Re: Game Is Too Easy
First I'd say that whatever changes they would make to make the game harder should be configurable by the user. Everything should be able to be turned on/off in order to let people play the way they want to play. Some people love arcade golf. Some people like sims. Lets not restrict anyone.
All that said. The game is too easy (unless you turn off wind/elevation/putting beads and or grids). I personally don't like turning these things off. If I'm outdoors I can use a range finder to tell me what the elevation plays like. I can use the feeling of the wind against my face, the flag flapping, and throwing blades of grass to tell me if its a 1 club wind, a 2 club wind,etc. Outdoors I can actually tell what direction a green breaks (more power to you guys who turn the grids and beads off, but I can't tell which way anything wil move unless its an extreme movment).
For me Tee to Green is solvable with a few items (that could be ignored in arcade mode.)
1. Distance needs to be reduced across the board by probably 25% or more. You can put power to 5 out of 10 on your golfer and have an average driving distance longer than Rory. This allows you to stack all your points in other areas of the game. By requiring significantly more points in power to still achieve ~315 yard average drives, one would have to sacrifice approach accuracy. The alternative is hitting more long irons into long par 4s and maybe not reaching all par 5s in 2.
2. Even if #1 is implemented, I feel dispersion circles are too tight even at lower point levels for most non-wedge clubs. I'd increase dispersion circles across the board. For the driver I'd bump by at least 50% (keep in mind the average PGA tour pro is only hitting around 47% of fairrways, not 80% or 90%). Woods/Hybrids/long irons could probably use a 30% increase. With mid irons around 20%.
3. Hack needs to have required points reallocated given the giant benefit it conveys. I think unlocking this shot should require being specced into approach recovery of 8 with subsequent levels of at 9/10. I'd likewise increase the power requirments for silver/gold by one each.
4. All types of rough/sand/dirt need to have significantly increased penalties for both distance, dispersion, and where I feel they are really lacking... SPIN. The ball physics overall seem decent for the game when its a fairway shot. Everything coming out of bad lies just has way too much spin though. We shouldn't be able to hit from rough behind a severly downhill sloped green and stop the ball on a dime with a flop shot .
5. Stop spec escalation at around 300 points max. I can see where were headed with the Tony Finau stuff, and its not a good direction. Not even Tiger Woods or Jack Nicklaus were perfect in every facet of the game, so lets not head there. It's best if people choose a strength and weakness vs having everything be a strength.
Putting? Not sure how to make that harder, but I don't see it as nearly as big as a problem as tee to green. I miss pelnty of 10-20 footers in this game. The main problem is my average approach is at like 9 feet.....