Totally agree with all the OP's points or issues, plus as someone else mentioned, the game is stuttery as all cr*p now.. what is the use of good clubs and balls when the meter and game goes jerky as anything?
Seriously, it is pretty poor if wgt is hiring student programmers. Most people here playing the game have invested a lot of time and money into the game, and it is taking people's money, so it is not appropriate for wgt to use anyone other than professional programmers to do the work at wgt. I mean maybe it isn't my place to say, but you are playing with people's real, hard-earned money..
Imagine if microsoft decided to hire student programmers to build the core kernel of windows 10? And thousands of high-end companies as well as millions of smaller companies and home users were all negatively affected by this decision? You can imagine that microsoft would be hauled into court.
"I can program. Just gimme a puter and tell me when to start. Oh, and can I just run all my pirate software on the machine as well?"
"I can write shakespeare, sure. Just feed me loads of bananas and give me a typewriter!"