NDNS Golf

EVERY COURSE HAS BEEN REBUILT TO REAL YARDS Read this part if you already have a career going. All 35 courses — every one of the 630 holes — were drawn in screen units rather than yards, so a yard meant something different on a par 3 than on a par 5, and fairways and greens came out far too big. They are measured in yards now, the same yard in every direction on every hole. • FAIRWAYS ARE NARROWER AND HARDER TO HIT. A fairway is about 32 yards wide at the landing zone now, instead of a median of 66. In testing, fairways hit fell from about 82% to about 55%. The Tour average is 61%, so 82% was never a golf number — but you will feel it on the first tee shot. • GREENS ARE A CONSISTENT 27 TO 35 YARDS on every hole. Par-3 greens used to be impossible to miss sideways; now a 15-yard miss holds about a quarter of the time. • YOUR CAREER STATS WILL DRIFT. Rounds already played keep the numbers they were scored with, so fairways hit and greens in regulation are a blend of the old courses and the new ones for a while. Nothing is lost, and no save is affected. Two things the rebuild fixed outright: trees no longer stand on putting surfaces (277 of them did), and nothing blocks the line from a par-3 tee. THE PRO SHOP CAN NOW SELL FAIRWAY FUNDS Optional. Everything in the game is still fully earnable by playing. • Fairway Funds in four sizes, with the per-dollar bonus shown on each. • Energy refills, banked in your bag and used when you want them rather than spent the moment you buy. • Bought Fairway Funds you have not spent carry over when you start a new career, and earned funds are always spent first. YOUR PURCHASES NOW FOLLOW YOU Sign in with Apple, and anything you buy comes back if you reinstall the game or move to a new phone. Fairway Funds are consumable, which means the App Store cannot restore them on its own — an account is what makes a purchase yours rather than your handset's. It is optional and nothing in the game is locked behind it. Your career stays on this phone either way: signing in restores what you bought, not what you played. You can sign in, sign out or delete your account at any time from My Player, then Settings, then Account. THE RULES AND THE PHYSICS • A chip, pitch or approach now rolls out on the green it lands on. Every shot played from anywhere but the tee was released as if it had landed in rough, which is why armed shots kept finishing short. • A ball behind the green plays from behind the green. Aiming right sent it left, and its lie was read from the wrong side of the pin. • A tee shot is carried by the elevation of the ground it lands on, not the green's. • A ball that comes down in water stays in the water, even if it rolls on out onto the green or into a bunker. • A penalty drop keeps its side of the pin. • ANY shot can now go in. Chip-ins, holed approaches and aces count, so the Hole in One and Albatross trophies can finally be earned. • After a missed putt the ball is left where it stopped, so the next putt reads the break from the right angle. FIXES • Putting gives you longer to make your stroke. A putt demands the same thumb travel as a full drive and was being given less time to do it in. • The scorecard on an 18-hole round opened off the top of the screen with no way to close it. • A green in regulation now counts penalty strokes. • A drive stopped by a tree is recorded where it stopped, about 23 yards shorter than it was credited. • The Fairway Funds pill opens the store, instead of the training shop. • The short-game screen reports a lie the same way the course does. • The menu finally shows the version you are actually running. • Nine distinct golfers to choose from at character creation.