Golf video games: Top 20 of all time
3. The Golf Club
Having a deep course designer at your finger tips make The Golf Club worthy of being in the top five.
The Golf Club is a PS4/Xbox One game that does an excellent job of emulating the life of the weekend-warrior golfer. It’s a major reason why The Golf Club is so unique in that it’s not focusing on professional golf.
The game is all about you, your clubs, the ball and the course you’re about to tackle. There is a caddie/friend named John that plays role of announcer as he gives you tips, encouragement and throws in a little humor. TGC features pretty swing animations and true sounds to enhance the immersion of the experience.
They used an audio recorder to record sounds on the actual course, from swings of clubs, to the sound of birds and other creatures of nature. It was one of the first things that blew me away when I fired up The Golf Club for the very first time. The driver sounds were pure and you felt like nature was surrounding you and the sound of the ball dropping into the cup was as realistic as it gets.
It’s a game that makes you appreciate golf-course design all over again or for the first time. This is a great game if you’re an armchair architect.
There is no golf game that brings you through your screen quite like TGC. The feature that truly solidifies its greatness is the Greg Norman Course Designer. What makes this course designer special is its user simplicity. So even if you aren’t the greatest with computer art software, you can still make quality courses.
You can choose from several themes to start, including Tropical, Links and Autumn among others. It’s a game that makes you appreciate golf-course design all over again or for the first time. This is a great game if you’re an armchair architect. I even designed a couple of courses myself: TGC at Diamond Lake and the Pitch & Putt at Algonquin Park. I have some other courses that I’m not too proud of but maybe someone out there might appreciate . . .someday.
There were also a couple of very well-done replicas of real-world courses, including Pine Valley, Augusta National (Magnolia National in-game) and Pebble Beach. If you want to experience the world’s greatest courses, this a great way to play them. It gives you a taste of what the real course might be like. With over 100,000 created courses, every round you play in The Golf Club is an adventure. Because of this, the replay value is through the roof.
There is even an amazing course featuring the world’s greatest 18 par-3s. In the above video, I played a few holes of the stunning track, starting with Pine Valley’s famed 14th hole. There was also a career mode that was added, which allowed you to play in tournaments of multiple levels.
You started off on the Amateur Tour and worked your way to the Pro Tour, where the competition and courses got tougher. Speaking of tournaments, you can create your own events and even an entire tour. Perhaps you have a number of courses you designed and want to put them on your own tour. You can do that here and then share it for the world to play. With this rich customization, unmatched in sports games, The Golf Club is truly one of the greatest golf video games ever made.