World Golf Tour (WGT) is a San Francisco-based video game company behind WGT Golf, one of the most realistic free-to-play online golf games. Using patented 3D photorealistic georeferencing built from helicopter-shot, high-definition imagery, WGT recreates real-world courses like Pebble Beach, St Andrews and Bethpage Black to within roughly an inch of vertical accuracy. Launched in open beta in 2008, it grew to tens of millions of players across browser, iOS and Android, ran virtual versions of the U.S. Open with the USGA, was acquired by Topgolf in 2016, and spun back out as an independent studio on January 1, 2025.
Sandy Thomson is the CEO of World Golf Tour (WGT), the long-running online and mobile golf simulation that, on January 1, 2025, separated from Topgolf to operate as an independent company backed by a games-focused growth investor. A McGill computer science graduate who spent his early career programming at BioWare, Eidos Montreal and EA's Visceral Games, Thomson joined WGT/Topgolf as a lead software engineer in 2016 and rose through engineering leadership to become Studio Head of Topgolf Games before taking the top job at the spun-out WGT.