Hi, I'm Jon. I'm from Canada. I've never posted here before, but I have been "lurking" around like a creeper finding courses to play for years and I gotta thank you all in the community for your outstanding work and dedication to this game.
It all started a few years ago when I felt like playing a golf video game. So, I fired up my old Tiger Woods game on the old PS3 and quickly realized that it definitely did not age well. I started searching for newer golf games and found The Golf Club 2019. I downloaded it and after a few days getting used to it, I fell in love with the realism. You could no longer bomb 400 yard drives with maxed out super clubs, power boost, control spin in mid air, and drain every 40 footer.
After playing most of the official courses, some good, others not so much, I did some more digging and realized that this game had a plethora of RCRs. I went through the top 100 North American and World golf course rankings and most of them were on here!! Private courses like Cypress Point and Pine Valley that I realistically would never get a chance to play and bucket list courses like Cabot Cliffs, Royal County Down and the old classics Pebble Beach and St. Andrews. I couldn't believe it. After my world tour running out of courses to play, I somehow found these boards and came across the design contest sections. I looked at some photos and though huh, these look pretty realistic. I fired up a couple and was completely floored. This is when I fully realized how incredible this game really is. I started devouring the TGC Tours database and clicking on designer profiles and playing any course that looked appealing. It's like music, you hear one song and that leads to a different artist and another and it just snowballs.
I cannot believe the creativity of you designers! The attention to detail and dedication to your hobby is simply amazing! There are soooo many great courses on these games. If any of these courses were real, I honestly think they would give most of the real life top 100 courses a run for their money. Sure some of them maybe have a few too many conveniently placed bunkers here and there, they have to be to keep the driving challenging. Or some greens are a wee bit overcooked. And some of them are a little unrealistic in regards to general accessibility for the public/members, personal safety around some cliffs and the feasibility of how to get heavy construction equipment in and out of that plot or the daily turf maintenance, hahaha. But hey, its a video game after all.
So, I've decided to do a ranking of my own. I have loosely grouped the courses into categories based on their style. A lot of them are organized by themes such as Highlands, Delta, etc. But I tried to narrow it down even further than that.
I play on pro setting, with the power meter turned off and I still hit bad shots. I would say I shoot anywhere from 59-76 depending on the course or how I play but I probably average 5-6 under each round. I almost always take the risk in the risk/reward scenario, cause I feel I can get up and down about 75% of the time. I don't have to look for my ball or hold up the group behind me and golf balls are free. I have tried masters and the higher difficulties but its too much for me. I play this game to relax and unwind and I don't want to be hitting hooks and slices and hitting 62-78% sidehill/downhill lies into strong winds and trying to stop the ball on your guy's very challenging greens haha. And I'm about an18 handicap IRL so I don't wanna be doing that crap in both real and virtual golf.
I always play a minimum of medium winds but high or very high on links style or open terrain courses. The fairways are always firm or very firm. I think the physics with how the ball lands with mid irons is a little too bouncy, so I play mostly moderate but sometimes firm greens. And lastly, green speeds are always fast, cause I like the challenge of the putting. You may think that is the way to play but I don't care, I have fun.
Things I like in courses:
Natural, realistic looking: Pretty much every course on this list has this. Everyone has done an incredible job. I cannot believe the detail and patience you all have. It is truly an artform. I have saved many photos to my computer and am just stunneBy the way, besides this I could tell you that many of my courses have been inspired from here
related site this source seems very good to me and I know many use it that way. What do you guys think about it, I would like you to give me some feedback, because I would like to pass these courses on to the college where I studied.
Bearded Bunkers
Heroic carries over cliffs and water
Elevation changes
Peninsula Greens
Tightly mowed green surrounds to allow options for approaches and recovery
Drive-able Par 4s and reachable par 5s
McKenzie style bunkers
Waste bunkers
White Sand
Things I don't like:
Ridiculous sculpting and fantasy land courses made by kids or hack designers. Many times I have fired up a course, played one hole and was like ummmm no.
Seth Raynor style geometric bunkers. Like The Chicago Golf Club. I like the templates, I'm just not a fan of that bunker style.
Courses with more uphill shots than downhill or level shots
Island greens
Target style point shoot and land golf.
I judge the course based on:
Creativity/Uniqueness - Is there anything that stands out or is different from the rest? If someones asks you about a course, do you associate a memorable feature from it?
Visuals/Views/Planting/Colour Scheme/Bunker Style - I play on PS4 so I can't zoom around the plot looking at off hole details. But is the clubhouse cool? Does the course offer some stunning views? How realistic and detailed is the vegetation? Do the fairways, greens, rough, bunkers and surrounding areas contrast nicely and does the overall atmosphere work?
Shot Values - how difficult, memorable and fun are the shots?
Strategy/Replay Value - do the holes play the same with different pins and winds or do you have options on your drives and approaches?
Sorry for the long winded introduction, I just want anyone who reads this to know where I'm coming from.
Hopefully this will lead to some good healthy discussion, not much arguing or anyone's feelings getting hurt haha. Thanks again, to everyone in the design community, you guys are true artists in my mind.
So without further ado, I present MY TOP 150 COURSES OF TGC19/2K21
EDIT: After finding and playing some more courses, this list is now closer to 200.