The return of calculator golf: the amazon nine

[dixieflatline]

Bringing back a nice little puzzle for a friday afternoon. The last round can be found
here

I'll copy the rules here as well:

Originally Posted by quiksand

The object of the game of Calculator Golf is to play through a series of holes, each represented by a starting numbers – you may think of it as the hole’s yardage, if you like. Each hole’s yardage will begin as a number taken out to two decimal places.

With each “stroke” you may use one of the golf clubs in your bag, and each club will adjust the remaining distance by an appropriate function, as follows:

1 to 12 - Reduces the distance by the club number, squared
X – Multiplies the distance by its remainder decimal (the two digits)
H – Reduces the distance’s remainder decimal by one half
S – Reduces the distance by its square root
Q – Multiplies the distance by two-thirds
(in every case, results are rounded down to two digits)

Once you bring the remaining distance to a number greater than or equal to zero but less than one, you have completed the hole. Your objective, of course, is to complete the hole in as few strokes as possible.

- - -

So, you have a total of 16 different clubs from which to choose. Here’s an example of how this might work for a given hole:

Original distance: 354.19 (Par 4)
First club is the 12: 354.19 – 144 = 210.19
Second club is the X: 210.19 x .19 = 39.93
Third club is the H: 39.93 loses half its remainder to become 39.46
Fourth club is the S: 39.46 – 6.28 = 33.17 (rounding is at the end of the calculation)
Fifth club is the Q: 33.17 x 2/3 = 22.11
Sixth club is the X: 22.11 x .11 = 2.43
Seventh club is the X: 2.43 x .43 = 1.04
Eight club is the 1: 1.04 – 1 = 0.04

That’s not a particularly efficient solution, but I wanted to show how each club works. It’s certainly possible to do better than eight strokes.

I’ll also use this as an opportunity to offer a simple shorthand for the strokes involved in a given hole. For the above, I’d represent my solution as follows:

12-X-H-S-Q-X-X-1 (8) ++++

This way, we can easily convey the reproducible series of clubs used, for purposes of verifying a given answer. I included four + signs after my score of 8 to reflect that my score is four over “par” for the hole, which might be a handy shorthand to use as well (use a – for each stroke under par)

We will not be playing with the handicap rule but there is still a requirement that you can only have 10 clubs in your bag.

Today we will be playing the Amazon nine build in a small section of swamp with twisting fairways and tiny greens this par three course has been a monster on the pros since it opened. John Daly left shaking his head "I can even use my driver on this #$%^ course." Stephen Hawkin left saying "The waterfall on the last hole is just a killer." Here is the layout:

Amazon nine PAR 27
HOLE  PAR  DISTANCE
  1    3    255.87
  2    3    166.34
  3    3    215.65
  4    3    48.26
  5    3    239.66
  6    3    149.83
  7    3    71.84
  8    3    181.44
  9    3    247.58

HANDICAP:
TOTAL SCORE:
CLUBS USED:

Happy golfing.

[Vince]

Time until Primelord scores a 21? I'll put the over/under at half an hour.

[JonInMiddleGA]

2/3rds