EA Sports PGA Tour - Patch Notes

[EA_Illium]

Hey Everyone, 

Below you can find all of the previous patch notes for EA Sports PGA Tour!!!

[EA_Illium]

For the latest PGA Tour news check out our News Page!

Check out the 20 game-changing shot types coming to EA SPORTS™ PGA TOUR™

As the most advanced EA SPORTS™ PGA TOUR™ game yet, gameplay innovations are everywhere you look, and this year when you step up to the ball, you’ve got more control over the game with shot types. Shot types change the way you’ll play EA SPORTS PGA TOUR by equipping you with every type of shot you'll need to take on the world's toughest courses on your quest for major championship glory. To learn more about other gameplay innovations coming to EA SPORTS PGA TOUR this year, check out the Gameplay Deep Dive video and blog.

Read on for more information about shot types.

Each professional golfer has a variety of shots that they take onto the course, so it’s only fitting that you’ll get a variety of shot types to take onto the virtual course yourself when you play EA SPORTS PGA TOUR.

There are 20 available shot types in the game and each one is intended to help you succeed when you face a specific, on-course challenge. Each shot type has its own unique profile producing shots with varying ball speeds, launch angles, spin rates, and shot dispersion that you would expect in real life. Each shot type profile is unique per club and per class of golfer trajectory (low, medium, and high), which result in over 1300 unique profiles available in EA SPORTS PGA TOUR.

In previous EA golf games, your options were limited; typically only requiring you to select the appropriate club. Now, with shot types, every time you step to the ball you’ll choose your shot type and then select your club. This unlocks a new layer of depth and strategy, allowing you to get one step closer to the pre-shot thought process and routine of a pro golfer.

Among other conditions that change with each shot type, each shot comes with a certain amount of dispersion, impacting the accuracy of a shot which varies based on each golfer’s skill with the specific shot type.

Your created golfer starts off with eight basic shot types and you’ll be able to unlock the other twelve as you progress in career mode. There are four categories of shot types that you’ll be able to master with a golfer of your choice so whether you prefer to perfect the short game, approach shots, or all of them, there will be a shot type to fit the situation. All shot types fall under one of four categories: Driving, Approach, Short Game, or Putting.

Driving Shot Types

These shot types, represented with a shield shaped icon, can only be used when the ball is teed up on the tee box, since hitting off a tee produces different launch angle, flight, and spin than shots hit off the ground. These shot types are based on the golfer’s Driving Skills. There are three shot types in this category: Drive, Power Drive, and Stinger. Check out the full descriptions of these shot types below!

• Drive - A standard full swing shot to get consistent distance and accuracy off the tee.
• Power Drive - A more powerful full swing when the golfer wants to get more distance off the tee. It comes with a slightly larger shot dispersion than the Drive as a result of the extra effort put into the swing.
• Stinger - A really low and powerful shot that keeps the ball under the wind and generates a lot of roll. Great for use in windy conditions and on firm, fast courses as it allows the terrain to generate the distance with massive rollouts.

Approach Shot Types
Once you’re off the tee box and you're on any terrain, approach shot types come into play. These shot types are perfect for getting to the green or a specific spot on the course since they have slightly lower launch angles than driving shot types. How accurately you hit an approach shot type is dependent on your golfer’s Approach Skills. There are six shot types in this category listed below.

• Approach - A standard full swing shot to get consistent distance and accuracy from terrain.
• Power Approach - A more powerful full swing when the golfer wants to get more distance from terrain. It comes with a slightly larger shot dispersion than the Approach as a result of the extra effort put into the swing.
• Punch - A really low shot without a lot of power that keeps the ball under the wind and generates a lot of roll. Mainly used to get out of trees and back onto the playable area of the course.
• Knock Down - A full swing shot that gets the ball to fly lower than a normal approach but high enough to still land soft and stop. Mainly used to minimize the impact of wind or on softer courses to prevent the ball from spinning back too much. It can also be used from the tee box.
• Finesse - A shorter more versatile shot that can go a wider variety of distances than the Approach. Mainly used when you are at a distance that is between clubs on your normal approach or when you get too close to the green for an approach but you are too far for the short game shots. It can also be used from the tee box.
• Hack - A powerful full swing shot that is only used from the first cut, second cut or heavy rough. It has less power penalty from these thicker grasses than the other shot types and is a valuable asset on courses with very thick and penalizing longer cuts.

Short Game Shot Types
Once you’ve utilized your driving and approach shot types, you’ll probably want to pull out a short game shot type, perfect for when your golfer gets in close proximity to the green. Whether you want a shot that’s lower flying with more roll or higher flying with lots of spin, short game shot types give you individualized control to get the ball in the hole. There are eight shot types in this category controlled by your golfer’s Short Game Skills..

• Pitch - A standard half swing shot that gets the ball up onto the green with a normal amount of roll out. It can be used anywhere around the green except for Bunkers.
• Runner - A lower flying half swing shot that can also be used anywhere around the green except for Bunkers.
• Spinner - A half swing shot with more speed. This speed helps generate more spin on the ball and gets it to check up instead of roll out after landing. You can use it in the Fairway, Fringe and First Cut.
• Flop - A long swing that lobs the ball high into the air and lands softly on the green. It can be used anywhere around the green except for Bunkers.
• Long Flop - A version of the flop that goes a greater distance, but has a larger shot dispersion. It can be used anywhere around the green except for Bunkers.
• High Flop - A version of the flop that goes extremely high, lands and stops immediately. It can be used anywhere around the green except for Bunkers and Heavy Rough.
• Blast - A shot specifically used out of Bunkers. This swing hits the sand behind the ball to loft it up out of the Bunker and onto the green.
• Pick - An alternative shot out of Bunkers. This is a cleaner strike that hits less sand and more of the ball, allowing for more spin and less rollout.

Putting Shot Types
Represented with diamond shape icons, putting shot types are perfect for when your golfer is on or close to the green. But, you’ll have to use the slope of the course to ensure that your ball makes it to the hole just like you’d do in real life. The three Putting shot types are controlled by your golfer’s putting skills.

• Putt - A stroke with a putter that instantly gets the ball rolling and is only used on the Green or Fringe.
• Chip - A short putting stroke style shot with wedges and short irons that bumps the ball up into the air for a few yards and gets it rolling very quickly. It is mainly used when right next to the green to bump the ball over a bit of longer cut terrain and onto the shorter cuts that will let it roll.
• Texas Wedge - A stroke with the putter that instantly gets the ball rolling but can be used when not on the Green or Fringe. Judging the distance with it can be tricky, but this shot is extremely effective once it is mastered.

Shot Type Tiers
Whether you’re using an Approach or Putting shot type, your shot types all have a tier-level; Bronze, Silver, or Gold which represents how well your golfer can pull off that shot type.

Gold shot types always perform at the skill level of your golfer while Bronze and Silver shot types perform below the skill level of your golfer. For example, if your golfer's short game accuracy is a 7, a Gold short game shot type will get the full impact of that 7. But a Bronze or Silver short game shot type accuracy will be less than 7.

Regardless of what golfer you’re playing with, every golfer has a few core shot types that are always Gold: Drive, Approach, Punch, Pitch, Flop, Blast, Chip, and Putt. Specialty shot types are unlocked as Bronze and can be upgraded to Silver and Gold.

Shot Creation Utilizing Shot Types and Shot Shaping
With shot types, you’ll be able to make strategic decisions on the course with more control over the ball than ever.

Here’s an example, imagine you’re on the tee box about to hit the opening drive of your round. The first option you may consider is the “Drive” shot type, since it has a profile that is well balanced between accuracy and distance. However, if you see a bunker on the far end of the fairway, you may instead consider hitting a “Power Drive” if you think it allows your ball to fly over the bunker and land safely on the other side. Lastly, you could choose to hit a “Stinger” if you want your ball on the ground and running as soon as possible, which is great for accuracy and especially useful when playing in strong winds.

After you’ve chosen your shot type and selected your club, you can further customize your shot with shot shaping.

While aiming, you can use the shot shaping stick to apply different shapes to your shot. Up or down on your stick will aim your ball flight higher or lower, while left or right on the stick will curve your shot left or right, also known as Draw and Fade. Shot shaping is an essential element of advanced golf strategy that allows you to do things like hit under a tree limb or curve the flight of your ball to the alignment of a narrow green.

Shot Types and Shot Creation revolutionize your gameplay experience
The combination of shot types and shot shaping allow you to have complete control of every shot, so you can spend more time feeling like a pro.

The Tee is Yours with EA SPORTS PGA TOUR’s shot types that bring you closer to a real-life game of golf than ever before. If you’d like to know more about the gameplay innovations coming to EA SPORTS PGA TOUR this year check out the Gameplay deep dive video and blog

Pre-order now!*

*Conditions & restrictions apply. See https://www.ea.com/games/ea-sports-pga-tour/disclaimers for details.

This article is from the deep dive post on PGA Tour's news page.

[EA_Illium]

For the latest PGA Tour news check out our News Page!

Check out the innovative gameplay coming in EA SPORTS PGA TOUR!

EA SPORTS™ PGA TOUR™ brings all four major championships - The Masters, PGA Championship, the U.S. Open Championship and The Open as well as the race to the FedExCup - to your home. Along with these prestigious competitions come a variety of gameplay innovations powered by Pure Strike. Check out the gameplay deep dive video below to hear more about the gameplay innovations for EA SPORTS PGA TOUR.

Design Philosophy with Pure Strike
When making EA SPORTS PGA TOUR, our ultimate goal is for you to feel like a major championship golfer every time you pick up the controller. This philosophy has informed every aspect of the game's design. From the distance and control of shots to courses with true-to-life physics and shot types sculpted for the pros, EA SPORTS PGA TOUR provides an experience like that of an in-real-life pro-golfer. Our Design Philosophy continues to inform all the gameplay innovations including the newest advancement in EA SPORTS PGA TOUR gameplay with Pure Strike.

Pure Strike gives you all the tools you need to realistically attack every hole on every course the same way the pros do. Featuring ShotLink® powered by CDW and data from TrackMan, Pure Strike helps ensure that each professional golfer’s unique swing and attributes will be accurately reflected in the game. Pure Strike incorporates the three parts of every golf shot: fluid swing mechanics that are highly accurate to a player’s backswing length and speed of follow through, innovative ball behavior allowing every bounce and roll to behave more accurately across a variety of terrain and course conditions, and lifelike course dynamics that play true to their real life course counterparts.

Ball Behavior and Course Dynamics bring real-life experiences to every round of golf
Thanks to the Frostbite engine, EA SPORTS PGA TOUR brings you stunning visual fidelity for thirty courses at launch, but the experience of playing on one of these prestigious courses is only complete with course dynamics that have the ball behave just like it would on the course in real-life.

Whether it's facing 20 mph winds over the rock-hard terrain at the Old Course at St Andrews, to the suffocating rough at Bay Hill every one of the world-renowned courses in EA SPORTS PGA TOUR has been designed to challenge you the same way it would a professional golfer.

Your ball is tracked in-game by measuring power, swing, apex, and carry which is visible on screen after you hit your shot.

There are a variety of factors that impact the bounce and roll of the ball after you’ve taken your swing that also vary based on where the ball has met the different terrains on a course. The firmness of the ground, the speed of the ball’s roll, the ball’s spin, and the terrain the shot was hit from all impact the way the ball behaves once your shot lands.

But it’s not just the bounce and roll of the ball that’s unique. Each course also has its own flight physics based on elevation, wind, and other factors. So if you’re playing at one of the higher elevation in-game courses like Banff Springs in the Rockies, the ball will fly farther than when you’re playing at a low elevation course like Pebble Beach, which sits at sea level.

No two courses are identical, so shots on every course will behave differently based on the speed and firmness of the fairway, fringe and green, as well as the firmness and length of the first cut and second cut. On every golf course in the game, you can set speed and firmness of the terrain to either slow, average, fast, or tournament. Other courses will have terrains where you’ll be able to control length and firmness with three options: short, medium, and long.

We built each course with state of the art LIDAR data captured by helicopter or drone, mapping all of the vegetation, slopes, and terrain into the engine. From there, we designed a custom physics profile for each course using a combination of archival video footage, data from ShotLink® powered by CDW, and in-depth interviews from course superintendents. All this data made for a powerfully accurate depiction of courses that appear in-game.

As a result of course dynamics, at each course you’ll need to develop unique strategies to take successful shots in a variety of conditions so that from The Masters to The FedExCup you feel like you’re playing the course in real life.

Adjust strategy with Shot Types for more authentic golf
EA SPORTS PGA TOUR provides you with an authentic pro-golfer experience, and the 20 shot types in the game allow you to expand your experience with a variety of shots that professional golfers execute on the course.

There are 20 total shot types in EA SPORTS PGA TOUR under the categories driving, approach, shot game, and putting that are represented with gold, silver, and bronze shot types. To learn more about shot types and read a breakdown of each shot, visit our blog on shot types.

Fluid Swing Mechanics provide more realistic shot results
There are a variety of decisions a player can make to impact their swing and shot, so from the swings themselves to specific golfer skills, Pure Strike’s gameplay mechanics are made to feel like you’re truly playing as a professional golfer. We even captured swings from professional golfers to ensure that their unique swings make it into the game for a true-to-life experience..

Take the swing mechanic, for example, when you swing with your swing stick, three components will impact the resulting shot.

• Backswing length: How far your golfer takes the club back as you pull down on your swing stick.
• Forward swing speed: How fast your golfer swings forward or how fast you push up with your swing stick.
• Swing plane: Maps the path your swing takes and matches to the path your swing stick moves.

In addition to the swing itself, your golfer’s Swing Meter is directly tied to your golfer’s animation. You can time shots exactly how you would in real life since there’s no artificial meter you have to hit in order to carry out the perfect swing, the visuals say it all.

Both backswing length and forward swing speed will impact the power of your shot. So if your backswing is too long you’ll overswing but if it’s too short, you’ll underswing. If your forward swing is too fast or slow, your shot won’t go the intended distance. So getting the perfect shot will rely on your ability to time and carry out these actions accurately, just like a real golfer would. And you’ll receive on-screen feedback after every shot, so you’ll know if you over-or-under swung.

The swing plane impacts the curve on the shot and the initial direction of the launch. If the swing plane is inaccurate, the curve and direction of the ball will shift for the backswing and forward swing respectively.

When putting, the goal is to backswing perfectly which dynamically updates as you adjust your aim on the green.

Golfer Skills Make Each Shot and Golfer Unique
Golfer skills also impact your ability to swing on the course. Each golfer has their own set of skills which you can unlock and develop the more you play. And you’ll be able to build your own golfer in Career mode to match your style of play. Each golfer skill set impacts gameplay differently but all of them combine to create a unique golfer with strengths and weaknesses that you’ll have to strategize around.

There are four key skills that impact your golfer: power, accuracy, control, and recovery.

• Power controls the distance your shots can go, impacting all shot types in the same way.
• Accuracy is unique for different skill areas of your game: driving, approach and short game. So when you achieve a higher accuracy skill, your shots will be easier to execute.
• Control impacts the shape and spin control the golfer has over the shot which, similar to accuracy, is unique for each skill area. With higher control attributes, your shot will have more natural spin and you’ll be able to shape your shot more as well as add more spin while your shot is in the air.
• Recovery affects how negatively your shot is impacted when not on the tee, which influences approach and short game shots. For example, if you are in a bad lie, your power wouldn’t be affected as much despite an unfavorable position with high recovery attributes. This is similar for natural spin out of bad lies and golfer-controlled spin from unfavorable lies. A higher recovery attribute provides more natural spin to help stop the ball quicker and more Spin Control while the ball is in flight.

Customize Your Experience with a Variety of Gameplay Styles
Gameplay styles can control and impact all aspects of the game with your selection of four styles: Arcade, Pro, Tour, and Simulation. Arcade provides you with exciting, larger-than-life mechanics like Power Boost and Spin Control while Pro gives you challenging gameplay paired with the aids and exaggerated mechanics of arcade.

In contrast, Tour style has you playing like a top-tier professional golfer with more challenges and no aids. And Simulation, the most challenging game style gives you the most difficult set of game mechanics. 

These gameplay styles control all of the settings under gameplay including zoom levels, swing difficulty, putting difficulty, putt read, power boost, wind display, and more, but if you’d like to take full control of your gameplay experience, you can toggle these to create your own Custom Gameplay Style for a unique gameplay experience. The full details for settings to customize your gameplay with gameplay styles are detailed below.

With EA SPORTS PGA TOUR, Pure Strike’s unique course dynamics and new ball behavior make each course experience unique and true-to-life, shot types impact your strategy, and more. If you’d like to learn more about gameplay in EA SPORTS PGA TOUR, read about shot types here and watch the full gameplay deep dive here.

Pre-order now!*

*Conditions & restrictions apply. See https://www.ea.com/games/ea-sports-pga-tour/disclaimers for details.

This post was pulled from the Deep Dive page on PGA Tour's news site. 

[EA_Illium]

Read on for a deep dive into courses in EA SPORTS PGA TOUR.

EA SPORTS PGA TOUR will have 28 real-life and 2 fantasy courses for a total of 30 beautiful golf courses at launch. And on each of these courses comes a variety of gameplay and visual features that result in 30 unique experiences to play. Check out the Course Deep Dive below and read on to learn more.

State-of-the-art Technology Supports Course Mapping for Accurate Course Visuals

Each course is designed in stunning quality with Frostbite, so you can immerse yourself in golf’s finer details more than ever before. And to achieve the most true to life course visuals we meticulously mapped Augusta National, the home of the Masters, and other courses, with state-of-the-art technologies like photogrammetry scanning, drone technology, and survey-grade GPS.

We also led custom LiDAR helicopter flights over each course in the game, scanning at lower altitude with slower speeds to achieve more data-point-density and a higher level of realism than scans from publicly available sources. Using these technologies, which are actually designed to discover underground gold mines and oil reserves, we achieved pin-point accuracy down to the blade of grass for many courses in-game. Each course’s scan has been transferred into EA SPORTS PGA TOUR to be developed and tuned for the most accurate depiction of them possible.

And we didn’t just scan the greens, the terrain map also created precise renderings of clubhouses, vegetation, bridges, tee markers, rock formations, water, and more on-course elements.

To achieve the highest granularity possible, we also took the time to visit these prestigious courses ourselves to fully understand how the course plays in real life. From walking the holes to surveying course superintendents, the unique conditions at each golf course were mapped and recorded in these in-person visits over the years.

We were able to even record the distinct cuts of grass and how the ball behaves on them along with upcoming changes they’re making for future seasons to capture a full picture of these courses and how each of them play now and in the future.

So whether it’s The Old Course at St. Andrews or The Ocean Course at Kiawah Island, you’ll be able to see and feel the distinct differences of playing on these courses just like you would if you were there in real life.

Course Visuals Enhanced by Time of Day Features
Inspired by classic American landscape artists, we set out to create the most beautiful courses in-game with lighting that changes the look of a course based on the time of day. The goal was to create discreet times of day that showed off each course or hole in its absolute best light.

In game, we represent those as 3 different “tee” times, morning, mid day and late afternoon, across 4 unique “Biomes”. Each of the 4 biomes , Humid subtropical, Mediterranean, Oceanic and Desert, have varying lighting conditions, levels of contrast, clouds and atmospheric haze etc, to give each course a unique look based on its location and the time of day that you are playing.

Course Dynamics Support True-To-Life Ball Dribbling and Behavior
But stunning visuals are only one part of making a course feel like it does in real life. To make each course not only appear but feel accurate to real life, Pure Strike gameplay’s Course Dynamics impact the way the ball behaves on every green in the game.

Each course is tuned to behave just the way it does in real life which impacts the height of a ball’s bounce, the speed of its roll, the impact on ball spin, and the launch of the ball which vary from course to course.

Each course has its own subtleties including everything from the speed and firmness of the fairway to the firmness and length of the first cut. The ball reacts to these subtleties to result in a variety of ball behaviors that change on each course. So you’ll see the ball roll differently on the firm and fast fairways at St. Andrews in comparison to those of Harbour Town.

The ball will behave differently across different terrains like pine straw, firm fairway, soft fairways and more. So you can expect to see the ball bounce differently on softer terrains in comparison to hard ones, just like you’d see in real life.

But you’ll also be able to feel how your ball behaves differently in the air as well since ball behavior and course dynamics are also impacted by altitude so courses above sea-level will see balls go further than those on the coast.

The Tee is Yours on 30 Prestigious Courses

From ball behavior on each course to life-like visuals, the Tee is Yours at these 30 prestigious courses listed below.

Augusta National
St Andrews
Pebble Beach
The Country Club
Southern Hills
TPC Sawgrass
East Lake
Wilmington Country Club
TPC Boston
TPC Southwind
TPC Scottsdale
Whistling Straits
PGA West
Quail Hollow
Torrey Pines
Kiawah Island Ocean Course
Chambers Bay
Banff Springs
Wolf Creek
Bay Hill
Liberty National
Harbour Town
Riviera Country Club
Tara Iti
Top of the Rock
Bandon Dunes
Evian Resort
Teeth of the Dog
Wetlands (fantasy course)
Lighthouse Pointe (fantasy course)

And there are more courses waiting for you after launch with the 2023 major courses including Oak Hill, Los Angeles Country Club, Royal Liverpool as well as Olympia Fields as a part of the FedExCup series and Marco Simone for the Ryder Cup releasing in the future.

Pre-order now!

*Conditions & restrictions apply. See https://www.ea.com/games/ea-sports-pga-tour/disclaimers for details.

Article pulled from the original blog here. 

[EA_Illium]

Check out the answers to some of the community’s top questions below!

Will crossplay appear in EA SPORTS PGA TOUR?
We are always trying to bring you the best golf game on the market with EA SPORTS PGA TOUR, which we know includes a variety of features like crossplay. At launch, crossplay will not be a feature that appears in-game, but we are constantly evaluating the possibility of this feature appearing post-launch.

There are a variety of ways you’ll be able to play with your friends in online modes throughout the game. Cross-Platform progression is available for your created golfer so you can save your gear, outfits, and achievements to access your created golfer across PC, PlayStation, and Xbox.

When will the Masters be playable in EA SPORTS PGA TOUR?
The Masters at Augusta National will be available to play at launch with any purchase of the deluxe or standard edition of the game. You’ll get 30 courses to play at launch, including the host courses of the 2022 men’s major championships.

With a purchase of the deluxe edition you will receive EA SPORTS PGA TOUR three days early which will include access to Augusta National as well as a variety of benefits like 1500 PGA points, Masters vanity gear, and more.

What is the current live service timeline?
The 2023 major courses including Oak Hill, Los Angeles Country Club, Royal Liverpool as well as Olympia Fields as a part of the FedExCup series and Marco Simone for the Ryder Cup will be released prior to each major championship.

We will also be releasing updates alongside golf’s biggest moments like The Majors, FedExCup and Ryder Cup with compelling new content tied to current and historic golf moments for players to enjoy.

The game will launch with Road to the Masters and will include a variety of Masters-themed Challenges. We’ll share more details about the live service timeline after launch.

Why is this game only available on current gen (PS5, Xbox X|S, and PC) gaming systems?
EA SPORTS PGA TOUR’s high-fidelity visuals and gameplay are only possible with PlayStation 5 and Xbox X|S consoles as well as some PCs, so the game was developed with this in mind.

What is the fps for EA SPORTS PGA TOUR?
On PC, EA SPORTS PGA TOUR can run at 30 fps, 60 fps, or unlocked framerate. Consoles (Xbox X|S and PS 5) will run 30 fps.

We understand that some players have a strong visual preference for higher framerate in their video games and we’ve heard community feedback surrounding the fps of the game on console. As a result, we’re examining the ability to add it into the game in the future.

What impacts your shot?
There’s a reason players and caddies talk before their shot to best achieve success on the course so you’ll experience this in the pre-shot decisions you’ll have to make for a great shot. The challenge of your shot appears in a split between pre-shot decisions like club and shot types, with swing execution and placement based on course dynamics. This way you’ll be thinking more “golf” and less “golf swing” only.

A variety of factors like club and shot type all impact your shot but most of all, course dynamics and ball behavior like wind, altitude, terrain reactions, ball dribbling, and more will impact your shot. The full list of aspects that impact your shot are listed below

• Club
• Shot type
• Shot shape
• Slope of the terrain
• Velocity & spin reduction from adverse terrain (like rough)
• Golfer, club, and ball attributes
• Power boost
• Swing execution
• Wind
• In-flight Spin Control
• Altitude
• Ball Reactions depending on terrain type and course Conditions
• Ball dribbling

What game modes (online and offline) are available in-game?
Online game modes:

Online game modes support simultaneous play for up to 16 players and include the following game mopeds.

• COMPETITIVE mode is ranked matchmaking to test your skills in numerous game types including 9 and 18 hole rounds.
• SOCIAL mode allows you to play against similarly skilled players online in a more relaxed unranked environment, offering multiple ways to play such as 9 and 18 hole rounds.
• PRIVATE MATCH mode allows you to group up with your friends and play online together with full control of gameplay and round settings allowing you to fully customize your round.

Offline game modes:

• If you just want to dive in quickly and play a round, QUICK PLAY is exactly what you’re looking for. Quick play can also be played as local multiplayer (couch co-op) with up to 4 golfers offering varying ways to compete such as match play, skins, alternate shot rules, and more.
• CAREER MODE is an offline mode that will be playable at launch (but will require an online connection). You’ll hear more about that during our career mode deep dive in the coming weeks.
• CHALLENGES provides bite-sized experiences of various lengths. Ranging anywhere from a 4 hole challenge to recreating a golfer’s hot streak from a recent PGA Tour event, to single shot challenges where you, for example, are given 5 opportunities to hit a specific shot, challenges are short yet difficult moments for you to grow your skills and earn rewards. Within Challenges mode, there’s “PGA Coach Skill Center” which is a great way to learn more about game mechanics, shot types, and the game of golf in general.
• TOURNAMENTS provides limited-time tournaments for players to go in by themselves and submit a score to a global leaderboard that other users are also submitting to. From here, the game gives you a final rank that is paid out in rank points based on finishing position. Most of it is stroke play, where the number of holes can be variable. Ongoing seasonal events throughout the pro golf calendar can also alter the tournaments for different settings on different courses.

How can I customize gameplay to my personal preferences?
EA SPORTS PGA TOUR features a variety of gameplay styles from arcade settings that assist you with a putting grid, power boost, and spin control to simulation settings that remove all assistance for a true-to-life gameplay experience.

Is there weather available in-game?
There are a variety of factors that impact gameplay on the course including altitude and wind. Courses in traditionally cloudy areas like The Old Course at St. Andrews will appear cloudy while sunny courses like The Ocean Course at Kiawah Island will appear bright. Other weather conditions will not affect gameplay or appear in-game.

Will there be a 3-click swing option in-game?
We know that the 3-click swing is important to the community and as a result of early community feedback we are planning to include this swing in an early title update after launch.

When will I hear more about EA SPORTS PGA TOUR?
We’ll be sharing more information about a variety of aspects of the game in the coming weeks leading up to launch. Follow us on Twitter and Instagram to stay updated with the latest announcements. Below is a roadmap for when you’ll learn more about the game!

Pre-order now!*

*Conditions & restrictions apply. See https://www.ea.com/games/ea-sports-pga-tour/disclaimers for details.

Post pulled from news blog here. 

[EA_Illium]

EA SPORTS PGA TOUR launches April 7th with an in-depth career mode. Read on to learn more

From gameplay to courses we’ve taken you through some of what EA SPORTS™ PGA TOUR™ will offer at launch, and now, read on to learn all about Career Mode, our most in-depth career mode in the EA SPORTS PGA TOUR series yet. Read on to learn more about Career Mode and watch the deep dive below.

From becoming a major champion to earning a grand slam title, to even winning the FedExCup and more, you’ll be able to experience what it is like to compete each week in golf’s biggest events with Career Mode.

Career Mode Journey Overview from Amateur to the Masters
You’ll start your journey by customizing your golfer’s appearance with a variety of visual customizations, equipment options, and swing styles to choose from. You can control your golfer’s swing style by selecting their swing animation, swing tempo, preferred shot shape, and ball trajectory throughout your career. You’ll also be able to customize your club head, shaft, grips, and more so you’ll perform just like you want to on the course. And to make sure you’re looking your best when you’re on the course, you’ll be able to equip yourself with accessories and clothing from a variety of iconic and new-age golf brands.

Spoiler

After you’ve perfected your look on-course, you’ll be able to control where you want to start your career - as an amateur in one of the top amateur events, on the Korn Ferry Tour, or the PGA TOUR. As an amateur you’ll be able to play in the U.S. Amateur Championship, Augusta National Women’s Amateur, The Amateur Championship, Asia-Pacific Amateur Championship, and Latin American Amateur Championship, culminating in Q-school where you’ll compete for a spot on the Korn Ferry Tour. After you’ve conquered the amateur championships you’ll have the opportunity to earn an invitation to the Masters and U.S. Open.

After the Korn Ferry Tour, or if you choose to skip straight to it, you’ll launch into the PGA TOUR where you will get to compete each week on golf’s biggest stages including the major championships, where you can chase your green jacket, a Grand Slam Title, race for the FedExCup, and more.

Throughout the season, each tournament has field sizes and entry requirements and that mirror its real life counterpart. So if you want to compete in golf’s biggest events, you’ll need to earn your spot just like the pros do.

During Career Mode gameplay, you can use the “AI Pairings” setting to play shot-for-shot against an AI PGA TOUR pro, or turn it off to speed up the round and concentrate solely on your game.

The AI performance is based on official ShotLink data, so pros play each course and particular hole just like they would in real life.

Skill Progression and Shot Types

EA SPORTS PGA TOUR Career Mode uses an RPG style of progression where you’ll be able to build your golfer’s skill set over time as you put in playing hours. You can earn XP and skill points in the categories of power, driving, approach, short game and putting where you’ll be able to unlock new shot types and upgrade them from bronze to silver to gold and more.

With upgraded shot types you’ll have more strategic options on the course so you can succeed at more difficult courses.

You’ll be able to see your upgrades in your home base, The Season Hub where you’ll be able to view the entire calendar of events and track your career progression and other milestones through the “Career Mastery” tab.

In your Season Hub you’ll also be able to see your completed and available quests - sets of challenges categorized under either a course or a tournament. Completed quests will contribute to developing your skills and unlocking new shot types.

By completing different challenges you’ll also be able to earn ball and club specs which offer customizable performance characteristics across the areas of power, accuracy, control, and recovery. You can create a loadout that you prefer and then equip that club and ball spec into your bag.

Spoiler

You can also purchase PGA TOUR club specs from the store to equip clubs just like your favorite pros do.

Attributes
Your golfer will have a variety of attributes that you’ll be able to influence by completing quests. They are detailed below. Utilizing skill points for each of the five skill categories not only unlocks new shot types, but also allows you to upgrade your golfer's attributes

• Power
  • Power influences your swing speed which determines the distance all of your shot go.
• Accuracy
  • With higher accuracy comes a shot dispersion area and a smaller mishit window size. Your swing execution will also be more accurate.
• Control
  • With higher control attributes, your shot will have more natural spin and you’ll be able to shape your shot more as well as add more spin while your shot is in the air. The higher your control the more accurately you’ll be able to influence these parts of your play.
• Recovery
  • Recovery decreases the impact of penalties applied when in bad lies such as rough and sand. This includes:
    • Carry distance penalty
    • The size of the range shown in the carry distance penalty window
    • Natural spin penalty
    • Shot shaping penalty
    • Spin control penalty
    • Mishit tolerance window penalty
    • Penalty for off-plane swings and mishits

So experience the authentic storytelling waiting for you in Career Mode and more in EA SPORTS PGA TOUR! And as always, we continue to take community feedback into account when making improvements and changes to EA SPORTS PGA TOUR. Pre-order* EA SPORTS PGA TOUR now to get on the green three days early and more benefits

Pre-order now!

*CONDITIONS AND RESTRICTIONS APPLY. SEE https://www.ea.com/games/ea-sports-pga-tour/disclaimers FOR DETAILS.

This article is from the deep dive post on PGA Tour's news page.

[EA_Illium]

This article is from the deep dive post on PGA Tour's news page.

[EA_Illium]

Hi Golf Fans, 

Ready to take your golf career to the next level? Here’s what you need to know to get in the game.

Get started with EA SPORTS PGA TOUR

Check out our latest EA Help article on getting started with EA Sports PGA Tour!

Cheers!

[EA_Kent]

Hey Everyone, 

This past week, we have closely monitored the community's feedback as you've all begun playing EA SPORTS PGA TOUR. Thank you to everyone who played the game and provided their thoughts on what they enjoyed or wanted to see improved.

** EDIT **

Earlier today, we stated that an update to the game would go live with a few fixes to EA SPORTS PGA TOUR. The update is currently slated for next week and we will let you know when we have more firm timing.

Today, an update is going live on all platforms to address several critical issues that the team identified:

We finalized an update that will go live across all platforms sometime next week. The update will address several critical issues that the team identified:

• Fixed an issue that was putting players into a repeating loop when trying to claim tournament rewards.

• Fixed an issue in Career Mode that was causing some users game to crash when resuming a round of playoffs.

• Fixed a compatibility issue related to certain monitors and TV’s with Dolby Vision HDR that was causing the game to crash.

• Fixed an issue that would cause a crash if players changed menu tabs too quickly while tool tips were enabled.

These changes were prioritized for an immediate hotfix based on the number of players affected and severity of the issues. We are continuing to evaluate player reports and feedback to inform and prioritize future improvements to the game.

Our team is committed to ensuring that the community feels heard and understands their importance to the continued development of EA SPORTS PGA TOUR. We have plans to address some of the major pieces of feedback and questions that have come in from the community and will provide specifics around those changes next week.

Our goal is to provide you with as much transparency and context as possible and we want to thank you for your continued support of EA SPORTS PGA TOUR.

Post pulled from our message on Reddit. 

Thanks to everyone who has taken the time to submit bug reports and share their feedback with us. Please keep it coming! 

[EA_Illium]

Hi Everyone,

You should see an update live today for both PC and PlayStation (XBOX should be sometime tomorrow). This is the update mentioned in Friday's post. The update has fixes for some critical issues the team found last week:

• Fixed an issue that was putting players into a repeating loop when trying to claim tournament rewards.

• Fixed an issue in Career Mode that was causing some users game to crash when resuming a round of playoffs.

• Fixed a compatibility issue related to certain monitors and TV’s with Dolby Vision HDR that was causing the game to crash.

• Fixed an issue that would cause a crash if players changed menu tabs too quickly while tooltips were enabled.

We are also investigating the various issues that have been reported this morning regarding Challenges, Quests, and general game performance. We will keep you posted with more information once we have it.

UPDATE #1: 3:25 PM EST
As of now, we have sent out fixes for Tournament Leaderboards and Online Matchmaking. We are still working to address issues related to Challenges, Quests, and Menus. We will update here once we have more information and appreciate your patience.

UPDATE #2: 10:40 PM EST
The team has identified the primary cause of the issues on our server and has been working to deploy several fixes over the course of the evening. While we have seen an improvement to the menu navigation, there are still issues with Challenges and Quests tracking correctly. The team is still working on and will continue to prioritize this issue until it is fully resolved.

post pulled from reddit. 

[EA_Illium]

Take a look at upcoming changes based on community feedback.

EA SPORTS™ PGA TOUR™ Players,

Last week we let you know that the team is closely monitoring community feedback and today we have a more detailed look at what we are exploring for EA SPORTS PGA TOUR. Many of the topics in this list are being worked on as a result of direct community feedback, but please know it is not comprehensive of everything planned for future updates. We are continually evaluating community feedback and will implement additional adjustments as needed.

3-Click Swing

A staple on golf games for decades, this popular community request will be making a return in an update later this month. Stay tuned to our channels for updates and previews on this new addition in the coming weeks.

Updates to Putting Grids

We have received comments and posts discussing or showing instances where the putting grid bead lines are running in the opposite direction of the break. This has been observed in testing and a fix for this issue will be implemented in an upcoming update.

There will also be an upcoming visual update ensuring the green grid fades away after you hit your putt. This was a popular piece of community feedback and we agree after testing putting grid fading that this implementation enhances immersion.

Online Game Formats

We will be providing updates to online game formats in the live service window. We’ll share more details about these game formats in the future, but we want to assure you that the team has heard the feedback and is working hard to bring you more online choices.

Camera Angle and Zoom Issues

We have been investigating the various reports of certain camera angles sometimes obscuring gameplay; we will be implementing improvements to remedy those issues in future updates.

We are also looking into ways to improve the pre-shot zoom camera with an area of focus being improvements for players who play without the putting grid and need lower camera angles to manually read greens.We will share more on this in the near future.

Career Mode Options

In previous versions of pre-release builds, players had an option for 1 round tournaments which we later had to remove in order to avoid issues with commentary, quests, statistics, and general bugs that were found in pre-release testing. We have heard your feedback around wanting more options outside of Quick Play and Full Rounds during Career Mode and are exploring ways to provide you with more choice in this area.

Cup Physics

As a result of feedback received during early access and launch, we fixed an issue where the visual representation of the cup was slightly larger than its actual size in physics. This resulted in instances where it appeared that the ball rolled over the edge of the cup when it should have lipped in. This fix will be implemented in an upcoming update.

Fast Play

We are aware of a variety of community feedback around the frequency in which golfer reactions are shown following a shot and various other presentation elements. In response, we will be looking to implement a presentation package called “Fast Play” which allows players to enable/disable an alternative presentation package that skips certain cinematics, such as player reactions, for a fast-paced gameplay experience. We aim to have this new presentation option available in an upcoming update.

Putt Meter and Button Hints

We recognize players have asked for more options to disable shot aids and visual feedback for a more immersive simulation experience. In response to this feedback we will be adding two additional settings to provide further choice in this area, “Putt Meter” and “Button Hints” settings. The "Putt Meter" setting removes the putt meter that's on the ground while putting and the "Button Hints" setting removes the button hints in the bottom of the screen during gameplay.

We aim to have this available in an upcoming update.

Online Matchmaking

We're aware of the challenges some players have had finding opponents and getting into fuller sessions when using online matchmaking. We've already made multiple updates to our matchmaking algorithms to improve how we're grouping players together to get fuller matches and made updates to our matchmaking mode offerings to group players together more effectively. Rest assured that we're exploring all options and are using data to make informed decisions while we continue iterating to get matchmaking into a better state.

Updates Already Implemented as a Result of Community Feedback

We made a variety of changes that made their way into the last pre-launch update, which replaced the Day 0 patch. One of the main changes that came about as a result of community feedback was the removal of text pop-ups or Hole Out VFX over the hole for all games. You now have the option to enable or disable this text.

We also added four new formats, one of each gameplay style to private match, responding to feedback that players wanted the ability to control the difficulty level for their group when playing in a private match.

Below is a list of hotfixes which have gone live:

• Hot fixes which have gone live
  • Fixed an issue that was putting players into a repeating loop when trying to claim tournament rewards.
  • Fixed an issue in Career Mode that was causing some users' game to crash when resuming a round of playoffs.
  • Fixed a compatibility issue related to certain monitors and TV’s with Dolby Vision HDR that was causing the game to crash.
  • Fixed an issue that would cause a crash if players changed menu tabs too quickly while tooltips were enabled.

We appreciate your continued support for EA SPORTS PGA TOUR and will continue working closely with the community to identify gameplay enhancements and player feedback in future updates. As mentioned above, this list, based on community feedback, is not comprehensive of everything planned for EA SPORTS PGA TOUR so stay tuned to Twitter, Instagram, and Reddit for the latest.

*Conditions & restrictions apply. See https://www.ea.com/games/ea-sports-pga-tour/disclaimers for details.

Information pulled directly from our News Blog.