The Golf Club (Season Mode)
I played through the initial tour over the last two days (which is called the Local tour, I think).Since it's the first tour, the conditions are easy: low winds, small breaks on the greens, and generally short yardage holes. My handicap in the game is 0 (so I'm a scratch golfer in the game, although sadly not in real life), so on a course at regular difficulty/conditions, I'd generally score around par.
With these courses, though, I was shooting in the mid/low 60s, and obliterated the last course in a 36 hole event with a -22 total score.
That's okay, though. It was the Local tour (four events in total), and it's fun to embarrass the locals. Next up is the Amateur tour, which should be a bit tougher.
This is pretty bare bones, in terms of features. There's a leaderboard with the scores of other golfers, and you accumulate points on the tour depending on finish in the current event.
I'd like an option to play a full PGA tour schedule (even though the courses would obviously be different) and award cash instead of points, but it's early days for this mode, and based on their history, I'm sure the developers will continue to improve it. Actually, the last tour might have a full season mode. I'll let you know when I get there.
What this mode does for me is create an immediate incentive to do more than play single rounds. Yes, it's pretty basic right now, but it's still enjoyable, and well worth the $10 if you already own the game (and again, you get the Tropical course theme as well).
This game has gotten quite a bit of grief, and I'm still baffled as to why. It's generally a very solid, relaxing game of golf. My one complaint right now would be that elevation effects are understated, but that's a very fixable issue. Oh, and one other complaint, which is that flop shots (which are evil and difficult to hit in real life) are generally more reliable than chip shots (nope, that's not right).
Even with all this, though, The Golf Club emulates golf wonderfully well in many ways, and the PC version is drop dead gorgeous.
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