Key Points

• Season 8 of EA SPORTS™ PGA TOUR™ arrives with gameplay improvements.
• New aiming options and putting skills updates enhance player experience.
• Season 8 introduces significant bug fixes and game-wide enhancements.

EA SPORTS™ PGA TOUR™ is set to receive a comprehensive update on November 21st, marking the beginning of Season 8. This update brings a suite of enhancements aimed at improving gameplay and overall user experience.

Season 8 introduces two new aiming arc options: “Long” and “Tour”. The “Long” setting extends the ball flight visibility compared to the former “Short” setting, while the “Tour” option shows the ball flight only up to its apex, excluding wind, slope, or lie penalty effects. “Long” is the new default for Arcade and Pro gameplay styles, and “Tour” for Tour gameplay style. Players can identify their aiming arc by its length or its interaction with the wind.

The update expands the capabilities of the Putting skill, which now affects the scale of the Putting Grid. Golfers with a lower Putting skill will see larger grid squares, simulating their ability to read greens, whereas those with higher skills will see a finer grid.

Shot dispersions have been updated for various shot types, including Pick, Blast, Finesse, Knock Down, and Stinger, to reflect more realistic gameplay. Alongside these, the cost of retraining skills has been reduced significantly.

Visual improvements include a more realistic rotation of the ball model and enhanced visibility of the putt meter on lighter greens. Pro Pass is on pause for this season but will return in Season 9 with fresh content.

Online and Tournaments modes now allow for a random selection of holes in various formats, adding variety to the gameplay. Additionally, PC players can now use the 3-Click Swing Mechanic in Pro gameplay style online.

Season 8 also addresses a range of bug fixes and exploits, enhancing the overall stability and playability of the game. These updates include fixes in online matchmaking, career stats display, tournament entry, challenge modes, quests, and gear visuals.

To top it off, Season 8 brings new gear specs, the Superior Brute and Precision Series, boosting Power and Recovery, and Accuracy and Control attributes, respectively.

This update promises to enrich the EA SPORTS™ PGA TOUR™ gaming experience, paving the way for an engaging and dynamic Season 8.

Season 8 of EA SPORTS PGA TOUR Breakdown

• New specs for Season 8:
  • Superior Brute Series: These Specs significantly improve both Power and Recovery attributes. 
  • Superior Precision Series: These Specs significantly improve both Accuracy and Control attributes.
• Gameplay:
  • Fix for the shot shaping preference bonus being incorrectly applied for swing paths outside of the mishit window. Now when you are hitting shots with your golfer’s preferred shot shape, swings outside of the mishit window will be much more forgiving, as originally intended.
  • Fixed an issue with the pre-shot camera where it would stay pointed towards the golfer instead of reorienting to the target if you were aimed in the opposite direction of the target before pressing “Reset Shot”.
  • Fixed an exploit where some players on PC were still able to use keyboard input to control the Analog Swing Mechanic.
  • Fix for the orange circle effect shown for obstructed shots remaining visible for an additional second when the shot is no longer blocked after changing club or shot type.
• Online:
  • Fixed matchmaking join timer not being properly synced. This was causing some players who joined late into a lobby being left behind and returned to the main menu instead of transitioning into gameplay. This issue was most noticeable in Online Stroke Play, but also affected Online Foursomes.
  • Fix for seeing a ball floating in midair while remote golfers are dropping their ball after hitting into a hazard in Online Stroke Play matches.
  • Fix for some players not being shown the full screen leaderboard that is shown during the round completion cutscene in online stroke play matches.
  • Fix for needing to accept an invite twice in order to be transitioned to a private match if a player accepts an invite during gameplay.
• Career:
  • Fixed the hole number not being displayed on the leaderboard shown between holes.
  • Fixed the Longest Putt stat, so that it updates correctly after each tournament concludes.
  • Updated the Augusta National Women’s Amateur trophy sequence to include characters wearing green jackets.
  • Fix for some of the club heads being invisible during the Masters Honorary Starters cut scenes when playing in Performance Mode.
• Tournaments:
  • Fixed an exploit where players were able to enter a different tournament than selected by pressing up or down immediately after entering a new tournament.
• Challenges:
  • Fixed a rare softlock that could occur when loading into gameplay in challenges with AI golfers.
  • Players were not able to complete challenge objectives on November 8th from approximately 9:00pm – 11:00pm UTC due to a server issue.
• Quests:
  • Players were not able to complete quest objectives on November 8th from approximately 9:00pm – 11:00pm UTC due to a server issue.
• Pro Pass:
  • Fixed an issue that allowed players to claim duplicate Season 7 Pro Pass rewards. The issue occurred on October 24th and the fix was applied to servers shortly after.
  • Additional improvements to ensure that the game functions normally when no Pro Pass is active.
• Courses:
  • [Bay Hill] Reprimanded and corrected camera operators in the towers on hole hole 9 who were not filming their green.
  • [St Andrews] Updated physics to increase resistance of rough and heavy rough and also increase the lie penalty of heavy rough.
  • [The Country Club] Fixed crowd sometimes obstructing the low camera view on the hole 14 tee box.
  • [The Country Club] Fixed a missing hit box on the large rock on the right side of hole 10.
• Gear:
  • Fixed color being too dark on a number of Nike polos.
  • Fixed clipping around the armpits on the male Nike Dri-FIT Polos.
  • Fixed clipping around the neck and wrists on the female long-sleeve Nike Dri-FIT Polos.
  • Fixed caddie bib being black instead of the correct color for the event.
  • Fixed clipping in a number of pants visible when previewing in the outfits screen.
  • Fixed clipping in shoulder and waistband when wearing Skeleton Quarter Zip.
  • Reduced size of the “P” on Puma Snapback Cap.
  • Fixed Scottie Scheffler’s belt so that the end is now tucked into the last belt loop.
  • Fix for briefly seeing a pink hat on Ian Poulter if he was quickly scrolled to in the golfer select screen.
• UI:
  • [Challenges] Updated the camera angle that is used when previewing Challenge rewards.
  • [Equipment] Fix for club heads slowly transitioning from low to high resolution models when scrolling through the equipment screen.
  • [Gameplay] Fixed “Reading Putt…” indicator not being displayed for secondary players in local multiplayer.
  • [Gameplay] Fixed the shot result widget overlapping with the bottom third scorecard, which was most noticeable if a player reached the stroke limit while putting.
  • [Main Menu] Sound effect no longer plays if the player presses the Y/Triangle button in the main menu while a booster banner is displayed, since the action is non-functional.
  • [Main Menu] Updated text on the booster banner title from “…left” to “…Remaining”.
  • [Main Menu] Fix for seeing the wrong trophy icon when reconnecting to servers after disconnecting in gameplay.
  • [Online] Fixed Online Foursomes lobby incorrectly indicating that matchmaking stopped for all players after one player left the lobby during matchmaking.
  • [Private Match] Fixed Private Match background not updating if a player accepts an invite while in Career mode.
  • [Quests] Fixed “Item collected” ribbon not being displayed for the first item when previewing rewards that have already been earned.
  • [Settings] Removed the “Low” option from the “Crowd Quality” pc-specific visual setting since it was non-functional.
  • [Store] Fix for putter grips incorrectly showing  a description that indicates that it can’t be equipped when attempting to equip grip to a putter after purchasing.
  • [Store] Fix for the “Insufficient Funds” pop-up no longer being displayed after it is dismissed once.
  • [Tooltips] Fixed positioning of the wind and elevation tooltips in gameplay.
  • [Tooltips] Fixed positioning of tooltips in Tournaments mode.
  • [Tooltips] Fixed tooltips for Quick Play and Private Match which were being shown on the course select screen instead of the mode select screen.
• Branding:
  • Update PGA of America logo to latest version.
• Stability:
  • Update equipment and outfits screens to better support large inventories.
  • Fix for a softlock that could occur if a player accepts an invite when the game is closed and there is a new dynamic message displayed that they haven’t previously seen.
  • Fix for a softlock that could occur if a player accepts an invite while in Quick Play and then backs out of the lobby to the main menu.
  • Additional crash and stability-related fixes.