The Best Fantasy Courses in PGA Tour 2K21

[ChaseB]

Even though PGA Tour 2K21 has established a reputation for realism dating back to when...

Written By: Kevin Scott

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[MrArlingtonBeach]

Re: The Best Fantasy Courses in PGA Tour 2K21

I'd also recommend the Star Wars courses (I think there are more than one, but "The Story of Endor" is really well done) and the Hogwarts course, too.

While I like realistic courses more than the fantasy ones, there are some really cool tracks out there that really show of the creativity of folks in the design community.

[baconbits11]

Re: The Best Fantasy Courses in PGA Tour 2K21

The course creator is exactly the thing 2K can use to compete with EA's upcoming Golf game. Make all created courses playable in a career and there you go.

[MrArlingtonBeach]

Re: The Best Fantasy Courses in PGA Tour 2K21

The course creator is exactly the thing 2K can use to compete with EA's upcoming Golf game. Make all created courses playable in a career and there you go.

The issue with that is, apparently, the PGA Tour won't let that happen. Getting the PGA Tour license meant that 2K21 had to release without Solo Societies, which was basically a way you could build a customized career mode in previous The Golf Club games. You could rename the AI players and customize their skill, add in whatever courses you wanted to the schedule, and name the events whatever you wanted.

As soon as 2K/HB went all-in on the PGA Tour side of things, Solo Societies were given the boot. And I understand why, but I feel that's a major reason 2K should actually drop the official PGA Tour licensing and embrace the customization side of things - especially after seeing how little they apparently care about creating a working, immersive PGA Tour career mode.

[scagwi]

Re: The Best Fantasy Courses in PGA Tour 2K21

Agree with above

2K/HB would be smart to punt on PGA side of things and go back to allowing users to customize all things.

Based upon what's already announced by EA re: PGA stuff and what we likely know is coming in terms of visuals...It's not going to go well if 2k tries to compete on the PGA side of things unless they massively up their spending and completely overhaul things from a technical standpoint.

That takes a very expensive long game approach to this and it's unclear if 2k are up for that.

It's also very unclear if HB staff is even capable of doing the build that's needed here.
See: "leaderboards"

[lowpaiddonkey10]

Re: The Best Fantasy Courses in PGA Tour 2K21

Off the rails but if you can't use the pros the pros really look very little like their real life counterparts and they all swing like a 15 handicapper what is the point?

Get a new engine and drop the PGA license it is a hinderance to the game.

[jbd345]

Re: The Best Fantasy Courses in PGA Tour 2K21

Off the rails but if you can't use the pros the pros really look very little like their real life counterparts and they all swing like a 15 handicapper what is the point?

Get a new engine and drop the PGA license it is a hinderance to the game.

Why post if it’s off the rails? They still have the license which isn’t going anywhere. People saying 2k has to drop the license is laughable. We have zero info on the next installment other than Tiger signing.

[MrArlingtonBeach]

Re: The Best Fantasy Courses in PGA Tour 2K21

Why post if it’s off the rails? They still have the license which isn’t going anywhere. People saying 2k has to drop the license is laughable. We have zero info on the next installment other than Tiger signing.

I am sure the license isn't going anywhere, but, from my cheap seat view, having the PGA Tour license is actually taking away from the fantasy/custom course aspect that The Golf Club was built on.

When TGC 1 and 2 came out, it was all about creating courses and building societies that allowed you to play these user designed tracks. That has lessened dramatically since TGC 2019 came out, which was when 2K started getting involved and the PGA Tour license came into the picture.

Since that happened, Solo Society was removed, and you need to play the bugged PGA Tour career mode for a solo offline experience. This mode does not allow you to put any of the fantasy courses in your solo career, so you're stuck playing the "official" courses HB added in from previous TGC games, and you can't switch them out for newer ones that really use the designer to the fullest.

So I think, to me, the idea is that these fantasy courses are getting the short end of the deal because 2K has leaned more into the PGA Tour license, while limiting the use and purpose of fantasy courses like the ones in this OS article.

Granted, I know the PGA Tour branding reaches a broader audience, and adds a bit more realism. I don't expect them to drop the PGA Tour after selling 2M copies of their game that went more all-in on PGA Tour licensing. But to see them drop the ball on career mode, which replaced the Solo Societies that allowed you to play any courses you wanted in a customized career mode, makes me wish the PGA Tour licensing in the 2K game would just go away.

[scagwi]

Re: The Best Fantasy Courses in PGA Tour 2K21

I don't expect them to drop the PGA Tour after selling 2M copies of their game that went more all-in on PGA Tour licensing.

I don't expect them to either, but they need to either go bananas "all in" or bail.

The middle ground and somewhat half-arsed PGA implementation they've done so far will get annihilated when compared to what EA will do.

People can love/hate EA all they want, but I think the smart money says they learned from a misstep and early kill on Rory and they will revert heavily toward the previous TW 12/13/14 direction of things -- which were AWESOME on the PGA content side.

What 2k has done PGA wise thus far, will look ridiculous in comparison.

The stakes have been raised substantially and I hope 2K rises to meet the new challenge here..

or..

I hope they go the "Super Mega Golf" route and really lean in to the course creator and user created content/tours/careers/modding, etc. A game like that could potentially be **more** amazing than a licensed game (considering the restrictions that licensing tends to impose).

[jbd345]

Re: The Best Fantasy Courses in PGA Tour 2K21

I don't expect them to either, but they need to either go bananas "all in" or bail.

The middle ground and somewhat half-arsed PGA implementation they've done so far will get annihilated when compared to what EA will do.

People can love/hate EA all they want, but I think the smart money says they learned from a misstep and early kill on Rory and they will revert heavily toward the previous TW 12/13/14 direction of things -- which were AWESOME on the PGA content side.

What 2k has done PGA wise thus far, will look ridiculous in comparison.

The stakes have been raised substantially and I hope 2K rises to meet the new challenge here..

or..

I hope they go the "Super Mega Golf" route and really lean in to the course creator and user created content/tours/careers/modding, etc. A game like that could potentially be **more** amazing than a licensed game (considering the restrictions that licensing tends to impose).

I think hot shots golf fills that void pretty well. At the end of the day, I’m just reserving judgment until we get more info. Still sticking with that the course creator will be gone.

[lowpaiddonkey10]

Re: The Best Fantasy Courses in PGA Tour 2K21

I think hot shots golf fills that void pretty well. At the end of the day, I’m just reserving judgment until we get more info. Still sticking with that the course creator will be gone.

I prefer Hot Shots on the PS2 actually.

[lions67]

Re: The Best Fantasy Courses in PGA Tour 2K21

Agree with above

2K/HB would be smart to punt on PGA side of things and go back to allowing users to customize all things.

Based upon what's already announced by EA re: PGA stuff and what we likely know is coming in terms of visuals...It's not going to go well if 2k tries to compete on the PGA side of things unless they massively up their spending and completely overhaul things from a technical standpoint.

That takes a very expensive long game approach to this and it's unclear if 2k are up for that.

It's also very unclear if HB staff is even capable of doing the build that's needed here.
See: "leaderboards"

Lmao!!
Such a cheerleader for EA lol

[scagwi]

Re: The Best Fantasy Courses in PGA Tour 2K21

Lmao!!
Such a cheerleader for EA lol

Oh I’m sorry...

Did I miss the announcement where 2K locked up all the majors and announced Augusta and Pebble?

[jbd345]

Re: The Best Fantasy Courses in PGA Tour 2K21

Oh I’m sorry...

Did I miss the announcement where 2K locked up all the majors and announced Augusta and Pebble?

Augusta obviously no. EA has exclusive rights to “all 4” that doesn’t exactly mean 2k misses out on the other three. I don’t think it’s fair to assume they didn’t, when we have zero info on 2k22. With 2 million copies sold, I’m sure they’ll be spending for course/tourney rights.

[MrArlingtonBeach]

Re: The Best Fantasy Courses in PGA Tour 2K21

Augusta obviously no. EA has exclusive rights to “all 4” that doesn’t exactly mean 2k misses out on the other three. I don’t think it’s fair to assume they didn’t, when we have zero info on 2k22. With 2 million copies sold, I’m sure they’ll be spending for course/tourney rights.

This is straight from the horse's mouth: "EA SPORTS PGA TOUR is the exclusive home of all four majors including the Masters Tournament, the PGA Championship, U.S. Open Championship, and The Open Championship." - https://www.ea.com/games/pga-tour

That doesn't sound like there's any kind of weird semantics that say that EA exclusively has the 4 majors, but doesn't have exclusive rights to the individual majors...I would think that would be worded in a much different way.

I think this is pretty straightforward - EA has the rights to the majors exclusively. 2K has the rights to Tiger Woods exclusively. Simple as that.

And if 2K did have rights to any of the majors, I would have expected them to have immediately countered the EA Augusta news with the fact that they had rights to, say, The Open Championship.