PGA Tour 2K21:My favorite modes of the game and how they help my real life golf game.

I played my first virtual round of golf before I played my first real life round of golf. While I had always gone with my dad to the driving range I was never the most skilled, but luckily I worked on my skills often at my home course. Yes, I am referring to the cartoonish animated classic for the PS2 — Hot Shot Golfs 3. While it may not be physical knowledge golf games have taught me about the mental aspect of golf.

Golf games have gone away from the cartoon style images and physics to more of a golfing simulator and this only helps you with improving the mental aspect of golf. For golf gamers there was a gap in the release of golf games that provided a PGA feel as well as creative elements for the player to utilize. PGA Tour 2k21 is the first offering in years to provide all this and more by utilizing real life courses and pro’s in the game mixed with custom leagues, a career mode and many features for the player.

In my eyes PGA Tour 2K21 is the only golf game as of late to provide the immersion players are after. Players are now able to play a round on official PGA courses from real life while playing against virtual pros in the leaderboards. The entire time playing wither their custom character and having the ability to create custom courses. While there are the usual game modes like scramble, best ball and stoke play my three favorite features are the career mode, societies and the golf course designer.

The career mode takes you on the traditional tale of creating an athlete, starting them at the bottom of their sport and getting them to the top of their respected league. I found this mode very rewarding to the player. Not only is it fun to try to get on the PGA tour and play against pro’s, I feel you truly learn about yourself as a golfer. Like overconfident gamers tend to do, I put the settings on high when I started my first career. After being unable to make it on the kern ferry tour multiple times I put the game on the regular settings and tried again.

This is where it hit me that like real golf you are not playing against other players, but against yourself. It was not easy by any means but I eventually got on the Kern Ferry tour. It not only required a change of difficulty, more importantly it required a change of my mindset. When I stopped worrying about the other players and started worrying about making effective shots that set up my next shot the scores started to drop. This is why I love this game. While I shoot much better in virtual golf than real life golf you get all the excitement and anticipation still when you play a virtual round. Like real golf this gives you lots of time to get in your own head, especially if you are playing to get your tour card.

While you are able to play against virtual pros in the leaders boards you can not play as them. Instead you use the games in depth character designer to create a player that represents you and your unique style. This is your avatar in all rounds you play and I love this option. Not only is it more enjoyable to me to play as a golfer that looks like I want, it makes societies more personal and fun.

Societies are online leagues in PGA 2K21 where you play against other real life players in online tournaments. Most require you to pay virtual entrance fees but you are able to win some big virtual bucks if you end up on the top of the leaderboards. This is a great option for those who love the pressure of golf mixed with the excitement of PvP competition.

Creating your own character is not the only thing you can create in PGA 2K21. If you get tired of playing on the official PGA courses spice things up and build your own course to play 18. The course designer is vast in its options and scale. You are not only able to edit the terrain on each hole but you are able to add foliage and other visual elements to give a theme to your course. This is a great place to recreate your favorite local course or finally get to play that course you have always dreamed of. Make sure to check out what courses have been made by other golfers already if you wish to jump into a round on one of the available custom courses first. In turn you can share the courses you design with the rest of the online community after you make them.

Those are my 3 favorite elements of the PGA Tour 2K21. While it may not help your real life swing this game will help your golf judgement, at least on the virtual tour. So make your golfer, get in a round and decide what club to use for you next shot as you listen to the calming sounds of nature. After your round let me know what your favorite and least favorite elements of PGA Tour 2K21 are in the comments below.