The Golf Club 2

[Baddar]

You'll get better at putting without even realising it. It's all to do with feel.

I really need to start playing this more though. Absolutely hammered it on release for the first few months, but not so much lately. I have no doubt that once the majors start this year, the bug will come back big time.

[thatshortguy]

My wife even likes this game. I am flat stunned up in this piece.

Really found that my putting game got better when I used the camera angle closest to the green. Feel plays a huge factor, though.

[Baddar]

To celebrate The Masters starting this week, who fancies a few rounds tomorrow evening?

[Baddar]

Put a couple of rounds in last night, but went into the settings and chose to hide opponents scores before starting the round. Matched up against Borman, Whisper and one other. Managed to beat two of you, but lose to Borman by two.

There's an offline career mode coming out in a few weeks, something the game has really needed. It'll cost around a tenner but is worth it, IMO.

[Baddar]

So I figured, fuck it, let's give TGC Tours a whirl. Haven't played much recently, but the only way to get a tour card is by playing the 6 Q School courses first.

Finished +2 on Mt Yeti, -3 on The Club, -4 at Copper Creek (got lucky with wind and managed to post my best ever there) and a -4 at Son Gual, another bitch of a course. Got the final two left to play, but I'm sitting at 9 under at the moment, which is great considering my aim was around even par. Gonna play conservatively in the last two rounds and hopefully cling on to a decent total. Who knows, I could be on one of the tours in no time!

[Whisper]

I haven't played this in ages, but a careee mode would definitely get me playing again. Hopefully it's decent.

[Baddar]

I've got the bug back.

Finished -5 for the tour which should at least get me playing on the Champions tour next week, so that's cool. If any of you guys haven't checked out TGC Tours before, do so. It's like one big virtual golf tour with world rankings and everything, plus plenty of different tours so that you aren't up against people who get -20 every round.

To test myself, I played last weeks Champions tour tournament course, and shot 6 under. The winner of that tournament across four rounds had -26 and -21, so I would have been on track to compete there. The good thing is, if you win tournaments in one tour, you're quickly promoted to another.

I will definitely pay the money for a career mode though. One potential drawback is that it'll only be using the official courses, but with new courses and themes being added all the time, it'll still be worth it.

Oh, and in the May update, perhaps the biggest gameplay addition yet is being included - out of bounds and drops. You could argue they should have been there from the get go, but it's coming anyway.

If any of you fancy a round either later tonight or tomorrow, give me a shout.

[Baddar]

Ok, so I got a European Tour card.

In some ways, I'm happy that I'm in the highest tier tour, but the flipside is that I'll never come close to winning an event. Chances are I'll be missing cuts and heading down to the web.com tour before long.

[Meacon Keaton]

Oh, my name's Baddar and I'm so good that I haven't played in months and I just made the top tier and I have mixed feelings about it.

Congrats by the way.

[Baddar]

I was kinda looking forward to working my way up. The only way is down from here!

[Baddar]

Who wants to party up from about 6pm my time (1pm eastern) later on? Should be available to play for 3 or 4 hours after that too.

I've missed getting a few rounds in with you guys.

[Meacon Keaton]

Depending on how much crap I get done in the morning, and what kind of mood my kid is in, I may get on to play a round or two.

I think the last time I played was with you way back when, so it'll be interesting.

[Baddar]

Well there's a handicap system in place now, so that is something that can even the playing field a little for players at different levels.

Mine is around +5 based off what I've played since Monday, so you'd automatically get a head start on me.

I just want to have a few rounds with someone, doesn't bother me whether I win or lose!

[Trey]

I don't play online much and enjoyed building my guy up in career modes of other golf games, would I enjoy this at all as a mostly offline gamer?

[Baddar]

Yes, I'd say so. There's a disk version coming soon which has a career mode built in and will appeal to new players, current ones not so much.

Offline (providing you are connected) there's an unlimited amount of courses to play, either with friends, or alone going up against the leaderboard. You can even play against ghost balls of people who have played the course recently/ever, and choose to show or hide their score, so even though you're playing against somebody, they won't know you are, so to speak.

It's a steep learning curve in terms of golf games but by far my favourite. Oh, and if you do want to play alongside a friend, you don't require a plus/gold subscription to do so, so that's another positive.

[Trey]

I went to gamestop and just couldn't pull the trigger, will the career mode be able to be downloaded once it comes out? And the PGA game comes out in July, should I just be waiting on it?

[thatshortguy]

I have a hard time thinking EA will outdo Golf Club as an honest-to-gawd golf sim. Plus, Golf Club will be cheaper.

[Baddar]

The PGA game will offer about 20 courses before you are forced to pay for more. Whilst unofficial, TGC offers thousands, and more are added every single day by the community. There are some stunning courses to play.

And he's right, there's no way the PGA game can touch TGC when it comes to gameplay. I just can't see it.

The career mode will be made as DLC for 10 bucks in a few weeks, which also comes with a few new course themes, including the tropical one. The only way to get those "free" is to buy a disk copy.

[thatshortguy]

$10 seems fine for that, actually. Still puts the price of the whole shebang around $50 if you bought the original at full price.

[Trey]

You guys have sold me on it, as soon as the disc comes with career mode I'll be purchasing. Figure I might as well wait since I would've gotten a disc version anyway.