Greetings everyone!
This is Chad Nelson (aka MisterWGT). I’m the co-founder and president of WGT. I wanted to thank everyone for caring so much to post about this topic. It means a lot to us and we’re reading each and every comment closely.
Don’t worry, we haven’t lost our minds. We’re definitely focused on delivering you the best possible virtual golf experience!
I first want to assure you that WGT will continue to produce high-quality photographic courses and offer them free of charge. That’s what we’re all about. This year, we’ve already added Harbour Town and Hilversumsche closest-to-the-hole, as well as Congressional (full 18 in May) and Royal St Georges (full 18 in June) full-stroke courses. Our relationship with the USGA and R&A is built around a goal to present these amazing and challenging courses to the widest global audience possible.
The new TruGolf courses are a new option to help address all the requests for more courses than WGT is able to produce on its own. The development of these courses is done by the TruGolf team and we’ve worked very closely to match the game experience, physics and equipment performance. We can now add TruGolf courses quickly and Cabo del Sol will be the first of several new courses in the coming months. Naturally, there will be improvements to the technology and aesthetics based on your feedback. For example, we’re not satisfied with the appearance of the sand and 2nd-cut rough but didn’t want that to hold-up making the courses available.
Because TruGolf courses are developed externally, WGT does need to charge a fee to play a TruGolf course. However, TruGolf has agreed not to charge for the closest-to-the-hole game, so WGT players can try and play any new TruGolf course for 0 credits and see what you think first.
It’s important to remember that like any business, we do need to pay the bills and our passionate and hard-working staff who all contribute to this product. We’re doing that primarily by offering optional virtual equipment upgrades and with sponsor advertising campaigns. We’re trying to work with sponsors that tie to the game, like Callaway, Cleveland, PING and TaylorMade, and brands that want to run virtual tournaments with great prizes, like Dove, Golf Digest, Ketel One, USGA and R&A. Your support of those sponsors is appreciated as it makes it possible for us to grow the business and invest in the game.
Hopefully, our long-time players have seen that we really do listen closely and make changes based on feedback, so we’ll continue doing that, and I sincerely hope you continue to enjoy the game. Please invite me to play a game (MisterWGT) next time we’re both online together.
Cheers!
- Chad