GOLF+ - 2024 Forum Member Review

[JFish350]

Just got hooked in and tried it out. Pretty cool, but I am sure the number are off. 

Longest Drive

352.0 YDs

 

Tough to do with 1/4 swing. 

[GregGarner]

14 hours ago, JFish350 said:

Just got hooked in and tried it out. Pretty cool, but I am sure the number are off. 

Longest Drive

352.0 YDs

 

Tough to do with 1/4 swing. 

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.)

[JFish350]

4 hours ago, GregGarner said:

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.)

All true, I just went in to see if I'd like it. 

This morning I went in and adjusted some of the clubs, Driver, putter, LOB. I really need to fix the other ones. Chipping and putting are the hardest part right now. 

 

I like the practice area especially right now as these are my first swings since surgery in June. 

 

What I didn't know or I may have missed the info here is that each course cost $10. There is package of 3 that is $30 that I have found so far, There may be more, just haven't looked to hard for them. 

 

So far I like it, not sure if it will transfer to real life, I am looking forward to finding out. 

[mynerds]

1 hour ago, JFish350 said:

What I didn't know or I may have missed the info here is that each course cost $10. There is package of 3 that is $30 that I have found so far, There may be more, just haven't looked to hard for them. 

For what it’s worth - You can still play the courses through quick play or in tournaments, or join any multiplayer game on the course you like. You just can’t start a solo or multiplayer game on a specific course you don’t own.

It seems like a reasonable middle ground to keep from fully gating the courses behind DLC. If there’s a course you REALLY want unfettered access to, you can do that or do a subscription for access to all courses.

[JFish350]

9 minutes ago, mynerds said:

For what it’s worth - You can still play the courses through quick play or in tournaments, or join any multiplayer game on the course you like. You just can’t start a solo or multiplayer game on a specific course you don’t own.

It seems like a reasonable middle ground to keep from fully gating the courses behind DLC. If there’s a course you REALLY want unfettered access to, you can do that or do a subscription for access to all courses.

Makes sense and thank you Oculus Golf+ for having this option. I'll check it out hopefully later tonight.  

[mynerds]

One more question for @GOLF PLUS VR - Are there any plans to add the new non-colored TP5/TP5x stripe balls as an option in-game?

[GregGarner]

18 hours ago, mynerds said:

For what it’s worth - You can still play the courses through quick play or in tournaments, or join any multiplayer game on the course you like. You just can’t start a solo or multiplayer game on a specific course you don’t own.

It seems like a reasonable middle ground to keep from fully gating the courses behind DLC. If there’s a course you REALLY want unfettered access to, you can do that or do a subscription for access to all courses.

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  

[JFish350]

Looking a little further there is this option that includes I think 14 courses like TPS Scottsdale, The Old Course, Kiawah, Muirfield, Butler Pitch & Putt, etc. etc. 

Unlimited access to all GOLF+ courses

7-day free trial • Then $9.99/month • Cancel anytime

START FREE TRIAL

Or save 33% with our $79.99 annual plan

Subscription continues automatically after a 7-day trial period unless cancelled within settings. 

 

 

I am not ready to purchase that just yet as I am just getting used to the game. 

You can literally spend an hour setting up clubs, balls, grips, shafts length of shafts, lie, draw, fade. Then you play a few rounds and get upgrade as you accumulate Golf+ points just to do more testing. 

I would like to say that it is pretty close to IRL as I can't get a driver shot in the fairway . Chipping and putting is the hardest part so far. 

 

Here is my VR name

HarryHitman22

Edited August 29 by JFish350

[mynerds]

I’ve been upgraded to Silver 1 in pro to match my amateur tournament status, and got these cool stats in my inbox today:

I’ll have to see what additional information is available on the website, and I’m loving the data-rich approach here. One thing I noticed this week is that my scores are greatly influenced by tee position, but not much by hole difficulty or wind speed. I’ll pay closer attention in the tournament this week and see if I can’t improve my scores going for Gold rank.

[GregGarner]

On 8/29/2024 at 2:30 PM, mynerds said:

I’ve been upgraded to Silver 1 in pro to match my amateur tournament status, and got these cool stats in my inbox today:

I’ll have to see what additional information is available on the website, and I’m loving the data-rich approach here. One thing I noticed this week is that my scores are greatly influenced by tee position, but not much by hole difficulty or wind speed. I’ll pay closer attention in the tournament this week and see if I can’t improve my scores going for Gold rank.

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

[mynerds]

Played a round at the East Lake Golf Club this weekend with @GolfSpy SAMas practice for the weekly tournament. I had a near ace (we're talking within 2 inches) on the 9th but the replay didn't save in my profile. Oh well!

Two of my best shots last week: a 259 yard recovery from the pinestraw at Pinehurst #2 (+1.889 SG) and a 290 yard near albatross at East Lake (+1.543 SG)

 

[JFish350]

3 hours ago, mynerds said:

Played a round at the East Lake Golf Club this weekend with @GolfSpy SAMas practice for the weekly tournament. I had a near ace (we're talking within 2 inches) on the 9th but the replay didn't save in my profile. Oh well!

Two of my best shots last week: a 259 yard recovery from the pinestraw at Pinehurst #2 (+1.889 SG) and a 290 yard near albatross at East Lake (+1.543 SG)

 

I need to figure out how capture some shots. I am sure people would like to see some complete disaster's of shots. 

 

I've been playing daily. I tried to play East Lake but it wouldn't let me for some reason. 

 

[mynerds]

26 minutes ago, JFish350 said:

I need to figure out how capture some shots. I am sure people would like to see some complete disaster's of shots.

I've tried a few methods and for individual shots, I recommend recording using Meta's built-in camera app. Then download to your local device, trim (as necessary), and upload to MGS directly or YouTube. I had concerns about eating too much of my attachment size alotment on the forums, so I went the YouTube route.

For recording full rounds, you'll need to record to an external device via OBS or prepare to have a bad time.

[GregGarner]

14 hours ago, mynerds said:

I've tried a few methods and for individual shots, I recommend recording using Meta's built-in camera app. Then download to your local device, trim (as necessary), and upload to MGS directly or YouTube. I had concerns about eating too much of my attachment size alotment on the forums, so I went the YouTube route.

For recording full rounds, you'll need to record to an external device via OBS or prepare to have a bad time.

Taking photos, no problem. Syncing to the Meta Horizon app on my phone? Not the best UX, but doable. Deleting content? Good luck. For the life of me, I cannot figure out an easy/standard way to delete content. It seems like once you sync from the headset to your mobile device, the photo/video just lives on Meta's servers forever. 

I feel like I'm missing something that should be pretty basic... halps?

[mynerds]

5 hours ago, GregGarner said:

Taking photos, no problem. Syncing to the Meta Horizon app on my phone? Not the best UX, but doable. Deleting content? Good luck. For the life of me, I cannot figure out an easy/standard way to delete content. It seems like once you sync from the headset to your mobile device, the photo/video just lives on Meta's servers forever. 

I feel like I'm missing something that should be pretty basic... halps?

As far as I can see, you can only unsync from your device and have to delete content from the headset itself. To me, this seems like an intentional poor UX towards an outcome of keeping all user-recorded content. For what end, I can only speculate.

Edited September 4 by mynerds

[mynerds]

Another tournament shot from the other day: near condor at Wolf Creek from the red tees with 20+ MPH winds. I managed to break 70 this round and had a few eagles. Really fun course that I'd love to see in person some day!

[Fongle]

4 hours ago, mynerds said:

Another tournament shot from the other day: near condor at Wolf Creek from the red tees with 20+ MPH winds. I managed to break 70 this round and had a few eagles. Really fun course that I'd love to see in person some day!

Yeah playing these courses in VR really makes me want to play the real versions ever more

 

[mynerds]

9 hours ago, Fongle said:

Yeah playing these courses in VR really makes me want to play the real versions ever more

Another point that @GolfSpy SAM pointed out during our last multiplayer game - playing the course in VR can bring a new appreciation for the tour courses each week. I often hear commentators say things like "this should be a really straight forward shot for him" and might scoff a bit when there is a bad shot. Then you get out on to the virtual course and NOTHING seems like a gimme. Much like fantasty football, playing along with the pros really brings the spectating experience to a whole new level.

[Fongle]

Played a round today at The Glades at the Gold Coast, and it may have been one of the worst opening 9 holes of my life. I genuinely struggled to do anything but top the ball for the first few holes, and barely made contact after that. Wasn't til the back 9 that I was really playing at all properly. Switching from playing a lot of VR golf to IRL golf again is such a bizarre change, and I think it's messed my swing up entirely 

Feels like now I need to schedule more time when I play in order to then immediately go outside and swing real clubs and focus on the bottoming out point especially, because that was a truly frustrating experience.

[mynerds]

15 hours ago, Fongle said:

Played a round today at The Glades at the Gold Coast, and it may have been one of the worst opening 9 holes of my life. I genuinely struggled to do anything but top the ball for the first few holes, and barely made contact after that. Wasn't til the back 9 that I was really playing at all properly. Switching from playing a lot of VR golf to IRL golf again is such a bizarre change, and I think it's messed my swing up entirely 

Feels like now I need to schedule more time when I play in order to then immediately go outside and swing real clubs and focus on the bottoming out point especially, because that was a truly frustrating experience.

Bummer! Were you able to warm up at a range at all before the round or did you jump straight in cold?

[Fongle]

2 hours ago, mynerds said:

Bummer! Were you able to warm up at a range at all before the round or did you jump straight in cold?

Had to jump straight in cold, got a bit caught in traffic on the way and nearly missed the tee time as is. Typically never really an issue, if I miss a warmup I might hit a few iffy shots on the first hole, but I don't think I've topped as many shots in a row as I did yesterday since I was a junior learning to play. Felt like I had no sense of the bottom point of my clubs. Only exception was my chipping, which I've been practicing daily in my backyard for some time now.

[mynerds]

On 9/8/2024 at 11:12 PM, Fongle said:

Had to jump straight in cold, got a bit caught in traffic on the way and nearly missed the tee time as is. Typically never really an issue, if I miss a warmup I might hit a few iffy shots on the first hole, but I don't think I've topped as many shots in a row as I did yesterday since I was a junior learning to play. Felt like I had no sense of the bottom point of my clubs. Only exception was my chipping, which I've been practicing daily in my backyard for some time now.

I was also topping the balls my first outting after heavy VR use, but found my out-to-in path to be even worse. I’ve since picked up this drill as part of my pre-round warm up and it’s helped immensely to shake off the VR tendencies.

 

[GregGarner]

On 9/8/2024 at 5:59 AM, Fongle said:

Played a round today at The Glades at the Gold Coast, and it may have been one of the worst opening 9 holes of my life. I genuinely struggled to do anything but top the ball for the first few holes, and barely made contact after that. Wasn't til the back 9 that I was really playing at all properly. Switching from playing a lot of VR golf to IRL golf again is such a bizarre change, and I think it's messed my swing up entirely 

Feels like now I need to schedule more time when I play in order to then immediately go outside and swing real clubs and focus on the bottoming out point especially, because that was a truly frustrating experience.

I fully agree with this. Things have been very hectic for me lately and my opportunities to play VR have narrowed. When I do have time, I'm now very aware of what my upcoming IRL golf schedule looks like. For example, I had a tournament this past Saturday and then another Monday of this week and I actually consciously chose not to play Friday night (one of my pretty standard times to play so far) because I was worried about messing up my Saturday tournament. Then Sunday afternoon, I had a couple of free hours and was going to pop in and at least hit the virtual range, but decided that it was too risky with a tournament the next day. 

I don't really have the indoor space to take the advice given earlier about keeping a real club nearby and making some swings immediately after playing in VR and, since I'm typically playing late at night, I don't really want to put on real clothes to go outside to make swings, so I'm kind of in a jam where I find myself only playing in VR when I know I'll either have ample warmup time before my next IRL golf or there will be a couple days between VR and IRL.

Not to give too many spoilers in my review in a couple weeks, but I'm harboring some concerns for anyone who wants to use VR as a training aid. In psychological terms, the 'transfer' isn't exact enough and I think folks are likely to groove some bad feels and patterns if they're not careful. 

[JFish350]

I am fully into this game, and I don't normally play games on unless it's with family. I do not know if it will translate to IRL as I haven't picked up a real club other than a putter in my back yard since June. I was going to try today but my body has other plans. 

 

I did however just play the daily at Sawgrass.  Came in -1, thinking not too to bad then saw the leader board.  WTF, -33 is in the lead!! How the hell does someone come in -33 for one round. Anyway I am having fun thats all that matters. 

[mynerds]

1 hour ago, JFish350 said:

I did however just play the daily at Sawgrass.  Came in -1, thinking not too to bad then saw the leader board.  WTF, -33 is in the lead!! How the hell does someone come in -33 for one round. Anyway I am having fun thats all that matters. 

Some of the players on here are incredible. I've noticed more insane scores on daily tournaments for more iconic courses - Sawgrass, Pebble, Scottsdale - because I think those skilled players probably play there most frequently. Then when the daily tournament roles around with their favorite course, they absolutely crush it.

Good on you for not letting it discourage you - keep at it!

[mynerds]

One damper to my play - I had my gallbladder removed last week and my activity is limited for a bit.

Fortunately, I can still putt and if I crank the swing assist WAY up, I can still play. Just don't tell my doctor!

Seriously though, it's really nice to be able to play virtually since a real round is out of the question for at least the next three weeks. An unexpected use case, but happy to be nothing if not thorough in my testing.

[mynerds]

Checking in with the other testers and players in this thread:

@Fongle How does the availability of multiplayer lobbies look in your time zone? Is it a ghost town or do you have a selection of lobbies to play in?

@GregGarner Not to tip your hand on your final review, but any major UI/UX faux pas in the GOLF+ interface or controller layout?

@JFish350 Did you figure out how to record and share your shots? Any shots of note (good or bad) over the past week?

@GolfSpy SAM Have you been playing with the "flatness" of your putter any more? If so, have you noticed any improvements?

[GolfSpy SAM]

2 hours ago, mynerds said:

Checking in with the other testers and players in this thread:

@Fongle How does the availability of multiplayer lobbies look in your time zone? Is it a ghost town or do you have a selection of lobbies to play in?

@GregGarner Not to tip your hand on your final review, but any major UI/UX faux pas in the GOLF+ interface or controller layout?

@JFish350 Did you figure out how to record and share your shots? Any shots of note (good or bad) over the past week?

@GolfSpy SAM Have you been playing with the "flatness" of your putter any more? If so, have you noticed any improvements?

I have found that I absolutely cannot tell when my putter is "flat" to the ground - as from my POV, it always looks pretty much "normal," but when we played together, it was immediately obvious to you that either the toe or heel were way off the ground.  It's something I wish was more obvious from the POV of the player, since (as you theorize) there's a penalty for NOT having the putter flat and in a "correct" position.  

I will say, though, that practice really does help with reading greens, as I played a round last week where I seemingly couldn't miss.  

Would love to get the four of us into some kind of match before the end of this thing, as I think it would be super fun to be able to trash talk a LITTLE with you all

[JFish350]

11 hours ago, mynerds said:

Checking in with the other testers and players in this thread:

@Fongle How does the availability of multiplayer lobbies look in your time zone? Is it a ghost town or do you have a selection of lobbies to play in?

@GregGarner Not to tip your hand on your final review, but any major UI/UX faux pas in the GOLF+ interface or controller layout?

@JFish350 Did you figure out how to record and share your shots? Any shots of note (good or bad) over the past week?

@GolfSpy SAM Have you been playing with the "flatness" of your putter any more? If so, have you noticed any improvements?

I haven't looked into it since then. I do have plenty of bad shots and none that are recording worthy that anyone else hasn't done. 

It does feel like real golf with how many fairways and greens I miss. 

[GregGarner]

19 hours ago, mynerds said:

Checking in with the other testers and players in this thread:

@Fongle How does the availability of multiplayer lobbies look in your time zone? Is it a ghost town or do you have a selection of lobbies to play in?

@GregGarner Not to tip your hand on your final review, but any major UI/UX faux pas in the GOLF+ interface or controller layout?

@JFish350 Did you figure out how to record and share your shots? Any shots of note (good or bad) over the past week?

@GolfSpy SAM Have you been playing with the "flatness" of your putter any more? If so, have you noticed any improvements?

I wouldn't say faux pas, per se, but both UI and UX design involve a series of choices, each that come with trade-offs. For example, the UI is fairly realistic, but they didn't go for photo-realistic. Personally, I think this is wise (especially considering the uncanny valley), but the trade-off is the... interesting?... looking fans in the stands and how the avatars don't have legs, even in multiplayer. The only real recommendation I have for UI is some of the menu design isn't super intuitive and the controller UI is literally invisible, but you catch on pretty quickly. I'm still not very good at teleporting though  

On the UX side, it's a little more nuanced because UX is very personal. The easiest thing for me to point to is what we've already been discussing, which is how difficult it's been FOR ME to adapt my IRL swing to my VR swing. It's so, so easy for me to slip up and hit a block-slice off the planet in the game when my IRL miss is a pull-draw. I don't have the capture technology to be able to analyze why this is true, but I suspect it has to do with the weighting of the device and how the sensors in the controller are interpreting my movement patterns. Couple other things here, of course, but I'll put those in my hat for now