Rose remains atop bunched Masters leaderboard

Imagine taking on Justin Thomas down the stretch at East Lake for the FedExCup. What about trying to outduel Tony Finau as you hit the stadium hole at TPC Scottsdale with thousands of fans screaming for action. Ever wanted a round at Riviera Country Club with Bryson DeChambeau or a veteran like Ian Poulter or Jim Furyk? Or maybe you fancy yourself the next Alister Mackenzie, Pete Dye or Ben Crenshaw of course design? All of these scenarios and more come to life in the new PGA TOUR 2K21 video game set to launch on August 21 on PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Xbox One X, PC, Nintendo Switch and Stadia. Game developers HB Studios have put together a serious upgrade on the previous iteration, known as The Golf Club 2019, teaming with 2K and the PGA TOUR to bring to market a game that screams to both the arcade-style casual player and the hardcore golf superfan. While TPC Sawgrass, TPC Boston, TPC Deere Run, TPC Scottsdale, TPC Southwind, TPC Summerlin and Atlantic Beach Country Club return in this edition now you can show off your skills at Riviera, the Copperhead Course at Innisbrook, East Lake, Quail Hollow, TPC Louisiana, TPC River Highlands, TPC San Antonio and TPC Twin Cities. And chances are a few more will join the stable soon after release via updates. “Our goal is to make the PGA TOUR 2K21 in-game, licensed, real-life course recreations as detailed as possible, so it feels like you’re actually playing the course alongside top PGA TOUR pros,” HB Studios senior producer Shaun West said. “To see professionals play these courses on TV, and then watch each come to life as playable courses within the game is an incredibly cool process to see, and we’re excited for our fans to be able to experience it as well.” You’ll take them all on in career mode, starting as a rookie on the Korn Ferry Tour who needs to find his way to promotion. The you will try your luck against a stable of PGA TOUR stars led by former FedExCup champion and world no.1 Thomas in a 30 event season. DeChambeau is going to rip it long, even though his avatar doesn’t have the bulk the six-time TOUR winner has put on lately. His body scans were done before his power lifting and weight training efforts – but that’s not to say he won’t be adjusted in the future. “It’s a good thing we have contacts on the WWE side, maybe we can borrow some of their body types as he has gotten considerably thicker,” Josh Muise, creative director at HB Studios joked. “When we scanned Bryson he was a very different size then he is now and full credit to Bryson for putting in all the extra hard work during the lull of the season. It’s a unique one that landed on our plates and we will do our absolute best to play catch up if we need to.” If it’s bulk you like you can use it when you build your own player in great detail, combing through apparel from licensed sponsors to find your perfect look. You can also customize your clubs but all options bring balance in some way. Max out in one space, you’ll lose out elsewhere. So consider who you really want to be. Will you be a power hitter who gives up accuracy but is constantly hitting bombs or will you put a premium on fairways and be one of the sports premier ball-strikers who isn’t fazed by being out-muscled off the tee? Perhaps your bread and butter will be on and around the greens. Professional commentator Luke Elvy and former PGA Championship winner Rich Beem will call the action throughout your career and the six difficulty settings mean you can take things easy and just swing away or test yourself down to the nitty gritty parts of golf. Shape the ball, deal with loft and angles, react to the lie, create specific spin and work on taking a little off or adding a little more with partial shots. The course design option is second to none. You’ll have all the tools the developers did at your disposal to build your dream course and once completed they can be uploaded to be played by all players across all platforms. It is user-generated courses from this feature that supplement the TOUR courses throughout the game. Developers picked their favorites from the last version of the game and added them to the stable. Of course as users get busy with all new assets things are going to get even better in PGA TOUR 2K21. Want 18 island greens? Go for it. Crocodile infested lakes? Sure. Snow on one hole, sun the next… why not. Want to try to replicate your local course? Have a crack at it. Others might have already done the hard work for you… and let’s just say there are some major recreation efforts in there. You can start your own or join an online society and play competitively against others from across the globe. Want to find the best player in your extended family… set up your own schedule and get going. Of course you can still take on your friends in all sorts or one off modes as well. Stroke play, match play, stableford, skins, alternate shot and now four player Scramble… set it up, grip it, and rip it. If you pre-order https://pgatour.2k.com/buy before the 21st you’ll also receive some custom adidas swag for your player – a signal green and core black look featuring adidas CodeChaos BOA golf shoes, and custom 2K/adidas CodeChaos polo, pants and hat, designed by adidas, exclusively for PGA TOUR 2K21.

Click here to read the full article…

Click here to read the full article…

OLYMPIA FIELDS, Ill. - Dustin Johnson is 21 shots worse to par than he was a week ago and still looks to be the player to beat. Johnson and Hideki Matsuyama survived another demanding day at Olympia Fields, both scratching out a 1-under 69 that felt better than it looked to share the lead Saturday at the BMW Championship. Everyone else was over par going into the final round. Sunday is one last chance for some players to be among the top 30 who advance to the FedExCup finale, and one last round for others — like Tiger Woods — to prepare for the U.S. Open on a course that plays every bit as tough. Patrick Cantlay only hit five fairways and didn’t make a birdie as he tumbled out of a tie for the lead with a round with a 75 that left him five shots behind and might cost him a spot in the TOUR Championship. RELATED: Full leaderboard | Rahm cards 66 despite Rules gaffe Rory McIlroy had to play left-handed to escape the base of a tree in starting the back nine with a bogey, and he finished with a shot he thought was going to be long, came up 70 feet short and led to a three-putt bogey for a 73. He still was only three shots back assuming he plays. Jon Rahm matched the low round of the day at 66 that could have easily been one shot better if not for a blunder that even he couldn’t believe. He forgot to set a marker down on the green before picking up his golf ball on No. 5, freezing in his tracks when he realized what happened. “I was thinking of somebody else or something else … and yeah, I just picked up the ball without marking it, simple as that,” Rahm said after a round that left him only three behind. “I can’t really give you an explanation. It’s one of those things that happen in golf. Never thought it would in my professional career, but here we are.” The BMW Championship remains up for grabs, and if Sunday holds to form, it will be more about holding on than pulling away. Eleven players were separated by three shots. Johnson and Matsuyama were at 1-under 209. A week ago at THE NORTHERN TRUST on a rain-softened course with little wind, Johnson was at 22-under par through three rounds and had a five-shot lead. That felt easy. This does not. Johnson had a three-shot swing go against him on the opening hole when he went rough to rough to bunker and made bogey, while Matsuyama holed a bunker shot for eagle. Matsuyama quickly built a three-shot lead with a birdie on No. 4. He made only one birdie the rest of the way. Joaquin Niemann had a 68 and was part of the group at 1-over 211 that included Adam Scott (70) and Mackenzie Hughes (69). Another shot back were the likes of Rahm, Bubba Watson, Brendon Todd and Kevin Kisner, who had 16 pars, one birdie and bogey for his round of 70. Rounds like that go a long way at Olympia Fields, the former U.S. Open course playing like one with its thick rough and rock-hard greens and enough wind to make the fairways look tighter than they are. Woods, meanwhile, had a reasonable start to his round and wasn’t losing much ground until he lost a tee shot into the water right of the 17th fairway and then smothered a fairway metal to the left. He walked across a cart path smacking the club off the concrete and twice looked like he wanted to break it. He missed a short putt for triple bogey and shot 72. Woods has yet to break par this week. One more round like that and it will be the first time in 10 years — the Bridgestone Invitational at Firestone — that he had all four rounds over par. He needed something around fourth to advance to the TOUR Championship for the first time since 2018. Matsuyama is trying to end three years without a victory. Johnson is trying to win for the second time in seven days, along with positioning himself to be the top seed at the TOUR Championship, which would allow him to start the tournament with a two-shot lead under the staggered start. For players like Niemann, Hughes and Scott, they are simply trying to get to East Lake in Atlanta. All of them are one round away on a golf course where small mistakes can lead to bogeys or worse on just about every hole.

Click here to read the full article…