HB Studios Next-Gen golf game: The Golf Club

[J_Cauthen]

Those of you playing the XB1 DSP Tour, are you seeing the overall leaderboard when you select it at the start of a tournament round? I press the button and get a blank leaderboard. I'm done playing 27 holes of event three (The Oaks at Westchester) and I was trying to see how everyone else is doing at whatever stage they're at in the Tour. Looks like the Tour leaderboard functionality is pretty limited in this game, or is either not working like it should. It does seem like I'm getting more leaderboard information in the TGCTours.com beta 'Tournaments' I've played in the last two weeks.

[vader29]

I played the first 18 holes of the tour and shot a +18, the putting killed me, have to it figure it out. Very cool how the scores update as you play and Microsoft has to update the notifications and have them be smaller and let us move them to whichever corner of the screen we choose.

[MUTTS]

75-71 for my first two rounds at Heath.
PS4 version.
Wind a b*tch.

1st round I couldn't get 100 percent power to save my life. Didn't matter what I tried. Was 2 over after one and 4 over pretty early.

2nd round shot even par and would have been 1-2 under if I didn't struggle putting on 15-16. By far my best round at this course.

Never played with the ghost balls before.....freaky when you are about to put and a ball comes flying in.

Tony

[dbdynsty25]

Played first round on ps4...I've about had it with this f***in turd around the greens. Holy crap. Amazing how good it is everywhere else but so damn bad on approach. This thing is about to be shelved. Oh and I can't putt but that's on me...not the game.

[J_Cauthen]

Played first round on ps4...I've about had it with this f***in turd around the greens. Holy crap. Amazing how good it is everywhere else but so damn bad on approach. This thing is about to be shelved. Oh and I can't putt but that's on me...not the game.

My biggest beef with the game lies in the pitching game. The interface, IMO, is way too sensitive when you're trying to modulate the feel of a pitch shot swing. I'll admit that when it comes to a 15 to 30 yard shot in TGC, I resort to 'cheese' and just play a flop shot. Last round I played this morning, I had 20 yards to the pin from the fringe. Instead of playing a pitch shot, I went to a flop shot, lofted it for a 70% distance, took a full swing, skied the ball, it hit a foot in front of the hole and bounced into the hole for a birdie.... I felt like I'd just stolen a box of girl scout cookies and gotten away with it

If I'm in the 30 to 55 yard range, I'll play what's called a "pitch shot" in the game, but I'll loft them as needed to turn it more into a lawn dart type shot than what behaves like a pitch. The game does need some work here and honestly, I'm surprised that I'm as tolerant as I am of it in its current state. The game would feel so much more complete if the pitching game took on a realistic behavior.

[DivotMaker]

Played first round on ps4...I've about had it with this f***in turd around the greens. Holy crap. Amazing how good it is everywhere else but so damn bad on approach. This thing is about to be shelved. Oh and I can't putt but that's on me...not the game.

I can empathize, but in the short game, you have to either hit <100% shots or utilize the loft features to dial in your distances. Pitches will always run out on you unless you have enough headwind to stop it. Typically if I am aiming at a 95 yard shot into a 10 MPH wind with no elevation difference with the SW which is rated for 95 yards at 100% swing, I will swing away.

If I am playing the same shot with a 15 MPH wind I will actually deloft the SW 2-3%. Same shot with 10MPH tail wind, I will give about 5% added loft to make the shot bite.

Too bad you don't have this for the ONe and I am no longer on the PS4 as I would be willing to play a MP round to walk you through this because once you understand the subtle nuances, it plays pretty well. It isn't perfect and probably never will be, but it leaves me scratching my head far less than TW did on similar shots. Let me know if I can help you with specific shots you come across and that goes for anyone playing the game regardless of version.

[dbdynsty25]

Too bad you don't have this for the ONe and I am no longer on the PS4 as I would be willing to play a MP round to walk you through this because once you understand the subtle nuances, it plays pretty well. It isn't perfect and probably never will be, but it leaves me scratching my head far less than TW did on similar shots. Let me know if I can help you with specific shots you come across and that goes for anyone playing the game regardless of version.

Seeing as how there is a whole 4 people playing in the PS4 tourney's I've been contemplating picking it up for the XB1 (way counter intuitive when I'm talking about dumping the game I know). I'll let you know if I do because any help I can get would be beneficial.

[DivotMaker]

Too bad you don't have this for the ONe and I am no longer on the PS4 as I would be willing to play a MP round to walk you through this because once you understand the subtle nuances, it plays pretty well. It isn't perfect and probably never will be, but it leaves me scratching my head far less than TW did on similar shots. Let me know if I can help you with specific shots you come across and that goes for anyone playing the game regardless of version.

Seeing as how there is a whole 4 people playing in the PS4 tourney's I've been contemplating picking it up for the XB1 (way counter intuitive when I'm talking about dumping the game I know). I'll let you know if I do because any help I can get would be beneficial.

You got it, just let me know.....

[pk500]

Quick tip for those with dodgy short games around the green, like me: Use the flop shot instead of a pitch. Easier to control and judge distance, and the ball really bites the green upon impact.

[dbdynsty25]

Quick tip for those with dodgy short games around the green, like me: Use the flop shot instead of a pitch. Easier to control and judge distance, and the ball really bites the green upon impact.

The short/short game isn't the issue I have. Mine is when I'm taking 4-9 irons from distance and getting them to stop properly on the green. Any time you roll the ball up there, the physics are completely whack. Accelerating uphill, clearly not enough friction, etc. Can't exactly hit a 4 iron flop.

[MUTTS]

DB's point is exactly on.

Iron shots right at or short of the pin, struck from the fairway should not roll through the green. The only shots that stop in legit birdie range for me are ones that land short of the green and run up. Even the firmest, fastest greens at a US Open check up some, but not at all in this game. Im now able to shoot rounds in the low 70s now with this game because I aim everything short.

Take that sharp dogleg 9th or 10th hole on the 1st tourney we are all playing. You have to just hit the green-barely carry the water-or you are off the back and in the trap. Im all for a challenging golf game, but this isnt the way to do it.

The game is fun and addictive, but this issue is far more pressing than the short game stuff to me.
Tony

[DivotMaker]

Quick tip for those with dodgy short games around the green, like me: Use the flop shot instead of a pitch. Easier to control and judge distance, and the ball really bites the green upon impact.

The short/short game isn't the issue I have. Mine is when I'm taking 4-9 irons from distance and getting them to stop properly on the green. Any time you roll the ball up there, the physics are completely whack. Accelerating uphill, clearly not enough friction, etc. Can't exactly hit a 4 iron flop.

I'm hitting long irons into the greens and holding most of them depending on the wind and loft I apply. If I am hitting a long iron into a green, if I have a tail wind, I will loft the club up depending on the speed of the tail wind and location of the pin. I may actually club down depending on the elevation change and wind speed.

If I have a head wind, I typically do not loft up unless I am between clubs and have to club up, but if I do club up, it is minimal.

On iron shots with no loft, I am getting the ball to stop into the wind. by carefully adjusting for the speed of the wind and the elevation. It is rare that I hit into a green with a tail widn where I am not lofting up to some degree.

Hope this helps fellas....

[J_Cauthen]

The short/short game isn't the issue I have. Mine is when I'm taking 4-9 irons from distance and getting them to stop properly on the green. Any time you roll the ball up there, the physics are completely whack. Accelerating uphill, clearly not enough friction, etc. Can't exactly hit a 4 iron flop.

When you earlier said "had it with this f***in turd around the greens", I took that to mean the pitching and chipping game. I see your point about the way greens fail to hold approach shots properly and agree with it. Any green that's medium firmness and medium speed, or higher (and this turns out to be the majority of courses) will exhibit the qualities you're describing. I deal with them by dropping down to a lower club and lofting the club more. It seems like when you loft a lower iron to yield the same amount of carry, it will have more bite on it than the higher iron at normal loft. Even at that though, you have to allow for more run-up. It's not the ideal solution, but it's one that I can cope with a bit better.

I see that Tim has responded with something similar to what I'm telling you. He's right, you can get away with normal or just a slight degree of added loft into a headwind.

[pk500]

Quick tip for those with dodgy short games around the green, like me: Use the flop shot instead of a pitch. Easier to control and judge distance, and the ball really bites the green upon impact.

The short/short game isn't the issue I have. Mine is when I'm taking 4-9 irons from distance and getting them to stop properly on the green. Any time you roll the ball up there, the physics are completely whack. Accelerating uphill, clearly not enough friction, etc. Can't exactly hit a 4 iron flop.

Ah, yeah. You're right on medium-to-short irons. The ball runs on the green faster than Usain Bolt. I compensate by hitting it short and hoping to get the roll toward the cup.

Hope that problem is fixed soon. It's one of the few zits on an otherwise porcelain game.

[MUTTS]

75-71-87-74

Really sucked that third round- had a 7 putt hole after making turn even par.
Merace is a beast as he was -2 for the tourney.
Need some more ps4 dudes.
Tony

[10spro]

75-71-87-74

Really sucked that third round- had a 7 putt hole after making turn even par.
Merace is a beast as he was -2 for the tourney.
Need some more ps4 dudes.
Tony

Yep, Merace had this course under control. It wasn't so much the short game for me here, but I did miss a lot of fairways from the get go with the wind going at 12 mph and my putting simply sucked air. My best score was 78 I think and continued with my struggles the next rounds.

Off to Pinehurst #2 this weekend.

[DivotMaker]

Finished the Pinehurst #2 tournament at -17, but did not advance to the next tournament, instead choosing to go back to the main menu and when I went to play Westchester round 1 this AM, the game took me back to Pinehurst #18 to tap in for a par instead of a birdie ending up with -16 for the 4 rounds. So please advance to the next tournament and to be safe, hit at least one shot so you do not encounter this bug.

[vader29]

Finished the Pinehurst #2 tournament at -17, but did not advance to the next tournament, instead choosing to go back to the main menu and when I went to play Westchester round 1 this AM, the game took me back to Pinehurst #18 to tap in for a par instead of a birdie ending up with -16 for the 4 rounds. So please advance to the next tournament and to be safe, hit at least one shot so you do not encounter this bug.

That bug got me the other night, finished all 4 rounds at The Heathlands and then watched tv for a couple of hours, went back to the tournament and it put me on the 18th hole in the 2nd round and then had to replay the entire 3rd and 4th rounds.

[RobVarak]

Finished the Pinehurst #2 tournament at -17, but did not advance to the next tournament, instead choosing to go back to the main menu and when I went to play Westchester round 1 this AM, the game took me back to Pinehurst #18 to tap in for a par instead of a birdie ending up with -16 for the 4 rounds. So please advance to the next tournament and to be safe, hit at least one shot so you do not encounter this bug.

That sucks, but thanks for the reminder.

Played par golf in the first round at Westchester after finally putting my game together in the last couple rounds at Pinehurst. I actually think I was just undoing the residual psychological damage done at Heathlands.

[DivotMaker]

That sucks, but thanks for the reminder.

Played par golf in the first round at Westchester after finally putting my game together in the last couple rounds at Pinehurst. I actually think I was just undoing the residual psychological damage done at Heathlands.

You played well. You and JC were the ghost balls I was playing against. JC played extremely well with a -8......

[MERACE]

That sucks, but thanks for the reminder.

Played par golf in the first round at Westchester after finally putting my game together in the last couple rounds at Pinehurst. I actually think I was just undoing the residual psychological damage done at Heathlands.

You played well. You and JC were the ghost balls I was playing against. JC played extremely well with a -8......

This is where I'm hoping that HB Studios adds cross-platform ghost balls soon. They said it can be done but will require some extensive development work.


-MERACE

[J_Cauthen]

That sucks, but thanks for the reminder.

Played par golf in the first round at Westchester after finally putting my game together in the last couple rounds at Pinehurst. I actually think I was just undoing the residual psychological damage done at Heathlands.

You played well. You and JC were the ghost balls I was playing against. JC played extremely well with a -8......

I really miss not having at least a ghost ball to play with. I played with Diablo25's ghost ball, with turn-based enabled for the back 9 in the last round of the Heathland GC event, and we were neck and neck all the way to the finish... it really added a dimension to the gameplay! I had to roll a 14 foot birdie putt on the last hole to tie him.

I'm going to try to pace myself a bit more so as to keep in step with the field. It's hard to tell where anyone is at right now because no names show up on the leaderboard, not even my own!?

The Oaks at Westchester can be an easy play and it fits my eye well; however, there are a couple of double bogey holes that will sneak up on you there.

[J_Cauthen]

This is where I'm hoping that HB Studios adds cross-platform ghost balls soon. They said it can be done but will require some extensive development work.
-MERACE

I think HBS is going to have a tough row to hoe with this idea, but if they made the cross platform course sharing work, they can probably make this happen as well. They'd probably have to fix it to where it could only be ghost balls in cross platform play, so if you were trying to track another player on another platform concurrently, it wouldn't work. It'd still be a lot better than just being limited to the platform specific fields we are now. I'd love to see at least 10 golfers in a tour field to give it more life and the DSP'ers are spread out pretty evenly over the PS4 and XB1 right now.

[J_Cauthen]

I've had some strange things happen in in the final round of The Oaks at Westchester (Heck of a fine course BTW!) tournament. I had already teed off the first hole in the final round, and quit there to avoid the scoring/replay bug. Then I was waiting for someone else in the tournament to catch up to me so I could play with a ghost round.

I never saw any names on the leaderboard when I'd select it prior to resuming the tournament. I thought I would at least see maybe how the previously completed tournaments stood, but nothing is there. I'd then resume the round to see if a name or two would show up then, I'd play a shot or two and then quit. Yesterday, I saw Rob's name when I'd go into the "Add Rivals" menu, and he showed up under "Current Tour". I selected him using the process I always use to add ghosts, but when I'd get back to the main screen, he wasn't showing up on the roster, nor was his ball in play.

Once I'd selected Rob and he wouldn't appear, I'd go back and see if I could add him a second time and the menu would say "no players available". I should have gone in to see if he was available to remove as a rival, maybe that would have told me something. Anyway, I played the last round out and could see Rob's updated, hole-by-hole score. He and I played the last round on pretty much the same terms and it would have been fun to have played along with him, and maybe go to school on some of his shots (BTW, if anyone wants the line on a double-breaking 34 foot eagle putt from pin-high, to the left of the 18th, watch my final putt of this tournament... easily one of the top five most satisfying moments in my TGC career )

To close this up though, as I went to play my first tee shot on the next tournament (Sahalee), I noticed that Rob was automatically in my group and we both went off the first tee with no problem. I held up there and exited the round to resume later. Is it the case that you can't add a ghost in tour or tournament play after the round has started? I know you can do this in an independent round.

[Jimmydeicide]

I have an idea but in our crazy scheduled lives its a stretch but id like to set up a tournament, 1 event where we get a list of players up front and then we draw pairings for the first round and play that round together with that player. After that the pairings are then score based. We could even set up a party and stagger tee times and to stop people from playing thru the first group

Would take some effort on our part and maybe just a 2 day tourney over 1 evening but i think this would be a fun project.