PC Gaming Review – The Golf Club 2019

The Golf Club 2019 featuring PGA Tour is the latest iteration of The Golf Club from HB Studios.

Overview

If you have played the original or second version of The Golf Club, this game’s mechanics will be easy for you to pick up. If you aren’t familiar with the franchise, there are a few things you must know. This isn’t a Tiger Woods arcade style game. This is a golf simulation. There is no leveling up or buying equipment with better stats. It all comes down to your swing mechanics. If I weren’t a casual golfer in real life I can’t imagine having much interest in this game. It actually gives me a lot of the same feelings as golfing in real life, like the frustration of hitting what you thought was the perfect putt, just for it to lip out of the hole. If you are into golf, you’ll really enjoy the gameplay of TGC 2019.

Gameplay

I want to talk more about the gameplay because it is the heart of TGC 2019. First you decide on your club and set up your aim point. Next, you can adjust your loft and add some fade or draw to your swing. Now you have to execute. I use a controller for this game because swinging with a mouse just feels unnatural. So you pull the stick back as straight as possible, then push it all the way forward as straight as possible. It seems simple, but on TGC 2019 it shows every sliver of movement from that stick. I thought it was pretty simple to go straight down and up, but now I see what my real action looks like. In my case, it looks like a kindergarten child drawing a straight line, but as long as it is within the limits of a solid hit it shouldn’t take your ball too off-course. Obviously missing the sweet spot will end up with a pretty bad shank shot, but even within the solid hit range your ball flight will still change based on your subtle stick movements. Hitting driver onto a fairway isn’t a big deal, but when you are trying to stick approach shots close to the hole you really have to concentrate on consistently great shots. There are stick mechanics, wind, ball lie, elevation, roll-out (based on green firmness), and I am probably missing other factors. These all need to be taken into consideration for a great shot. The only changes to this formula is the option to choose between three sets of clubs that vary in distance/forgiveness. The default set is the shortest distance but offers the most forgiveness, while the professional set offers the greatest distance with little room for error.

Everything Else

TGC 2019 does offer many modes and improvements from the last version of the game, however there is a lot of room for improvement here. For example, there is a single player PGA Tour career mode that takes you through the ranks of Q School, Web.com, and eventually getting you on the PGA Tour. It’s fun, but because there are only 6 or so real courses (though there are thousand of unique and re-created courses you can download), and no real players, it leaves a lot to be desired. The difficulty doesn’t adapt to you, you essentially just pick the difficulty level and it adjust the CPU scores accordingly. There is matchmaking for online matches and training modes that seem to function well. The other major mode is Online Societies. Here you can create of join multiple Societies, or golf clubs. This is where you can create custom seasons and invite large numbers of friends (or randoms). Basically you can set an event to last a certain number of days and a certain number of rounds. Players will play the rounds on their own time, within the scheduled dates. Stats and scores are posted on a leaderboard, and winners are paid out according to the payout policy. It is a very neat concept and way to meet new people online, while still playing on your own schedule. The UI and cosmetic upgrades are a welcome edition to this version of the game as well.

Summary

Overall this is a nice facelift for The Golf Club franchise. The graphics run and look great. The UI is pleasant and works well. The gameplay is refined. The core of the game is just fun to play. There are some negatives though. This version of TGC comes after only a year since the release of TGC2, and with a $50 price tag. If you played TGC2 it may be hard to rationalize the $50 for the minor improvements. Another negative for me is that there are still a number of nagging issues that should be easy fixes (different tee boxes when playing online match mode, crazy roll-out on short irons, when leading the tournament on PGA Tour mode you aren’t in the last group, etc.). While it is nice having 6 licensed courses, there are still many more desirable courses that people would like to see added, in addition to real players. PGA Tour mode would be much more intense being tied with Tiger Woods, rather than a generated player named G. Smith.

Conclusion

If you have some golf experience or outside interest in golf, you may be interested in TGC2019. It really captures some of the intricacies of the game. I would be hard pressed to recommend this to someone who recently bought TGC2 and is hoping for a major upgrade. From the perspective of a Past Prime Gamer, this does offer a lot of single player and pause-able online Society play for squeezing in game time during a short window. Overall though, I would only recommend this game when a deep discount is offered. I am also concerned that they may turn this into an annually released game like the EA franchise games. I certainly hope not!

Edit: I hit my first hole-in-one!