A Look Into the Success of Ryan Engle, CEO and Engineer of Golf+. (& a review of the game)
CEO Bio and VR Game Review
I absolutely LOVE hearing people’s hobby/career paths. It’s amazing how often each change is often predicated on individual skills that build on each other. Take a peek at how a career of passion and persistence can build on itself in this brief look at Ryan Engle.
Golf+ has seen many names and variations since it’s release in May of 2020. The marketing skills of Ryan, and his co-founder Robert, established a partnership with the TopGolf brand as “Pro Putt by TopGolf”. Later, they would add a full-swing, TopGolf VR experience as “TopGolf with Pro Putt”, and then “Golf+” upon adding full-swing courses. Let’s see how one gets the business and technical skills to build at this pace.
Starting a career in mobile development, Ryan initially decided to see what working within a company structure brought at Super Happy Fun Fun, the team behind mobile Big Buck Hunter and Bass Pro-licensed apps, and iGrasshopper.
After the development skills were built, you can see a shift to gain skill in leadership with Ryan later opting to begin a short stint at his own consultancy, self-named “Rengler Studios”, where he learned first-hand business development and marketing. After closing shop, he became an R&D manager for Mutual Mobile who is still a pivotal consultant in the app development world.
Working with Jonathan Coon at 1-800 Contacts, and later, Wikibuy, Ryan’s final corporate position, they developed one of the first instances of Augmented Reality. Watch the TED Talk from 2013(!!!):
A very successful start at marketing with AR that eventually led to Ryan starting a successful founding and CTO-role at Wikibuy for 4 years.
During his time at Wikibuy, Ryan was no slouch on hobbyist development. Bringing his love of golf into his business background as a developer in the mobile and AR space, GolfScope was released in 2017. GolfScope offered an overlay of any green you could point your phone at, which added to the tech revolution of golf in the 2010s.
Using these base green calculations, SimplyPutting was a short-lived app released in 2019 that simulated real-life putting on a mobile device. You can see a lot of inspiration in the putting holes in Golf+ that come from the basics developed in SimplyPutting.
Its been a joy seeing Golf+ grow over the past year:
![Twitter avatar for @Rengle820](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/Rengle820.jpg)
Seeing a massive difference from the prototype of full-swing courses:
![Twitter avatar for @Rengle820](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/Rengle820.jpg)
To now:
![Twitter avatar for @Rengle820](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/Rengle820.jpg)
Golf+ Review
Golf+ VR is an all-in-one golf experience that provides destination putting greens, a TopGolf-branded experience, and full 18-hole courses. The quality of the multiplayer has an almost IRL feel to it that is not to be missed.
The game originally started as professional putting game, ProPuttVR. The goal originally being to recreate the feel of a slick, professional green that you would get at an actual golf course. Not the kind you would see at a putt-putt course for the kids. The game later added a TogGolf-like experience with the putting mechanics, and then eventually adding full-swing mechanics into the TopGolf experience. This past year, the team then added 2 full golf course with one waterfront course coming with the game, and the other imitating Wolf Creek course in Nevada as DLC for $7.99.
NOTE: Oculus Quest 2 is the only platform with access to the full-swing courses.
While putting is the original focus of the game, I actually think that is the weakest portion of the offerings available within the game. The TopGolf experience is a very fun community activity or practice session. Not only do you get many TopGolf modes, such precision and long ball focused scoring, to compete in and sharpen your skills, you also get fun minigames like beer pong via chipping and cornhole. The TopGolf and full swing courses both come with exclusive clubhouses that feel like being at a bar with your friends. The TopGolf clubhouse even has "TVs" all around where you can load up your favorite YouTube videos, music or otherwise, that you can play throughout the area.
When swinging in TopGolf or full swing courses, there is the option to stick with the base-level of aim assist or switch to "Pro Mode" which is supposed to take most of the reasonable aim assist away. I think that these options are good, but I did find myself wanting for a middle ground between the two offerings. With the normal aim assist, I would find it hard to hit it off the course when I made a mistake, but I found making mistakes with the Pro Mode to be almost too easy. As a non-golfer IRL, I think a middle ground would be a lovely addition.
The full swing courses are lovely, and they offer a great place to hang out and chat with friends. There is an option here for self-improving single-player focused individuals, and a wonderful world of golf to enjoy in multiplayer. I look forward to seeing an eventual multiplayer Pro circuit to break out as soon as the full-swing courses grow in number. The devs are still very active, and I look forward to the future of this game.
What I Would Have Wanted to Know Before Buying:
The real value in this game, to a laymen golfer, is in the full swing capabilities of the course and Top Golf experiences. The putting is ok, but it doesn't compare to the scenarios you can find in Walkabout. However, I can't say that without mentioning that I think the green speeds and hitting power are more accurate in this game, but that isn't my personal focus when playing VR. The full swing courses are fun, and the enjoyment is brought up 10x by enjoying the experiences with friends.
Rating: 4 out of 5
Price: $19.99 USD
Comfort Level: Comfortable
Platforms: Oculus Quest 1 & 2 (Full-Swing courses only on Quest 2)