For chips, you want the ball on the ground and rolling. That's the most important thing because it gives you every single point along the line through the hole to go in. If you don't have a ball guide, then you are guessing when it stops bouncing and starts rolling and you have no idea how far its going to roll. I see more people missing chips with the DI1 than any other club for that very reason. It has great stats in every category EXCEPT for the most important one, ball guide. The accuracy is second, and its nice to have but much less important than the ball guide. The reason people don't know this is that there really aren't any clubs with good ball guides early on, so you don't realize how important it is. Dart is ok leveled up some but Firefly is better once you get it.
If you play real golf, when you are in the fringe, you don't want the ball bouncing when it gets to the hole. You want to hit it at the right speed so that its rolling slowly as it reaches the hole. You can't judge that with the DI1. Ever. You can't judge the speed properly so it may bounce over the hole, it may be going to hard when it gets to the hole, it may not even get to the hole. You can make a decent guess, but with chip shots you don't want to be guessing, you want to know its going in. The DI1 a gimmick club but since its Rare, alot of people use it. If you have the Firefly, its a really good club for chipping at very low levels. Also, it works with the same 20% rule as the Endbringer - search JaredA Endbringer Rule on YouTube and you can play the same shot with the Firefly at 20%. He has two methods, but you want the 20% rule - its dead on. I make a ton of long chips with high winds and it works. Once you get the Endbringer Level 3, use it.
Literally one of the rules for BabaBooey (kind of joking, but not really) was don't use the Down in One. You never see anyone use it in higher Tours for a reason.
I definitely say try this 9-hole tournament. Nothing to lose.
Generally though, The thing I've recently decided is that regular rookie tournaments really aren't worth the time and effort unless you finish top 5. The points you earn just aren't enough for the time you spend playing 45 holes and preparing so you can be in the hunt. For Pro, its probably Top 10-15. For Expert Top 50 and anything Masters (but a high probability of not making the weekend unless you can shoot very very low with very high winds.
The key to success in tournaments is there are so many people who play the game really well that you have to not only be just as good as they are, but you have to figure out how to get a few extra drops in order to move up the standings. I detail it all in my tournament guide - I think I sent it to you but if not let me know.
Summarized - you need to be able to shoot revised par. Revised par is a birdie on every hole and an eagle on every hole that is reachable in less than par (e.g., reachable par 4 is an eagle, Par 5 that you can reach in 2 is an eagle). Most courses revised par is -11 to -13 depending on wind. If you can shoot that in 9 holes (-22 to -26 for 18 holes), you'll finish middle of the pack (maybe a little higher in Rookie, a little lower in Expert, and likely won't make the cut in Master). This varies for course difficulty as well. Gokasho Bay has some challenging holes (T10 course) so I would expect revised par to be -12 but in rookie, if you can shoot -10 or -11, you'll probably be middle of the pack.
So the key is to figure out how to shoot under "revised par" and that requires knowing the ring method and spending time researching the holes, developing a strategy and hole guide. There are some good streamers that will get you close, but you need to choose what works best for your clubs, comfort level, etc. Then you need to tweak those shots as necessary so they are your shots. Its very difficult to just hit other people's shots. None of that matters if you can't adjust properly though - so the ring method is absolutely critical.
Try the 9-hole tournament. Its a good intro because it doesn't take a ton of time compared to a regular tournament and if you make the cut you are guaranteed to play the final round and get some points (unlike a regular tournament where you can qualify and then miss the cut in the opening round).
On YouTube, watch Erelic - You'll get a good idea of general strategy and shots. He'll stream his qualifying round. I'll post links in Google Docs.