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The Golf Club 2019 Adds The PGA Tour License
HB Studios has announced a significant addition to its Golf Club 2019 title – The PGA Tour license. This means that the August title (PS4, Xbox One, and PC) includes the FedExCup, six licensed courses at launch, and much more.
The game's PGA Tour Career mode starts at the Q School qualifying tournaments, continues through earning your PGA Tour membership via the Web.com Tour, and culminates in the Tour itself, which has the FedExCup Playoffs.
The Tour also contains six real-world TPC courses: Summerlin, Scottsdale, Sawgrass, Southwind, Deere Run, and Boston. The announcement's official press release also mentions that other licensed tournament courses will be added in the future.
Conquering demanding courses like these won't be your only challenge. While on the Tour, players will have sponsorship goals (each sponsor has three levels with multiple challenges) and Tour rivalries. The winner of these is determined by which player earns 20 points in statistical categories such as Front 9 Score, No Bogey Round, and Best Hole.
Since its start in 2014, The Golf Club series has been relatively license free, centering around its course creation options – which are still present in The Golf Club 2019. Competitor EA Sports last had the PGA Tour license in Rory McIlroy PGA Tour (2015), but since then EA's golf series has been silent.
For more on the game, check out a Sports Desk Q&A with HB Studios CEO Alan Bunker.
[Source: HB Studios (1), (2)]
Our Take
As it stands, the game is not adding licensed golfers, and that's not a bad thing. The series is leaning more heavily into character customization this year, and on the whole it's been a franchise more about gamers creating their own world than leaning heavily on licenses. Thus, the addition of the PGA Tour is great because it gives the career mode needed heft without saddling developer HB Studios with spendy licenses for individual golfers. I believe that the latter factor caused the end of EA's golf series.
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