The Golf Club 2019 improved on many of the flaws that plagued the franchise's previous releases. Improvements include fine-tuning the previously unforgiving shot metrics, the cancellation of painfully long sequences of the ball rolling thanks to the fast forward button, and the overall smoother player experience.
Nonetheless, approaching The Golf Club 2019 as a beginner can be rather daunting, especially if you are unfamiliar with the sport of golf itself. The tutorials offered in the game do a fairly good job of showing a beginner the basic controls, however, there are several beneficial hints and strategies that players are not exposed to during training. Here are 10 tips for beginners and/or non-golfers to earn lower scores.
10 Add Ghost Players To Your Rounds
Before starting a round, Golf Club gives you the ability to add a ghost player to accompany your golfer through each hole. You can pick through a leaderboard of players who completed the course with various scores. For instance, you could select a player who finished on par with the course or someone who shot -11.
The advantage a ghost brings is that you can watch the trajectory and landing point of ghosts' shots in order to determine the best course of action for your own. A beginner to The Golf Club 2019 would highly benefit from watching the approaches of negative-scoring performers as ghosts. You can also set your own past performances on the course as ghost players in order to measure your personal improvement over time.
9 Check The Club Your Using Before Every Stroke
In past Golf Club releases, it was very unusual to start a shot without being given the ideal club and shot type (in HB official courses at least). However, in The Golf Club 2019, it seems you are given the best-possible club and shot type at a much less frequent rate.
Therefore, it is imperative to check the club and shot type you are "given" before a shot and adjust each accordingly to your situation. For example, many times, you can club up in the tee box in order to capitalize on eagle and birdie opportunities on Par 4's and 5's. Make sure you are using the best-possible club and taking the best-possible shot before each stroke.
8 Pay Close Attention To Ball Lie
A golfer's lie is where the ball is positioned within the course. You may hit the ball out of the fairway, light rough, heavy rough, sand or even the cart path on occasion. The Golf Club 2019 indicates the effect your ball's lie will have on your shot with a percentage that is placed in the top right corner.
By multiplying the percentage and your club's expected carrying distance, you can gain a general idea of the distance your shot will reach. Different types of clubs face varying levels of adversity on different surfaces. For example, check out the next tip...
7 Never Use A Wood Or Hybrid Out Of Heavy Rough
In accordance with tip 8, never use a wood or hybrid club if your lie is in the heavy rough. The carrying distances for irons and wedges are brought down to between approximately 65%-75% out of the heavy rough. In comparison, hybrids are brought down to 55%-64% and woods are struck down to 50%-57%.
The figures vary depending on the course but the unpredictable accuracy that results from hitting a wood or hybrid out of heavy rough outweighs the need for distance. Wood or hybrid shots out of the heavy rough are extremely risky and can be irrecoverable to your final score.
6 Respect The Trees
Many gamers will be tempted to try and gain an extra advantage by sneaking shots over, through or around groupings of trees. In a close and competitive match, it is dangerous to test the absolute brutality these trees can unleash on your scorecard. Even if you were to add high-loft, draw or fade to your shot in order to evade sections of trees, the effects of these changes to your swing are difficult to predict and can result in disastrous strokes.
It is much safer to avoid trees and hit the ball straight as long as it makes sense. The trees in The Golf Club 2019 are unforgiving and the slightest contact a ball makes with their branches will send it quickly plummeting to the ground. Stay away!
5 Chipping Advice
Although The Golf Club 2019's tutorials do a decent job of introducing players to driving and putting, it sheds fairly little light on chipping. Let's go over the different clubs you should use for chips and each of their effects on your shot.
A chip with a lob wedge will send the ball the shortest distance out of all the wedges and lands on the green with the slowest roll. A sand wedge can be chipped slightly farther and rolls somewhat faster. A gap wedge is good for chipping over a sand pit or water surface and reaches further than the sand and lob.
The pitching wedge reaches further than the other three wedge types and rolls very quickly on the green. I would suggest against chipping with irons because it gives the ball uncontrollable velocity on the green. Instead, you should use a flop shot with one of the wedges.
4 How To Get By Without A Power Meter For Putting
Unlike the Golf Club's formally beloved predecessor, Tiger Woods PGA Tour, The Golf Club 2019 does not give players a visual power meter for putting. The tutorial chalks much of its advice for putting as "figuring it out by feel," but the resulting frustration of constantly over or undershooting your puts is unbearable. A put can travel anywhere from 1 inch to 144 feet so it is very important to get the power of your puts under control.
One reference point you can watch for is when the bottom of your golfer's putter is no longer parallel with the ground, the ball will roll about 30 feet on a medium speed green. Finding a similar reference point in your golfer's put stroke may help you get a better idea for power and distance. It also helps to always check the green speeds for a course before you play or go to the course details tab in the pause menu.
3 Never Underestimate The Power Of Slopes On The Green
A small slope or hill on the green can be the difference between a great and poor final score. The slopes on greens make a tremendous difference, even if they aren't indicated with yellow or red gridlines; if they are yellow or red, the adjustment to your put stroke will be dramatic. It is essential to add a seemingly tremendous amount of power to a put going up a red-labeled slope.
In accordance, a slope going downhill requires the slightest taps at times. Both situations are accompanied by harsh consequences at the smallest imprecision, so keeping a keen eye on the slopes of different greens is a key factor in maintaining an ideal score.
2 How To Read The Grid On Putting Greens
The gridlines are rather self-explanatory as to why they help players, but there are several tactics you can use to benefit the most from them. One way to get a better view of gridlines is by pressing Y or Triangle and pulling back on the right stick to give you a ground view. From here, you can use the left stick to move your viewpoint further or closer to the hole in order to analyze the breaks of the green.
Another thing to consider when putting is that the slower the ball moves, the more it is affected by the break. In addition, by observing the effects different green speeds have on puts, you can start to quantify the amount of break the ball will make by using the boxes that are formed by the grid as reference points for certain distances and levels of a break.
1 Adjust Your Golf Bag Based On Course And Style Of Play
There are several different ways to adjust the clubs you carry in your golf bag for different player styles and courses. In any combination of clubs, there will be a wide disparity in carrying distance between at least two clubs in the set. The problem is that strokes of a certain distance may not be covered by the clubs in your golf bag. You may have two clubs that carry the ball around that distance, but a partial swing can be easily miscalculated.
Based on the sand traps and bodies of water in a course, you can select what level of clubs you'd like to allocate to a specific disparity, whether it be between your irons, hybrids, or woods. In addition, if you frequently find yourself in the rough or plan to play on a course with thin fairways, you will benefit from equipping your golf bag with a larger iron in order to get more distance on shots with undesirable lies. You can customize your golf bag by clicking on the edit golfer tab in the main menu.