2K PGA Tour Simulation System [Solo Society Replacement]

[Krebstar]

The History
If you’re like me, you used the Solo Society feature in the past Golf Club titles to create your own PGA Tour experience that gave you more control over the schedule and courses than the official career mode. If you’re like me, you’re not really impressed with the career mode in 2K21, nor are you impressed with the decision to remove solo societies.

I’ll be honest—while solo societies were a nice feature to have, they were incredibly poorly done. Having to individually rename players was painful, and even though it appeared that you had control, you really didn’t. If you set an event to have certain restrictions based on current standings, for example, it didn’t always function correctly.

While you could select any user-created course to include in your schedule, there was of course the massive scoring issue. Want to play at Augusta? Be prepared for the best AI to shoot several rounds over par, because that’s how poorly implemented the handicap and slope system was.

So, now we’re at 2K21, and the option of a solo society has been removed. The only option is to play through the official career mode, but to me, this is still very underwhelming and not what I’m looking for. Yes, there are more licensed courses and there are real golfers already named. However, there’s again no control over the schedule, or the courses you play—at all.

Near the end of The Golf Club 2019’s cycle, I began doing something different. I decided to come up with a way to randomly generate scores for the AI, based on their skill/rating, and compare my score against that. I’d then track all of this, and essentially create my own offline PGA Tour world, using the game to play my rounds on whatever courses I wanted. It’s great.

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The Overview
So, what is this thing, exactly? It’s spreadsheets! Technically it’s spreadsheets, but to me it’s a system that allows you full control over your own PGA Tour experience that is not bogged down and restrictive. You can enter who you want in whatever events you want. You can play on whatever courses you want. You can have players improve or regress if you want, or even base it on their performance.

The 2K21 PGA Tour Simulation System is centered around splitting professional golfers into different tiers (1–5) and generating scores for each of their rounds based on how they’re likely to perform. The higher the tier, the better chance to have a better score generated. However, a high tier player could have a poor round, and a lower tier player could have a great round. The odds or percentages will always favor better players having better rounds, but there is randomness to it.

To me, this is the best thing I could think of that I could easily create to simulate tournaments that I can play along with, and track entirely on my own. I’ll play all my rounds within PGA Tour 2K21, then I track them along with the AI scores to create leaderboards and overall rankings.

With the spreadsheets I’m providing, you can also do the same thing.

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The Scores
The heart of this is built around score generation. When I first set out to do something like this, the thing that was stopping me was generating scores for the AI. Thankfully, Excel makes this fairly easy.

Disclaimer: I’m not an Excel expert—I know enough to be dangerous. If you know of better ways to do things within these spreadsheets, go for it—this is what I was able to come up with over the past week.

To generate scores, I split players into five different tiers. Tier 1 being the best players on tour and Tier 5 being players who are just holding onto their tour card, or actually who are not even currently on the tour. Any player has the chance to score the same, but a Tier 1 player has a better chance of scoring well compared to a Tier 5 player. Below is Version 1 of the score generator for each of the five tiers. So, on the left is the scores generated, and next to it is how likely it is that a player will get that score, based on the tier.







How did I come up with these? Well, I used 72 as a baseline par of sorts, but I also looked at scoring average for several players. Scoring average, which is calculated on each event leaderboard, and in the overall rankings, is to me the metric that will drive this. That will determine where adjustments need to be made.

I’ll tell you right now—the score generator is not perfect. I have not tested it extensively, but I’m fairly happy with it right now. If anything, I think currently Tier 4 and 5 might need to be adjusted to have their scores a little better…but not by too much.

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Downloads


Version 2.0 [2.16.24]
https://www.mediafire.com/file/9jlaf...em_V2.zip/file

'Streak Tracking' system/sheet added.


Version 1.1 [8.25.20]
http://www.mediafire.com/file/w7ey8a...+V1.1.zip/file

This includes all four spreadsheets, as well as font files for Roboto and Roboto Condensed. Install these if you'd like the spreadsheets to appear in the style I created them (modeled after the leaderboards/stats on CBS' website).


Previous Versions:

Spoiler

Version 1 [8.23.20]
http://www.mediafire.com/file/epn99d...em_V1.zip/file

Upcoming Revisions

Version 3.0?
Might entirely revamp the tiers, using 2024 rankings of players, put in the 2024 schedule, and add a Korn Ferry tour tracking system of some kind.


Version 1.1

I think I'm going edit the score generator for Tier 3, to give them less of a chance of low scores as they're doing really well right now. Might even adjust Tier 2, also. Basically, in the tests I'm doing, I'm not seeing Tier 1 do as consistently well as I'd like. But, I know more testing will help reveal more.

This change might come fairly quickly—within the next few days, I'm sure.

[Krebstar]

The Spreadsheets


In Version 1, there are four spreadsheets to download.

01_ScoresGenerator
02_Rankings
03_Event
04_Schedule

Let’s take a look at the use for each of these.

01_ScoresGenerator
This is where you’ll generate all scores for the AI. The first tab, Overview, is a broad look at the different levels and percentages. This is just a way to give yourself an overview of possible scores—no generation occurs here. The other five tabs are each where you’ll generate scores.

To generate scores, go to the tier that you’d like to generate scores for. Next, select a cell to the right of the scores, and paste the following into that cell:

=INDEX(A$2:A$21,COUNTIF(C$2:C$21,"<="&RAND())+1)

In the cell you had selected, a score will appear! To generate multiple scores, just drag the handle down from that cell and more and more scores will be generated randomly. Note: that first score will change when you do this.

So, if you know you need to generate 20 scores for Tier 1 players, just drag the handle on the cell down 20 cells, and you’ve just generated all your Tier 1 scores for that round. The same process works for the other tiers—grab that above formula, paste it into a cell, and drag the handle down.

03_Event
You just generated scores, so you’ll now want to use them within an event. After you’ve generated scores, you’ll copy those scores, and then paste them into the leaderboard. However, you can’t just paste, or you’ll be pasting formulas. So, once the scores are copied, go to the leaderboard for your event, select the appropriate cell, and right click. Then, choose Paste Special, and select Values. That will place the scores you just generated, without causing any errors.

After you do this, the TO PAR score should update for each player. If it’s not correct, make sure you’ve changed the PAR column to the correct number. So, if you’re entering first round scores, that should be 72, for example. If you’re entering second round scores, you’ll need to change that column to 144, and so on. After the second round, be sure you only change the PAR column for those who made the cut.

After you’ve pasted scores, you’ll also want to update the ROUNDS column. Once you’ve done that, you’ll see the AVG column has updated and you’ll be able to see the scoring average for each player throughout that tournament. Once again, be sure to leave this on 2 for players who missed the cut, but updated to 4 for players who made the cut at the end of the tournament.

The VICTORIES, TOP 10, and EVENTS columns all must be manually updated by you. Why? This is for proper tracking within the overall rankings document. For each event, you’ll want to have a 1 in the EVENTS column. If a player makes the top ten, add a 1 into that column for them. And of course, only one player gets a 1 in the VICTORIES column. It’s important you put these in for each event, as they’ll then be added into the overall rankings for you, so you can see how many events someone has played, etc.

Lastly, you’ll notice there are different event types: Standard, WGC, Major, and Alternate. That’s because each of these awards points differently. Currently in the spreadsheets is the correct points breakdown for each of these events. If I got it wrong, I apologize, and you can always fix it yourself or I will in a future update.

02_Rankings
This acts as your overall rankings where you can sort by points, scoring average, events played, etc. This also acts as your player database of sorts, and is where you’ll pull player names from to fill up your events. Every player is assigned a tier, and should have their correct country flag next to their name.

Do you disagree with the tier of a certain player? That’s fine—you can change it!

You might be wondering why certain players are missing, or why how I complied this list, and made the tiers. First, here’s the tier breakdown in terms of how many players are in each tier:

Tier 1 [1-20]
Tier 2 [21-50]
Tier 3 [51-100]
Tier 4 [101-150]
Tier 5 [151-299]

Note: There are 299 players overall in the player pool—you’re the 300th player! Put your name in at the bottom! To change your country flag to one that is already in the document, first select the flag by your name, and hit delete/backspace. Next, click the cell that has the flag you want, and copy it. Then go back to the cell by your name where your flag should go, and paste. There you go! Need a flag that isn’t in the document already? I’ll include that in a different version.

In terms of how I came up with who to include, and their tier, it went a little something like this. I took the overall world golf rankings, and for the top tiers of players, the higher they are there, the higher the tier they’re in. I tried to remove as many players who do not play often on the PGA Tour, and to fill out Tier 4 and 5, I used some amateur players and those on the Korn Ferry Tour.

If you’re unhappy someone isn’t included, or has the wrong tier, that’s fine—you can change it. Just know it took me hours to even do this, and your changes will most likely be very fast—I wasn’t shorting anyone on purpose, or intentionally trying to put someone in a worse tier than they should be.

In terms of how you update the rankings, or bring your leaderboards into the rankings, you’ll use the ‘consolidate’ feature within Excel. Rather than type out the instructions for this, I’ll instead be making a short video showing you how I do this. I’ll try and have that up soon.

04_Schedule
This is obviously where you can keep the schedule for your current season in terms of the the order the events occur, the type of event, the name, location, etc. There are a few other things I’ve included in here, but first, this is a schedule I made based on the 19–20 season, or as best I could put it together, as it got a bit confusing with all the cancellations.

There are three columns on the right I want to make note of: RANING, LOGGED, and TIER NOTES. These are things that are just helpful to me. LOGGED is where I can mark that this event has its final leaderboard merged into the overall rankings. TIER NOTES is where I can note that specific tiers will be playing. So, I might go through and note where for each the top players, Tier 1 and Tier 2 will be playing for sure throughout the season.

RANKING is something helpful me as I’m a very casual golf observer. This is a ranking of the events in terms of their overall prestige, importance, etc. I pulled it from a few lists I found, and like I said, it’s for me to know essentially when top players should be playing, and when they should not be. If you don’t like it, delete the column or ignore it.

[Krebstar]

Video Tutorials

01 Generating scores:
Adding players to an event, and using the score generator.
https://youtu.be/L86x5d4xLQ0

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02 Handling Cuts:
Quick look at sorting the leaderboard and handling cuts.
https://youtu.be/geTFcmrm4dk

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03 Post-Event Maintenance:
Things to do and keep in-mind once the event is done, before you update your rankings.
https://youtu.be/7s8CtHlA2ig

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04 Updating Rankings:
Taking your leaderboards from each event and combining the into your rankings file.
https://youtu.be/jfiQ3aKy39c

Note: As of version 1.1, you need to copy + paste columns from your event sheet into your rankings differently, due to the location of the TOTAL column. The order you need to bring over the columns is PLAYER, POINTS, VICTORIES/TOP 10/EVENTS (those three together), TOTAL, and ROUNDS.

In short, when updating rankings, be sure the columns you bring over match the order of the columns in the rankings file.

[Krebstar]

FAQ

What about tougher courses?
I do plan on creating a different set of generators for the tiers for use with courses or events that are traditionally more difficult.

Is there a certain order you generate scores?
Personally, I sort everyone by their tier, then name. Then, I generate scores based on the worst tier, to the best. So if it’s the first round, I generate the scores needed for all of the tier 5 players if there are any, and then so on. After each round, I always sort the leaderboard again by tier, then name, and generate again. I do not generate scores based on the leaderboard position, as I’d be jumping around too much.

I will generate scores based on my position, though. If I’m doing poorly after the first round, I’m going to play my round before I generate scores. If I’m leading going into the final day, I’m going to generate all scores before I play my round, and so on.

Do you track/handle cuts?
Yes, after the second round scores are all input, I cut the field roughly down to 70, just like real life. I replace the rank in the leaderboard with CUT (although it’s in there now by default) and make sure to leave the ROUNDS column on 2 for those who were cut, but their EVENTS column is still of course at 1, as they did play that event. From there, I only generate scores for the players remaining.

Why is [name] in that tier? Why is [name] not included?
I’m a casual golf observer, so I did my best. As for someone not included, I either missed them entirely, or it didn’t seem to me they play on the PGA tour often.




Version Notes

Version 1.1

• Reordered the 03_Events file to have the TOTAL column directly after the round scores, and the PAR column further to the right.

[itsmb8]

Just an idea after watching the score generating video, would it be possible to set the "to par" cells as a formula of "=(SUM(G1:J1)-(K1*P1)"? That way you can leave the Par column as "Course Par" but the "To Par" column will still display relative to how many rounds they've played?

Edit: I flipped the Par and Total columns because I wanted the Total column to be right next to the round scores so Total is column K and Par is column O. Here's the formula I came up with to display "To Par" 0 as E and every other value as itself: =IF(K2-(O2*P2)=0,"E",K2-(O2*P2))

[Krebstar]

Quote: Originally Posted by itsmb8

Just an idea after watching the score generating video, would it be possible to set the "to par" cells as a formula of "=(SUM(G1:J1)-(K1*P1)"? That way you can leave the Par column as "Course Par" but the "To Par" column will still display relative to how many rounds they've played? Edit: I flipped the Par and Total columns because I wanted the Total column to be right next to the round scores so Total is column K and Par is column O. Here's the formula I came up with to display "To Par" 0 as E and every other value as itself: =IF(K2-(O2*P2)=0,"E",K2-(O2*P2))

Flipping those makes sense—the reason I have them in that order now is for easy copying of the Victories, Top 10, Events, Total, and Rounds columns into the rankings file to combine/consolidate/update. Video for that went up late yesterday.

But, they could be flipped in there, also.

I’ll definitely update the formula to produce E—love that!

[mikemarc1]

This is great. Thanks for this.

I have a question that may take this to a crazier level...but would it be possible to generate scores hole-by-hole rather than round by round?

[Krebstar]

Quote: Originally Posted by itsmb8

Just an idea after watching the score generating video, would it be possible to set the "to par" cells as a formula of "=(SUM(G1:J1)-(K1*P1)"? That way you can leave the Par column as "Course Par" but the "To Par" column will still display relative to how many rounds they've played? Edit: I flipped the Par and Total columns because I wanted the Total column to be right next to the round scores so Total is column K and Par is column O. Here's the formula I came up with to display "To Par" 0 as E and every other value as itself: =IF(K2-(O2*P2)=0,"E",K2-(O2*P2))

I wasn't sure what the O2*P2 is for or doing...but I did get a formula in that shows E thanks to that formula you showed. If I move TOTAL to K and PAR to O, the formula you posted gives me a crazy huge number.

What's the multiplication doing? (I suck at math, and at Excel) Definitely want to at least post new files with E now possible.