The following is a history mainly of the tiers in wgt. This may not be the very beginning but I'm using it as the start of this.
A little over two years ago, a small team of us embarked on a simple idea—allow people to play world-famous golf courses online and feel as though they are really there. It didn't matter that it hadn't been done before, or that most people thought it was impossible. Today, two world-class courses, a slew of technology patents, nearly one million players and thousands of putts later, we are unveiling our beta product.
The beta includes our new course, The Ocean Course at Kiawah Island Golf Resort and host of the 1991 Ryder Cup and 94th PGA Championship, which you can play tee-to-green. Also new are:
- Multi-player capability with in-game chat functionality – up to four players can tee off against one another and razz each other while doing so
- Alternative play options – choose between tee-to-green play or closest-to-the-pin competition
- Tournament rewards – compete in tournaments to win prizes ranging from thousands of dollars to luxurious golf vacations
- Variety of swing options – new additions include punch, chip, flop and putt
- Personalized avatars – choose between several avatars and outfits, both male and female
- Personalized profile pages – share your game stats, videos, pictures, friends, replays, activities, favorite equipment, and blog posts
- Forums – get game tips, share advice, or talk about the latest golf news
At this point everyone is a Hack.
As a summary for what will be a long post the tiers were introduced on (or close to) the following dates.
Amateur: 1st Nov 2008
Pro and Master: 25th May 2009 (There was not a Tour Pro tier at this time).
On the 1st Sept 2010 things get a little confusing as four tiers become seven. Hack and Amateur stay as the bottom two. Pro is split into Pro, Tour Pro (with possibly some Pro's also going to Master) and Master is separated into Master, Tour Master and Legend. Newer players, those that weren't already at least Pro, progressed up the seven tiers as we still do.
Another important change at this time was in the Pro Shop; equipment was now available based on your Level and not your Tier.
1st Aug 2012: Tour Legend added.
31st July 2015: Champion and Tour Champion added. The only person allowed into TC at that time was WGTIcon, and the tier was said to be invite only. At the end of 2018 the floodgates were opened and the invite idea for this tier was dropped.
In the first seven years there were ten tiers introduced but there have been no competitive tiers added in the last eight years (or nine and one to be generous).
In January 2016 Topgolf bought WGT and (I think) the focus went to the mobile game and things.
The following is where the dates came from, I left a little of the surrounding material in just to give a flavour of the times.
01 Nov 2008
Ready for the next level of competition? We've enabled the Amateur tier at WGT! The top players in the community have been moved automatically to the new tier, where they will be playing from a new teebox. They will compete against other Amateur players in tournaments, and qualify for bigger purses and better prizes. As the WGT golfing community increases in size and ability we will continue to add higher tiers.
All players are elgible to qualify for the Amateur tier, so keep on playing!
(Please note that per our Terms & Conditions, each player may use only one account.)
25 May 2009
New Tiers Added
We have added two new tiers: Pro and Master. This will improve the groupings so that players compete against those of similar ability. Depending on your ranked game scores the system will automatically place you in one of four tiers: Hack, Amateur, Pro or Master.
08-10-2010 9:55 AM
Over the past two years, we’ve gathered lots of feedback from our player community about our Tier system to help rank players as Master, Pro, Amateur and Hack. Today, we’d like to share with you some improvements that we are planning to make to address that feedback and improve the game. These changes are designed to help everyone compete more fairly and unlock new virtual golf equipment. We look forward to your comments and questions to help us finalize these changes this month.
SKILL TIERS
Tiers will continue to be based on your scores and used to determine who you compete against in tournaments and match play. To make competition more interesting and fair, we plan to introduce three additional Tiers: Tour Pro, Tour Master and Legend, as described below.
| OLD Tiers |
NEW Tiers |
| 1. Master |
1. Legend |
| 2. Tour Master |
| 3. Master |
| 2. Pro |
4. Tour Pro |
| 5. Pro |
| 3. Amateur |
6. Amateur |
| 4. Hack |
7. Hack |
There would be no changes for players in the Amateur and Hack Tiers, but the Master and Pro Tiers need to be divided to be more fair, so we’ve grouped similar players by their recent scores. Current Pro players would become Pro, Tour Pro or Master, and current Master players would become Master, Tour Master or Legend.
01 Sep 2010
New WGT Levels and Tiers
In today's release, WGT has expanded our Tiers and added new Experience Levels to make the game more fair and fun for everyone. These changes are based on lots of player feedback, and most recently from the over 250 suggestions on this topic in our Player Forum this month, http://www.wgt.com/forums/p/19077/109896.aspx#109896
We've also changed our Pro Shop to make our virtual golf equipment available based on your Level and not your Tier. All of the former "Master" and "Pro" equipment has been removed following our 2-week Clearance Sale, and will be replaced by new equipment in the future which will be available based on your Level not your Tier.
Here's an overview of the new changes that are live today...
- WGT Tiers are based on your scores and used to determine who you compete against in tournaments and match play. In order to make competition and matches more interesting and fair, we've expanded from 4 to 7 Tiers, now including Hack, Amateur, Pro, Tour Pro, Master, Tour Master and Legend.
- Players have been pre-assigned to a new Tier based on their score history.
- WGT Levels are new and are based on completing rounds and interacting with other players. At new Levels, players will be able to unlock new virtual items previously unavailable to them. Levels will make WGT more fun for everyone regardless of their skill, and also encourage players to finish more multi-player games and matches.
- Players have been pre-assigned to a Level based on their Tier and history with WGT.
- The WGT Pro Shop will start unlocking all our virtual golf equipment based on Level rather than Tier. As in real life, you may never play as well as a real pro, but that doesn't mean you can't buy the same equipment they're using. However, also in real life, some golf equipment will continue to be designed for beginners and other for experts, in terms of factors like swing meter speed and forgiveness.
o There won't be any changes to the golf equipment that you already have in your WGT bag, and you will still be able to sell back any clubs to the Pro Shop for credits.
Note, these new Tiers & Levels are not designed to address sandbagging (players misrepresenting their ability to gain advantage in tournaments and match play). While these changes will help make sandbagging harder and discourage "quitting" in multi-player games, we're working on other improvements to address sandbagging by monitoring score histories and sandbagging behaviors, and addressing violations to our community policies more aggressively.
Other Improvements
While most of our focus has been on releasing the new Tiers & Levels, here are some other improvements in today's release...
- Fixed unexpected error when shot taken just as shot clock expires
- Fixed Closest to the Hole average score calculation
- Added ability to scroll through Friends List in multiplayer games
- Displaying correct award for Tin Day at the Beach award
- Fixed surface mapping errors on Bethpage Hole #2
- Fixed Match Play extra-holes scorecard issue
New Tour Legend Tier
There's a new tier on WGT beyond Legend. The very best WGT players will start to qualify for the new Tour Legend tier. As that group grows, there will be new tournaments, Ready-Go's, prizes, challenges, and recognition for our most skilled players.
31 Jul 2015
New Top Tiers
There are two new WGT tiers: Champion and Tour Champion, for top players based on play and posted scores.
Players that qualify will automatically be moved up to the Champion tier to compete.
Currently Tour Champion isn't a playable tier and hasn't been opened up to players yet. We are waiting a bit until enough players move up to Champion, so things like Tournaments and Ready GO's have enough players to compete in them. :)
19 Dec 2018
New Tier: Tour Champion
There's a new top tier in town! Introducing: Tour Champion tier.
Now the highest possible in the game, players have a new tier to move into based on number of rounds played and average score as usual.
Edit: It has been pointed out to me that I've missed Hall of Fame, I was really just doing competitive tiers and keeping away from the politics of that one. If someone else wants to add it they are welcome.