TGC 2019 has 150,000 golf courses. That’s four times more than exist on planet Earth. You could play a new course every day and die of old age before you saw half of them.
The problem: most are terrible. Not bad. Terrible. Greens like craters. Fairways floating above the ground. Trees growing through bunkers. Courses that look like someone handed a six-year-old a terrain editor and said “go nuts.”
But a fraction of one percent are genuinely incredible. Courses that make you forget you’re standing in a garage hitting into a screen. I’ve played hundreds of them. I’ve sifted through the gravel. This guide is the gold. For a head-to-head with the competition, see our GSPro vs E6 vs TGC 2019 comparison. And for the full platform landscape, check the best golf simulator software guide.
The Scale Problem
TGC 2019’s course library is the biggest in sim golf. Period. GSPro has 4,000. E6 has maybe 300. TGC 2019 has 150,000.
That’s the entire argument for this aging software. If you get bored playing the same 20 tracks over and over, TGC 2019 is your only real option. For a view of the other side — curated professional courses — see our best courses on GSPro guide and best courses on E6 Connect guide.
But 150,000 courses means zero quality control. HB Studios built the course designer, opened the floodgates, and said “good luck.” Some are passion projects by talented designers. Most are experiments by people who opened the editor once, got confused, and published whatever happened.
The ratio: 90% bad, 9% mediocre, 1% genuinely good. That still leaves 1,500 quality courses. More than GSPro has total. You just have to know how to find them.
How to Find the Good Ones
TGC 2019 doesn’t have a built-in “this course is good” filter. There’s no editor’s pick. No curated playlist. You have to use the tools the community has built.
Sort by plays, not downloads. A course with 50,000+ rounds has been vetted. A course with 47 plays was built by someone’s nephew and never touched. This filter alone eliminates 95% of the garbage.
Look at the version history. Good designers update their courses. If a course has been updated in the last year, the designer cares. If it was published in 2019 and never touched, it’s probably a first attempt.
Check the designer’s other courses. When you find a course you love, look at who built it. The best designers have portfolios of 10, 20, even 50 courses. If someone built one great course, they probably built others.
Use the TGC community resources. Reddit’s r/TGC and r/GolfSimulator have curated lists. The TGC Discords have recommendation channels. Don’t rely on the in-game search alone — it’s bad and getting worse.
Ignore the “featured” section. It’s populated by random recent courses, not quality. The TGC equivalent of a Facebook news feed.
The Designers You Need to Know
TGC 2019 has a small group of elite designers who carry the whole platform. These are the people who understand terrain sculpting, green contouring, and visual presentation. Know their names.
Five Hundred Yards — The undisputed GOAT. More quality courses than anyone else. If you see this name, download immediately. Their green complexes are the closest thing to real golf in the TGC library. They understand that a course lives and dies on its greens.
Oneill — Specializes in Augusta-style courses and high-end resort designs. Flowering plants. Accurate tree placement. Bunker shapes that match the real thing. Oneill’s courses are the ones I show people who say “TGC 2019 looks old.” A Oneill course looks like a real golf game.
B101 — European designer who builds incredible links courses. St Andrews, Royal Birkdale, Carnoustie — B101’s versions are the best available. Fescue. Firm fairways. Wind that matters. Their courses play firm and fast, which is exactly how links golf should feel.
The Golf Nut — Prolific builder of American courses. Pebble Beach, Spyglass Hill, Torrey Pines. Solid work. Not as meticulous as Five Hundred Yards on the greens, but strong overall presentation.
SixPutt — Dark horse. Small portfolio, every course polished. Specializes in fantasy and fictional courses that look better than most real-course recreations. If you want something nobody else has seen, SixPutt is your guy.
Must-Play Course Recreations
Here’s the thing about TGC 2019 course names: HB Studios couldn’t use real names due to licensing. So Augusta National is “Augusta 2023” or “The National.” Pebble Beach is “Pebble Coast” or “Pacific Links.” St Andrews is “The Old Course” or “St Andrews Links.”
You need to know the fake names to find the real courses. Here’s what to search for and which versions to get.
Augusta National
Search “Augusta” or “The National” and look for the version by Oneill or Five Hundred Yards. This is the course everyone wants first. The best versions have Amen Corner routed correctly, the elevation drop on 10, the uphill climb on 18. The greens are fast — frustratingly fast. That’s the point. For how it compares on other platforms, see our Augusta National golf simulator guide and Augusta on GSPro guide.
Oneill’s version has the azaleas. The white bunkers. The way the light filters through the pines. It’s about as close as you’ll get without a plane ticket and a membership letter that will never arrive.
Play it from the back tees with firm conditions. Augusta without firm greens is just a park with some trees.
Search term: “Augusta” — sort by most played, pick the most recent Oneill or Five Hundred Yards version.
Pebble Beach
Search “Pebble Coast” or “Pebble Beach.” The best version is by The Golf Nut or Five Hundred Yards. The cliff holes on 7 and 8 are the test — a bad version makes them look like a putting green next to a small pond. A good version makes you feel the drop. Compare with the official Pebble Beach on GSPro guide and Pebble Beach on E6 Connect guide for the platform-versus-platform experience.
The good versions have the ocean visible on the approach shots. The small greens. The poa annua putting surfaces that make you want to scream. (Poa annua is the grass that makes putts bounce everywhere. TGC 2019 can’t simulate the grass itself, but the greens are small enough that you’ll three-putt anyway.)
Search term: “Pebble” — sort by most played, check version dates.
St Andrews (The Old Course)
Search “St Andrews” or “The Old Course.” The best version is by B101 or Five Hundred Yards. The Road Hole (17) is the test — can you see the hotel? Is the road a factor? Does the green make you want to bail out left? See how it stacks up against the official version in our St Andrews on GSPro guide and St Andrews on E6 Connect guide.
The good versions have the Valley of Sin on 18. The Swilcan Bridge. The double greens that make approach shots a geometry problem. Play it in the wind. St Andrews without wind is like a steak without salt — technically correct but missing the whole point.
Search term: “St Andrews” — sort by most played, pick the B101 or Five Hundred Yards version with the highest play count.
TPC Sawgrass
Search “Sawgrass” or “Stadium.” The island green on 17 is the headline, obviously. The question is whether the rest of the course holds up. Compare with the official version in our TPC Sawgrass on GSPro guide and Sawgrass on E6 Connect guide.
The best versions do. The routing is faithful. The greens are subtle in ways that matter — a putt that looks straight breaks six inches right because the green was built on a slope you can’t see. That’s Sawgrass. That’s why it’s a championship course.
If the 17th hole in the course you downloaded looks like a green floating in a blue rectangle, delete it and find a better version. The water should look like water, not a texture you downloaded for free.
Search term: “Sawgrass” — look for versions with 5,000+ plays.
Bethpage Black
Search “Bethpage” or “Bethpage Black.” This is a brute. Long. Demanding. Unforgiving. The best versions capture the elevation changes that make Bethpage special. For the officially licensed version, see our Bethpage Black on GSPro guide and Bethpage Black on E6 Connect guide.
You’ll hit a drive that feels perfect and watch it roll out 15 yards less than expected because you were hitting uphill. You’ll stand over a second shot with a fairway wood when a normal course would give you a 7-iron. That’s Bethpage.
The warning sign at the first tee won’t be there (licensing), but the spirit will be. Every hole is a fight. That’s the point.
Search term: “Bethpage” — check play count and version date.
Fantasy Courses Worth Your Time
Here’s where TGC 2019 separates from every other sim platform. The fantasy courses.
TPC Sawgrass Stadium (Fantasy) — The real Sawgrass turned up to 11. Absurd. Wonderful.
The Forge — Fictional desert course by Five Hundred Yards that’s better than most real courses. Island greens. Risk-reward holes that actually work. This is the course I play when I want to show off what TGC 2019 can do.
Silverhorn — Fantasy mountain course with dramatic elevation changes. Tee shots from cliffs. Greens in valleys. The kind of course that would cost $50 million to build in real life, so someone built it here instead.
Oceanside Cliffs — Links fantasy along a coastline. Fescue. Wind. Blind shots. The designer clearly loves Royal County Down and built their own version. Close enough that you’ll forget it’s fake.
Building Your Own Courses
TGC 2019 has the best course designer of any sim platform. Not close. Not debatable. It’s the one feature GSPro and E6 can’t touch.
The course designer is a full terrain editor. Sculpt the land. Paint textures. Place every tree, bush, and bunker. Route the holes. Shape the greens. The level of control is insane.
Build your home course. Your local muni. The course you always dreamed of. Or build something unhinged — a course through a volcano, a course where every green is an island, a course with 500-yard par 4s because you hate everyone who plays it.
The learning curve is steep. Your first few courses will look like crap. That’s fine. Everyone’s first course has flat greens with zero contour. It plays like putting on a table.
But the community has tutorials. YouTube has guides. And once you learn, you’ll understand why TGC 2019 is still alive in 2026 while other platforms have come and gone.
How TGC 2019’s Course Library Compares
TGC 2019’s course library is the best feature of the software — the reason people still buy a six-year-old game. But you have to accept the deal: 150,000 courses, zero curation, complete chaos. You find the gems yourself.
VS GSPro: GSPro has 4,000 courses, most built from LIDAR data. The quality floor is higher — a bad GSPro course looks okay. A bad TGC 2019 course looks like a hallucination. GSPro wins on average quality. TGC wins on quantity and variety.
VS E6 Connect: E6 has about 300 officially licensed courses. They look professional. But 300 courses is nothing. You’ll play them all in a year. TGC 2019 will take you 400 years.
VS Awesome Golf: Awesome Golf has about 20 courses. Not even a competition.
What to Play Tonight
If you’re sitting in front of TGC 2019 right now with no idea what to download:
- Want the classic everyone searches first? Oneill’s Augusta
- Want ocean holes? The Golf Nut’s Pebble Coast
- Want to be punished? Bethpage Black by Five Hundred Yards
- Want something nobody else has played? The Forge — fantasy course that plays like a real one
- Want to build your own? Open the course designer and make something terrible — it’s the only way to get better
TGC 2019 won’t be around forever. The servers could go dark. The company that owns it is focused on PGA Tour 2K. Every round you play on this platform is borrowed time.
But 150,000 courses. A built-in designer. No subscription. For $149.
That’s not a bad trade. (If you’re shopping between sim software, our best golf simulator software guide covers all the options.)
Read the full TGC 2019 review → Or compare TGC 2019 vs GSPro in our software guide →
All courses mentioned are community creations available in the TGC 2019 course library. Course names may vary from real-world equivalents due to licensing. We may earn a commission on purchases through links on this page — but the recommendations are based on actual playtime. No sponsored placements.