if you birdie every hole from there on out, you would never see a single A pin. With 2 eagles and rest birdies, you would only finally get A pins on Hole 17.

The fastest Hole 1 birdie right now is about 31 seconds, and the fastest Hole 1 give up is about 39 seconds. To give up on Hole 1 super fast, just chuck your first shot into the water with a weak driver hit, and then putt all the rest. Here is a video of the current fastest Hole 1 give up (which uses an extra trick, putting one shot on the fairway, it's slightly faster)

Finally, here is an example of an 11:18 run using the new route by me

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We have a good feeling that this route has many more benefits over the old route. Tyler and I have already tried our hand at it, and now we encourage everyone to try it out. The new pins might take a little getting used to, but I guarantee you will start getting new gold splits before long.