GregGarner

I understand that Castle Pines is at 6000' but 76 people hit drives longer than 407? Bruh.

I think one of the interesting discussion points about this from a business standpoint is debating the price points. I think as-is, it's very accessible, especially considering IRL golf is WAY more expensive. ($10 and you can play East Lake as many times as you want?) But if you were coming at from a video game perspective, a $10 in-game purchase feels hefty, comparatively. I agree with @mynerds here and think they've found a wonderful compromise in that you can still play the courses, but if you want on-demand access, you need to buy it. I think there's a different conversation to be had about purchasing the various club and ball options. I haven't formed my opinions there just yet

And that's probably before you go into the settings and adjust your power settings! I've found that I'm about a club longer in the game vs IRL and that my best shots are not full swings. When I try to really go after one, I tend to hit it off-the-planet right. The only way I can hit a straight shot, especially with irons, is to feel like I'm hitting half-swing punch shots. (The same swing IRL would result in a punch-out hook.)

Trying to mess around with my bag makeup. Looks like I can drop the 5w if I want another wedge, but I can't figure out a way to break up an iron set, leaving me with 3i-PW. As the game continues to evolve, I would expect to see more club options (i.e. drop the 3i and put in the Callaway UW, take out 3i and 4i, put in a driving iron and add another wedge). The low end of the bag has some gaps that I'd like to address, even if I don't have the 'compression' of distances that is typical for IRL long clubs.

can we point out that by posting the screenshot, you've outed yourself as a lower handicap, at least for game purposes?

One thing that I can't decide if I love or not is that in (at least the one-day tournaments) if you do a practice round, it seems to be the exact same conditions as if you just went straight into the tournament. In most circumstances, I suppose this is fine and would likely be true in terms of mirroring real life. But a couple days ago it was Pebble Beach and had a constant 26 mph wind. In that instance, the practice round was almost a cheat code for the tournament round. I think I would have preferred seeing the variation that a course like Pebble can offer where the wind can shift at a moment's notice and perhaps the practice round has 5-10 mph and the tournament round is the full-force winds (etc).

One thing that is really coming through for me (that I wasn't sure how it would play out!) is they've gone a great job with the game engine in simulating both the depth perception of a lie and how it affects your shot. I had a pretty simple greenside bunker shot but it was on an aggressive downslope. I played it like I played any normal, flat-lie bunker shot and... sailed 50 yards over the green. In so many golf video games, the uphill/downhill aspect of your lie just has no bearing on the outcome of your shot, but in Golf+ you really need to adjust your swing to accommodate. IMO, that's a great feature of the game.

I'm a 3 IRL and in the middle difficulty setting (Amateur) it's got me as a plus handicap. I haven't played enough on pro settings to really let it level out my handicap, but it wouldn't surprise me if it has me close(r) to my IRL handicap, based on my limited game play so far. The biggest boon to the Amateur settings, for me, is that you cannot miss in terms of strike depth. There are no fats, thins, toes, or heels. The only miss is face angle. (More on that below) In terms of transfer (from the psychological sense), the movement pattern is close enough that you absolutely will affect your real-life golf swing. My recommendation is that you need to do enough work setting up your clubs in the game to make sure that you don't have to significantly alter your swing for gameplay because it will then transfer to the actual golf course. I experienced this the first time I played. It was a Friday night and TL;DR my Saturday morning range session was... not good. I think I spent about an hour or so on the virtual range getting my clubs dialed in so that I didn't have to make such drastic changes to my swing in the game. HOWEVER -- I absolutely cannot, cannot, cannot swing 100% in the game with anything except driver unless I want to hit the biggest block/block-slice of my life. At the range, you can use an advanced mode to get detailed launch monitor data and my face angles on full-swing irons are like 20-30 degrees open to path! I still can't get that figured out as to why it's happening, but at least I can make an 80% iron swing and it goes on my intended line. But if I'm between clubs, I now know that I cannot take the shorter and hit it harder without missing my target by 30+ yards. Low-key the range and practice areas are one of the best features for sure. I like playing 9 at Butler Pitch and Putt for example, or reliving my recent round at the Ocean Course, but after a rough day, just vibing to some tunes (shout out to the incredible in-game music options!) and hitting some chips or some 7-irons is a great way to unwind. I have been known to head to the course after work for just this reason, and I think I'm getting the same or at least similar effect from throwing on the headset for 30 minutes. (That being said, we def gotta get you in on a scramble. It's 100x more fun than I expected.)

Spoiler: really good. Some of the global top scores on any given course are ridiculous. We're talking -17 range for a single round. I played 9 with Pro settings and shot like 37 and felt like I maybe could've picked up another 2-3 shots, but I can't imagine any scenario where I was going to shoot low 60's to even have a chance at making the first page of the leaderboard

Worth noting, I think we were pretty easy to beat mostly because @mynerds was trying some crazy trick shots

SO fun. Honestly, multiplayer is probably my favorite feature so far, even if I did get briefly kicked out for breaking Meta's content standards I was reflecting with my wife about it and we were both just brainstorming all the ways that this feature could be everything Meta hoped for with its headset. If money were no object, I think a Meta Quest with Golf+ would be an incredible gift to give for anyone that you like to play golf with but don't get to see very often. Would absolutely love to tee it up with my dad in there

Will definitely have to try! I've played around some with the different settings, but I guess that answers one of my questions: how in the world are some people scoring SO low??? I think I saw -17 on Pinehurst No. 2. When I played from the back tees, I felt like I played pretty well (except for a dumb double on 6) and didn't break par. I'd love to see the scoreboards segmented by settings or at least some kind of grouping/standardization. Otherwise, it's just kinda meaningless and/or more akin to CyberTiger. Also, so stoked to have Butler Pitch and Putt. I lived in Austin for a couple years, so it was great to check out this gem again. It's probably a good thing you can't smell in the VR headset though

I have the final match of my club's Match Play tournament on Saturday, so, uh... I'm just going to be honest and say that I'm a touch hesitant to play on VR right before that, given my previous experience trying to switch directly from VR to IRL BUT I'd love to play on Sunday if anyone is available; preference for afternoon Eastern (US) time, but I can try to be flexible

This is sick and WAY more savvy than my initial attempt at extending gameplay time... I have an extra-long Macbook charger that I tried to plug in while playing. TL;DR, as a right handed player, I DO NOT RECOMMEND anything more than a chip while a long cable is dangling from your temple. I'll spare you the full story, but basically I'm just glad that my laptop charger still works and there doesn't appear to be any damage to the headset...

Even with the attachment, the weighting is still off, FWIW. I honestly didn't notice it while in the headset, I suppose mostly because you're not trying to 'feel' the clubhead in a virtual swing where every strike is a solid strike. But as soon as I picked up a real club, it felt like the heaviest thing I'd ever tried to swing and made the 300g Stack System seem like a feather!