Hello WGTdbloshoe,
I don't think I know all of the factors that would go into making simultaneous reading a reality in multiplayer games and perhaps there currently are significant limitations and/or latent detrimental consequences to doing so that cannot be mentioned at this time. Nevertheless, here are some of my thoughts on this topic.
INITIAL THOUGHTS
WGTdbloshoe:Before you say well the pros can make their decisions while the other player hits, they rarely do. They will start thinking about it but they won't look at elevation and distance until they are actually up yo their ball. Everything prior is just guess work.
To me, the above quote implies that some data has been analyzed and a definitive and accurate conclusion has been drawn from that data. (I presume that the phrase "while the other player hits" doesn't only mean the specific action of swinging the club to hit the ball; it includes the process of inspecting the lie, calculating the elevation and distance, choosing the club, etc., as well as swinging the club to hit the ball while it is that player's turn to hit. In other words, the phrase "while the other player hits" is synonymous with the USGA's and R&A's phrase "while others are playing," cited below, and that process is what I'm referring to when I use that phrase.)
Even
if it is actually true that the pros "rarely do" so, that still does indicate indeed that the pros do "make their decisions while the other player hits," but
just "rarely" so. The
pros actually have the option of doing so, they are just presumably making the choice not to do so often (parenthetical comment). So, maybe WGT could also allow the players in multiplayer games on this site to have that same option of rarely doing so.
Yes, doing so by hovering the mouse over each player's mini-map marker and seeing only the distance to pin (DTP) is currently available, but that isn't as much of an option as seeing the DTP as well as reading the lie, elevation, wind, green contours, etc. And, considering that current availability, if the argument that giving
WGTdbloshoe: the information about elevation and distance while you are waiting...gives you an unfair advantage
is cogent, then I think
that argument may be used to strongly suggest that WGT should completely remove the current ability for each player to read his own DTP "
while the other player hits" because that information, as the argument suggests, gives an "unfair advantage." On the green, the distance is currently given to the
hundredths (Edit@11:55PM PST: not hundredths) tenths place and so I can use the other player's time to plug in my distance to my putting calculations. I use that DTP info that is currently available "while the other player hits" to help speed up the pace of play. The argument can be made, using the above quoted argument as evidence, that because WGT currently provides that info it gives an "unfair advantage" and my use of that info is an "unfair advantage," but all players in a group can use that info.
Additionally, are the pro's presumed actions (or lack thereof) the standard for this golf simulation game? Assuming that it is actually verifiably accurate that the pros "rarely do" "make their decisions while the other player hits," does that then mean that the average amateur golfer also "rarely" does so. (I know pro's may be held to a higher standard and so it may be more preferable to use the higher and better standard for our own options and choices in WGT multiplayer games, but not all amateur golfers are discourteous and a bad example.)
I believe that there is an enormous amount of amateur golfers compared to the amount of pros and so I probably would not only use the pros as the main basis of my response to the idea that giving DTP and elevation "while the other player hits" gives an "unfair advantage." I think my response would be more cogent if I used actual amateur golfers, like myself, who I know for certain do make decisions "while the other player hits" as well as one of golf's governing bodies' numerous admonitions to do so (a governing body which happens to be in a long-term relationship with WGT and I think would have no objection to a "virtual" addition to its pace-of-play campaign*) as my main support.
I know that even before I arrive at a real golf course, I intend to start and/or continue the decision-making process (a process which can include guesswork) "while others are playing," not to gain an "unfair advantage," but to be courteous and considerate of other people and their time. I would think that, if I am on the green in regulation and my playing partners are struggling their way out of a deep pot bunker next to the green and/or are consulting the rules and notes, I am allowed to mark my ball and give my putt at least a cursory read and vice versa. I doubt many would object and say that I still have an "unfair advantage" even if I do not intend to gain such an advantage because I have spent way more time reading my putt.
Perhaps, some may still tenuously argue so, but such tenuous objection is beside the point that there is perhaps a HUGE number of amateurs that often "make their decisions while the other player hits" and expect and want other players to do the same. (If all players in a group are doing such decision-making, then one can argue back that it is "fair"/"equal" because all are doing so.)
COMPELLING EVIDENCE
In fact, isn't that what the USGA actively encourages all players to do; that is, speed up the pace of play by making such guesswork and consequent decisions "while others are playing" (of course, without neglecting due considerations for others)? I believe that the following textual and video evidences from USGA's pace-of-play campaign as well as the R&A which advocates to simultaneously make decisions "while others are playing" renders the above tenuous argument that doing so on the real course gives an "unfair advantage" as just that, tenuous.
Here is a quote from a page on the USGA.org website:
Plan your shot before you get to your ball.
Once you are off the tee, think ahead. Determine your yardage and make your club selection before it is your turn to play. Very often, you can do this while others are playing, without disruption. If you take your glove off between shots, have it back on before it is your turn to play. Even a small step like this saves time.
(underline emphasis added)
I also went to the USGA's YouTube channel and found the following advice in a video about pace of play:
Once you tee off, you can move more quickly by thinking ahead. One of the biggest time robbers in golf is trying to find the exact distance for your next shot. You don't have to
step off every shot. Often times, getting within in five or ten yards is sufficient to choose your next club and hit it confidently.
But if you need to determine precise yardages, the key is to do so while the rest of your group is playing.
(emphasis added)
For the green, I think many of us know for certain (because we have seen) that pros do read their putts while another player is putting and I am willing to assert that they do so very often (just maybe not read the reverse view if doing so would interfere with the other player's line or ability to read his own putt). Why would they not do so, is there some unwritten rule barring such "unfair" reading and decision-making? I believe, in general, they do not want to be put on the clock and so reading a putt's lie, line, etc., and making decisions while another player is reading and removing loose impediments from his putt's line (i.e., playing his shot) is imperative for maintaining good pace of play (as the USGA actively encourages).
Below is a quote from Butch Harmon in another pace-of-play video published on the USGA's YouTube channel:
Let's take putting for example. You know, the first thing is you got to be ready when it's your turn; be ready to putt. The other thing is, when the other people in your group are putting, you can be lining up your putt.
(emphasis added)
Such encouragement is not exclusive to the U.S. "The R&A is the ruling authority of golf throughout the world except the United States and Mexico" and its website also currently advises reading a putt while another player is playing without neglecting "due consideration for other players":
Be ready to play your shot. While exercising due consideration for other players in your group, put your glove on, check your yardage, pick your club and line up your putt while others are playing.
(emphasis added)
On the same website, there is a video titled: "Etiquette - Padraig Harrington." In the video, there is footage of apparently a pro player apparently reading his putt's line (i.e., in the midst of the decision-making process) while another pro player is playing . At 7:00 of the video while that footage is being shown, Padraig Harrington states the following:
While it is important not to distract others, it should be possible to look at your line of putt while they are looking at theirs.
(emphasis added)
Perhaps such simultaneous reading with only a ball marker is not as good as reading with the ball replaced on the green, but I think there can be reading, guesswork, and decision-making occurring nonetheless.
There is yet another video titled "Pace of Play Policy: Timing Players." It shows a tutorial on how an R&A official officiates a round with a stop watch when a group is out of position at the elite level. At 2:23 in the video, Grant Moir, the R&A's Director - Rules of Golf (at the time of production of the video), says "the clock starts when the player is free to play without distraction" and the player first to play in a group gets more time than the player second to play. Why does the second player get less time? I presume the reason is because the pros (with the help of their caddies) are expected to calculate distances, windage, club selection, etc. "while others are playing" even at the elite level, not rarely, but for every shot.
Yes, perhaps one could still argue that simultaneously reading while another player hits is "just guess work" and not decision-making; but I think we'll have to define what the difference(s) between guesswork and decision-making is. Even so, I believe that decision-making results from factors often including guesswork, thus guesswork is at times an essential part of the decision-making process and so guesswork (i.e., "everything prior" to address) should not be dismissed as wholly inconsequential to decision-making.
Therefore, I think if the pros (including their caddies), exemplary amateurs and recreational golfers, and golf's governing bodies' pace-of-play admonitions are used as evidence, there is a highly compelling, even overwhelming, argument in favor of allowing more information (such as elevation to target, showing the putting grid on the green, etc) than is currently available while another player is playing in (at least practice mode) multiplayer games on WGT.
ADDITIONAL THOUGHTS
However, if we put counter arguments and subsequent rebuttals to the idea that "giving...information about elevation and distance while you are waiting" causes an "unfair advantage" aside, we are left with that basic answer. In WGT, we have shot timers that are equally applied to each players' turn by a computer, something that I think rarely occurs on a real golf course. And so, perhaps allowing players to read their lie and even aim their shot while another player is hitting would cause that equal application of a shot clock to be more difficult to equally apply and thus the idea of such an implementation being "unfair" seems cogent.
I understand that even though something that is "unfair" (i.e., unequal) may be the case on the real course (such as a lack of perfect equality of shot-clock keeping), WGT still may want to forgo the choice to be "realistic" in that instance and thus eliminate such "unfair realism" in WGT because it is just that, "realistically unfair." I presume realism isn't always WGT's most desirable objective, especially when sacrificing a particular "realism" improves (i.e., gets closer to an ideal such as equality) on that realism.
In spite of that, I believe that the people who would like to see the ability to read and/or aim shots and make guesswork and/or decisions "while the other player hits" are mainly interested in increasing the pace of play.
Even if it actually is "unfair" (i.e., the shot clock's application is not perfectly equal for each player and the "unfair advantage" isn't evened out over the course of a round), I still think many players would not be opposed to having the option of playing in such an "unfair" condition in multiplayer games (esp. practice games) just as they do have such an option (and are actively encouraged by the R&A and the USGA to choose that option—not rarely, but very often) on the real course.
SUGGESTIONS FOR IMPLEMENTING SIMULTANEOUS READING
As for how to implement the ability to calculate shots "while others are playing" into WGT's game, perhaps brainstorming is needed. On the first tee when the first player tees off, there is only one ball on the ground (or on the tee), and that is of the first player teeing off. So, maybe leave the teeing ground the way it is. But, once all player's balls are off the tee (in the fairway, on the green, etc), then each player can have their game screen go to their ball, just as players walk to their golf ball on opposite sides of the fairway or green.
However, if a ball is directly in front of another, then a player cannot inspect his lie. For example, if I hit my drive 275yd and another player hit his drive 255yd directly behind my drive, I would not walk in his line while he is hitting. But, if we're on opposite sides of the fairway, I can inspect my lie.
On the green and around it, player's wouldn't be allowed to read the reverse zoom view if doing so would interfere with another player's putt. For games with 3 or 4 players, each player would be allowed to read his/her putt's slope and see the putting grid (i.e., "line up" the putt) only from one view (far-away forward, far-away reverse, or even side view!) while another player is hitting, but only after all players have reached the green or are around it. So, little things such as golf etiquette, or "exercising due consideration for other players," as the R&A puts it, would have to be thoroughly examined and then programmed into the game to make it more and more realistic. (This could be a great interactive and fun teaching tool to increase pace of play and instill proper etiquette for those who play golf on the real course, especially for juniors new to golf.)
I know, the actual implementation might be very tedious to make "realistically fair" (i.e., equal time for each player in comparative circumstances with "due consideration" programmed in) and likely would require a lot more consideration, but I think it is doable.
Some people with limited time may just want to play a round of golf with friends and "fairness" is irrelevant to the desire for faster pace of play (primarily in 3- and 4-player stroke play games). These players would play a game anyway and prefer to play a fast-paced game with a group instead of single-player (or they wouldn't play at all unless they were in a fast-paced group).
And so, perhaps WGT could make an option on the game-setup menu for "simultaneous reading" or "simultaneous play" and anyone who wants to play that mode can select that option, and anyone who does not want simultaneous reading (beyond what is currently available), can forgo that option and play the game as it currently is.
Courteously,
JMan
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*All links may become inactive
**From my understanding, in the above video quote, the phrase "step off" means to measure the distance from the ball to the target by walking, or "stepping," all of the way to, or near, the target. Oddly, I did not find this phrase specifically defined on the USGA.com and PGA.com websites.
(More info about the USGA's pace-of-play imitative: USGA MOVING AGGRESSIVELY ON PACE OF PLAY ISSUES)