Golf has always been a part of my life, despite not actually playing the game myself. I grew up in Prestwick, Scotland – just minutes away from St. Ninian’s golf club, which is the twenty-sixth oldest course in the world. Even this week, just up the road in Troon they are holding the British Women’s Open. But despite golf being all around me I always preferred to play football and instead play golf with a controller rather than a club.
Each year my friends and I would eagerly anticipate the new Tiger Woods game. We would grab a crate of beer each, dress up like golfers from the 1920s and spend entire Sunday’s hitting the virtual courses, each time with different parameters. Sometimes it was high wind, others it would be the loser of each hole would take a shot. We had such a great laugh and it became a monthly staple.
Unfortunately in the PS4/Xbox One generation golf games have become much less common. EA dropped the licence and it was a pretty grim scene for a little while with Everybody’s Golf – a cartoon alternative being the only thing that caught my eye for a bit. Developer HB Studios had put out both The Golf Club in 2014 and a sequel in 2017 but they just didn’t seem to have the same buzz behind them as before and both titles lacked licences.
However, The Golf Club 2019 Featuring PGA Tour’s release back in 2018 under the 2K banner was a real landmark moment for the studio. You could tell that they had acquired the licence a little late on and as a result, it did feel a bit half baked at times, but the foundations were definitely being laid. Now, with PGA Tour 2K21, everything HB Studios has been refining since 2014 is in full display and the results are fantastic.
GRAPHICS & PRESENTATION
While not pushing the boundaries of the PS4 Pro and Xbox One X, this game still looks great. Each course is expertly rendered and looks exactly like it’s real-life counterpart. As a test of this, I invited round my Uncle, who is an avid golfer. I picked a few random holes on some of the official courses and asked him to name the course. I’m not sure if it says more about him or the game that he can recognise a cluster of trees at TPC Scottsdale’s seventh hole, but I feel like both deserve a pat on the back.
The presentation is also worth noting. When playing through career mode on your way to the top you will see regular cutaways to other golfers that have had a significant shot on other holes. This is backed up by commentary explaining the shot and what it means to the leaderboards and trajectory of the day. It’s a really nice touch and one that adds another level of immersion. This can, of course, be turned off in the menus as well if you just want to focus on your own game.
CLASSIC GAMEPLAY
I feel like the general idea of what constitutes great gameplay in a golf game was established a long time ago. Now, it’s just about iterating on that what has come before. That’s what we have here. A refined version of a tried and tested formula that is responsive and feels natural. The control scheme is also customisable in terms of both difficulty and accessibility. You can choose what stick you want the swing attached to which is a nice touch. Pulling the stick down and then up is how you swing your stick and altering the difficulty will increase how much you can deviate from the straight line and still make a good connection.
It’s far from as simple as just swinging a stick though as you have to compensate for how windy it is as well as other environmental hazards. Wind will be represented by an arrow showing you the direction its blowing along with how strong it is. Putting comes with its own challenges as well. The green is very rarely flat and so when on the green the surface will appear as a grid and lines will move in whatever direction it is slopping. Once you have lined the shot up to the best of your ability you get one putt preview where a line will show you the route the ball is destined to take. You can then gauge whatever adjustments are needed before taking the shot.
MAKE A CAREER OF IT
Career mode is likely to be the main draw for fans, as it was for me. It’s a pretty robust offering, with good player creation tools when initially crafting your golfer. You then get to choose what level you want to start out at. The options are Q-School, Korn Ferry Tour, Korn Ferry Tour Championship or the PGA Tour. This allows you to start your journey all the way from the beginning, while also allowing impatient fans to dive right in to the big leagues.
Throughout your career you will develop different rivals you need to overcome, take on sponsorship challenges that unlocks more cosmetic gear for that particular brand and rack up a bunch of money for placing high in tournaments. It’s good fun and does enough to keep you coming back for more despite not having the more robust career of the NBA 2K series or what FIFA did with the journey. There’s no bombshell that it turns out you have been sleeping with the caddy’s girlfriend and now need to win the next five tournaments to buy her silence.
DESIGN YOUR OWN
I dabbled with the course designer and liked what I saw. I am never the most creative when it comes to things like this but I messed around with the settings enough that I am really excited to come back once the game is out in the wild to see what the community have created. Being able to share and play other players courses is a really cool feature and one that can give the game extra legs.
VALUE
There is lots of value to be had here. Career mode will keep you going for a long time with the ability to change the difficulty to increase the challenge as you progress. There are different match types such as skins and scramble that can be played in both local and online multiplayer. Then there is the course designer, which will produce some outstanding course to test your skills on.
Another underrated aspect of this type of sports game is that you can easily play while listening to a podcast or even watching TV. I, like many others, rarely have enough time to do all the things I want and the fact that you don’t need the audio on to assist gameplay means you can focus on two things at once. There is no timer in-between shots unless you are playing online so you really can play as your own pace. It’s a lot like the excellent Snooker 19 in that regard.
TROPHIES
The trophy list is fair and manageable. It comes with a platinum that is achievable through time, asking you to progress through different modes and sample all the match types. The most difficulty trophy and one that will likely be my last barrier to the platinum is ‘True Legend’ – Shoot Par or better on 18 holes of an official course on Legend difficulty. This one will take some practise, but I think I’m up to it!
OVERALL
If you have got this far in the review you are either a golf fan or, like me, someone that loves golf games. That’s why you should buy this game. It’s an excellent golf sim. I would like to have seen more official courses on display, but with the course designer, the likelihood is that some kind soul will rectify that before the week is out. The gameplay is on point and both career and online modes will keep you entertained for months. Make sure you are ready to tee off on August 21st!
-Craig ✌️
A review code for this product was kindly provided by the publisher. Reviewed on PS4 Pro.
