Golf is a sport whose goal is to strike a small ball using a club into a series of holes with the fewest strokes possible. Although its origin is debated, there’s no doubt the sport was reserved for the upper echelons of society until the 20th century, when it achieved global popularity. Unfortunately, not every location is near a golf court, and people don’t always have the time, energy, or company to enjoy the game properly. Playing video games with golf’s theme and/or game rules solves that issue cheaply and without physical exertion. If you’re still on the fence, let our list of the best golf games for PC convince you.
1. PGA Tour 2K21
PGA Tour 2K21 takes the cake as far as top golf games for PC are concerned, especially in the single-player department. The exhaustive Career Mode lets you create your character then customize its equipment and accessories with thousands of choices. The game has a lot of licenses, which means you’ll encounter beautiful graphics, 11+ top-level golf professionals, and golf courses from the real-life PGA Tournament. The game also prides itself on its multi-player mode, both LAN and fully online, which includes individual matches, exhibition matches such as Alt-Shot, 4-Player Scramble, and Stroke Play, and full-fledged tournaments and seasons.
2. The Golf Club 2
The Golf Club 2 was developed by the parent company to PGA Tour 2K21’s game developer. In other words, the quality and attention to detail carry over. Unsurprisingly, it comes with a comprehensive offline Career Mode, which lets you earn money and upgrade your equipment over time. The dynamic Online mode is also there, allowing you to compete in individual matches or online tournaments. And, while it lacks official licensing, which means in-game elements won’t be recognizable, the game makes up for it with a golf course creator. As if that wasn’t enough, the motion and swing mechanics are stellar.
3. Golf It!
Golf It! is a multiplayer mini-golf video game whose inception stems from the developer’s experience in other games. They observed that the golfing maps either have very few differences or are few and far in between and thus become “stale” quickly. This is why they offer 6 unique maps, from common such as Grassland, to unique such as Pirate Cove, Jade Temple, and Graveyard, with 18 holes each. Furthermore, their Multiplayer Editor allows you to mix any of the default maps, plus add 2300+ objects wherever you like. We also liked how the swing strength depends on your computer mouse movement speed.
4. GolfTopia
GolfTopia is unlike any of the leading golf games for PC; it’s built to resemble strategy, tycoon, and time management genres. You’ll develop every golfing map from the ground up, and micro-manage every little nook and cranny – hole, tee, tree, structure, elevation, and even add futuristic devices such as teleporters, bumpers, fans, launchers, etc. After you publish your course, you’ll notice 200 dedicated golfers spawn on it, each with their own mood and 100+ unique opinions of it. Besides making them happy, you also must fight a weed infestation that persistently threatens to overtake the greenery.
5. Perfect Golf
Perfect Golf is one of the few rare golf simulation games for PC. It features outstanding visuals, immersive ball mechanics, and 12+ official (and plenty of community-created) golf courses. Besides single-player, you can create password-protected games or join a lobby and play exhibitions and tournaments online. The game is also comprehensive in terms of content since it supports 20+ game modes, 5 difficulty levels, assist customization, and multiple camera angles. Each game/server can have its weather, brightness, contrast, sun rays effects, lens flare, and camera follow adjusted too.
6. Golf With Your Friends
Golf With Your Friends is, unsurprisingly, a multi-player experience for up to 12 friends or strangers who’ll quickly join that rank. The game features uniquely themed maps such as Pirate or Ancient (think Jurassic Park or Ancient Egypt) and even a Worms-inspired course. Each map also has unique power-ups or traps, which can expedite your victory or slow down the entire process. Level Editor lets you create courses and customize the in-game elements such as skins or ball trails. The two other Game modes, inspired by basketball and hockey games, add diversity.
7. Golf Around!
Golf Around! is similar to Golf With Your Friends in many ways. First of all, it’s a multiplayer minigolf game designed for up to 12 players. Second of all, it features 9 unique courses with a total of 162 holes built around castles, dungeons, snowfall, vaporwave, steampunk, and comes with a built-in level creator with support for Community Creations. Third of all, you’ll experience the same unique obstacles and power-ups only, honestly, much crazier. The key difference is that you experience single-player and that Game Modes aren’t content-diverse, only change the game rules.
8. Worms Crazy Golf
If you’ve player Worms, one of the best-known two-player explosive games, you’ll love this version. Worms Crazy Golf has the same action-packed scheming, typical cartoon graphics, dialogue, humor, objects, characters, and environmental destruction. But it comes with solo Career Mode, 3 golf courses with 18 holes each, and 15 unique single-player characters. Local multiplayer is present here as well and allows up to 4 players simultaneously. Additionally, everything about your Worm can be customized, and in-game currency and frequent updates unlock more resources.
9. WHAT THE GOLF?
WHAT THE GOLF? is not a traditional golf game, as the developer and publisher constantly point out, and is even made for “people who hate golf”. In reality, it’s made for those who don’t know traditional rules or find them too dull. The swing mechanic stays, but everything else is totally different, as you’ll see through 500+ unique levels, both in 2D and 3D. What’s more, besides playing alone, you can also try two-player split-screen mode using Steam Remote Play Together, which makes up for a fun night filled with wonder, ridiculousness, and laughter.
10. The Golf Club
The Golf Club, despite being released in 2014, retains the title of one of the best-looking golf games for PC. It also uniquely solves the problem of getting bored of the courses. After entering an integer to determine the number of holes and bunkers, green and overall coverage, etc., the random course generator creates a brand new environment, which you can rinse and repeat. Additionally, the swing mechanic is exemplary, and you can download community-created courses and watch replays of others playing on yours. Finally, the Golf Club features offline solo and local 4-player gameplay.
11. The Golf Club VR
The Golf Club VR is a complete rework of The Golf Club, released 3 years later. This includes a rerecorded audio, which now includes immersive sounds of crickets, wind, waves, birds, trees swaying, and much more. Of course, all the original courses from 2014 are playable, although from a different perspective and with new mechanics, considering you’ll use a VR headset with motion controllers. You can also play 130,000+ user-generated courses and explore 250,000 km² of the procedurally generated environment.
12. Walkabout Mini Golf VR
While we’re on the topic of Virtual Reality golf games for PC, let’s mention Walkabout Mini Golf VR. Its graphics are reminiscent of a mix of Minecraft with high-resolution shaders and Roblox, but there’s no building. Instead, you’ll play 7 different golf courses with 18 holes each, alone, in 1v1 matches, or with a group of 5 players. Realistic swinging and ball physics are accompanied by the ability to teleport or fly around the world. The game is available cross-platform and has an optional system allowing you to collect 120+ custom golf balls. Finally, the existing courses become more challenging in Night Mode.
13. Disc Golf Valley
Disc Golf Valley is among the low spec golf PC games that take things in another direction – it’s dedicated to disc golf. That’s right; instead of balls, you’ll collect thousands of unique discs, then swing and throw them with precision. As if that wasn’t exciting enough, you can purchase custom discs in the Pro Shop or unlock them through Challenge Mode. Speaking of which, we guarantee you’ll spend a lot of time in 3 practice Game Modes, exploring the 14 massive courses from top to bottom. Once you brush up on every skill, you’ll be ready to join the online Tournament Mode.
14. Tiger Woods PGA Tour 12
Even though Tiger Woods hasn’t won a PGA Championship since 2007, his die-hard fans delight in the fact they can see and play against him at the top of his game. Your goal is to create a custom character, then embark on a long and grueling journey (called “Road to the Masters”) from amateur too, a spot near the top of the World Ranking scoreboard. The game also features live commentary by well-known golf broadcasters Jim Nantz and David Feherty. It also features Augusta National Golf Club, The Master’s tournament, for the first time in the franchise’s history.
15. 100ft Robot Golf
We’d bet that almost everyone finds the idea of a 100ft tall robot playing golf ridiculous. Of course, fans of the Mighty Morphin’ Power Rangers TV series are used to something similar. It certainly doesn’t make it any less fun, though. You can play alone or with up to 4 players in total split-screen or online, and go on a Robot Golf Tour Circuit. The experience will have you knocking buildings or trying to block your opponent’s shot in large cities, diving under the ocean surface, on top of mountains, and even orbiting the moon. There’s also a solo campaign that tells the story through cutscenes.
16. Tower Unite
Tower Unite isn’t one game but a collection of games (“multiverse”) created using its resources, much like Roblox or Epic Games’ Core. However, one of the first games they released is Minigolf, heavily inspired by the GMod Tower game from 2009. This time it supports both single-player and multiplayer for up to 16 simultaneous players, as well as player-hosted servers. It features 9 minigolf courses with 18 holes each, set in space, mineshaft, gardens, sky, snow, and other absurd locations. We also loved that taking a shot has no time limit and that everyone putts concurrently, avoiding chaos.
17. Infinite Mini Golf
We don’t believe the premise of Infinite Mini Golf needs an explanation, but we’ll clarify it briefly. You can play solo or multiplayer, on courses you created, the game developer and publisher did, or best of all, other players in the community have, the number of which is in the thousands. As usual, you can play no-pressure exhibitions or partake in challengers or exhaustive tournaments, all wrapped up in The Sims-like graphics and relatively accurate physics. The game is constantly updated, and recent ones introduced the Virtual Reality gameplay perspective.
18. Dangerous Golf
Have you ever wanted to smash something with a golf ball, but either lacked the location and a club or feared repercussions? Dangerous Golf solves that problem, as it forces you to cause as much damage by scoring your performance and giving unique achievements. You can wreak havoc in 4 large locations – the USA’s kitchen, England’s Castle, Australia’s Outback, and France’s Palace. To prevent things from getting repetitive, you’ll gradually unlock new abilities during 10 golfing tours with 10 holes each. Finally, you can play solo, in co-op with 3 more people, or online, with 8 players total.
19. Sid Meier’s SimGolf
We’re big fans of Sid Meier, which is obvious from our list of top pirate games for PC. This time it’s all about designing your own golf course to develop it into an 18-hole extraordinaire. You’ll then take the role of Gary Golf to test it out professionally. Besides regular objects and equipment, you must also hire staff such as greeters, groundskeepers, vendors, and marshalls, add buildings such as airstrips or hotels, and facilities such as tennis courts or snack bars to beautify the scenery. There’s also a Sandbox Mode for infinite resources, akin to Minecraft‘s Creative Mode.
20. Professional Golf Play 3D
Professional Golf Play 3D was created to be cross-platform, available on Windows 10 and Windows Phone. Seeing as how the latter platform is discounted, only the former availability remains, which affects the graphics. Simply put, they aren’t as top of the line as they could’ve been. Luckily, you’ll thoroughly enjoy the animations, swing mechanics, ball physics, multiple golf courses, natural obstacles, and adjustable weather conditions. You’ll savor creating your character from scratch and gradually customizing its golfing gear.