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Balls taken out of play, Why, I paid for them??

• tanner630 2 Posts

  Wed, Oct 9 2013 3:26 PM

  Why are balls taken out of play when they are the ones I purchased?

• 2,840 Posts

  Wed, Oct 9 2013 3:30 PM

  tanner630:

  Why are balls taken out of play when they are the ones I purchased?

   

  Just as in real golf, if you hit a virtual golf ball into the water or out of bounds, you must replace it with a different ball. Also, when you play with a real golf ball it begins to lose compression and eventually becomes less playable. We have a similar concept in WGT where balls purchased from the Pro Shop have a durability factor and will wear out as you use them. You get roughly three rounds of golf with each ball before it wears out.
  
  When a ball wears out you will receive the message that the ball has been "Taken Out of Play".
  
  When a balls wears out, it is automatically replaced by another ball of the same type from your inventory. If you have none of the same type, they are replaced instead with a free WGT starter ball. Please check the FAQ to learn more about golf balls.

  http://www.wgt.com/help.aspx#balls

   

  WGTdbloshoe

   

• Ravenstah 1 Posts

  Fri, Mar 7 2014 9:18 AM

  If you have better balls in your bag, why doesn't WGT allow you to pick one of those balls instead of always defaulting back to the cheap ass starter ball?  If I am playing a round of real golf and I think my ball is cooked, I throw it away and find another ball of equal value to play with.  I don't go grabbing the range ball to finish my round.  This is ridiculous.

• Proruff 94 Posts

  Fri, Mar 7 2014 10:52 AM

  WGTdbloshoe:

  ................when you play with a real golf ball it begins to lose compression and eventually becomes less playable. We have a similar concept in WGT where balls purchased from the Pro Shop have a durability factor and will wear out as you use them. You get roughly three rounds of golf with each ball before it wears out.
  
  When a ball wears out you will receive the message that the ball has been "Taken Out of Play".

  WGTdbloshoe

  I'd rather see where you play with that ball until it loses so much compression that it starts to affect your game (even to a point where it's considerably worse than the free ball); then you would have the option of replacing it with a new ball of the same type, or buying another set of the same type when you need to in order to maintain your level of play.  I'm pretty sure that hitting the ball into the rough at Merion doesn't have the wear and tear of bouncing it off a few rocks in the desert.  The little ball wear meter could stay red and the performance (distance/spin/etc.) would just worsen the longer you used it.

  Of course, the coding to do that might be complex, but it might add a bit more realism to the game if you had to make a decision during a competition whether to change to a new ball or keep playing with the one you have rather than be told to remove your ball now (even though it worked fine on the previous shot).

   

• dalehurrell 5 Posts

  Fri, Mar 7 2014 11:27 AM

  please can you explain why I bought 3 balls...used one up...started using the second one and finished the round. logged on the next day to be told I was down to my last ball. I wasn't that good at maths but it seems I've been cheated out of a ball....and at 650 credits for 3 I feel a bit annoyed.

• borntobesting 9,767 Posts

  Fri, Mar 7 2014 11:34 AM

  Ravenstah:

  I am playing a round of real golf and I think my ball is cooked, I throw it away and find another ball of equal value to play with.  I don't go grabbing the range ball to finish my round.  This is ridiculous.

  But in a round at your local course you are not actually playing under U.S.G. A rules all the time. WGT has adopted the one ball rule that most if not all pro golf tours use. Per that rule if you lose a ball or it wears out you must replace it with the exact same type of ball including color. If you have no balls of the type and color that you were using and can't borrow enough balls from another player you get DQ'ed. At least WGT allows you to finish the round with the unlimited starter ball. And every round including practice rounds on here are played under tournament rules concerning the one ball rule. And as WGT gives you the option to buy more balls on the spot as soon as the last ball is put into play there is no reason to run out of balls. 

• ApexPC 3,164 Posts

  Sat, Mar 8 2014 12:47 PM

  It's actually the One Ball Condition (and not a rule), in that it is a condition of the competition that a tournament committee is allowed to invoke as a local rule.

  See The USGA Rules of Golf book -  Appendix 1 - Local Riles: Conditions of the Competition - Part C, 1. c. - One Ball Condition

   

• CerinoDevoti 3,232 Posts

  Sat, Mar 8 2014 12:57 PM

  borntobesting:

  Ravenstah:

  I am playing a round of real golf and I think my ball is cooked, I throw it away and find another ball of equal value to play with.  I don't go grabbing the range ball to finish my round.  This is ridiculous.

  But in a round at your local course you are not actually playing under U.S.G. A rules all the time. WGT has adopted the one ball rule that most if not all pro golf tours use. Per that rule if you lose a ball or it wears out you must replace it with the exact same type of ball including color. If you have no balls of the type and color that you were using and can't borrow enough balls from another player you get DQ'ed. At least WGT allows you to finish the round with the unlimited starter ball. And every round including practice rounds on here are played under tournament rules concerning the one ball rule. And as WGT gives you the option to buy more balls on the spot as soon as the last ball is put into play there is no reason to run out of balls. 

  The longer I've been a member the more I appreciate this. WGT treats each of us as Professional Golfers. The one ball condition is one of those moments when we're being treated as pros. I've come to embrace that. This game isn't about playing like a slob at some cow pasture muni course, we're playing Major Courses and get treated with the same respect that the pros receive. It's up to us to reciprocate and actually act and think like pros.

• alosso 21,093 Posts

  Sun, Mar 9 2014 4:02 AM

  dalehurrell:

  please can you explain why I bought 3 balls...used one up...started using the second one and finished the round. logged on the next day to be told I was down to my last ball. I wasn't that good at maths but it seems I've been cheated out of a ball....and at 650 credits for 3 I feel a bit annoyed.

  There's a remote chance that you used up your second ball on your approach to the last green - putts on the green do not count in. Thus, you'd start the next hole with the last ball, and it happened to be in a new round, on a new day.

  Otherwise, call Skully and Mulder ;)

  dalehurrell:

  at 650 credits for 3 I feel a bit annoyed.

  One of WGT's positives (and not the only one) is that we, the players, have the choice of the amount of "green fee" payed by choice of the balls. I played the Tour-SD at 64 crs as a Master, and now I'm content with the lvl 33 Callies.
  Alas, each to his own!

• SHRUDE 5,835 Posts

  Sun, Mar 9 2014 6:52 AM

  tanner630:

  Why are balls taken out of play when they are the ones I purchased?

   

  regardless of 'official rulings"  we are all hacks having a go on a course.

  It is simply a money earner for WGT, full stop.

  the balls dont degrade as we go , they simply 'expire' - uh huh

  I can understand the  official rules'  for WGT tournaments, RGs etc, but not for matchplay and Altshot or any 'practice' play either.