Jimbog1964:
EDIT: Don't take any of that the wrong way please as it is intended to help.
I don't take any of it personally. I appreciate the evaluation and advice.
My point was, I believe it's all on us. There's way too many variables involved to say, with no uncertainty, that the game is responsible for some of our woes.
I close down everything when I play. The only thing open is the game client. If I get any meter stuttering it's because some background process has decided to fire off.
I have noticed that after using the distant camera view and returning to my avatar view, the disk light will come on momentarily a few seconds after returning to my avatar view. So my routine is to delay, even watch the computer, and then start my shot. Sometimes I forget and I get burned with a little stutter. Usually, I get reminded in my backswing. If it doesn't go back smoothly, I know something's going on and I'll wait. I'll even go back and forth until it does smooth out, and then I'll take my swing.
Paying close attention to what my computer is doing while I'm playing, allows me to play with minimal interference. And since I do pay so much attention to my computer, when I do get a serious stutter, I don't feel I can blame it on anything but my computer.
Having said that, I'm not delusional in thinking there's no way the game client can be inflicting any harm. If there's an option to do some "read-ahead" of data for the next hole while you're playing, then it's possible that it could initiate a disk access for no reason other than to interfere with the operation of the game. But since I can't prove that to be the case, I'm not going to spin my wheels playing, and paying for, a game that is out to screw me. If I really thought it was true, I'd have left a long time ago. Some people, however, seem to like the pain so they keep coming back for more. Unfortunately, they also come to the forums to complain about it.
Doc, it hurts when I do this. Then don't do that.
It's really that simple.