Playing in a Legend bracket tournament, 2nd round at Kiawah. -1 going into 17, a 240 yd shot across the lake, with a 2-4 straight right to left wind.
Hit my 240 yd 3 wood, with backspin to give it some chance of holding the green, clean on the ding. Ball "drifts"--left to right against the wind!--into the water! But wait, that's only the beginning of the fun.
The drop area is on 15-25 sand with 195 yd to clear. I pull out my 215 hybrid, which is plenty to clear that distance anyplace else, only to have it drop 30 yards short into the water. Question 1: why are you not allowed to just rehit from the tee area? Why would you be forced to drop in the sand??? I'm not aware of any rule that would require or even suggest that drop.
At this point, discretion being the better part of valor, I decide to hit back to the tee area and hit what should be an easy 30 yard shot backwards. But wait...it goes 1 yard into "light" 50-60 brush. Five shots later, and still not out of the brush the ball won't move no matter what kind of shot, I max out shots for the hole and the tournament is history.
So on one hole I managed to hit every nightmare scenario that WGT has except for the 2 foot straight in putt that somehow manages to break and go by 5 feet. A perfectly hit tee shot that "drifts" at least 20 yards AGAINST the wind. A senseless drop in sand that would never occur in real life. An easy backward sand shot that somehow goes into brush they don't even show you. And then the typical inability to find any shot that will remove it from the brush or allow for an uplayable lie.
Somebody please remind me why I play this game. :-(
Unfortunately I've encountered almost every one of these problems before, except for the sand shot that only went a yard and went into the brush.
Questions/suggestions for WGT:
Why is the drop area in the sand??? Totally ridiculous
What is up with this artificial drift? I've seen it a couple times before on this hole, as well as a few others, notably #3 on Merion where hitting safely to the center of the green often results in a ball that magically drifts off into the right side bunker or brush.
Can something be done about the brush problem? I can't count the times when I've not been able to find any shot type that will move a ball that goes there, in any direction. Alternatively, and maybe better, can we create an unplayable lie and drop option that can be invoked if you land in what would be an unplayable lie in real life? Being forced to max out strokes for a hole is often way more than enough to cost somebody a tournament placing.
Somehow I know I'm not alone in these problems, along with putts that drift against the break, or several multiples of the break indicated; or shots that mysteriously fall 20-30 short of what the same shot goes the 99 out of 100 times.
WGT has done an amazing job of creating the algorithms that make all of this possible, and mostly it is a very successful effort. But feeling like you've done everything the software has asked for only to feel like you just (literally in some cases) had your money stolen from you by some kind of computer glitch, takes away trust that the game is fair and that you can trust that good play will actually prevail.
John