This game is not optimized. And according to the devs, who only released the information about the path ahead was after launch, then telling people it would be at least a YEAR before it would be done. Been with it from the beginning, logged around 380 hrs , mostly beta. The forum moderator is a Ban / poser, clearing away any bad news fast and disagreements and the slightest arguement against the game not being optimised after launch and my disagreement in the company saying it would be before launch , resulted in being banned from the forums. The company released this game too early, promising alot in beta, suckering people in. I was told by the moderator things would be resolved before launch, a few months since release, to which i was told i was " harping on about it" .
While the game it self is a copy of Tiger woods on line, it does alot worse playing from the mouse user point of view. The people at Hb went straight for the console market, and havent really been honest to the mouse users. The slightest hair either side of being wrong in your swing at thats its for that hole. So u 'd think they add some form of playing handing cap for the lesser skilled in drawing a straight line , but no options for say, novice swing etc. Nope ,

The graphics are ok, if u have the very latest in cards, other wise nope your wasting your time in making the game look even half way decent, coz the UNITY engine they choose is terrible. and even then the company addmitted why after release that they set the bench mark to high, resulting in people cooking the tower units, fans going 100 mph. While the moderators response is turning down sliders, that only hammper the visuals, and not your fans going 100mph.

Theres prob one good thing about it i must admit , and thats the course creator, though the interface , is ropey at best. With the right imagination u can create a beautiful course. But once u release the course , its then lost in a sea of generated courses to which the menu system is basic and lack luster, trying to make your way through the near 30.000 course is a total pain, .With no book marker system in place , your forced to either remember the name, to add to favourites or troll through the mostly generated courses. The course description is super vague too. Your encouraged by the moderator of this comapny , to use a off site course bumping scheme , where people more or less bump each other courses so it will be noticed , maybe even taken onboard by the company itself. To which u recieve nothing , except in bumping there own courses and locked in tourneys. Of which the modertor is friends with. The company dropped the ball on this and are quite happily letting people go off site for things they couldnt be bothered to do them selves.


It has no option to play with anyone else other than watching there ghost balls, and even then the information is wrong, u might see your friends ball go in the rough, but magically there 5 foot from the pin, u cannot spectate anyone playing live.
Theres no lobby, No drop shots if things go wrong, your placed at there disgression, at times in the place a long way away from where your ball went astray.
U cannot set up your club bag at all, again there disgression. Theres nothing much either for your avatar, very limited stuff in terms of looks. There no career mode, and the infomation about your chracthers stats are soo convoluted , u cannot make sense of there system, The highest stats i have seen are around 110.00, meaning they must be doing around 25- under every round, and on every course, my stats where around 95.00, and i got around 11 to 12- under per round. Not matter what the course i played , does not really come in to affect to affect yours scores. There is systematic cheating in this game on every level, from hackers, to edgers, to people altering there controllers to take out the axis swing, so perfect everytime, and HB do very little to remove these people from scores boards,

The wind in the game suffers from being tame to crazy. The wind its self is such a unregular pattern it makes it more or less unplayable, as u cannot really get any sense of how to play in it. The options for trying to crontrol the ball , i.e adding loft , generating spin etc is really vague and not very well done.

I would not have bought the game knowing that they'd renege on there promises, stretching truths and pushing back deadlines. Even for the most basic of things to be in game at launch, but yet again i have burnt my self hoping that the what is now regular pattern of early access games turn the back on the very people that help get it up and running , in terms of customers , esp for the pc market, Once they had the consoles, the attitude on pc terms changed for the worse.

What an utter disappointment for a game with so much potential and practically zero competition on the PC market. Very limited PC graphics optimization and horrible performance issues prevent me from recommending this game in its current state. With wonky putting, an unreliable swing mechanic, and lackluster ball physics (seriously the same bounce on every terrain except sand), you'd best save your money until this is patched.

On the plus side the sound design is top notch and the course creator is a great feature, however its certainly not enough to justify buying a game that feels like its still in beta.

No multiplayer, not optimized for pc, no real golf rules, no career mode, it's missing the essentials.

This was a hugely anticipated game for an alternative for the other (dying) golf series and a game finally on PC. While the game initially fills void and you can play some video golf , it becomes increasingly frustrating the more you play it.

The user created courses are the heart of the game and it's fun to play others creations. This is best part of the game. Course difficulties and ratings help you find what you're looking for. I love this part of the game and applaud the effort that a lot of users make on some truly creative courses.

As I put hours into the game my frustration level with wind and putting has increased to the point where I can't even finish a round. It gets boring and repetitive. Long drive, approach misses because wind is inconsistent, and 2-3 putts because the putting is next to impossible. Approach shots become increasing difficult if you don't need a 100% shot. I've played the other series for years and never had even close to this much difficulty.

If any game needs a putt preview, it's this one. The "touch" required on putts took awhile to learn, but the aim will never be right. If you think you need to aim the ball 5' right on a 15' putt, you better move it to 12' right. Sometimes you won't even see the hole.

FWIW, I'm using a Dual Action game pad. I may be switching to other controls soon, but those don't sound like any fun to me (yet).

Overall I'm happy the game was made. I just can't recommend until the playability is fixed. Me and many others......

This game is not bad, but definitely didn't live up to the hype. The lack of a career mode with depth features is a let-down, and the limited amount of character customization is one even more so. Also, it would have been cool to have some sort of earnings system or something of the like that integrates with a career mode to give it long-term replay value. Also, the lack of online multiplayer features is a bit frustrating.

Mechanics - keyboard and mouse gameplay is really, really not enjoyable once you have tried it with a controller. You will notice a ridiculous difference in your accuracy when using a controller joystick over a mouse for swinging.

All that being said, the course designer is cumbersome, and almost feels like the main attraction of the game. If you want to design a virtual golf course and have the time and imagination to devote to it, this game is for you. The course designer has a lot of options and - I would imagine - is unmatched in its genre in the scope of this feature. Also, the gameplay is not bad at all, but can be quirky. The commentary is really just downright annoying and repetitive after a while.

Overall, if you are not big into golf games, avoid it. It's really unbalanced and does not have enough of the career and online features to attract a wide scope of gamers. If you are interested in designing elaborate and realistic looking golf courses and playing them for fun, it could be worth the 35 bucks, but I would honestly wait until there's a drop in price or a sale to consider it even if that is your MO.

When I bought this game, their FAQ said they were still considering incorporating a 3-click shot meter, which I assumed would be optional. I understood they wanted a 'realistic' mechanism to focus on the 'feel' of golf, but I hoped, because of their FAQ, that they would add the 3-click shot meter for those people who preferred a lighter fun vs super serious. Eventually they dug their feet in the ground and decided they wanted 'realism,' which completely killed my desire to play the game. While it seems their mechanism for a console game controller works okay, their mouse and keyboard mechanism is too frustrating and imprecise to be fun. At least for me (some may disagree).
Consequentially, I felt like I had wasted my money, which inspired this less than positive review. Alternatively, if Steam allowed (easier) refunds, I would have done so, and would not have been as frustrated, and would have just waited for a golf game that is more accommodating to us 'less-serious' golfers.

Well now its been released i can say its not worth the money, it wasnt ready for release so god knows why they rushed it out, its not bad so to speak but it certainly isnt as good as it should of been, it has performance issues and lacks career mode, while live multiplayer is a chore. The graphics are nothing groundbreaking and gameplay offers nothing new, it may well get called the best PC golf game by some, but thats by default as its the only one right now, unless you count WGT. Dont buy it yet would be my summary.

I cannot say how much I am disappointed in this game. The only positive thing I can say is that the graphics look great. Everything about game play is ridiculous. The physics must be a simulation from a different planet. Hit the club twice the same way and the ball may travel 20 feet or 30 yards. The is no consistency at all. I wish I could get my money back for this turd but Im sure thats about as likely and hitting a hole in one.

The graphics are nice, but this just isn't a good golf game compared to other available PC golf games (such as Customplay 2010 or Hank Haney's World Golf- which both use the same basic golf engine and both having comparable realism to The Golf Club). Too much is missing in terms of gameplay and game types (there are no skins or stableford games), and overall this feels like a rushed console port. The mouse swing never feels right, and is extremely unforgiving. While the random course generator is a nice feature, the editor itself is tedious to use and not as powerful as the editors featured in other golf games (such as the Links or Jack Nicklaus series).

Do yourself a favor and avoid purchasing this game.

Overall I like this game, but in its current state I cannot recommend it. First off, it is definitely not optimized for PC. It runs poorly at best. The second issue is a lack of any type of tutorial or instruction, which may or may not solve the other issue: putting. Putting is confusing and seems very inconsistent.

Verdict: Wait.

For the curious, I have an Asus ROG G75 with a core i7 CPU and Geforce 670MX graphics card. It runs everything I throw at it (see my extensive library for reference)

Do not buy this game if you do not have DX 11 Hardware. If you have DX 11 Software, but don't have DDI Version 11 or higher it will not work. On laptops with Nvidia, you will need GeForce GTS 400 or higher hardware. At this point I don't recommend this game because they failed to make it clear what DX 11 Hardware compatible means. I will write another review after I get my new computer. Check DXDiag and go to display tab for your DDI Version.

The Golf Club is a great idea. Place a golf sim game on the PC platform when other developers refuse to and give it a course creator. What could possibly go wrong with such a strong idea? Many things.

First and foremost this game does not run well. Even on powerful machines you will innevitably find yourself playing on Medium or lower settings just to get a decent and constant framerate. This is something that can be overlooked by many but still needs to be stated as it is important.

Ball striking is solid and good until you get close to the green. Due to the minimal control you have over shot distance anything other than a full 100% shot into the green is unlikely to land anywhere near where you intend it to. Putting is also a widely varying affair where getting correct distances is nearly impossible.

The course creator is one of the shining positives in The Golf Club. It has enough functionality and customization to allow for a large variety of course types and difficulties. However, more recent updates had altered some of the terrain functionality making it difficult to create smoothed surfaces with large scale changes. Still, the course creator is definitely a strong point.

The largest issue with this game currently is the seeming abandonment of the PC Platform. With their release on PS4 and XBox One, HB Studios have given continuous updates to both of the console platforms, yet have not updated the PC release with any of that content for 2 months as of this writing. ('Release was on October 8th, currently December 15th) This is the most diseheartening thing HB could have done. The console versions now have more HB created cources, 2 more course creator themes, and more bug fixes than the PC version.

With this last point in mind, I cannot recommend this game. It is a wonderful idea with a nice course creator that seems to have been abandoned before it could be made into something great. If you really want a golf game on the PC platform and have no other options then pick this up when it is on sale for 50% off or more, otherwise just steer clear. If they ever come back and give the PC platform some love, it may be worth the asking price, but as it stands it is not.

Edit: As of 12/19/2014 the PC and console versions are finally on the same patch. Going forward it is difficult to tell if they will become split so disparately as before but this does not change the core idea that it is better to wait for a sale for this game than to buy it at full price.

works for me. needed a golf game, very much enjoying this one, it will see alota play.

Very Fun

Not Recommended...I play Mouse and Keyboard and after the last update..not much works...UnPlayable..I posted Feedback on the Forums and got ...Hammered ...by negative feedback to my Input...I play video games ...especially golf...to relax...this game as is...is very frustrating..I uninstalled it...hopefully someday maybe it will improve...but I doubt it based on the attitudes I have seen

I've been looking for a good golf game for the PC for a while now (The TW series doesn't count) and I caught this on a steam sale. Been playing it for a while in early access and have enjoyed it immensely. Now that the game's out, I have mixed feelings about it. On one hand, the mechanics of the swing (I play with an xbox controller) are good and the way the ball reacts to the environment is very good. However, something about it just seems rushed and unfinished. I'll get hours upon hours of enjoyment out of it and hopefully it gets improved down the line because it's a good game, with the chance to be great. Would definitely recommend to any golf fan, but it may not appeal to everybody because of the rough edges to it.

Decent game but needs attention before I would recommend it.
The backswing and down swing are way to slow and can really throw your swing (mouse movements) off because of this, also is very hard to have control over how much power is put into each shot.
Not being able to move your shot aimer when zoomed down the hole is annoying and not being able to move your shot aimer with your mouse is quite annoying also. Putting can be really difficult when using a mouse.
The course editor could use some more basic functions of moving holes and tee's.

http://youtu.be/_ENz1NK4tQM

It's been quite some time since golf fans have been spoiled for choice. EA has dominated one of the worlds most regal games for more than a decade and those who play games on a PC in particular have been left with little to no choice in how they hit the links. Enter The Golf Club, a new Golf simulator from HB studios that doesn't boast PGA licensing or tons of product placement, but it does offer a massive game changing feature that is sure to land in the fairway with most virtual golfers: a course editor. Instead of shelling out absurd sums of money for new courses players now have access to a surprisingly robust course creation tool with Greg Norman's name slapped across it. So does The Golf Club burst on the scene like Tiger Woods circa 1997 or does it choke like Sergio Garcia on Sunday at a major?

Without PGA licensing, The Golf Club feels more like a virtual golf outing with friends than a tense and competitive sports simulation. There isn't a character creator, no RPG like leveling or character progression, no unlockables nor upgrades. The Golf Club also doesn't offer any alternative modes like challenges or mini games. You simply pick a course or a tournament and hit the links. Asynchronous play is generally the preferred play mode if you don't have good buddies available for eighteen since it allows brisk competitive play. Your competitors strokes are shown as you take your own and minimal load times keep the pace up and reduces the tedium present in other golf titles. A generic announcer provides the only semblance of professional golf tournament ambiance since galleries of spectators, scoreboards and tournament sponsor signs are all absent from the game's courses. The announcer does a decent job of reacting to your shots and making accurate assessments of the conditions on the course, but his personality is on par with a rusty, dinged-up pitching wedge. It's a shame that HB studios didn't utilize the freedom of not being a PGA licensed product to offer some more festive commentary a la Gary McCord at the 1994 Masters Tournament.

The Golf Club's bare bones feature set and lack of atmosphere and ambiance are not it's most prominent offense however, its the fact that the actual golf mechanics feel woefully underdeveloped. The game seems to favor a grip it and rip it mentality as any attempt I made to be clever with my shots ended in utter disaster with the exception of the instances in which the game decided to make some sort of idiotic club selection—teeing off on a par five with an 8-iron for instance. Speaking of club selection a clunky interface makes proper club selection tedious. Players must enter the scout camera mode to see where their ball may end up with a solid shot and if players wish to see where a different club might place the ball, the scout mode needs to be exited and a new club selection needs to be made. Spinning the ball or controlling draw or fade is slightly awkward with a shot modifier that needs to be dialed in before making a stroke. There is also very little feedback when trying to control the strength of your shots. Taking a few yards off of a stroke becomes an exercise in frustration since the difference between 70% and 100% power is a millimeter of travel on the analog stick and there are no meters or other visual indicators to allow players to get a feel for it. If there is another way to modify the strength of your shots I could not find it and a tutorial was not provided. The game's bare bones approach also means that you are stuck with a fixed club selection so don't expect to carry a hybrid or a long iron in place of your five wood.

Thankfully, the course editor in The Golf Club does not disappoint. Offering desert, links, alpine, rural and autum tile sets and a wide array of props, the course editor easily allows players to build realistic courses with few limitations. A number of sliders that populate the world with vegetation, water and hills automates some of the more tedious aspects of design. Bridges, wildlife, structures and props allow you to breathe life into each hole and imbue your course with some personality. Editing can be done hole by hole or freely across the entire course. Coupled with the game's mostly pleasing visuals it's exciting to turn your vision into a virtual reality and then share it with the world. It's just a shame that the frame rate can be slower than the senior tour—even on powerful hardware.

The Golf Club brings to mind all of those 1990's home designer software packages available in most electronics stores. Teeing off in The Golf Club is underwhelming but creating courses is any golf fan's dream. The actual golf is a bit clunky and in need of a swing coach with it's poor feedback, lack of club selection, and cumbersome UI. The lack of atmosphere and character progression do little to incentivize actually playing the game. While The Golf Club hasn't quite passed Q School, it's not entirely irredeemable. With so few choices for PC gamers, The Golf Club is worth considering for serious golf fans, those on consoles have a little more to consider but the course creator is quite compelling. In the end, The Golf Club logs a bogey on the score card.

I have been playing since the beginning of early access. Fantastic simulation golf. It has some areas that still needs brushing up, such as rough/bunker lie power percentages, swing mechanics (though mostly sound). I've played nearly every golf game ever and I'll say this one delivers big. The course editor is incredible and provides the community with endless options for choosing new courses to play. The big miss for now is not having a lobby for real-time online play. However, the devs are also fantastic with implementing player feedback and are aware of the potential.

Go play!

Edit:
The other topic I failed to bring up is PC optimization. It is a GPU hog and may need to be played on lower settings. Really hoping it gets ironed out soon. The community is in a frenzy over the issue and rightfully so.

My experience is still positive and I do love the game!

The Golf Club is a great golf game that has the best putting of any golf game I've ever played - once you understand it! The graphics are great and with new themes being released it's only getting better. There's no reason to not try it if you like golf - it's definitely more on the sim side than arcarde at this point which is pefectly fine by me. For those looking for a bit more (career) come visit us at www.tgctours.com and enjoy an enhanced experience with The Golf Club.