WGT Golf News

Graham DeLaet from Canada is the surprising first round leader at the Sony Open in Hawaii, shooting 7 under par for a 63 with 6 birdies and 1 eagle. DeLaet has never won on the PGA Tour and sat out most of the 2011 season with a back injury. Carl Pettersson, KJ Choi and Kyle Reifers are 2 shots back at 5 under, followed by a large group at 4 under including Steve Stricker, last week's winner. Defending Sony Open champion Mark Wilson finished 3 over par and is in danger of missing the cut after Friday.

Sony Open Round 1 Results

1. 63 - Graham DeLaet
2. 65 - Carl Pettersson
3. 65 - KJ Choi                                                           
4. 65 - Kyle Reifers
5. 66 - Webb Simpson
6. 66 - Ken Duke
7. 66 - Colt Knost
8. 66 - Doug LaBelle II
9. 66 - David Hearn
10. 66 - Pat Perez 
11. 66 - Bud Cauley
12. 66 - Kyle Stanley
13. 66 - Steve Stricker
14. 66 - Will Claxton
15. 66 - Seung-yul Noh
16. 66 - Matt Every 

See WGT Golf Preview of Sony Open

See Full PGA Leaderboard

More from World Golf Tour

World Golf Tour is celebrating the Sony Open with free virtual club rentals during the Sony Open. Join WGT and play free online golf on famous golf courses from your computer. During the Sony Open, visit the WGT Pro Shop and rent free virtual equipment from top manufacturer’s like Cleveland, NIKE, PING and TaylorMade. These upgraded virtual clubs give you more distance and control in this free online golf game, helping improve your scores. Play on your own, join a foursome, or compete in matchplay, alternate shot, skins or free online golf tournaments for prizes. Visit World Golf Tour at http://www.wgt.com

New features released on World Golf Tour, including a new NIKE Method 001 Putter and a new "Best Of" Hardest Holes golf course. Also, don’t miss the special offer this weekend on free virtual golf club rentals during the PGA Sony Open.

New NIKE Method 001 Putter

Check-out the new NIKE Method 001 Putter, an excellent putter with the slowest swing meter on WGT, helping you sink more putts!

The new NIKE Method 001 Putter unlocks for top WGT golf players at Levels 51 and 77. 

New "Best Of" Hardest Holes Course

Introducing the fourth new "Best Of" course as voted on by WGT players.

Best Of Hardest Holes is a free strokeplay course featuring 18 of the hardest holes from different WGT courses, including the hardest holes from the US and British Open courses, a real challenge!

Other WGT Best Of courses include the Best Of Challenge (9 famous shots), Best Of Strokeplay (18 famous strokeplay holes) and the Best Of Water Challenge (9 best water shots).

Golf Fans, the PGA Tour is back! The first full-field golf tournament of the 2012 PGA season is the Sony Open in Hawaii.

This kick-off PGA tournament is one of the top golf charity events, supporting the Friends of Hawaii charity.

Top PGA players will be pitting their golf skills against a full field. Based on his win last week, Steve Stricker is a favorite in this week's Sony Open, along with defending champion Mark Wilson, and last week's top-finishing players, including Keegan Bradley, KJ Choi, Rory Sabbatini and Webb Simpson. And keep an eye on Zach Johnson, who came on strong at the end of last season.

Stay tuned to WGT for daily updates and the PGA Leaderboard, as well as s special offer on WGT this weekend.

More About the Sony Open in Hawaii

• Date - Thu 1/12 - Sun 1/15, 2012
• Coverage - The Golf Channel, Sirrius XM 
• Sponsors – Sony, Xerox, Maui Jim
• Prizes - $5.5M purse, $990K first place, 500 FedEx Cup Points
• Course - Waialae Country Club
• Location - Honolulu, Oahu, Hawaii
• Par - Par 70, 7,068 yards
• History - Course was designed by Seth Raynor and Charles Banks, opened in 1927, and held the first PGA event in 1965

Sony Open Past PGA Champions

• 2011 Mark Wilson 
• 2010 Ryan Palmer 
• 2009 Zach Johnson 
• 2008 K.J. Choi 
• 2007 Paul Goydos 
• 2006 David Toms 
• 2005 Vijay Singh 
• 2004 Ernie Els 
• 2003 Ernie Els 
• 2002 Jerry Kelly 
• 2001 Brad Faxon 
• 2000 Paul Azinger 
• 1999 Jeff Sluman 

Sony Open 2012 Notable PGA Players

• Keegan Bradley
• KJ Choi
• Stewart Cink
• Ryuji Imada
• Ryo Ishikawa
• Justin Leonard
• Davis Love III
• Jeff Maggert
• Shigeki Maruyama
• Hideki Matsuyama
• Jesper Parnevik
• Rory Sabbatini
• Webb Simpson
• Vijay Singh
• Steve Stricker
• David Toms
• Jhonattan Vegas
• Mark Wilson - Defending Champion

On the heels of a successful WGT Fall Tour, we proudly introduce the WGT Winter Tour, brought to you by SkyCaddie, featuring a chance to win the new SkyCaddie SGXw golf course mapping device.

The WGT Winter Tour is a free monthly online golf tournament for golfers of all skills to test their online golf game skills. It runs January through March with both virtual equipment and cash prizes. The final winners in the WGT Winter Tour Championship will play for the Tour title and a $1,000 grand prize. It’s free to enter and players of all golf skill levels have a chance to win prizes in the monthly Sweepstakes drawings!

The January Qualifier starts with 18 holes on Oakmont, with the Top 100 playing in the January Championship featuring two 18-hole rounds on St Andrews and Kiawah Island.

Sweepstakes Prizes: 6 lucky players will be selected at random in a Sweepstakes drawing (1 player from each Tier: Hack, Amateur, Pro, Tour Pro, Master, Tour Master, Legend) and get a dozen NIKE virtual golf balls. Additionally, 1 lucky Sweepstakes winner will receive a SkyCaddie SGXw course mapping device.

Championship Prizes: The top 10 finishers in the January Championship each win a $100 Amazon gift card. 

Play the free January WGT Winter Tour Qualifier

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WGT Fall Tour Championship: The WGT Fall Tour is coming to a close very soon. The December Qualifier has ended and the top 10 scoring players on the leaderboard each earned a $100 Amazon Gift Card. Additionally, the top three players from each Monthly Qualifier (October, November and December) will compete this coming week in the final Championship round. Stay tuned for the final winners announcement.

World Golf Tour has launched its third "Best Of" golf course, as voted on by WGT players.

The free new golf course features a virtual mash-up of your favorite 9 water shots from different courses on WGT, in a closest-to-the-hole challenge game, including…

• Hole #2 at Celtic Manor, The Twenty Ten Course
• Hole #6 at Bali Hai Golf Club
• Hole #17 at Wolf Creek Creek Golf Club
• Hole #6 at Congressional Country Club
• Hole #17 at The Ocean Course, Kiawah Island
• Hole #8 at Bethpage Black Golf Couse
• Hole #18 at Edgewood Tahoe Golf Course
• Hold #14 at Harbour Town Golf Links
• Hole #18 at Wolf Creek Golf Club

Play Free Tournament on Best Of Water Course

World Golf Tour has reduced the greens fees on the Cabo del Sol golf course.

Cabo del Sol is one of the top resort golf courses in Mexico, designed by Jack Nicklaus, with sweeping ocean views. Enjoy 18 holes of realistic strokeplay golf with plenty of birdie and eagle opportunities. 

As a reminder, Cabo del Sol is a virtual golf course developed by WGT partner TruGolf, so there’s a small fee required to play this course. All other WGT courses are, as always, free to play.

New Greens Fees for Cabo Del Sol

• Closest-To-Hole:  FREE
• 9 Holes:  40 WGT Credits
• 18 Holes:  60 WGT Credits

Play Free Tournament on Cabo del Sol 

Thanks for playing World Golf Tour this year!

We're celebrating the season with a special holiday gift for all our players. Just login to your WGT account on Christmas Eve (12/24) or Christmas Day (12/25) and you will automatically get 1 free virtual WGT Holiday virtual golf ball, just for playing. 

These festive red WGT Holiday Balls are available for a limited time only, and are based on the popular WGT GI-SD virtual golf balls, with extra distance and control on your shots…plus a little holiday cheer!

To equip your bag with the WGT Holiday Ball, just click on the My Equipment option under My Settings from the Main Menu, and "click and drag" the ball. See this video tutorial for help.

Happy Holidays!

WGT

p.s. the WGT Holiday Ball also makes a great gift for your friends on WGT!

Just for the holidays, WGT has launched a special high-stakes Ready-Go online golf tournament on Bethpage Black. 

This limited-time high-stakes tournament has a $50 entry fee with the lowest score earning 6X credits and the top 30 of 50 finishers all getting paid.

To play in the current tournament, just find the "Bethpage Black Full 18 Ready-Go" with the 5,000 credit entry fee in the Ready-Go tournament menu.

We'll run as many of these limited-time high-stakes Ready-Go's as we can thru December 31. Good luck!

Starting today through Sunday, December 18, you can get 3 free NIKE virtual golf balls when you purchase $20 or more WGT Credits. 

Buy WGT Credits and get NIKE Balls

These new top-performing NIKE virtual golf balls are only available to WGT players at higher levels, but are yours free with this special offer.

The NIKE 20XI golf balls feature a revolutionary RZN core that delivers more distance, as well as spin and control, and a slower swing meter on WGT...making it easier to hit perfect shots on virtual clubs with faster swing meters.

* Unlimited offer available to WGT players who buy $20 or more WGT Credits, to get 3 free NIKE 20XI-X virtual golf balls, now thru 12/18/11.

Check out all the improvements to World Golf Tour, including new NIKE golf balls, new Best-Of Water golf course and new Level-Up Boosts, as well as improvements to Skins Games, Free Surveys and Greens Fees. And don't miss the special offers this month on free balls and a special high-stakes Holiday Ready-Go golf tournament for top players.


New NIKE Balls



WGT has partnered with NIKE Golf! The latest technology from NIKE is now available on WGT.

The new NIKE 20XI ball is the new top-performing virtual ball on WGT with more distance, more control...and the famous NIKE swoosh!

The new NIKE balls unlock at Levels 47 and 48, and then at Levels 70 and 71 for the very best players.


WGT Special Offers



Don’t miss special offers for WGT players in December...

• Get 3 free NIKE balls when you buy $20 or more WGT Credits 12/15-12/18 and buy as many times as you want to stock-up regardless of your WGT level.
• Get 1 free WGT Holiday ball when you login and play WGT on Christmas Eve (12/24) or Christmas Day (12/25) for more distance and control in fun holiday colors.
• Compete with top players in the special Holiday High-Stakes Ready-Go Tournaments with a $50 entry fee, now thru 12/31.

New Level-Up Boosts



You can now jump to the next WGT Level to unlock new equipment in the Pro Shop.  New WGT Level-Up Boosts cost from 100 to 300 credits depending on your Level. 

Unlike XP Boosts which help you gain extra XP as you play WGT, the new Level-Up Boosts immediately take you to the next level, all the way up to Level 60.

Makes a great gift too!

New Best-Of Water Course



Announcing the third new "Best Of" golf course, as voted on by WGT players.

Best Of Water is a free closest-to-the-hole challenge that features 9 of the best water shots from different golf courses, including Wolf Creek, Harbour Town, Edgewood, Celtic Manor and Bali Hai.  It is also available for Blitz games.

Other WGT Best-Of courses include Best-Of Challenge (9 famous shots) and Best-Of Strokeplay (18 top holes).


Improved Skins Game

The new "Skins" multi-player game now has a Pick-Up Ball option to help speed up Skins games.

You can play Skins for fun or credits, with features like carry-overs and two-tie-all-tie, that add to the suspense of Skins games.


Reduced Cabo Del Sol Greens Fees



WGT has reduced Greens Fees on the Cabo del Sol golf course from TruGolf.

The new Greens Fees are 60 credits for 18 holes, 40 credits for 9 holes, and 0 credits for the closest-to-the-hole challenge.

Enjoy the ocean views and birdie opportunities at this Nicklaus-designed resort course in Mexico.


Improved WGT Surveys

It's even easier to earn free WGT Credits with new types of online surveys, many of which are easier to qualify for. See the new surveys in the Take Surveys tab.

Use your free WGT Credits to upgrade your equipment, enter tournaments, and for match play and skins challenges.