There’s a new
stroke play course on WGT, along with a strategic partnership that will enable
WGT to add more new stroke-play courses faster, but with a greens fee, so we
want to give you the background and get your feedback.
As many of
you know, the four existing stroke-play courses on WGT each take significant
time to photograph and develop as online golf games. This year WGT will be
adding two new stroke-play courses (Congressional and Royal St Georges) to host
the Virtual U.S. Open and Open Championships. We will also be announcing
additional closest-to-the-hole courses, but millions of WGT players are asking
for more stroke play courses, and we have listened.
WGT has
partnered with TruGolf to add more courses faster. TruGolf is the world’s top
provider of real-world golf simulation technology. If you’ve ever hit balls in a
physical golf simulator, it’s probably been on a TruGolf course. TruGolf is also
the core team behind the popular Links PC Golf Game that many of you probably
enjoyed in the past, so they know their stuff.
WGT has been
working closely with TruGolf to integrate the TruGolf and WGT technolgy, so you
can play TruGolf courses like you play WGT courses, with the same physics,
distances, virtual equipment and scoring. The result is now available for you to
play, Cabo del Sol, a new full stroke-play and closest-to-the-hole course. Note
that we’re releasing the Front 9 in April and the Back 9 in May, in order to get
your feedback and fine-tune the experience. Match Play Challenge format is also
available but we’re holding off on tournaments or other game formats on TruGolf
courses for now.
Cabo del Sol
is a resort course in Los Cabos, Mexico designed by Jack Nicklaus and rated #95
in the 2009 Golf Magazine Top 100 Courses in the World. We’ve always wanted to
add a resort-style course and Cabo is a great choice. While still very
realistic, Cabo is easy and fun, with drivable par fours and reachable par fives,
that we think WGT players will really enjoy.
You’ll see
that TruGolf technology is very similar to WGT, but with a mix of photographic
and graphic elements, that we’ll continue to improve over time. We’re already
working on our next TruGolf course, which is a resort mountain course, and
making plans for the rest of the year, based on how WGT players react to the
first TruGolf courses.
Because
TruGolf courses are licensed, WGT needs to charge players a greens fee for Cabo
and future TruGolf courses, as follows:
0
credits – TruGolf closest-to-the-hole
100 credits – TruGolf 9-hole
stroke-play
150 credits – TruGolf 18-hole stroke-play
This enables
any WGT player to try nine great shots on TruGolf for free as often as they
want, and those who are interested can use WGT Credits to play the whole
course.
The TruGolf
courses are optional courses on WGT that address requests from experienced WGT
players for more stroke-play courses. The 12 existing WGT courses and other new
WGT-produced courses will continue to be free of charge, including the upcoming
Virtual Open courses this summer.
We invite you
to try Cabo and welcome your feedback on the course and other suggestions.
Thanks for your support!