Review: PGA Tour 2K21

Long gone are the days where I used to play golf, but thankfully my even longer history with playing golf in video games continues, and the latest game to have me putting (no pun intended) on my virtual plus fours and hitting the greens (or missing them entirely!) is PGA Tour 2K21, built upon the foundations of “The Golf Club” from HB studios and now under the wing of 2K.

As always, the first thing I do in any game like this is to create my in-game character. There are a wealth of options to play around with, even going into the minutiae of eye width, jaw height and wrinkles…to hell with realism and I avoided that particular option. 

I loved how the character creation also gave some otherworldly options too, especially regarding the eyes. As well as the usual blue/brown/green choices, you could also pick from a selection of contact lenses that made your pupils look like golf balls, or have cat’s eyes, or in my case: bright red zombie eyes. A nice touch for extra customisation.

There are lots of clothing options available from the beginning, with even more to unlock via various ways while making your way through the game, and my rather plain t-shirt and slacks opening wardrobe soon transformed into a garish jumper/hat/shorts combo that would have most professional golfers green with envy.

Before throwing yourself into tournaments it is a good idea to make your way through the training section and familiarise yourself with all of the options, as well as setting everything up just as you want it. If you’re already familiar with golf games, then  this won’t take too long at all and you’ll already feel confident about how you want the game to play.

The PGA Tour Career mode is the “meat” of the game and takes you through a whole season of over 30 tournaments, playing on 15 real life courses and with set entry criteria before you can enter some of them. All of them featuring 12 real pro-golfers who appear in the sporadic ‘TV interventions” which build the tension as you play through the rounds.

The 15 in-game, licensed TPC courses include:

• Atlantic Beach Country Club;
• Copperhead Course;
• East Lake Golf Club;
• Quail Hollow Club;
• Riviera Country Club;
• TPC Boston;
• TPC Deere Run;
• TPC Louisiana;
• TPC River Highlands;
• TPC San Antonio;
• TPC Sawgrass;
• TPC Scottsdale;
• TPC Southwind;
• TPC Summerlin;
• TPC Twin Cities.

The pro roster includes:

• Justin Thomas;
• Cameron Champ;
• Bryson DeChambeau aka “The Scientist”;
• Matt Kuchar aka “Kuch”;
• Kevin Kisner aka “Kiz”;
• Gary Woodland aka “G-Dub”;
• Billy Horschel aka “Billy Ho”;
• Ian Poulter aka “The Postman”;
• Tony Finau aka “Big Tone”;
• Jim Furyk aka “Mr. 58”;
• Sergio Garcia;
• Patrick Cantlay.

While making your way through the events you can unlock a variety of sponsors who will reward you for completing set goals (of which you have 3 options to choose which goals to go for) with new clothing or gear for your golf bag.

As you make your way through the PGA Tour you acquire FedExCup points, with more points being allocated the higher you finish at the end of each tournament. The ultimate aim being to have the most points at the end of the tour and be crowned the FedExCup Champion.

Also while playing through the tour you acquire “rivals”. These are real life golfers who you are pitted against and must beat them on a set of criteria (most birdies in a round for example) before moving on to another rival. This, and making specific targets within a round gives you in-game currency that you can spend on clothing, accessories and new clubs.

The tour mode, especially if you set it to 4 rounds per tournament, is well worth buying the game for without everything else that come with it. The options of swing control, difficulty settings and so much more means that you can tweak the game to exactly how YOU want to play it.

The course designer is another area where you can spend hundreds of hours creating courses for not only you to play on, but also everyone else too thanks to the great multiplayer options in the game. Want to recreate your local golf course? You can do it here. Want to create the most outrageous golf course you could imagine? You can do that too. The possibilities are endless and very satisfying.

You can play rounds by yourself, against “ghosts”, or go online where you can play with anyone on pre-chosen courses and settings, or even join/start an online society to compete against fellow society members in any number of events, all of which can be completed at your leisure during the event’s specified timescale. This is something I was overjoyed to see, as it was my favourite part of playing asynchronously with people on Links 2004 via XSN Sports. (who wants to join the PGA Tour 2K21 “60MW Podcast” society?).

The huge variety of options available within PGA Tour 2K21 means that there is always something else to do, another way to play, more stats to beat. The game gives you a lengthy starting point and then allows you to do what you want.

As far as any niggles I have with the game, your in-game character could be better modelled and looks a bit scary during the close-ups, and the commentary while playing sometimes doesn’t reflect what has actually happened, with the odd moment where I got berated for missing a 40+ foot putt!

Your “rivalry” between the pro-players could use some more interaction rather than just a checklist of criteria before moving onto the next one.

The courses look great, although a little lifeless and sparse, but there have been moments where I’ve paused and taken a minute to admire the hole before me…before hooking the ball into the water!

Though having said that I was up off the couch and cheering on only my 5th round when I got a hole in one. The sense of achievement when pulling off a great shot can not be underestimated, and I was cheering once again when holing a 5 wood of the fairway to get an albatross while trailing by 3 shots with only a few still to play.

With only a few minor niggles, PGA 2K21 is everything I wanted in a golf game and is fantastic to play by yourself or with friends, and gives you enough content and options to keep you very busy indeed.

I’m off now to rack up some more FedExCup points as I’m getting very close to the end of the tour…before I start it again with different settings.

Review by Dave from a PS4 review code kindly supplied by 2K.