Rory McIlroy PGA Tour wasn't reviewed in the greatest light earlier this week from us, but we wanted to give the online options a bit more time before writing any opinions on how they're stacking up. Other than The Golf Club, fans of Golf haven't had many online golf options in the past few years. The tagline for the game claims that users can hit the links, and “golf without limits”. While that tagline may be catchy, it’s not necessarily correct.

What does Rory McIlroy PGA Tour offer fans who have waited so long to hit the digital course online? Let's dive in and find out.

Modes

Head2Head

This mode is pretty self-explanatory, as it gives you an option to set up a private unranked match with yourself, and up to three of your golfing buddies, join an unranked match created by someone else, or find a ranked match against other random users, if that’s your liking. The mode also gives you the option to take your Rory McIlroy PGA Tour created golfer online (with no XP gain of course) or choose from one of the multiple licensed PGA Tour professionals included in the game.

The game allows you to pick the course, difficulty options, course settings, and whether your session is visible to the public, your friends only, or simply hidden.

If you’re hoping to play any other mode besides match-play, you will be sorely disappointed. You will find no best ball, skins play, alternate shot, and thankfully, no bingo-bango-bongo. If you do find yourself OK with only playing match-play, be warned that the only online shot option is simultaneous, as the turn-based option has been removed.

In fairness, the game does give you the occasional view of the other player(s) in your session, but not that often, and it doesn’t replace the fun that many had with the turn-based shot style. While I found some enjoyment in this mode, it is embarrassingly shallow, and users can only hope that EA adds some depth with DLC and updates. Verdict: Thumbs Down

Online Tournaments

This mode was wildly popular in Tiger Woods 14. Thankfully it was included in this year’s iteration as well.

Users can choose from a weekly tournament, or the daily one round tournament. As with head to head, you can choose the difficulty that fits your skill-set, and it includes a leader-board so you can constantly check your ranking. The tournament hub also allows you to the how the rest of the world is doing against you, or change the filter, and see how just you and your friends stack up. What I like about the online tournament option is it’s quick, pain free, and still allows for some social interactivity. This mode provides what one expects out of it, and while it may seem a bit shallow because of the lack of other options, it’s a welcomed edition (or holdover). Verdict: Thumbs Up (Barely)

Final Thoughts

You may be asking yourself where is the review for the rest of the online play options, sadly though, this is it folks.

Instead of Rory McIlroy PGA Tour I felt like this game should have been named PGA More, as in “we deserve more online content”. The game modes that are provided do offer up a decent level of fun, but as I mentioned, there just isn’t enough there. No clubhouses, no online seasons, no user created tournaments, and no reason to pick this up if all you care about is online play. Once again, the developers of Rory McIlroy PGA Tour 15 have promised to add more depth and modes through DLC and updates, but nothing specific is mentioned at this point. It would be truly a stretch for me to suggest that anyone pick up Rory McIlroy PGA Tour for the online play only. Let’s hope that six months from now, we can revisit this topic with more content to discuss.

How are you liking Rory McIlroy PGA Tour online?