Forums

WGT newbie

• JZoll2 34 Posts

  Fri, Oct 19 2018 11:01 AM

  Allow me to introduce myself. On the morning of August 17th of this year we (wife and I, brother-in-law and a friend) played 18 holes at a nice public course called Orchard Valley, here in upstate NY.

  None of us are real good at the game but we love to play. Up until my mid-20's I had played a lot of golf because my dad paid my membership but then he passed away and I put the game down for many years.

  I am 67 yrs old now and have taken the game up again as my wife of 16 years has a passion for the game. I have only recently been able to match her scores as I continue to shake the rust off.

  I achieved a goal that day though, finally being able to shoot lower than my brother-in-law!

  We gathered with some other friends at the 19th hole that afternoon... a few cocktails were involved. When the wife and I got home we put dinner in the oven and went out in the backyard to play with our dog. I grabbed a frisbie and as I ran to catch it, I slid on the wet grass, fell awkwardly and shattered my left ankle. 

  I am still in the middle of a long recovery and am unable to work and obviously will be unable to play golf for quite some time.

  On September 3rd, I discovered and joined WGT on my Win7 PC, and during my layoff, have become quite obsessed with it. I have studied it closely and read a great deal on the forums, here is my take-away at this point...

  I can't afford to move up to the Master tier! That is not a complaint, just reality for me. My fixed income does not allow me to purchase better equipment now that I am also not working. That being said, I love the game and regardless of what tier I get to, achieving personal goals will be enough to keep me playing.

  I have $20 invested so far and between that and watching videos I had enough credits to secure a driver (MAX Meter 10.5° Driver (L22+)) and a putter (TaylorMade Ghost Spider Putter (L35+). All beginner stuff in between. I almost have enough credits to grab a couple more sleeves of  Srixon balls (4 or 5 more videos).

  Speaking of personal goals, This morning I shot a 69 at St Andrews, And that was with a beginner ball! I actually got through the 13th thru 17th hole gauntlet with only one bogey and shouldn't have missed that putt on 17!

  Country clubs are still a mystery to me though... I wouldn't mind making some new friends here but not sure how to go about it or what benefits it would bring. 

• alosso 21,083 Posts

  Fri, Oct 19 2018 12:46 PM

  Welcome here - have fun, but no hope! ;)

  Your story is rather like mine, but two years later, I was in the real game again!

  JZoll2:

  I can't afford to move up to the Master tier!

  My advice if you mean it in earnest:

  1) Discard all the good clubs, play Standards.

  2) Avoid results better than 69 / 35 at any cost!

  3) Reset your personal goal - play mediocre online golf.

  That 33 on STA may be your Damokles' sword above the Master tier's entrance!

• JZoll2 34 Posts

  Fri, Oct 19 2018 2:07 PM

  Lol, probably good advice alosso!

  I do hope to be back on the links by next year. My current poverty is based on my desire for financial independence. My wife is a little better off but I don't want to lean on her too much.

  I like to be competitive at whatever I do, not sure I can settle for mediocre if I can do better. I do see how I could be priced out of here however. I have rented enough equipment, and then priced them to realize I could quickly find myself out of my league spending and skill wise.

  I had to do a Wikipedia search for Damocles... so be careful what we wish for eh? lol

  33's at STA seem fairly do-able, but that back 9.. geez! I spent days just practicing 13, 14, and 17 just to get in the ballpark.

  Who knows, in a few months I might be healed up enough to return to my other online passion (auto sim-racing) once I have a left foot again.

  Right now I still keep points and run the website for our group:

  https://www.jakessite.com/sim/archives/18mh_fallisma.html

• craigswan 32,130 Posts

  Fri, Oct 19 2018 2:34 PM

  Look up the gift of golf foundation thread on the forum . They might help .

• Ladychipper 23,163 Posts

  Fri, Oct 26 2018 1:06 PM

  Hello,

  Welcome to WGT!  Most of use are addicted to this game in a short while.

  I think you are doing great for such a short time being here so keep it up.  There are a lot of advantages to joining a country club such as being able to use a putter pal and shot pal for free, lots of advice and help from other members in the CC forum, lots of tournaments to play to name a few. 

  You can also earn free credits to get equipment in different ways and never have to pay a penny to buy new equipment. 

  Have a look at The Peoples Club and see if it might be to your liking.  I have been there over 5 years and still love it.

  http://www.wgt.com/forums/t/508439.aspx

  Let me know if you would like an invite by replying here.

  Best Wishes,

  Marion :-)

   

• alosso 21,083 Posts

  Fri, Oct 26 2018 9:09 PM

  JZoll2:

  33's at STA seem fairly do-able, but that back 9.. geez!

  Some swear on the back nine, and there are "STA Legends"...

  My two Pfennig: Play all the courses, keeping fun AND scores up!

• newcastleb 1,813 Posts

  Sat, Oct 27 2018 5:21 AM

  JZoll2:

  I can't afford to move up to the Master tier! That is not a complaint, just reality for me. My fixed income does not allow me to purchase better equipment now that I am also not working. That being said, I love the game and regardless of what tier I get to, achieving personal goals will be enough to keep me playing.

  Not being able to work gives actually gives you an advantage - time.  I am one of the many here you do not spend real $$ here, but our time to 'earn' the 'free' credits, which is even easier now that the mobile app is available.

  Just have your mobile phone by your side when watching a movie or ball game or whatever telly you enjoy.  During the average 9 inning game you can earn 2-3 hundred credits, 1 video at a time.  Boring as a boring thing, but it is a very viable option and often overlooked option if you'd like the credits to upgrade your equipment and balls without parting with real $$

  Thomas

• JZoll2 34 Posts

  Tue, Nov 6 2018 8:14 AM

  I love this game, helps fill the time while my ankle mends. I am on the verge of being "promoted" to master so I took a week off from the game and saved up enough video credits mostly via Nox to upgrade most of my equipment (I do not have a smart phone). I had invested $20 early on but mostly squandered that with rentals and balls as I learned the ropes. I did get a putter out of it however.

  I still have a little more than 2000 cr and continue to try collecting them in order to hopefully keep me in Srixons and save up for future equipment upgrades.

   

  So this is how my morning went today...

  I viewed twelve 2-credit videos via Nox. I only received credits for two of them (NYU videos). I stopped trying at that point. I can accept this happening occaisionaly, but ten out of twelve?

   

  So I start the 18 hole STA unlimited with my last 180cr Srixon, with the intention of re-upping for another sleeve if/when the ball is used up (you win WGT!).

   

  I'm doing ok till I get to the 6th hole. Staight-away gale force winds get me excited, could drive the green! So I ding the driver... perfect shot, accept wait, the ball sails way left into another county, what? There went my last Srixon! There I am back at the tee being prompted to buy another sleeve, so I tried to buy the sleeve but got an error message "oops! something went wrong!, you must go to the pro shop for the purchase."

  So now I'm annoyed, to heck with it, I'll finish with the starter rock and only had a bogey even with the stroke penalty.

  I was nagged for the rest of the round to make the purchase but I just dismissed the offers.

   

  Then on the 18th hole, my Taylormade 64wdg was not available, never saw that happen before either. Oh well, still parred the hole using a starter wedge and finished with a 69.

   

  After that I tried Nox again, three videos came up quick and smooth, but still no credits awarded.

   

  Is it just me or is this the way folks are treated if they are not willing to spend $$ ?

• twinponds169 3,051 Posts

  Tue, Nov 6 2018 9:12 AM

  I just went through 10 vids on my tablet and got credit for none of them. This rarely happens so it seems there is a glitch in it that just developed today for some reason. Hopefully it gets fixed fast. I have not tried Nox yet but was getting ready to until I read this, lol.

  As far as the ball thing, always buy another sleeve at the first prompt, which is when your last ball comes up to get its first hit. If you dismiss it and then lose that ball during the round, you are not able to restock your regular balls until the beginning of your next round, even though the prompt will make you think you can. Just go to the pro shop to purchase more balls after you finish or abandon the round this happens in. Remember that the starter rock is now your equipped ball though, make sure to change that back to your Srixon before you start another round.

  Good luck to you in learning the ropes, you are doing just fine so far. Things like this happen to all of us when we are new to the game.

  TP

• Ladychipper 23,163 Posts

  Tue, Nov 6 2018 9:12 AM

   

  JZoll2:

  Then on the 18th hole, my Taylormade 64wdg was not available, never saw that happen before either. Oh well, still parred the hole using a starter wedge and finished with a 69.

  This has happened to me before several times when I didn't clean out my cache, history etc.  between games. 

  I use a cell phone to collect video credits and that works pretty good.  If they run out I wait about 30 sec. and try again and usually can get more. 

  Blessings,

  Marion