When trying to set up on online 2 player match play, or fourball match, what actually happens when one presses the "Need Players" button when you get to the actual launch screen? I've pressed it, but I never see anything happen as a result of doing so. My guess is its sends out an invitation to all the players who are on your friends list (on whatever the platform) who are not "in game" (or maybe even those who are)... whatever the case, there's no feedback from it to indicate what, if anything, it has done.
Having said that, I think the popularity of the online play modes would increase exponentially if HBS could figure out a way to allow the player seeking a match to invite non-friends to a match. The game seems to be aware of 'non friends' playing the game, because I'm pretty sure I've seen the icons of other 'non friend' players playing a round in live play if they happen to be on the same course I'm playing. That being the case, it would *seem* that inviting connected players to an online match in its setup stage would be possible. I don't think I would want to receive an invitation to play an online match, if I was already engaged in another online match, or maybe even just playing a tournament round. This is where a variety of options would be welcome for users to set conditions under which they would want to receive invitations to play an online match.