The Golf Club (2014)

The Golf Club 2019 is a solid entry into a library of golf games. It's not the best golf game ever made, but the foundation has been laid for what might be a truly good franchise of licensed golf games.

The Golf Club Collector's Edition is a well-featured and enjoyable game, only held back by the lack of licensed content and performance issues that hamper the fun. The asynchronous multiplayer lends plenty of real-world competition to the proceedings, and the course designer is a powerful tool in the right hands. Its more serious tone may not be to everyone's taste, but the fact that HB Studios has created an indie title that can genuinely contend with EA's monolithic PGA franchise makes it worthy of attention.

It may simulate golf to a punishing tee and have a course designer-sized trump card, but until it raises its game elsewhere the PGA Tour series is still the king of the fairway.

Play golf on thousands of created courses, enter tournaments, and better yourself through practice. It's golf. Just. Golf.

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.