Christmas and golf aren’t traditionally considered a natural pair in most parts of the world, but thanks to some creative course designs in PGA Tour 2K23 they can come together to be part of your holidays this year.
Using the resources in the game’s course designer, these winter wonderlands are littered with all sorts of seasonal props to hopefully keep you merry even as your shots are finding the rough or worse. While the snow and cold might be preventing you from hitting up any real courses for another few months or so, let these creative virtual tracks transport you to magical lands where it’s always the perfect weather to tee up. Here are some fun holiday PGA Tour 2K23 courses to play when you’ve had enough holiday treats and need to escape from your family for a little while.
Rudolph’s Retreat 2024
Designer: Charles4597
A classy design that’s imbued with festive decor at every turn, Rudolph’s Retreat 2024 still plays like a traditional round of golf, largely free of the kind of departures from reality that characterize fantasy courses. This is an updating of an existing course that’s been a staple this time of year for some fans of the series from a few years back with PGA Tour 2K21.
You’ll find lots of pine trees festooned with gingerbread houses, fairways that appear to be lined with snow (careful, it’s actually rough or white sand), and reindeer that you’ll need to do your best to avoid with your drives on some holes. Snowmen, candy canes, and floating sleighs greet you at tees and there are so many train sets on display that you can only assume they must serve as the primary mode of transportation throughout the grounds.
Standout Hole: Hole 16 is a par 3 where Santa’s sleigh and all of his reindeer lie between you and a green that has three tricky bunkers within it forming a smiley face.
Rudolph’s Resort
Designer: Charles4597
If you’re looking for something with a similar passion for Christmas — only a little less challenging — look no further than Rudolph’s Resort. It’s another in a line of Christmas-themed courses you’ll find from the designer of Rudolph’s Retreat 2024 (Charles4597) who also has a nighttime version of Rudolph’s Retreat 2024 available if you’re interested called Rudolph’s Silent Night.
Rudolph’s Resort is perhaps a little more muddled with its Christmas messaging than Rudolph’s Retreat, with almost as many planes and foreign billboards adorning the course as there are yuletide decorations, but that doesn’t detract from the enjoyment of a round. The greens are much easier to navigate than Rudolph’s Retreat 2024 too, with little to no break to worry about for the most part when you’re lining up your putts.
Standout Hole: A long par 5 with a nice view of gingerbread houses and sleighs at the tee and a picturesque covered bridge about halfway through the hole.
Putt Putt Christmas
Designer: magic-baronet2
Christmas lends itself rather well to mini putt, what with all of the seasonally appropriate ornaments and decorations that can serve as obstacles. This Putt Putt Christmas course proves that by testing your ability to navigate snowmen, giant Christmas balls, and wooden drummers on a set of holes that range in difficulty. The terrain for the most part filters the ball to hole if you play the angles right, though there’s the potential for errant putts that could lead you veering back off the course. There’s a decent amount of variety to keep you from feeling that you’re playing the same kind of mini putt design over and over again, including some uphill climbs and steep descents.
Standout Hole: Combining the aforementioned steep descent and uphill climb, hole 15 starts out with you sending your ball down a big hill before it shoots up an incline and hopefully bounces off a back wall lining a plateau where the hole sits.
SANTA STOLE CHRISTMAS 7’s
Designer: SIR-COOKIE1991
If you’re looking for a more relaxed and overtly wacky experience to celebrate the season, check out this course that you can zip through quickly and are almost guaranteed to emerge with an impressive score. Because all of the holes are par 7s and yet reaching every green in one shot is possible, you’re bound to get a confidence boost by the end of the round. It doesn’t hurt either that most of the greens are essentially buckets that will funnel your ball down to the hole if you get it anywhere close.
Fairways often have seas of red mulch intimidatingly lying outside of their cozy confines and greens are typically surrounded by snowmen, decorated houses, or groups of trains. Don’t expect much of a challenge from this course, except for the one hole where you need to hit a postage stamp of an island green that happens to be populated by stubborn reindeer.
Standout Hole: Hole 6 is one of the other holes besides the island postage stamp where the green does not funnel the ball to the hole, as you’ll have to instead putt through a sleigh being pulled by reindeer to get to a hole that sits within a small house.
Christmas Valley (NS)
Designer: CalClint9621
A placid tundra where the few Christmas decorations on display go a long way, Christmas Valley (NS) is more of a realistic course in which the only real fantasy is being able to play golf in winter. That’s not to say there aren’t any visible signs of the season, with a lone reindeer frequently spotted just off the fairway and decorated trees and houses dotting some of the greens. Some of the holes can be tricky, mostly thanks to the placement of the bunkers, but the greens are fairly flat and don’t offer too much of a challenge. You’ll still have to hit them though if you want to stay under par, and a handful of those greens are awfully small and unforgiving.
Standout Hole: A par 5 that snakes around a cliff, hole 11 has a nice view of an icy waterfall from the tee.
