DAZZA501:Please remove this now. Worst idea ever.
+1
I'm stunned that WGT would even conceive of introducing this for tournament/ranked or any other kind of serious play.
A huge part of the appeal of the site is trying to match your skills against others. Yes, there are equipment discrepancies (and granted, there are cheats out there). But for the most part, people achieve success through hard work, practice, and experience.
Introducing this Focus Boost undermines all our confidence in the results, and in matches we have with others.
What I find most disappointing about this new "feature" (or should we call it an "aberration"?) is that it's not visible to your opponent/playing partner in a multiplayer game. I was practicing for TIOUELRC@CB this afternoon with my playing partner Lou, and tested it out on a 4ft putt (exactly the kind of thing that's hard to ding with the 30ft starter putter). There was nothing to indicate my use of it from Lou's perspective.
The only way you could tell is by refreshing a player's profile page during a game, where at least it is logged in the player's activity.
Very disappointing addition to the game in my opinion. I hope it backfires, and we see fewer purchases of top-level slow-meter balls, with players who might go for this sort of thing preferring to spend 30cr only as needed.