WGT seem to think that having Practice Mode, in which a person can play any course, or any hole, repeatedly without affecting their stats, is equivalent to or better than having a Driving Range and Putting Green. Please bear with me while I try to explain why Practice Mode as it exists now is NOT valid as such a substitute, and that in fact what players (especially new players) would benefit from most is something altogether different.
What we really need is some way to get information on how our equipment performs by minimizing the variables. For a clear example, the best way to do that with a driver would be to have the ability to play a tee shot to a huge, perfectly flat and empty fairway, in no wind, with no elevation difference from the tee, and to be able to repeat the same shot over and over without interruption. Expanding upon that theme, we need the ability to repeat any given shot over and over, with identical initial conditions, until we understand how our equipment performs with, and how our play affects the outcome of, the shot -- whether that shot is an ideal tee shot as described above, or a bunker shot from 30-35% buried lie to a hole 18 feet above the ball 47 yards away on a
steeply right-left sloped green with a 16 MPH wind coming from 32 degrees to the right of straight ahead.
IMO what this game REALLY needs is Mulligans in solo Practice mode! Ability to manually set up a specific shot that we would like to practice (such as, by clicking and dragging the ball to any location on any course, and being able to set wind direction and speed, etc.) and being able to repeatedly play that shot, would also be of great benefit.
Failing to provide the above, if WGT were to make available practice Driving Range and Putting Green facilities, that would at least give some of the benefits needed and reduce the frustration levels for new members. After all, isn't it new members who provide WGT its greatest source of income? Isn't maximum retention and growth of the user base the primary goal of any commercial enterprise, whether internet-based or otherwise?
Having been here just over a month myself, and been on the verge of quitting several times (which I still have not ruled out), I would like to try to understand WGT's official rationale as to why they DON'T provide something like this for the benefit of the members.