A tier only limit for equipment would be bad business for WGT, leveling up means you have to play a lot, not just play good. I do not mind WGT earning money, so any solution must IMO be designed so that business is not hurt.
milfshake, even if slightly annoying, make some good points. "Sandbagging" is often something that is in the eye of the beholder. I think the sand bagging issue can be solved without involving the shop, only two changes is necessary
- In Challenge games: Show stats about the player that is relevant for the specific type of game. The average that we see now is flawed anyway (since it only counts the best rounds, it is more an indicator of how many ranked rounds they have played). Show his equipment as well, you would see that on a real coarse. If a Pro with R11's and 97-11 in wins is challenging you and you can actually immediately see the equipment and stats, then you know what you are getting yourself into accepting a challenge. This would even things out since a "sandbagger" can easily have a list of the top players and the average combined with level of a Master+ gives him a decent idea of what he is up against.
- Default mode for tournaments should be that everyone plays from the same tee and have the same green. There could be amateur tournaments for hacks and amateurs, but as soon as you go pro, you play from the same tee as the established pros - the masters and the legends. The current tier based could still be there if the pros want to compete against the pros, but with no credits as a reward (otherwise ppl would stay pro's and be satisfied with crushing the new guys that comes in)
Personally I am not so fond of ranked rounds, I prefer match play and alt shot, but I am still trying to reach Legend (I am TM at 61.54 lvl 83) just because a friend I play with most is a Legend and I want to beat him from the same tee. If it was not for that, I would not really play many ranked rounds because the ranking itself is not important for me. I play no tournaments (used to, but there is no way of winning anything in an honest way anymore, and that is not only due to sandbaggers) and I only play Challenges against friends. I can understand those who do not feel like playing hundreds of ranked rounds.
No, just show more info about a player before we accept a challenge and have the "real" tournaments played from the same tee, with the same greens, and the sandbagging problem is out of the way.
A positive side effect for WGT by having the tournaments from the same tee's would be that everybody would really need to level up to get equipment good enough to the tournaments and they would also like to reach Legend tier so that they could play those tee's on a normal basis.