My First few days have been a total roller coaster. I was instantly hooked. Having been an amateur golfer in the real world for some 20 years with a handicap of +3 in my best years, I finally feel like I’ve found a ‘sim’ that I can actually enjoy for the long haul. Like most everybody, I’ve played just about every digital version of golf and really couldn’t stomach another ‘EA’ offering.
So, I spent 2 days with the starter gear, read a LOT of forum posts, guides, tips etc was extremely fortunate to receive a spider putter from the wonderful Christmas in July event and felt that as I was going to be here for a fair while, I would invest some real world money as well as time into the ‘game.’
I asked for advice and got some excellent help in choosing the right equipment, I really cannot stress enough that better equipment WILL have a dramatic effect on your round, as long as you have half a clue what you’re doing and do take the time to read guides and tips your scores will tumble, my stats speak for themselves, in a week I’ve gone from hack to tour pro and my scores have tumbled. Admittedly, my best scores are on St Andrews and Royal St Georges, I’ve been lucky enough to play RSG on many occasions, as well as Princes (I lived in Kent for 15 years, 5 miles from sandwich) and I love the links representations of this game!
I’ve carefully plotted my upgrade path, I know where I want to go as far as equipment, I know I will invest again but that’s a choice I’m completely at ease with. I’ve probably spent many, many hundreds of pounds over the years on games on various platforms and I see no difference with this ‘game’. I love the fact it is free to play and to be fair, credits are relatively easy to come by where I am should I wish to spend a few hours a week. I understand that some areas around the world aren’t as fortunate.
I’ve been playing pretty solidly for the last week and one ‘concern’ I have is some of the tournaments I entered as a hack, when I couldn’t hit a cows ar5e with a shovel, posted scores of 10-15+ I can now play with far superior equipment, far more knowledge and experience and far lower scores, yet, as a tour pro, my far better ‘under par’ scores are in the ‘hack’ tier. I am slightly worried I will be categorised as cheating when I’m truly not, I’ve just put a lot of time into my first week. Is it common courtesy to not enter these tournaments again until it resets?
Well, that’s my experience of this wonderful game in my first week, I’ve already made some great friends and would really like to make hundreds more. I’d love to team up for some social alternate shot games, some matchplay and definitely lots of strokeplay, any level/experience is welcome to play with me, please feel free to add me as a friend and I hope to tee it up with you soon.
p.s without a doubt, wedges are the BEST single upgrade you can make (in my opinion) to improve your scores!
(well, apart from reading the guides and advice on the forums)
Hit it straight!
Paul