After teeing up a Titleist Pro V1, I addressed the ball on the second hole at TPC Boston, soled my TaylorMade Stealth Plus driver behind it and gave the shot a 100-percent effort. The ball rocketed down the fairway with a tight draw, cleared the fairway bunker on the right and came to rest 313 yards away in the center of the fairway. Sporting a pair of white Nike Air Max shoes, a red Nike tee shirt and gray pants, I strolled down the fairway beside my rival, Bubba Watson, and waved at the fans on the other side of the ropes.
This really happened last Saturday morning … in the newly released PGA Tour 2K23 video game.
As someone who grew up playing Atari and now writes about golf equipment and attends PGA Tour events on a regular basis, I can promise you this: If I turned 22 last Sunday instead of 52, I would starve to death after buying this game. I’d never leave the sofa. I wouldn’t eat. I wouldn’t leave the house. I would become an insomniac with twitchy thumbs, an unbelievable short game and encyclopedic knowledge of places such as TPC Summerlin, Riviera Country Club and The Renaissance Club in Scotland.
I would also have all of the latest gear because, in addition to incredibly detailed recreations of 20 well-known golf courses and the presence of virtual versions of stars such as Tiger Woods, Justin Thomas, Collin Morikawa and Lydia Ko, 2K included all of today’s hottest clubs, balls, footwear, apparel and accessories. The video below will give you a few peeks.
Your eyes were not deceiving you, that was a Puma logo on Lexi Thompson’s dress, an Adidas triangle on Xander Schauffele’s shirt and a Bridgestone logo on Woods’ golf ball.
The more you play the game, the more virtual currency you can earn and use to buy gear. You can earn virtual currency by achieving things in the game, too, such as hitting a par 5 in two shots and defeating your rival in a match. Of course, the virtual currency also can be bought, using real money, through your video game system.
For companies such as Ping, TaylorMade, Callaway and Titleist, having digital representations of the clubs available now in pro shops is massive.
“To be part of such a popular game and have your products be represented in it and have gamers choose your products is a powerful thing,” said Pete Samuels, Ping’s director of marketing communications. “Naturally we want to be in that space. It reaches a younger demographic, as well.”
People who play golf already know the companies that make clubs, balls and clothes. but through video games such as PGA Tour 2K23, people who would not know a driver from a divot tool can be introduced to brands and learn what clubs the stars use, what clothes they wear and what shoes they like.
“You get more credibility with a younger, newer audience by being in the game,” said Ethan Ganot, Callaway Golf’s director of marketing. Callaway is not only in PGA Tour 2K23 but also in WGT by Topgolf, another highly detailed golf video game that includes digital versions of real equipment.
Ganot noted that Callaway signed an endorsement deal with Jon Rahm around the time the last version of the game was released, so having Rahm and other Callaway staff players represented authentically in the game is another appeal.
“Step one of getting a return on an investment in a player like Rahm is awareness,” Ganot said. “So making sure that people know that he’s a Callaway guy, a Topgolf guy, a TravisMathew guy, that’s critical for us. It’s brand building to a different audience. After all, it’s very possible that a majority of the people playing these games don’t watch golf on Saturday and Sunday.”
For 2K, adding real clubs and adorning players’ avatars with the logos they wear in real life brings another layer of authenticity to the game. To do it, companies send computer-aided design (CAD) files of their products to 2K along with samples of actual clubs. 2K inputs that information into its systems, sends different versions back to the companies for approval and presto: Gear that is on pro shop walls is also being swung by a virtual Justin Thomas and a digital version of someone sitting on his sofa in Portland, Oregon.
As for me, I beat Bubba Watson on Saturday morning but lost the tournament, then bounced back to win at TPC Deere Run and TPC Summerlin that night after the kids went to sleep. Hoarding my earnings, I’ll be heading to the virtual pro shop again soon.
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