The Golf Club Reviews
Those wanting to get away from Tiger Woods' gimmicks will enjoy this, but it's merely functional.
With excellent swing mechanics and a terrific golf course design mode, The Golf Club steps into the void created by the 2014 absence of EA's PGA Tour
To assign a score to The Golf Club is tough. On one hand, you have a practically unlimited sandbox in which to enjoy the development team's genuinely revolutionary approach to a sport that has been simulated the same way a thousand times over. On the other, you have a game that has some quite disturbing graphical issues and that is in dire need of a stability patch.
The game's fun to play and the course creator will keep you up nights (in a good way), but it lacks a strong carrot to spur you on
The Golf Club promises a lot but falls down on its implementation. Golf fans will find a lot to like here, though, with the Designer and the solid gameplay providing an expansive experience. Unfortunately, last-gen visuals and a series of frustrating issues make this a hard game to recommend to all but the golf obsessed.
Golf fans of all types should find enjoyment and value in this title.
There are a few little quirks while out on the course, a couple of times I was too close to a tree and couldn't see my golfer which made it hard to swing, the commentary is a bit hit and miss for my liking, the sound will sometimes skip and every once in a while the frame rate drops but I am guessing that will be patched in a later release.
Golf returns to the PC with The Golf Club, a rigorous simulation that falls just short of the green.
The Golf Club is par for the course. It's an enjoyable golfing game that lacks in charisma – mainly being character and career progression.
[I]f all you need is an excellent golfing engine to use on a functionally-infinite number of courses then The Golf Club is unbeatable.
The Golf Club is a fun way to hit the links for golfing purists and would-be course creators.
The swing mechanics are excellent, and the course editor is second to none. I just wish there was more of a sense of progression to the core game. As it stands it is expensive, and can sometimes feel like a tech demo fleshed out with menus.
A refreshing change to the typical arcade golf games already available on consoles, The Golf Club is unforgiving but rewarding when mastered
I wasn't sure at first but eventually I really warmed to The Golf Club. At the end of the day, game play trumps presentation here. Excellent swing mechanics make the actual act of playing golf in The Golf Club quite enjoyable and the social and online features are abundant and fun. These things outweigh the technical hiccups.
The Golf Club can be a good investment for purists and the editor is a great piece of work, but this is also a game that lacks attention to details at times and suffers because of that.
The Golf Club would've been a great Tiger killer with some nuances added to the gameplay and some cleaning up in the visual department. As it stands, it's a decent golf sim, but one that's hard to swallow with its ridiculous price and problematic issues. Expert players, however, may find value in the course editor. Try it out first if you can.
Despite its unyielding dedication for all things realistic, I rather enjoyed the demanding style of play The Golf Club prides itself on, even during the first few hours, where the game will either draw you in or turn you off completely. I wouldn't necessarily recommend The Golf Club to the less serious player (there are plenty of more laid back golf titles to choose from), but it's a no-brainer for golf enthusiasts and purists alike.
The result is a package that settles for a par score – nothing less and nothing more.
The Golf Club nails its simulation of the greatest game with an emphasis on shot variability that defies precise, predictable results. But just about everything else leaves much to be desired.
Unpolished to the point of seeming unfinished in places, The Golf Club isn't a rival to the EA Sports Tiger Woods franchise but is more of a throwback to the hardcore, simulation days of Links. It will likely find a home with a specific group of players and the course creator will also likely add a ton of replay value for that group. The masses however may be put off by the lack of polish, the lack of progression mechanics and the tricky controls.