Golfer Attributes - What do they do?

[jmarks2001]

Does anyone have any insight as to what the golfer attributes really do? There are little blurbs about the ratings in the "Skills" screen, but they don't go into too much detail. Kep in mind, that I'm playing on Tournament difficulty, so there may be some assists that are altered as a result of these attributes that I've never seen.

1. Power
This is the only one that is obvious to me.

2. Accuracy
I could see this working in one of two ways:

A) There is a natural random variance built in to the ball flight, and a higher accuracy attribute will result in less variance. the So even if you hit a perfectly straight shot (according to the swing meter) it may head left/right depending on the amount of variance. I'm not sure if this is the way it works, but I could swear that sometimes from a flat lie with a perfect swing, the ball seems start left or right on its own.

B) Mis-hits are more forgiving and when you make a mistake (according to the swing meter), the effect that mistake has on the ball flight is reduced with a higher Accuracy attribute. If this is the case, I wonder if it applies just to left/right misses, or does it also lessen the effect of under/over swing and slow/fast tempo. This is important to me because I have naturally slow tempo. Rather than try to correct it, I just plan my shots to be a little longer. I'm concerned that as I increase my golfer's accuracy that I'll start to see different behavior as the game starts to automatically make my shot look more like the shot that I planned as opposed to the shot that I executed.

3. Spin
Does this even matter on Tour Pro or Tournament difficult where post-shot spin isn't allowed? Or does it add natural backspin to all shots making it easier to hold greens with long irons or "back up" short iron shots?

4. Recovery
No idea about this one. Is there possibly some additional "random variance" built in to shots out of the rough/sand that a higher Recovery attribute lessens?

5. Putting
No idea about this one either. Similar to one of my theories on Accuracy, but specific to Putting?

[dcherry]

I have no idea for sure but I think most of your answers are in the ball park.

1. Power - obvious

2. Accuracy - I think part (b) is correct. I tend to keep this one low because I like to be a little more challenging.

3. Spin - the second part is correct I would think. You also can also hit lower on the ball to add more backspin to bring the ball back, though when I try that I can't get the distance right.

4. Recovery - No clue.

5. Putting - I would think it's the same as the accuracy stat as well. I pump this one up because I'm terrible at putting.

[8iron]

Accuracy and putting make the variance envelope smaller. So precise shots will be more likely to go exactly where they would go as predicted by your aim cursor or shot preview, and mi****s will travel less off the intended path. I miss prior version's putting grid improvement as you put points into putting or the subcategory for green reading.

Recovery does the same for shots from poor lies. There is a theory on the EA forums that it also acts like the Good Lies pin so that rough and bunker lies are less likely to be buried, which makes sense but has not been conclusively proven. This attribute seems fuzzy even to the EA people. But it does seem like hybrids do work the best out of bad lies so the Recovery mechanic overall seems to have a real factor to it this year.

Someone answered me quite definitely that Spin does make your natural shot spin more like a pro's, not just ball-in-flight added spin.

[altheamann]

Recovery is essential for golfers especially if you are in a bad shot.