“PGA Tour 2K21” is the deepest golf video game you have ever encountered.
That’s the benefit of giving an online community access to a custom course designer.
The rest – the official Tour, course and player license so heavily marketed – is kind of just plain window dressing, though really attractive, sor missed, nice window dressing.
After spending the better part of last week with the 2K21 career mode, I can tell you that, judging by a PGA Tour simulation, this title brings golfers back to where EA Sports left them earlier. In that sense, it is possible we could consider it pressure.
But if you take what gamers had before as a simulation and combine it with a completely blowing course designer, then you have something completely different. “PGA 2K21” is then best considered as the marriage of two functions that were previously held separately.
As someone who has been playing PGA Tour video games since 1999, this was the one thing I always wanted from EA Sports: the ability to create my own courses or create courses that EA simply could not license. When I once got that from HB Studios in “The Golf Club”, I found myself pinning for what I had with EA: Tour branding, Tour pros, Tour courses.
This game has, ultimately, both.
EA’s long-running “Tiger Woods” title came to an end in 2013, and a restarted headline offered by Rory McIlroy was abandoned after a single release in 2015. That left gamers three years behind in the woods (no pun intended ), after which I have been accustomed to an annual Tour release for two decades.
Filling in the blanks was a lesser known title, “The Golf Club”, from a lesser known developer, HB Studios. “The golf club“ – a game aimed at allowing users to create, play and share their own custom golf courses – started “The Golf Club 2” and what eventually became known as “The Golf Club 2019 featuring PGA Tour.”
That was the turning point. And not to diminish it – because I’m certainly spent enough time playing – but “The Golf Club 2019” is, in retrospect, a (really good) half step, a bridge to where we are now. The game, developed like its previous iterations by HB, but this time published by 2K, was the first to have Tour branding in three years, since EA’s “McIlroy“ released. It came with seven courses around the world, including TPC Sawgrass and TPC Scottsdale, and served as a starting point.
“2K21“ is really the definitive product, the finished version of “2019.” It was something gamers were hoping to get when the PGA Tour decided to return to the video game industry, and it’s what they have now two years later.
Career mode
As mentioned above, the marketing of “2K21“ has focused on its licensing agreements – with the PGA Tour, with tournament sponsors, with a list of pros, with 15 courses in the world, and with equipment and clothing manufacturers. It’s worth it to run through. Here are the real things in the game:
Courses (and tournaments)
- Atlantic Beach Country Club
- Copperhead Course at Innisbrook (Valspar Championship)
- East Lake Golf Club (Tour Championship)
- Quail Hollow Club (Wells Fargo Championship)
- Riviera Country Club (Genesis Invitational)
- TPC Boston (The Northern Trust)
- TPC Deere Run (John Deere Classic)
- TPC Louisiana (Zurich Classic)
- TPC River Highlands (Travelers Championship)
- TPC San Antonio (Valero Texas Open)
- TPC Sawgrass (The Players Championship)
- TPC Scottsdale (Waste Management Phoenix Open)
- TPC Southwind (WGC-FedEx St. Jude Invitational)
- TPC Summerlin (Shriners Children’s Hospital Open)
- TPC Twin Cities (3M Open)
PGA Tour pros
- Patrick Cantlay
- Cameron Champ
- Bryson DeChambeau
- Tony Finau
- Jim Furyk
- Sergio Garcia
- Billy Horschel
- Matt Kuchar
- Kevin Kisner
- Ian Poulter
- Justin Thomas
- Gary Woodland
Equipment and clothing
- Adidas
- Ben Hogan
- Bridgestone
- Callaway
- Grand Slam
- Hugo Boss
- Jack Nicklaus
- Malbon
- Penguin
- Polo Ralph Lauren
- Puma
- Royal and Awesome
- Skechers
- Tattoo Golf
- TaylorMade
- Under Armor
- Wilson
You counter these elements by working your way through career mode. You play events, you earn currency in the game, you spend that currency on clubs and clothing to save your create-a-golfer. If that sounds a little too familiar, it’s because it is; it’s quite a return to the career mode players received from EA Sports.
Progress is largely rooted in making the golf courses as they do during Tour events; so you get a digital replica of the stadium built around the 16th hole at TPC Scottsdale, just like one example. HB has also made an effort to make your tournament rounds feel a bit like a PGA Tour broadcast, as gameplay will sometimes be cut back on highlights from what other players – like JT or Bryson or Sergio – are doing on the course. This idea works better on paper than in practice, because the cut scenes add up a bit, do not seem to be affected by everything you actually do, and it takes too long to load. The pros seen in the game should also feel more like active rivals and competitors than they are now – even-rans.
That’s why I call career mode a push; it’s a return to what users had years ago of a Tour title.
That said, it’s great to be back with this level of detail, the courses look great, and I’m stuck with it for a week.
Course Designer (Hey, you, read this)
Apart from that, the course designer remains difficult. There is a steep learning curve if you want to get over it, and it is immediately intimidating at the first pass. But there is a reason it is complicated. It’s the same designer that the HB Studios team used to create the game.
Here’s the good news, and “Golf Club“ veterans already know this: Even if you are not ready to dive into the designer yourself, you get free rides on the work of others. This is the important part – the part they can not really advertise.
Are you the boy or girl, “What? No Augusta? And usually just a lot of TPCs?”
Pay attention.
No, Augusta National, Pine Valley, and Cypress Point are not officially in this game. But have users in TGC 2019 recreated these layouts – tea for tea, green for green, bunker for bunker, to the whole garden, to the whole tree – and uploaded them to the game’s servers?
Yes. Yes, they did.
You can find all kinds of recreational homes in the real world, from venues to major championships like Merion and Oakmont and Pebble Beach and St. Louis. Andrews to even your local mouth. It just depends on how much time someone had on hand and what motivated them to build. If someone created a course in “2019”, they can import in “2K21.”
Therefore, this is the deepest golf video game you have ever encountered. There is no limit to what you or anyone else can add.
The future
So where does the title come from here? HB Studios producer Shaun West told GolfChannel.com last month that although no official decision has been made on the timing of a future release, he sees the benefits of a two-year development cycle. And just like “PGA Tour 2K21“ built on the foundation laid by “The Golf Club 2019”, it’s his hope that the game will become ever larger and more detailed, becoming an even closer PGA Tour simulation.
Of course we have “2K21“ to enjoy for the next few years. There are users who do Lord’s Work with the course designer, and there are online companies that organize their own tournaments and seasons. If you are new to the series, welcome to the rabbit hole.
PGA Tour 2K21 is available on Playstation 4, XBOX One and XBOX One X, Windows PC via Steam, Nintendo Switch and Stadiums
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