now the players that like to leave some irons or wedges out of their bag to carry more longer clubs aren't going to be happy with the loft box.
The excessive loft box kind of reminds me of Tiger Woods PGA Tour 2011, with the overpowered, "Club Tuner." I recall that a wedge could be tuned to be so long, that it would perform like a mid to long-iron, thus allowing players to cut out 2 or 3 clubs from their bag, and load up on whatever else they wanted.
Leaving irons and wedges out would be a loophole, based on the unrealistic ability to make long clubs perform like short clubs.
I like the fact that, clubs will foreseeably only have a normal range of high and low distance, which will then compel players to play more strategically... kind of like how actual golf is played.
Bunkers are not all pot bunkers. Let's first pretend that this game even has pot bunkers. But, since it doesn't have any, let's please not pretend that the bunkers cannot be hit out of, at all. The loss needs to be somewhere in the 80-90% range, out of bunkers, unless buried. Golfers out on Tour successfully convert full bunker shots with regularity.
The rest of the rough sounds decent. But, I'd actually like to see some flier lies, (with like say, 105-110%) out of the first or second cut, from time to time. The deep rough and fescue should should be hack-out material. So, we're moving in the right direction, there.
There's no way in the world that a Flop shot should go 40 yards, full stop. 25 yards, seemed excessive, at that. We need to look at some real-life Flops, and see what goes on. They are shortish, high shots, with a bit of roll... usually brought on by being short-sided. But, they need to roll, when the terrain calls for it.
Pitch shots are probably good, even if extended... as long as the distance fills gaps, and makes sense, of course. But, I'd argue that pitches could use a bit more zip on the second hop.
But, a 3-Wood does not carry only 243 yards, not even fully lofted. That's way outside the scope of a normal distance progression.
There was always something wrong with the woods, hybrids, and long irons, from the start of this game; particularly, with their lack of distance adjustment, compared to the other clubs. It is like playing two different games, going from dial-a-distance, with the short irons... to hitting a wood the same exact distance - no matter how much loft is applied. - Doesn't make much sense, not even unto itself.
We should be able to loft up a wood, or hybrid, or long iron. It just shouldn't knock 50 yards off of it. But, a fully lofted wood should knock off more than 2 yards, right? - I hope they fix that.
But, equally important, is to make all clubs travel a normal Tour distance progression. If a Driver can be carried over 300 yards, at the highest level, than a 3-Wood should be more commensurate with that progression. Losing over 40 yards of just carry, between a Driver and a 3-Wood, is a bit overboard. 20-30 yards... maybe?
HB, let's please get a beta-testing-group going or something, am I right? Let's please test these things out, at least a little bit, to make sure that they make sense, before just unloading them upon everyone... and then having to take it all back, and then do it all over again.
I'll volunteer to be a beta-tester. I would just rather we get everything thoroughly tested, so that it's all-the-way looking like golf, moreso than a mashup of some random input that doesn't necessarily correlate fully - to what PGA Tour golf looks like.
