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EA SPORTS™ Rory McIlroy PGA TOUR®

Golf without limits in EA SPORTS Rory McIlroy PGA TOUR. Usher in the next generation of golf with the power of the Frostbite 3 engine and play the most beautiful sports game to date with no load times, enabling you to explore authentic tournament courses or unique fantasy environments, opening up your golf experience like never before. Don’t just play the course, explore it! Use of PSN and SEN account are subject to the Terms of Service and User Agreement and applicable privacy policy (see terms at sonyentertainmentnetwork.com/terms-of-service & sonyentertainmentnetwork.com/privacy-policy). *Online multiplayer also requires a PlayStation®Plus subscription. 1-4 players Network Players 2-8 200MB minimum save size DUALSHOCK®4 1080p HD Video Output Online Play (Optional) Software subject to license (us.playstation.com/softwarelicense). Online activity subject to Terms of Services and User Agreement (www.playstationnetwork.com/terms-of-service). Download is subject to the PlayStation®Network Terms of Service and User Agreement and any specific additional conditions applying to this item. If you do not wish to accept these terms, do not download this item. Purchasing account will be required to log in to PlayStation®Network to use the content. © 2015 Electronic Arts Inc. The mark 'Rory McIlroy' is a trademark of Rory McIlroy and may not be used, in whole or in part, without the prior written consent of Rory McIlroy. The name, image, likeness, and other attributes of Rory McIlroy reproduced in this product are trademarks, and/or other forms of intellectual property of Rory McIlroy, used under license by Electronic Arts Inc. PGA TOUR, TPC, and the Swinging Golfer Design are trademarks of PGA TOUR, Inc. and are used under license by Electronic Arts Inc.

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Rory McIlroy PGA Tour Review

Rory mcilroy pga tour.

Is Rory’s console debut headed for the green or straight into the rough?

• Satisfying, flexible controls
• Solid graphics and sound
• Fun fantasy courses and Night Club mode
• Limited course and player selection
• Fewer customisation options
• Lack of solo and multiplayer modes

Key Specifications

• Review Price: £43.99

Available on Xbox One (reviewed), PS4 This should have been a new beginning. It’s the first PGA Tour on a new generation of consoles, and also the first with a new cover star, Northern Ireland’s Rory McIlroy. It’s a chance for EA to pull one of its oldest and best-loved franchises out of the doldrums it sunk into in the later Tiger Woods years, and to expand the horizons of one of gaming’s most conservative genres. Rory McIlroy PGA Tour could have been and should have been great.

Instead, it falls somewhere on the fringe of greatness, nearly on the green and within sight of the cup, but frustratingly short of target. It’s a alright-looking golf sim with finely-honed gameplay and a few smart surprises on the way, but it only feels like half the full package. PGA Tour does what it does very well, but the more you play, the more you notice what’s missing, and the more you wish it did just a little bit more.

Let’s talk about the stuff where Rory lands it on the fairway, not the scrub. The graphics have their weaknesses, including texture pop-up, some peculiar artefacts and the odd, weird shimmering effect, but this is still a reasonable leap forwards from the last Tiger Woods. The vegetation is lusher and more lifelike and the scenery more coherent and believable. Golfer animation is more fluid and convincing, with some great animations that take you through the whole gamut of emotions that the noble sport inspires, from joy and exhilaration through to frustration and raw misery.

Verdict Rory McIlroy PGA Tour plays a great game of golf and has noticeably better graphics than the series previous-gen outings. There’s not an awful lot wrong with the core game, and there are some nice surprises. The problem is that the lack of modes, courses, customisation options and players makes it feel only half-complete. This is a problem EA can fix with free DLC, but for now this feels like the foundation of a brilliant golf sim rather than the finished article.

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Rory McIlroy PGA Tour Review – On Par (PS4)

By Mark Labbe

If you’ve ever played golf, then you know that a large part of the enjoyment not only comes from the actual game, but also from the incredible beauty of the golf courses. Being able to stand on green grass looking at rolling hills, trees, and the occasional scampering animal sets golf apart from most other sports, adding in a natural aspect that simply isn’t possible in confined stadiums or indoor courts. After spending a while with Rory McIlroy PGA Tour , it’s clear that the developers have played enough golf to be able to encapsulate not only the mechanics of the game, but also the beautiful landscapes of the courses.

Golfing Mechanics

There are three different gameplay styles (Arcade, Classic, and Tour) in Rory McIlroy PGA Tour , with each one giving players a whole different type of golfing experience. The Arcade style is probably the most familiar one of the bunch, as it brings back the ability change the spin of the ball in the air. It is probably the least realistic way to play golf, but it is certainly fun to be able to change where the ball will land while the thing is still in the air. The Arcade style also allows players to zoom in to see around where the ball will land, and it makes putting a little bit easier with a putt read feature that gives a better look at the curve of the land.

The Classic style brings back the three-click controls, having players try to stop the swing meter in certain, small areas. This style is probably the easiest in terms of being able to hit perfect shots, although players are not able to add boost or spin to the ball. Finally, the Tour style gives players a more realistic golfing experience. It turns off the zoom function and the putt read feature, and players are not able to change the spin of the ball in the air. However, the ability to add spin and boost to the ball before it is hit is there, making the Tour style of gameplay the most complex and hardest to master, but also the one that best simulates actual golf.

After picking one of these gameplay styles (they can be changed at anytime), players can then choose which game mode they would like to play. Players can either take on a single course with up to four local friends, or they can do the Tour Pro Career mode, which is essentialy a career mode where players create a character and compete in tournaments to unlock new clubs and outfits for their character. Or players can compete against friends online. All of these modes offer basically the same thing — playing golf on a golf course. 

However, there is one other game mode, called Night Club Challenges. As the name suggests, players take on a bunch of golfing challenges at night on three different golf courses. There are quite a lot of challenges to play through, and each one can earn the player between one and three stars, depending on how well the player does. Some challenges ask the player to hit a ball and have it land on a certain target, while at the same time trying to avoid obstacles, and other challenges have the player trying to hit the ball through a hoop in the sky, among other things. A number of different power-ups, such as a rocket boost that allows the ball the gain altitude, even when falling, or a power-up that makes the ball instantly stick to the ground instead of rolling around help the player get through the challenges. These modes not only offer a break from simply playing a normal game of golf, but they also help to hone aiming and shooting skills.

Breathtaking Scenery

Rory McIlroy PGA Tour runs using the powerful Frostbite 3 engine, giving the game gorgeous visuals. You can see particles floating in the air, the clouds moving overhead, and the sun illuminating the entire course, making the whole thing look different depending on whether you set the time of day to the morning, midday, or evening. Thanks to the power of current-gen systems, Rory McIlroy PGA Tour is easily one of the best looking sport games out on the market today — just check out the screenshot gallery below to see what I mean.

But, besides the breathtaking scenery, the Frostbite 3 engine allows for the title to see the entire golf course as a whole, rather than just as individual holes. What that means, exactly, is that areas that were previously out of bounds, resulting in you having to take a penalty, are now viable areas of play. For example, in the Boston course, I hit the ball fairly far away from the fairway, and it ended up in a bunch of bushes and leaves. Instead of losing a few strokes and having to place the ball somewhere else, Rory McIlroy PGA Tour now simply has the player hit the ball from almost anywhere it lands, meaning I had to hit it out of the bushes, which completely concealed my character and the ball, and back onto the fairway. Each course is more open, and since the whole course is now rendered as a whole, there aren’t any loading times when switching between holes.

Quality, Not Quantity

However, perhaps due to the detail that went into the visuals of each course, there is a fairly limited number of courses that are actually available to play at launch. With the pre-order DLC Scottsdale course, which, if you didn’t pre-order the game, won’t be available for a few months, there is a total of 13 courses. While it does take a while to play through each course fully, it soon becomes necessary to replay each course over and over again. Obviously, you can get drastically different results with each playthrough of a golf course, but the low number of courses still feels limited. It should be noted, however, that EA is planning on releasing free courses after the game is released.

Rory McIlroy PGA Tour also has a very limited number of golfers to choose from. There are only a handful of golfers to use, and there are virtually no women golfers, barring the goofy and fictional Edna Masterson. Players have the option of making there own golfer, which they must do for Tour Pro Career, although the there aren’t too many customizable features to use. There is a small amount of hairstyles, a few different facial structures, a variety of different skin colors, a number of different unlockable outfits, and that is pretty much it. It’s pretty far from the different options available in Dragon Age: Inquisition , another EA game running on Frostbite 3, and the options just feel underwhelming. 

Despite the limited number of courses to play on and the limited number of golfers to choose from, Rory McIlroy PGA Tour is still worth buying. Each course is visually breathtaking, and the various gameplay styles and game modes allow for completely different game experiences each time you play. If you’re a golf fan, or if you just want to look at gorgeous scenery, then you might want to check out Rory McIlroy PGA Tour .

Review copy provided by publisher. For information on scoring,  please read our Review Policy here .

• Beautiful visuals
• Fun Night Club Challenges
• Courses are more open
• Three different gameplay styles
• Limited number of golf courses
• And limited number of golf players

Rory McIlroy PGA Tour Review Gallery

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Rory McIlroy PGA Tour review

It's (probably not) in the game.

With Tiger Woods experiencing the kind of career downturn that would have Messrs Torres and Falcao nodding sympathetically, it's no wonder EA has opted to drop the fairway-dodging flop for its flagship golf series, replacing him with the more successful (and marketable) Rory McIlroy. Surely, then, this is the ideal opportunity for a fresh start, and a series seemingly content to coast along on past successes would be revitalised by its prodigiously talented star?

You could forgive yourself for getting a little excited after the hyperbolic introduction. "Limitless!" chirrups Rich Lerner, like a man triumphantly declaring his favourite Bradley Cooper film. "The ability to break free, to experience golf in ways you never thought possible." What could this mean? My mind raced. An infinite number of procedurally-generated courses? The ability to play anti-gravity space golf against a sentient blancmange using giraffes as clubs? Apparently not. It turns out that "taking your game to levels once only dreamed of" involves little more than pitch-and-putt on a course surrounded by reused Battlefield assets and a mode that might as well be called Rory McIlroy's Mario Golf.

And, it transpires, "limitless" isn't so much an exaggeration as a bald-faced lie. Because EA Sports Rory McIlroy PGA Tour Turbo HD Remix has fewer courses, golfers, modes and features than its predecessor. Tiger's last outing had five women from the LPGA Tour; they've been unceremoniously dropped here, as has roughly half the roster of male golfers. There are 12 courses, when two years ago we had 20 (heck, it's two fewer than Tiger Woods PGA Tour 2005 managed). Gone are the detailed character customisation options for your career golfer, replaced instead by a handful of preset avatars, most of which look like they've been designed by someone who's never seen a human face, but once had one described to them over a Skype call from a noisy venue with particularly flaky wi-fi.

In fact, the career mode as a whole is significantly undernourished. I qualified for the PGA Tour after placing second in my first round as an amateur, and then joylessly worked my way through a series of disconnected tournaments. There's no sense of pageantry surrounding the big competitions, and very little fanfare when you win a tournament: you get a dry text report with a trite quote or two from your golfer. Your stats will steadily rise, and occasionally you'll unlock some more branded gear, but otherwise there's little sense of progress - not least because there's no tangible record of your recent achievements, just a series of rudimentary stat tables. The Highlights tab, meanwhile, simply collects reports of completed rounds and sponsorship deals. In an age of "Xbox, record that" and Share buttons, perhaps it shouldn't come as a surprise that you can't watch or save replays of your best shots within the game, but it's disappointing not to have the option.

It's far from the only thing that's missing. There are no practice rounds in Career mode, no optional objectives to complete for XP boosts. In multiplayer - online or off - you can only select between Stroke Play and Match Play. There's no Best Ball, no Alternate Shot, no Four Ball, no Skins. No Skins! EA Tiburon has promised several free updates to the game that will add new courses and features, though I'm not sure that compensates for the absence of options that have been an integral part of the series for years. Even the Country Clubs from Tiger Woods PGA Tour 14 have been removed.

This might be less of a problem if what remained was a noticeable improvement on previous entries. It isn't. The courses, rendered in the Frostbite engine, look good for the most part, but there are obvious performance issues throughout. It's never a good sign when a game has pop-in on the title screen and so it proves: foliage will often appear from nowhere, and there's a sporadic shimmering effect in certain areas. Presentational sloppiness is pervasive. Menus suffer from noticeable delays, sluggish transitions and weird little inconsistencies. Even the claim of no loading times isn't strictly true - though they're appreciably brief, interstitial shots of leaderboards, your golfer and close-ups of the next hole number stall you from teeing off.

At least the commentary from Rich Lerner and Frank Nobilo offers some enlightening facts. I now know, for example, that Tom Watson once won the Open at Royal Troon, that Royal Troon was the site at which Tom Watson won the Open, and that one of the great Open champions at Royal Troon is Tom Watson - all from one 18-hole round. It's a pity they don't have more lines, as their commentary is fine and surprisingly naturalistic - there are even a couple of minor stumbles and grammatical flubs which sound like normal conversation rather than obviously scripted soundbites (though you'll still hear a few of those).

All of these problems are undoubtedly damaging, and all the more irritating for the fact that underneath it all it still plays a solid game of golf. The tutorial, or Prologue, is a nice bit of business which takes you through the three different swing types while allowing you to play key moments from the closing stages of a tightly-fought Open as McIlroy faces off against Martin Kaymer. Key shots and holes are interspersed with observations from the man himself delivered to camera. It's a neat idea that gives you a sense of occasion that's missing elsewhere. How odd that EA Tiburon should reserve it for the tutorial.

Also worth noting is the degree with which you can customise your swing. I'm a fan of the classic three-click system employed in many other golf games, though the gauge moves a little too slowly for my tastes here, and so I quickly reverted to the traditional analogue swing. As someone who played Tiger for many years on PlayStation 2 and 3, I was initially surprised at how sensitive it was - the comparative lack of deadzone on the DualShock 4 means any slight deviation from a perfectly straight down-and-up motion can see you slice drives into the heavy rough - though once you've acclimatised, you'll likely want to switch to Tour mode, which is more responsive and complex still, while offering fewer aim assists. The grid overlay on greens still doesn't give you the most useful read of the topography of the putting surface, and so I retained the aiming guideline for putting - even though it's actively unhelpful for any shot that breaks both ways on its way to the hole. Still, EA Sports isn't the only developer that needs to work on its short game, and I appreciated the ability to remove the training wheels at my own pace.

Strangely, one of the most successful additions is the one that feels most out of place. The Night Club Challenge provides a number of bite-sized objectives with a variety of outlandish power-ups and features like turbo boosts, portals and sticky balls. Some stages are more like croquet than golf, while one objective, where you manually guide your ball through rings to top-up boost power en route to distant score markers, fleetingly reminded me of the brilliant Monkey Target. With three stars to collect on each challenge, it feels as if it was designed as a mobile spin-off - and might actually be a better fit on smartphones.

Its inclusion can be read one of two ways. Perhaps it was added to bulk up an otherwise insubstantial package, or perhaps EA Sports is targeting an audience which doesn't actually like the real sport that much. There's further evidence of this elsewhere: the default option for Career mode is Quick Rounds, which only lets you play "the most important holes" while determining your progress elsewhere based on your existing stats and form.

The assumption seems to be that most players won't have the desire or the stamina to play a full round - though in light of the limited number of courses, it may simply be a way to minimise repetition. Either way, EA Tiburon has produced a game hardly befitting a player of McIlroy's talents. The so-called "next generation of golf" looks uncomfortably similar to the last, and there's substantially less of it. Only the quality of the underlying game saves this from the ignominy of an Avoid sticker.

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EA SPORTS Rory McIlroy PGA TOUR - PS4 [Digital Code]

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About this item

• Golf Wide Open: Break free from what you think a golf game can be. Frostbite creates a new world, where you experience every detail - breathing life into the courses, players and crowds in ways you've never seen before. All this, with no load times between holes or interruptions in the action. Allowing you to enjoy your game the way you want.
• Golf Your Way: Hit the perfect shot and golf your way with three unique swing mechanics and fully customizable gameplay styles.
• Golf With Personality: Take a step off the traditional cart path and play with big personalities on even BIGGER Fantasy Courses.

Product information

Product description.

• Supported Platforms: PlayStation 4

From the manufacturer

Looking for specific info, customer reviews.

Customer Reviews, including Product Star Ratings help customers to learn more about the product and decide whether it is the right product for them.

To calculate the overall star rating and percentage breakdown by star, we don’t use a simple average. Instead, our system considers things like how recent a review is and if the reviewer bought the item on Amazon. It also analyzed reviews to verify trustworthiness.

Customers say

Customers like the graphics of the game, saying it looks amazing on the PS4. However, some complain about the lack of courses and content. They say the game is boring and has mediocre golfers and courses. Opinions are mixed on quality and difficulty level.

AI-generated from the text of customer reviews

Customers like the graphics of the game. They say the courses look great, and the presentation is good. Some customers also mention that the game is amazing and realistic.

"...every tree branch, acorn, twig, leaf, etc is modeled and looks amazing . The real life golfers in the game (McIlroy, Spieth, DJ) look awesome...." Read more

"...Pretty cool.The course graphics are great , the created courses are actually really awesome...." Read more

"...The game plays a solid game of golf, looks great , but my concern is that it lacks longevity due to a bare-bones Career Mode, a relatively low number..." Read more

"...It is more realistic and not as easy to figure out how to make your putt...." Read more

Customers are mixed about the quality of the game. Some mention that it's okay, fun to play, and solid. However, others say that the game itself sucks, the game play is weak, and the rest of the gameplay is sorely lacking.

"...upgrades, but with that said...I'll just say this... THIS GAME IS FUN AS HELL and looks and sounds beautiful...." Read more

"...of the play is a marked improvement over TW, but the rest of the game is sorely lacking , so I am looking for another golf game to play that isn't..." Read more

"...without all the additional features and playable characters, still worth owning ." Read more

"... Game still feels incomplete in some ways but now it's at least enjoyable to me now. Again thanks to an awesome guy and his comment!..." Read more

Customers are mixed about the difficulty level. Some mention that it has a little learning curve but is not too difficult. They also say that the game is fairly easy to pick up and play. However, others say that it's too difficult, lacking content, and lazy.

"... Putting is a bit challenging too. One thing I don't like about the new putting is you're very much on your own in tour mode...." Read more

"...I have to say the putting is MUCH harder on this Rory McIlroy game. It is more realistic and not as easy to figure out how to make your putt...." Read more

"...Lack of Tiebreaker Playoff - Very discouraging to finish an event tied for first with no tie-breaker...." Read more

"...There is no option to practice putting or swinging after you get through the opening that i have been able to find...." Read more

Customers find the game easy to use. They mention that there are not many courses to play, the selection of golfers and courses is mediocre, and the courses feel very repetitive.

"...low reviews are attributing to; minimal playable characters and not many courses ...." Read more

"...it lacks longevity due to a bare-bones Career Mode, a relatively low number of courses , and no community-building features (IE: online leagues)...." Read more

"...There are only 12 licensed golfers . This game offers less than half of what Tiger 14 had a launch as far as courses and golfers go...." Read more

"Very fun. Takes practise ." Read more

Customers find the content lacking, boring, and empty. They also say the game has very few real courses and significantly less content than the Tiger Woods edition. Some customers also say that the game is frustrating and a complete joke.

"...feeling, only playing 4-5 holes per round, and the sense of potential accomplishment vanishes along with it...." Read more

"...Wish we had read the comments before buying it!!! Complete waste of hard earned money !!!!!I have now updated it to 4-5 stars...." Read more

"This is a fun game, but gets boring quickly . The play modes go from very easy, to very hard. It needs something in between...." Read more

"...The players are nothing to write home about . The choice of courses sucks...." Read more

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Rory McIlroy PGA Tour

Playstation 4 xbox one, game trailer, description.

• Golf without limits in EA SPORTS Rory McIlroy PGA TOUR! Usher in the next generation of golf with the power of the Frostbite engine and play the most beautiful sports game to date with no load times, enabling you to explore authentic tournament courses or unique fantasy environments. Don’t just play the course, explore it!

Popular Recent Questions

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• Is there a three click shot option or anolog sticks only? Tech Support PS4

User Ratings

Rory McIlroy PGA Tour review: short game

By Owen S. Good on July 18, 2015 at 3:00pm

The list of can'ts in Rory McIlroy PGA Tour is as long as the par-5 14th hole at Pebble Beach, which, to get things started, you can't play — and Pebble had been on the disc of every game in this series going back to 1997.

If possible, the absence of famed Augusta National, which grabbed a lot of attention when EA Sports admitted that licensing agreement was over, is the least disappointing thing about this series' debut on the current console generation. But we can start with the pitifully small list of real-life courses that are available — eight, compared to 20 in its predecessor, and even more as downloadable content. (There are four fantasy courses ranging from realistic to bizarre.)

You can't select individual holes, all par-3s or all-par 5s on these courses to work on a specific section giving you trouble. It's either front nine, back nine or the whole round. You can't play in any weather other than clear skies. You can't play popular variants like skins, Stableford scoring or best ball. It's just stroke or match play.

You can't play the LPGA Tour and you can't even play as any real-life LPGA pro. Five were in Tiger Woods PGA Tour 14 . You can create a golfer of either gender, but you can't give him or her anything other than one of 11 pre-set heads or three body types. Of all the sports video games, golf is the one where everyone creates and plays as themselves, and this is an embarrassingly decade-old toolkit serving such a baseline expectation.

You can't play any amateur career (three were in Tiger Woods 14 ). You get one event on the minor-league Web.com Tour in which it is nearly impossible not to earn your PGA Tour card. You can't even — and for me, this was the most cynical omission — see the schedule in your player's career, probably because it would be an admission of how few events are on it. There are two major tournaments, the U.S. Open and the British Open, but you only get that presentation in your career. Can't select it in a round with friends.

In a career event, you can't simulate rounds to play only the final round, as many did in the past. You are given something called quick rounds, which offer five or six key holes and simulate the rest, but you must play some holes in all four rounds. If a course doesn't appeal to you, the only option is to withdraw.

Rory McIlroy PGA Tour seems to want to justify the absence of so many things longtime players have come to expect by virtue of its presentation and an evolution in its basic mechanics. The career mode does have a new progression system that deepens your player's package of abilities instead of forcing him or her to be pure power, pure accuracy or down the middle.

Analog swing controls are improved by a shot-strength indicator that lets you watch your golfer in action, instead of a meter, and introduces some needed variability and difficulty in placing a shot. The game is still very forgiving, even for advanced users who turn off most of the package of swing assists and targeting help.

The gameplay's real strength is in putting, which now presents a reasonable and understandable challenge without babying the player with artificial preview paths, or abandoning him or her to long stretches of trial and error. A dashed line now represents the ideal putt path, which you then try to match using your aim and your own feeling of how fast and steep the green and its break are. There is a very nice feeling of accomplishment on 12-foot putts, and longer distances make it more sensible to just lag it close and two-putt, which in turn makes an accurate approach shot even more important.

Rory McIlroy PGA Tour also uses the new hardware to render the entire course instead of individual holes, which eliminates both the between-hole loads and the awkward broadcast graphics you saw while waiting. Shots that clip trees can now plow through the branches if they're going hard enough, where in the past they would fall straight down. The more powerful rendering does offer courses that play truer by keeping bad but not out-of-bounds shots still in play, and playing your ball where it lies, even if it's a real humdinger, rather than repositioning it automatically.

The crowds and their chatter are a lot more lifelike and the broadcast commentary of Rich Lerner and Frank Nobilo, of the Golf Channel, is much more conversational than the wooden and overacted delivery of Jim Nantz. However, it is given to repetition, even as the two helpfully chime in with anecdotes while you're taking time to line up your shot. The golfers have more detailed reactions and facial expressions, but they veer to the extreme. Why is my golfer doing the running-man dance after hitting his tee shot 276 yards on the first hole of the second round?

Online play is well-supported, with daily and weekly tournaments always available in addition to head-to-head matches against live opponents. There's an arcade suite called the Night Club Challenge in which players test their accuracy or driving distance on one of three neon-trimmed courses, equipping boosts to pull off stunt shots. It isn't as intriguing or deep as the historical or biographical modes its two predecessors offered, but it does offer more than 100 tricks to pull off, many tickling the common obsession with hitting a perfect shot.

Rory McIlroy PGA Tour falls far short of its predecessors

This is Rory McIlroy PGA Tour 's overarching problem. It is a smooth-playing game of golf, which makes the inability to use its new gameplay on the old features fans loved even more regrettable.

Rory McIlroy PGA Tour is the last sports video game to make the console generation transition. It's painful to see another game — particularly this series — so gutted of features. After hitting its drive very thin, Rory McIlroy PGA Tour is facing a long second, even third shot before it gets back to the kind of variety and value its three predecessors offered.

Rory McIlroy PGA Tour was reviewed using a final Xbox One retail copy provided by Electronic Arts. You can find additional information about Polygon's ethics policy here .

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Rory McIlroy PGA TOUR Review (PS4)

Rory McIlroy PGA Tour is the first attempt at next-gen golf from EA Sports. While the game plays a decent brand of golf on the course, it’s so razor thin off of it that you will have a hard time justifying the $60 price tag upon entry.

• First Impressions
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Rory McIlroy PGA Tour Review

Swing and a miss.

By Josiah Renaudin on July 24, 2015 at 11:06AM PDT

Rory McIlroy PGA Tour is a shallow, lifeless golf game--rich in technical failings but bankrupt of interesting content. The game types are limited, the number of players and courses is laughably small, and the textures awkwardly pop in and out of view as the camera scrolls across a course. Actually swinging a club and mapping out shots feels right, but whatever goodwill is earned on the course evaporates as you pull away to discover the unimpressive Pro Career mode and the restrictive nature of even the basic Play Now feature. The fresh face on the cover and fancy new game engine can't mask the fact that Rory McIlroy PGA Tour is an undercooked debut that feels like half of a game.

It starts strong, at least, with a detailed tutorial on the various swing styles that provide you with more freedom than ever before. There are three set swing types: a basic analog stick setup where power is determined by the backswing, a more complex version where the follow-through is also taken into account, and the classic three-button press system. If none of the above suits your style, a custom swing option allows you to combine elements of each approach into a personalized pairing of preferences. You can determine if you'd like to be able to hit power shots, zoom in on the trajectory of your ball, see how the wind shapes its flight, and even closely control its spin. Whether you'd like to play Rory McIlroy PGA Tour as a sports simulation or an over-the-top arcade game, the options are there.

No matter what style you choose, taking a smooth backswing and making solid contact with the ball feels authentic, and the putting is challenging without feeling punishing. A dashed line represents the path of your ball from its place on the green to the hole, which takes into account the putt's speed and break. It takes time to correctly read greens with steep hills or sharp ridges, but watching a 20-foot putt bend from right to left and clink at the bottom of the cup is very satisfying.

Other than the lack of load screens between holes and an improved putting system, the swing selection is the only area where Rory McIlroy PGA Tour is bigger and better than what's come before it. The number of real-life courses has been more than halved, with only eight locations that golfers will actually recognize. There are four additional make-believe locations, but none of them make up for the fact that you can't experience the Masters at one of the most famous courses of all time, Augusta National. If that’s not disappointing enough, there are just 12 playable golfers--about a quarter of what previous games have trained us to expect.

Fewer golfers wouldn't be all that damning if the character creator was even passable, but what's available is one of the worst customization tools ever stuffed into a sports game. There are so few options when creating your custom golfer that it's nearly impossible to make a character that you can even pretend looks like you, unless yours happens to match one of the 11 pre-set heads or three body types provided. Instead of feeling like you're starting your own unique career on the PGA Tour, the barebones tools force you to role-play as some anonymous young golfer straight out of a stock photo.

You take this indistinct, cookie-cutter avatar through a single lower-level Web.com event, and from there, you're off to the races. There's no grand buildup, no scenes of your collegiate career, and no narrative to push you forward. You go from tournament to tournament, either competing in quick rounds where you play five or six of the most important holes per day or going through all 72 holes with the hope of becoming the world's number one golfer. But without any sort of subsidiary content to complement the tournaments--such as a story, drills, or even a schedule to outline your goals--the Pro Career can quickly devolve into an unexciting slog devoid of drama.

The only saving grace is the fact that your character raises levels, earns new clubs, and unlocks additional outfits just about every time you complete a round of 18. This sense of progression makes the gauntlet of tournaments much more palatable, as you're able to see your power, accuracy, and spin vastly improve and lead to pretty shots and even prettier scorecards worth hanging on the fridge. You don't manually add points to specific aspects of your game, but you can choose from different packages that might focus on power, accuracy, or more balanced play.

Rory McIlroy PGA Tour fails to pair its solid mechanics with diverse and interesting content, and its myriad technical failings drag the otherwise picturesque courses into the dirt.

Unfortunately, the bleak only gets bleaker as you venture outside of the career, where the online community-based Country Club and popular modes like Skins, Best Ball, and Battle Golf have all been removed. Online tournaments and head-to-head play give you some reason to test your created golfer against players more savvy than the AI, but the utter lack of gameplay variety is disappointing.

If you find yourself hungry for something--anything--new to grab on to, a fresh Night Club Challenge mode is available. This extended series of challenges has you landing balls in small circles and through floating hoops to earn points, but a mid-air nitrous boost just isn't enough to make target practice drills any fun. You can earn three stars per level--similar to most popular mobile games--but the deeper you travel down the road of challenges, the less it feels like golf.

Even outside this neon-lit, objective-based playground lie moments that, again, don't feel like anything you'd find on the real PGA Tour. Sinking birdie putts as your created player often leads to a shot of him or her awkwardly busting out the robot or the sprinkler--and while I don't think golf needs to be some sacred pursuit devoid of humor, the celebrations feel completely out of place.

Additionally, the commentary sporadically mismatches its messages with what's actually taking place on-screen. Even though I sliced my ball out of bounds and into the trees at St. Andrews, both commentators talked about how unfortunate it was that I just hit it into the water--despite my ball being completely dry. After that, they mentioned how my approach shot had too much speed and not enough backspin as they watched it softly land on the back of the green and spin backward toward the front hole location. Like most other aspects of the game, the commentary is careless.

Rory McIlroy PGA Tour fails to pair its solid mechanics with diverse and interesting content, and its myriad technical failings drag the otherwise picturesque courses into the dirt. There are just too few courses and golfers to keep you playing, and even the limited game modes available don't have anywhere near the complexity or depth we've come to expect. Whether you want to call it a shank, a duff, or a whiff, all that really matters is that Rory McIlroy PGA Tour is a poor effort from a series that was looking to make a splash in its generational debut.

• Leave Blank
• Different swing styles give players more control on the course
• Putting is both challenging and rewarding
• Disappointingly small roster and course selection
• Dull career mode weighed down by paltry character creation tool
• Textures pop in and out of focus constantly
• Most of the interesting modes you’ve come to expect are absent

About the Author

Josiah Renaudin

• @JosiahRenaudin

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Rory McIlroy PGA Tour

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Critic Reviews for Rory McIlroy PGA Tour

Rory McIlroy PGA Tour is a disappointing golf game that just barely manages to make the cut.

Read full review

The assumption seems to be that most players won't have the desire or the stamina to play a full round - though in light of the limited number of courses, it may simply be a way to minimise repetition. Either way, EA Tiburon has produced a game hardly befitting a player of McIlroy's talents. The so-called "next generation of golf" looks uncomfortably similar to the last, and there's substantially less of it. Only the quality of the underlying game saves this from the ignominy of an Avoid sticker.

GamesRadar+

Despite smooth gameplay and fancy visuals, this game is handicapped by a distinct lack of courses and players, leaving it feeling incomplete and rather bland.

Metro GameCentral

The gameplay basics are fine, but this is the absolute bare bones of what a golf game should be – with less than half the amount of content of the last game in the series.

Game Informer

Rory has solid gameplay and covers the basic feature bases, but it doesn't distinguish itself

Rory McIlroy PGA Tour falls far short of its predecessors

Rory McIlroy PGA Tour is an empty, unimpressive debut lacking in both content and finish.

Game Revolution

[A]s much as Night Golf and reduced loading times are fantastic additions to the standard PGA Tour offering, I would rather have more courses, golfers, and character customization with clean next-gen graphics. Content and execution outweigh novelty modes and convenience.

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Rory McIlroy on expected return to PGA Tour policy board: 'I don't think there's been much progress made'

Mcilroy cannot confirm whether he is on his way back to the board, but he does have plenty of motivation to make that move.

Rory McIlroy appears to be on his way back ... to the PGA Tour policy board. McIlroy left the board in 2023, when he was replaced by Jordan Spieth, but there has been a groundswell of support of late to have him rejoin one of the organization's governing bodies.

Webb Simpson recently voiced support for his seats going to McIlroy; Simpson is a member of the policy board and PGA Tour Enterprises board as a player advisor. Though unable to confirm such a move, McIlroy on Wednesday at the 2024 Zurich Classic did address the rumors as  reported by the Guardian .

"I think I can be helpful," said McIlroy while answering a hypothetical question about rejoining the board. "I don't think there's been much progress made in the last eight months, and I was hopeful that there would be. I think I could be helpful to the process ... but only if people want me involved, I guess.

"When Webb and I talked, and he talked about potentially coming off the board, I said, 'Look, if it was something that other people wanted, I would gladly take that seat.' And that was the conversation that we had.

"... That's the whole reason. I feel like I can be helpful. I feel like I care a lot, and I have some pretty good experience and good connections within the game and sort of around the wider sort of ecosystem and everything that's going on. At the end of the day, it's not quite up to me to just come back on the board. There's a process that has to be followed, but I'm willing to do it if that's what people want, I guess."

This would be a meaningful move for all parties.

McIlroy was vocal during his prior tenure on the board, constantly battling threats from LIV Golf while fighting for the existence of the PGA Tour. Last summer, he said he felt like a "sacrificial lamb" when commissioner Jay Monahan appeared to reach an agreement with Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund that sought to eventually merge interests between the PGA Tour and LIV Golf.

Then McIlroy suddenly resigned from the board in November.

"I just felt like something had to give," McIlroy said at the time. "I just didn't feel like I could commit the time and the energy into doing that. I don't mind being busy, but I just like being busy doing my own stuff. Something had to give and there's guys that are on that board that are spending a lot more time and a lot more energy on it than I am."

Other current player directors alongside Simpson and Spieth are Tiger Woods, Patrick Cantlay, Peter Malnati and Adam Scott. All six are on the PGA Tour policy board and the board of the new for-profit PGA Tour Enterprises, which just received an investment of up to $3 billion from Strategic Sports Group. 

These active players are joined on the PGA Tour Enterprises board by former player Joe Olgivie and six other members, including Monahan, four representatives from SSG and Valero chairman Joe Gorder.

McIlroy has been an interesting voice since resigning from the board last fall. He has spoken often about what world tour might look like, something that would only be possible with a consummation of the Tour's proposed deal with the PIF (in which the fund would ostensibly make a similar investment to SSG and resume a combining of the leagues' interests).

"I think it's all pie-in-the-sky stuff," McIlroy said in February. "I think there has to be a component of the southern hemisphere: Australia, South Africa. There obviously has to be a component of the Far East, whether that be Korea, Japan, China. Obviously the Middle East as well. We've been going to the Middle East for a long time, but obviously Dubai, Saudi, and then sort of working our way from East to West and back into the United States for the sort of spring, summertime. 

"I don't think it will look too dissimilar to what it is right now, but maybe the front end of the year and the back end of the year might look a little different. I don't think we need to blow everything up, but there definitely needs to be some tweaks."

McIlroy, who has voiced that he's OK with LIV players returning to the PGA Tour with no punishment -- for the health of the game overall -- and constantly preached unification, also distanced himself a bit from Spieth and others in February. He left a group chat of other top players, instead holding a discussion with Spieth about the need for the Tour to finalize its deal with the PIF and bring the entire golf world back together. At the time, McIlroy described the conversation with Spieth as "frank."  

Rory also addressed his differences with other board members on Wednesday.

"[I would manage those differences through] compromise but also try to articulate your points as well as you can and try to help people see the benefits of what unification could do for the game and what it could do for this tour in particular," he said. "We obviously realize the game is not unified right now for a reason, and there's still some hard feelings and things that need to be addressed, but I think at this point for the good of the game, we all need to put those feelings aside and all move forward together."

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Rory McIlroy poised to return to crucial PGA Tour role that could speed up LIV Golf merger

Rory McIlroy is set to return to the PGA Tour's policy board later this week, just five months after resigning from the group amid speculation he could join LIV Golf

• 10:23, 23 Apr 2024

Just five months after Rory McIlroy quit his role on PGA Tour's policy board, the four-time major champion is believed to be on the brink of returning to the position.

As talks between the PGA Tour, LIV Golf and the DP World Tour continue to stall over a deal to unite the professional game, McIlroy's return would give hope to belief that a deal could finally be struck.

The breakaway LIV Golf circuit, funded by Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund (PIF), has lured some of the sport's biggest names away from the PGA Tour with hefty financial incentives since it's launch in 2022.

Phil Mickelson , Jon Rahm , Bryson DeChambeau, and Brooks Koepka have all joined LIV, but McIlroy has stayed loyal to the PGA Tour and initially led the criticism of those departing for the LIV riches.

READ MORE: Tiger Woods adds three PGA Tour stars to his TGL team after Jon Rahm blow

READ MORE: Ryder Cup legend insists Europe must field 'strongest team' despite LIV Golf exits

Despite stepping down from his role on the PGA Tour's policy board last November and rumors - which the Northern Irishman has dismissed - of a sensational $850million move to LIV following the Masters this month, it seems McIlroy will not only stay with the PGA Tour, but will increase his influence again.

According to The Guardian , a vote is scheduled for Wednesday to determine whether McIlroy will become a director on the PGA Tour's policy board, replacing Webb Simpson who has asked for McIlroy to be his replacement.

The voting process will also determine if McIlroy earns a director position in PGA Tour Enterprises, the entity managing the organization's commercial activities and bringing McIlroy back into the heart of the PGA Tour's ongoing struggle to strike a deal that was originally due to be in place by December 31.

No concrete agreement has surfaced yet and after two years of internal discord, McIlroy is advocating for unity within the sport.

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Only five months ago McIlroy quit the PGA Tour's policy board, making his decision to come back somewhat unexpected. When questioned by BBC Sport about whether stepping down had been a long time coming, McIlroy admitted it was.

"It has. Something had to give. There's only so many hours in the day and so many days in the week and I've got a lot going on in my life right now. Between trying to be a world-class golfer and trying to be a good husband and a good father, I've got a growing investment portfolio that's taking up more of my time... I've got a lot going on."

However, it seems like McIlroy is charged and raring to go once again. Fellow board members, including Patrick Cantlay and Jordan Spieth, will vote on McIlroy's potential return.

Notably last year, McIlroy had a verbal altercation with Cantlay's caddie, Joe LaCava, at the Ryder Cup.

Spieth and McIlroy have also clashed on whether the PIF's money investment should be welcomed by the PGA Tour. Spieth isn't too sure, while McIlroy is happy to work with LIV's funders and PIF governor Yasir al-Rumayyan to reunite his beloved sport.

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MORE ON Rory McIlroy PGA Tour LIV Golf

Rory McIlroy ready to be 'helpful,' open to return to PGA Tour policy board

Rory McIlroy all but confirmed on Wednesday that he will return to the PGA Tour's policy board and is just waiting to be asked.

At a press conference before the start this week of the Zurich Classic of New Orleans, McIlroy was asked to confirm a report that he's coming back to the board that he left in November and will take a seat on the board of PGA Tour Enterprises.

He said, "Not as of yet, no."

The four-time major champion from Northern Ireland believes he can be helpful after stalled negotiations between the PGA Tour and the Saudi Arabia-financed LIV Golf league after a "framework agreement" for a merger announced last June.

"I don't think there's been much progress made in the last eight months, and I was hopeful that there would be," he said. "I think I could be helpful to the process. But only if people want me involved, I guess."

He said he talked with Webb Simpson, who discussed potentially coming off the board.

"I said, look, if it was something that other people wanted, I would gladly take that seat, and that was the conversation that we had," McIlroy said. "But yeah, I think that's the whole reason. I feel like I can be helpful. I feel like I care a lot, and I have some pretty good experience and good connections within the game and sort of around the wider sort of ecosystem and everything that's going on.

"But at the end of the day, it's not quite up to me to just come back on the board. There's a process that has to be followed," he continued. "But I'm willing to do it if that's what people want, I guess."

Simpson is on the board with fellow current PGA Tour player directors Patrick Cantlay, Peter Malnati, Adam Scott, Jordan Spieth and Tiger Woods. A vote could have been scheduled for Wednesday, according to a report in the Guardian.

McIlroy, 34, said that if he comes back, he would push for unification as "the only way forward for the game of golf." He initially had been a sharp critic of LIV Golf but now would consider compromises and also communicate his point that unification is best for the sport and for the PGA Tour in particular.

"We obviously realize the game is not unified right now for a reason, and there's still some hard feelings and things that need to be addressed," McIlroy said, "but I think at this point for the good of the game, we all need to put those feelings aside and all move forward together."

McIlroy, who is partnering with Ireland's Shane Lowry in Zurich's two-man team format, doesn't think being on the board hindered his performance, saying he played some of his best golf. It did require his time and took a toll as he spent less time on other interests.

"We're golfers at the end of the day," said McIlroy, who joined the Player Advisory Council in 2019. "We don't need to be trying to run a $15 billion business. We need to go out there and play golf and let the business people do the business things."

The PGA Tour and DP World Tour have not completed a final merger agreement with LIV's financiers, the Saudi Public Investment Fund (PIF), in the months since a self-imposed Dec. 31 deadline came and went.

In the meantime, LIV poached its highest-profile golfer to date in two-time major winner Jon Rahm. The Spaniard was ranked among the top three in the world when he signed with LIV Golf in December.

The PGA Tour entered a separate partnership with Strategic Sports Group (SSG), a consortium of U.S.-based sports team owners.

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Rory McIlroy returns to PGA Tour Policy Board in bid to end LIV Golf turmoil

Rory McIlroy has made the surprise decision to rejoin the PGA Tour policy board in the effort to help steer through a deal with the Saudi Public Investment Fund after resigning his position as a player director six months ago.

McIlroy quit the role in November, citing “professional and personal commitments” , although the world No 2 later admitted to “feeling like I was just banging my head against the wall” as the Tour’s negotiations with PIF all but broke down.

And despite Tiger Woods and the other player directors staging a “positive” meeting with Yasir Al Rumayyan – the PIF governor and chairman of LIV Golf – in the Bahamas last month, the talks seemingly remain in stalemate with no merger imminent.

McIlroy’s U-turn – which is almost certain to be ratified in the next few days – could be highly notable. Since he left the board, the Tour has signed up US private investors Strategic Sports Group which has already injected $1.5 billion into the circuit. LIV reacted to this by luring Jon Rahm with a £450 million and there are fears that if the Saudis are not brought into the fold that they could entice even more big names across.

SSG recognises the risk in the continuation of the Civil War and it is understood the consortium led by Liverpool FC owners Fenway Sports is not only fully behind McIlroy’s return but helped engineer it. Webb Simpson, the former US Open champion, is another who believes that a deal is vital to unify the game and has resigned from the board and requested that his place be taken by McIlroy.

The 12 members of the board need to vote unanimously for McIlroy and despite there being factions who, for whatever reasons, think that a PIF deal could and perhaps should be avoided, it verges on the inconceivable that his comeback will not be rubber-stamped.

When asked by Sky Sports why the change of mind, McIlroy’s reply was pointed. “I’d rather the men’s golf professional landscape survived this, so I’m happy to do my bit,” he said. Patrick Cantlay’s reaction to the news could be extremely interesting, regardless of his and his management’s claims that the American Ryder Cup player has no personal agenda and is simply representing the views of the PGA Tour members.

McIlroy has previously said about Cantlay “we see the world quite “differently” and had an exchange of views with Jordan Spieth, another player director, in February after the American declared, in the wake of the SSG announcement, “I don’t think that [a deal with the PIF] is needed”. “We had a pretty frank discussion,” McIlroy revealed before stating he “would not be too happy” with Spieth if he was PIF.

McIlroy’s mission will be to abandon this mindset. Initially, he was perhaps the most vocal opponent of LIV, but since the “‘framework agreement” was agreed with PIF last summer, he has been adamant that the Saudis must be included in the new Tour make-up.

He also vouched for Al-Rumayyan last month, declaring that the breakaway league has not assisted in the reputation of the right-hand man to Saudi Crown Prince, Mohammed bin Salman. “Fundamentally he wants to do the right thing,” McIlroy said. “I have spent time with Yasir and the people that have represented him in LIV I think have done him a disservice .So [LIV commissioner chief executive] Norman and those guys.

“I see the two entities, and I actually think there’s a really big disconnect between PIF and LIV. I think you got PIF over here and LIV are sort of over here doing their own thing. So the closer that we can get to Yasir, PIF and hopefully finalise that investment, I think that will be a really good thing.”

McIlroy is speaking to the media in New Orleans on Wednesday where he is playing in the Zurich Classic - the PGA Tour pairs tournament - alongside compatriot Shane Lowry.

On the LPGA Tour, Nelly Korda has withdrawn from this week’s this week’s JM Eagle LA Championship, saying she “feels exhausted” after winning the first female major of the season, the Chevron Championship, on Sunday. The 25-year-old had won five events in a row and in her next tournament - which is now likely to be the Cognizant  Founders Cup in New Jersey in a fortnight - will be trying to break the LPGA Tour’s record for most successive victories.

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Rory McIlroy Open to PGA Tour Policy Board Return: 'I Don't Think There's Been Much Progress Made'

The four-time major champion had left the board late last year to focus on his game and family.

• Author: Bob Harig

Rory McIlroy has yet to officially return to the PGA Tour Policy Board, but the four-time major champion said Wednesday that he is open to the possibility because he believes not enough progress has been made toward an agreement that would bring the game back together.

McIlroy resigned his position as a player director on the 12-member board in November , citing a need to spend more time working on his game.

But as the PGA Tour seeks to make a deal with the Public Investment Fund of Saudi Arabia that has lingered on for months, McIlroy believes he can be a voice to help get that done.

Rory McIlroy may be soon returning to the PGA Tour Policy Board, replacing Webb Simpson.

Katie Goodale, Katie Goodale / USA TODAY

“I think I can be helpful. I don't think there's been much progress made in the last eight months, and I was hopeful that there would be,” McIlroy said at the Zurich Classic of New Orleans, where he is playing the team event with Shane Lowry. “I think I could be helpful to the process.

“But only if people want me involved, I guess. When Webb (Simpson) and I talked and he talked about potentially coming off the board, I said, look, if it was something that other people wanted, I would gladly take that seat, and that was the conversation that we had.”

The Guardian reported Monday that Simpson plans to resign his seat and he had discussed with McIlroy taking his place. The move would need to be approved by the rest of the board.

McIlroy reiterated his view that the game needs to come together.

“Absolutely,” he said. “I think it’s the only way forward for the game of golf.”

And to achieve that, McIlroy believes compromise is in order. The PGA Tour-PIF divide—and LIV Golf’s role in it—seems to come down to several factors. How would LIV Golf look as part of PGA Tour Enterprises? Would it remain a separate league? Would LIV players be able to compete in PGA Tour events? Would there be a separate, Champions League-like competition for all of golf— as McIlroy has proposed ?

“Try to articulate your points as well as you can and try to help people see the benefits of what unification could do for the game and what it could do for this tour in particular,” McIlroy said. “We obviously realize the game is not unified right now for a reason, and there's still some hard feelings and things that need to be addressed, but I think at this point for the good of the game, we all need to put those feelings aside and all move forward together.”

McIlroy said he originally left because he felt it could help him concentrate more on his game and devote more time to his family. The current landscape has taken up considerable time for all board members, he said.

“But I feel like I can be helpful,” he said. ”I feel like I can be helpful. I feel like I care a lot, and I have some pretty good experience and good connections within the game and sort of around the wider sort of ecosystem and everything that's going on.

“But at the end of the day, it's not quite up to me to just come back on the board. There's a process that has to be followed. But I'm willing to do it if that's what people want, I guess.”

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