The Golf Club 2019
- August 28, 2018
- HB Studios
My hand on the 5 Iron, I pulled back on the right thumbstick, watching as my player entered into his backswing.
The Golf Club 2019 Featuring PGA TOUR ushers in a new era of golf simulation gaming. Built with award winning procedural generation course design tools for infinite course possibilities, the game features a robust character customization engine, enhanced social gameplay, an extensive single player campaign mode, many graphical updates, and a serving of new play styles. The Golf Club 2019 Featuring…
PC
Playstation 4
Playstation 5
Xbox One
Xbox Series X|S
PlayStation
Xbox
Reviews
- The game features beautifully rendered courses and a robust course designer, allowing for extensive user-created content.
- Gameplay mechanics are challenging yet rewarding, providing a realistic golf simulation experience.
- The addition of the PGA Tour license enhances the authenticity of the game, making it more engaging for golf fans.
- The physics and swing mechanics can feel inconsistent, leading to frustrating gameplay experiences.
- Limited official PGA courses and underutilization of the PGA license are disappointing aspects of the game.
- The commentary can be repetitive and cringe-worthy, detracting from the overall immersion.
- graphics12 mentions
- 67 % positive mentions
- 8 % neutral mentions
- 25 % negative mentions
Overall, the graphics in the game are widely praised for their quality and improvements, with many users noting beautiful course renderings and a nostalgic retro style reminiscent of classic golf games. While some reviews mention minor inconsistencies in gameplay, the visuals are generally considered a strong point, contributing to an enjoyable gaming experience.
“My review: major improvements on the shot control mechanics, graphics seem slightly improved, you can finally fast forward the action when you no longer care to wait to see what the ball is going to do. The PGA partnership is a great addition and the courses are rendered beautifully. This franchise has always looked amazing.”
“Great graphics and no problems with glitches.”
“Great game, good graphics, nice for multiple players too.”
“The graphics are okay but the consistency of play is extremely off.”
“Graphics good...game play garbage.”
“Graphics seem maybe a little improved, but about the same, but definitely a great game.”
- gameplay7 mentions
- 43 % positive mentions
- 14 % neutral mentions
- 43 % negative mentions
The gameplay has seen significant improvements, particularly in shot control mechanics and the addition of a PGA partnership, which enhances authenticity with beautifully rendered courses. Players appreciate the more focused single-player experience, challenging yet accessible swing mechanics, and a robust course creator, although some find the character creation process lacking and the mechanics occasionally overly complicated. Overall, the game offers a rewarding golf simulation experience with diverse courses that keep gameplay fresh.
“The swing system and mechanics are challenging, rewarding, and fair. The course creator is deep and robust. Commentary during solo play is a delightful, lighthearted treat. A big package of diverse courses helps keep things fresh and interesting. The new PGA Tour license brings familiar courses to the franchise that makes the game more authentic.”
“PGA courses feel and play authentically, swing mechanics are as solid as ever, playing through a PGA Tour career is a huge step up.”
“Excellent golf simulation experience, challenging yet accessible gameplay, courses look gorgeous, course creator is a tidy boon.”
“Character creation lacks polish, sometimes overly complicated mechanics, lack of real-world professional PGA golfers to face off against.”
“The mechanics and limited configurability really made it hard to play - it was severely lacking.”
“Gameplay has improved, but the addition of overly complicated mechanics detracts from the experience.”
- stability3 mentions
- 0 % positive mentions
- 0 % neutral mentions
- 100 % negative mentions
Users report significant stability issues, particularly with the game freezing during loading sequences, which can lead to being kicked back to the home screen. While some praise the graphics and note a lack of glitches, others highlight ongoing texture and animation problems, indicating that stability remains a concern for many players.
“It won't load the game anymore - it lets me through the menu screens to set up a game, but while the course/game is loading prior to the first shot, it freezes and kicks me back to the home screen while making a monotone sound. I am 4 days over the return date, so I would appreciate any advice on how to resolve the issue or a replacement being sent.”
“[The PGA license is drastically underutilized; texture and animation glitches are still too common. Where are they hiding the second announcer?]”
- humor2 mentions
- 100 % positive mentions
- 0 % neutral mentions
- 0 % negative mentions
The humor in the game is characterized by intentionally poor choices during hazards, which elicits laughter, along with amusing commentary that enhances the comedic experience, especially when players make mistakes.
“The choices for a drop after hitting a hazard are hilariously bad.”
“There's funny commentary that kicks in when you make a bad shot, and trust me, it will happen.”
- replayability1 mentions
- 300 % positive mentions
- -500 % neutral mentions
- 300 % negative mentions
Players highlight the game's impressive replayability due to its beautifully designed courses, a robust editor that allows for creative course creation, and a vast library of user-generated content to explore and download.
“The gorgeously rendered courses and the extensive library of player-created courses to download provide a massive amount of replayability.”
“The editor for creative types allows players to make amazing courses, enhancing the game's replayability.”
“With so many user-generated courses available, the replayability factor is off the charts!”
“The game has gorgeously rendered courses and an extensive library of player-created courses to download, but the overall replayability feels limited.”
“While the editor allows for creative course creation, the lack of variety in gameplay makes it hard to stay engaged for long.”
“Despite the massive amount of user-generated content, the core gameplay loop doesn't offer enough incentive to keep coming back.”
Critic Reviews
The Golf Club 2019 Featuring PGA Tour Review
The Golf Club 2019 Featuring PGA Tour’s foundations are built upon a rock-solid simulation, with tight swinging and tough greens making for a stern challenge that’s difficult but fair. The addition of licensed courses means that this year’s game has a much better campaign, but it doesn’t feel like HB Studios has had quite enough time to capture the sense of occasion that real TPC events can have. As such, with 2K Sports now also on board as publisher, we reckon it’s the next instalment that’s really going to impress. The building blocks are all in place, though, and if you’re in need of a serious golf game on your PS4 right now, then this edition definitely doesn't drift far from the green.
70%The Golf Club 2019 Featuring PGA Tour (PC) Review
If not for the sheer beauty that is the creation suite, I almost guarantee you that I couldn’t recommend you stay away from The Golf Club 2019 fast enough. The physics are way off, and for those who have played golf titles in the past, this is a travesty of epic proportions. I hope the next title sees some fixes, including the inclusion of real-life PGA golfers. The Golf Club 2019 is purely an exercise in mediocrity wrapped up in a nice bow. Yeah, this game is disappointing.
40%The Golf Club 2019 Review
The Golf Club 2019 certainly isn't everybody's golf game, but if you're in the centre of the (admittedly small) Venn diagram of "prefers the intricacy of SKATE to the button-mashing of Tony Hawk's Pro Skater" and "is really hardcore into golf" then you're in for a massive treat.
70%
