Club

Clubs are the primary collectible item in PGA TOUR Golf Shootout, and its biggest gameplay feature.

Each player starts the game with a few clubs and more are granted through the game's tutorial. Additional clubs are collected by opening card packs, buying cards from the Pro Shop, or buying in-app purchase bundles. Some clubs are available to players by default, and additional clubs become available to earn and use as you increase your player level by gaining XP.

Types
Each club in the game falls into one of six types, reflecting real-world categories of golf clubs. Each category of club is a particular archetype that determines its general performance on the course, including strengths and weaknesses.


 * Putters are clubs that shoot along the ground and work best near the pin on the green.
 * Drivers work best from the tee and shoot for long distances.
 * Woods are best hit from the fairway for long, straight, accurate shots.
 * Hybrids are a cross between woods and irons, accumulating many of the strengths and weaknesses of both types.
 * Irons shoot for shorter distances but are very versatile and work great in unfavorable terrain.
 * Wedges hit the ball high, but not far, and are typically used near the green to chip in the ball.

Rarities
Every club has a rarity indicating how easy or difficult it is to collect through various means. A club's rarity doesn't have a direct impact on its stats or performance, and some of the most commonly used clubs by avid players fall into the lower rarities.

The rarities a club can have are:


 * Common
 * Rare
 * Epic
 * Legendary
 * Mythical

Brands
Each collectible club in the game belongs to one of six fictional manufacturer brands (except for clubs of mythical rarity, which have no brand). Each brand has a persona that its clubs typically fall into. In many cases a particular brand's clubs have properties that make them work well together with other clubs of the same brand. The most lucrative solo challenges require a player to use an entire bag consisting of a single brand's clubs.


 * Corvid clubs specialize in defying physics and wind.
 * Forester clubs gain bonuses depending on their proximity to trees.
 * PALO clubs excel at tackling unfavorable terrain.
 * Ryusei clubs have unique special abilities that enhance themselves and adjacent clubs.
 * Stanchion clubs are among the most powerful, but they can be unpredictable and hard to control.
 * Willoughsby clubs have average stats but get great stat bonuses when used in conjunction with each other.

Stats
A club's stats are the primary measure of its performance on the golf course. Most clubs have a power, control, and spin stat, except for putters which only have power and control.


 * Power determines how far a club can hit a golf ball in comparison to other clubs of its type. However, how the power stat affects ball flight distance varies widely among club types. For instance, a driver with a relatively low power stat can still hit a ball much further from the tee than an iron or wedge of the same numerical power.
 * A club's control is a measure of how accurate it is, and affects multiple aspects of hitting the ball. A higher control stat makes it easier to hit a ball accurately, and gives you a better indication of where the ball will actually land when hit. A high control stat will also add more "forgiveness" to badly missed shots, sending them less off-course.
 * Spin is a unique stat in that it controls two separate aspects of ball performance: draw/fade and groundspin.
 * Draw and fade is how much you are able to curve the ball's flight path to the left or right of center when hitting. A high draw or fade can be very useful in setting up strong approach shots or curving your ball around aerial obstacles. A club's spin stat affects draw (left curve) and fade (right curve) equally.
 * Groundspin is how much a ball can roll along the course surface after landing. Groundspin is most useful on or around the green when you want to apply a bit of extra distance on a shot, or make sure a shot stops where you want it to. Groundspin often doesn't have a noticeable effect on other terrain types. Top spin (causing a ball to roll forward) is typically much more pronounced than back spin (causing a ball to roll backwards).

Clubs typically excel in only one or two stats out of the three, requiring players to make hard decisions and trade-offs about which clubs to use. Some clubs have very low relative stats overall among clubs in their category, but make up for this otherwise low performance with powerful special abilities.

The stats of a club usually increase at a steady pace as they level up, but the distribution of stats will generally be the same for a low-level club as it will be for a maxed-out club.

Special Abilities
Every club has at least one special ability, ranging from simple stat boosts to themselves or other clubs, to extreme powers that defy the laws of physics. Some special abilities are shared among clubs of a particular type or brand, while others are completely unique to a single club. Special abilities may affect only the club that holds the ability, clubs adjacent in the bag, clubs in a bag that fit a particular criteria, or all clubs in a bag.

Special abilities may increase in effectiveness over time as a club levels up, or be affected in real-time by factors on the course such as wind, terrain, nearby objects, or the club you hit with last. Some special abilities are locked and not available until a club reaches a certain level.

Some examples of special abilities clubs can have are:


 * Brand Loyalty, giving a bonus to the club based on adjacent clubs in a player's bag that share a brand.
 * Bag Wind Resist, giving additional resistance to the effects of wind on ball flight, no matter which club in the bag made the hit.
 * Control Boost, giving a bonus to the control stat of the immediately adjacent left club.
 * Magnetism, causing the ball to be sucked toward the hole within a certain radius around it.
 * Chain abilities, giving a stat bonus to the next club fitting a certain criteria after hitting with the club that carries the ability.

Club Levels
Each club is first collected by a player at a certain level based on its rarity, and levels up over time to a maximum level of 12.

Clubs are leveled up by earning a certain number of cards per level, then paying coins to perform the upgrade to the next level. When a club levels up, either its stats or special abilities will increase. A club may also gain new special abilities when it reaches a certain level.

The number of cards and amount of coins required to reach each new level threshold is based on a club's current level and rarity.

List of Clubs
As of update 2.2.0, there are 51 total clubs to collect across the different types, rarities, and brands.