WGT Golf News

It's been a month since we launched match play challenges, and we hope you are enjoying yourselves. Some people have been confused about the payout they earn, so we wanted to help clarify how it works. The example we like to use is a game where each player challenges 100 credits. The credits you earn in such a challenge is 80 credits, and this has some people confused.

If you put in 100 credits into the pot and so does your opponent, and you each pay the 10% fee, that is 90 + 90 = 180 credits. When you earn the 180 credit pot, you have to subtract that with the original 100 credits you put in, making your net gain 80 credits. There is a helpful forum post by nivlac that explains this in detail: http://wgt.com/forums/p/6617/41153.aspx#41153

Hope this helps, and good luck!

Here are the highlights from today's product release. While we make an effort to include all updates made to the product, please note that occasionally some changes are unintentionally omitted.

New Hole Locations on Bethpage Black – Tame the New Monster

As our early holiday gift to you, new hole locations on Bethpage Black are now available! This feature is still in the early stages, so in this release we've made it available in practice and ranked rounds only. There are six sets of hole groups—two "easy", two "medium", and two "hard". In practice mode, you can choose any of the hole groups to play. In ranked rounds, the set you play will depend on your tier. For example, if you are a Master, you will get one of the two sets of "hard" hole groups. When playing in multiplayer ranked games, the hole group will be based on the host's tier.

The current, default hole group will remain for all tournaments. We look forward to your feedback in the forums.

For a Limited Time - Free New Avatar in the Pro Shop

As a special offer for our holiday Beta players, we're giving away the "Going Green (Male 1)" avatar until the end of the year. Simply go to the detail page for this avatar and click BUY NOW (the price is 0 credits).

Change your look in time for the new year! We now have different avatars for sale in the Pro Shop. Three new looks are available for each of the six avatar types, with more coming out in future releases. Browse them now, or read more.

Gifting

Just in time for the holidays, you can now purchase clubs, balls, and avatars for your friends. Items can be purchased for any WGT player or non-WGT friend (they will have to register to receive the gift). Pro and master level clubs and balls are not available for gifting, and you may not gift an item from your own inventory—you must purchase a new one.

If you send a gift to a non-WGT member and that person registers to become a member, you will receive a free sleeve of WGT GI-D golf balls. If that person then deposits $10 or more at WGT, you will receive 200 credits in your account as a bonus! Read more >

Ready-Go Tournaments

Starting today, there will always be an open tournament for you to enter and earn credits. Our new Ready-Go tournaments will run 24/7, where as soon as 50 players enter the tournament, it is closed for new entries and a new tournament with the same parameters is automatically created. To start, we are offering two 100cr entry fee, 50-person limit tournaments with 4000cr payouts. All ready-go tournaments are single-play. Read more >

Reputation Percentage

A new Reputation Percentage indicator will show you how often you and other players complete multiplayer games. The indicator should give players a better sense about the person they are starting a game with and the likelihood that person will finish the game. Your reputation percentage is not affected by practice games or single-player games.

When creating a multiplayer game, you can search for opponents with 50%+ or 75%+ completion rates. The rule only applies when you search for "Anyone". You can still manually invite players or friends who don't meet the reputation criteria you set. Everyone will start off with an 80% reputation percentage, and it will move up or down depending on your game completion rates. Read more >

Invitation Decline Reason

When you decline an invitation, you can now send a reason for your decline. The default message is "Already in a game", but if you choose "No thanks" you can also enter a customized message. The player who invited you will see the message in the game lobby.

New Equipment in the Pro Shop - Available to All Tiers

• TaylorMade Burner Beginner Club Set - More forgiving and slower swing meter, perfect for beginners.
• TaylorMade Burner Plus Iron Set - More forgiving and a slower swing meter than the Burner Iron Set.
• WGT Starter Plus Club Set - A low-priced clubset with a slow swing meter designed specifically for beginners.
• GI2-D - Same as the GI-D, but one tick slower in the meter speed.
• GI2-S - Same as the GI-S, but one tick slower in the meter speed.

Match Play Rematch Button

When you finish a match play game, you can now click a Rematch button and play again. Your opponent will have the option to accept or decline the rematch.

Green Speed Setting for Multiplayer Practice Rounds

You now have the ability to set green speeds in your multiplayer practice rounds.

Bug Fixes

• Players can no longer use Pro and Master tier clubs in tournaments that they entered as a lower tier player.
• You should no longer receive duplicate email notifications for forum replies.

Heads up, we are planning to make a product update on Wednesday, 12/16 starting at 11PM Pacific Time. The site will be down for approximately four hours. Please be sure to save your games before the downtime starts.

We will post a list of the changes when the site is back up.

By Ryan Ballengee

Pablo Martin emerged victorious in the European Tour's first official event of their 2010 season (even if it's played in December 2009). With the win, Pablo Martin becomes the first man in European Tour history to have won on Tour as both an amateur and a professional.

Warren Little/Getty Images

Martin won the Alfred Dunhill Championship in South Africa. Aided by a second round 63, Martin held on for a one stroke win over Charl Schwartzel of South Africa.

The Spaniard was the first amateur to ever win on the European Tour. He did so in 2007 by winning the Open de Portugal. That win, too, was by a shot - over Frenchman Raphael Jacquelin.

For that win, Martin could not take prize money. This time, he took home 158,500 Euros.  The total prize pool was just 8,000 Euros smaller than last year.

• Hole-in-one on Kiawah #17 by SweetiePie
• Straight into the hole from 123 yrds on Kiawah #15 by palladio
• Punch-in eagle from rough on Kiawah #11 by Kosei82
• Nice downhill roll on Bethpage #15 by lilmike24

Make this a holiday season to remember for the special golfer on your list with tickets to the 2010 U.S. Open Championship, to be played June 14 - 20 at Pebble Beach Golf Links on California's Monterey Peninsula. One of the most beautiful golf courses in the world, Pebble Beach will provide a spectacular setting for the world's greatest players competing for the coveted title of National Champion.

As a special thank you gift from the USGA, purchase your tickets before December 14 and they will send you a 2010 U.S. Open commemorative divot tool gift set.

Please click here for more details and restrictions.

Players often ask us how they can get WGT credits. Credits can be used to upgrade equipment in the Pro Shop, enter premium tournaments, and challenge other players in match play games. The game and all the courses are free to play, but credits allow you to get a richer experience at WGT.

There are a couple of ways you can get credits at WGT:

• Purchase them - the old-fashioned and easiest way to get credits is to purchase them. $1 will get you 100 credits, and you can use any major credit card (even pre-paid), PayPal, and many international payment methods. To buy credits, go to the Buy Credits tab of the ACCOUNT section. There you will be able to enter your payment information and specify the amount you wish to purchase.
  
• Earn them in tournaments - we offer a variety of monthly and weekly free tournaments where you can earn credits by placing in the top 70 on the leaderboards. We also have monthly course sweepstakes where the winners get a few hundred credits each. In the tournament calendar, credit-payout tournaments will have a CR icon in the Purse column.
• Earn them in match play games - you can now challenge other players for credits in match play challenges. You and your opponent decide how many credits will be challenged, and the winner will earn the credits in the pot. Read more about match play challenges here.
• Complete offers - you can now take advantage of offers from our partners to earn credits. Fill out the offers you are interested in, and get credits deposited into your WGT account. To do this, go to the Buy Credits page and click on "Change Billing Information". Click on the "Complete offer to earn credits" button under "Select Payment Method", and complete the offers you are interested in. http://www.wgt.com/user/offers.aspx

By The Armchair Golfer

It was a good week for Australian golf. Adam Scott won the Australian Open at New South Wales Golf Club, his first win on his native soil. Scott’s 15-under par total  gave him a five-stroke victory over fellow countryman Stuart Appleby.

Scott must feel a tremendous sense of relief after such a discouraging season on the fairways that at times has included heavy criticism by the media.

"I’ve worked really hard even though I’ve played terrible all year. But it pays off. You’ve got to stick with it," Scott was quoted as saying by the Associated Press. "This is going to be very sweet and something I will treasure for the rest of my career."

Greg Norman, who was widely criticized for picking Scott to play on Norman’s Presidents Cup team, presented the trophy. Both men must have been beaming.

Appleby fans must also be happy to see their man contend after his plummet to No. 137 on the PGA Tour money list. He and Scott can take some positive vibes into the 2010 season.

Meanwhile, in Sun City, South Africa, Robert Allenby won the Nedback Challenge by beating Henrik Stenson on the third playoff hole. Allenby has been playing solid golf in recent weeks, sharing the 36-hole lead at the Castello Masters in October and the first-round lead at the Dubai World Championship in November. It was his first win in four years.

Based on what I’ve read, many Aussies were annoyed that Allenby, a man known for his feistiness and contentious comments, wasn’t playing in the Australian Open. That’s understandable, but they still might take national pride in his triumph in Sun City. Two tournaments on two continents with two Australian winners. That’s good stuff for the Land of Oz.

Photo: The Gordons/Flickr

Have a great weekend and enjoy these replays!

• Eagle on Kiawah #2 by lilrob88
• Ace on Pinehurst Challenge #1 by lkennedy
• Ace on Bethpage #14 by vpc1sgt
• Nice curve-in putt on Kiawah #10 by CaptainCouples

Our new multiround tournaments are in full swing, with the Week 49 Free Multiround tournament topping 8,000 players. For just 100 credits, you can also enter the December Multiround Open, where you can win Amazon.com Gift Cards. With a week left in Round 1 and three more rounds to go, the tournament is still wide open—enter now for your shot at winning!

Good to know: the signup deadline for a multiround tournament is usually one hour before the end of the first round. For example, Round 1 of the Dec Multiround Open ends on Dec. 10 and Round 2 starts Dec. 11. That means the deadline to enter the tournament is Dec. 10 at 11PM Pacific Time.

Good luck!