Green approaches and spin

[penfold]

Hi all.

TGC 2019 is my first foray into the "Golf club" games.

I think the gameplay is pretty good to be fair.

However, I am having real issues with green approach shots. After teeing off, club selection for my next shot is always (and I mean always!) either too short or too long into the green.

I don't mind this, but pretty much anything I try to do to compensate for this invariably ends up in failure. 

Loft up on the longer club: Fail.
Loft down on the shorter club and run it on: Fail
Use the wind to bring it in: Fail

For a golf simulator, where is the spin option? this would obviously help greatly with green approaches and stopping the ball simply rolling pretty much the full length of the green.

I really do like this game, and the approach shots are the only thing that really irks me. I feel if the currently frustrating approach mechanics were better (not necessarily easier, but you had more options) I think it could be great.

[Deleted]

The loft box is literal dial-a-distance when you learn it,. Best advice I can give is create a super quick hole in the designer with a huge flat green, and test out your irons and wedges with different clubs and note how far they carry and roll, then change the green firmness and speed to softer/firmer and compare the results. You don't even need to chart anything in fact, just doing this exercise alone will give you a much better feel for getting the distances you want.

Also on all your approach shots, before you do anything you need to use the scout cam and assess the green grid around the hole, if there's uphill, downhill, left, right, if the green is firm, soft, fast, slow, all of that data (plus of course wind) is absolutely vital to incorporate if you want to get close to the pin. And honestly this is the most rewarding part of the game for me, it's like every pin is a puzzle you need to work out to get the ball close. This game is the definition of easy to pick up but difficult to master, it takes a lot of practice.

Spin in this game is a problem, more likely to do with excessive firmness of greens, because I've played soft greens and you can stop the ball quite well on those. It feels like they've basically shifted their definition of firmness too high compared to TGC2 (which had great spin effects imo). We're all hoping that the upcoming patch will resolve this...

[penfold]

Thanks for the tips.

I do check the greens with scout-cam for the grid around the pin, and try to make the correct adjustments, I also check the lie at my feet and try to factor that in too.

I guess trial and error and practice are required here. It just seems that pretty much every decision I make ends up being wrong, and I have always been quite good at golf games.

I know this is not the case, but sometimes I feel I am being cheated by the game when I feel I played a good shot and made the correct decisions, never really felt like that before with a golf game.

[Deleted]

Oct 2, 2018 6:10:41 GMT -5 penfold said:

Thanks for the tips.

I do check the greens with scout-cam for the grid around the pin, and try to make the correct adjustments, I also check the lie at my feet and try to factor that in too.

I guess trial and error and practice are required here. It just seems that pretty much every decision I make ends up being wrong, and I have always been quite good at golf games.

I know this is not the case, but sometimes I feel I am being cheated by the game when I feel I played a good shot and made the correct decisions, never really felt like that before with a golf game.

It'll come I promise There's a serious learning curve with this series, it took me 50+ hours in TGC2 before I was reasonably confident on approaches, but now (after well over 1000 hours lol) if anything it feels too easy and I've actually just started a society where the loft box (along with all other aids) is not allowed, just to make it more challenging and rewarding to get close. 

That's not to say that some pins aren't outrageously difficult, especially with firm/very firm settings which imo are too firm in the new game, but in 99% of pins you can definitely finish right next to it with the right calculations.