The clocks fall back on Sunday, November 1, and the after-work nine goes with them. For the next few months the light will be gone before most of us can get to the course, which makes this a good week to look at how good golf games have gotten.
This is our list of the best ones from the last few years, from PGA Tour 2K25 and EA’s PGA Tour to Super Battle Golf, the breakout of 2026, and Normal Golf Game, which came out in September and which we cannot stop watching people stream. We picked for how well each one plays, whether it does something new and whether you can play it tonight. Every price was checked on October 30, and a lot of them are on sale.
Where to start. If you want a sim, PGA Tour 2K25 is down to $39.99, or $17.99 on Switch 2 until November 6. If you want something different, Cursed to Golf and Golf Club: Wasteland are both $1.99 on Steam this week. If you want to laugh with friends, Super Battle Golf. And if you want to stay off a screen entirely, we understand; there is always the range under the lights.
Three games · from $17.99Real courses, real swings and, in one case, a real putter.
Four games · $19.99–$59.99Three-press swings, Mario and the motion swing, for the living room.
Four games · $1.99–$19.99The strangest and most interesting golf games of the last few years, two of them $1.99 this week.
Three games · online and VRFor when the group chat cannot get a tee time.
Every game above owes something to these. A few are still easy to play.
Golf (NES, 1984). Programmed by Satoru Iwata, who later ran Nintendo, and listed by Guinness as the best-selling golf video game, at 4,009,599 copies. After Iwata died, a copy was hidden inside the first Switch firmware, playable only on July 11. It is in the NES library on Nintendo Switch Online now, along with Kirby’s Dream Course in the SNES library.
Mario Golf (N64, 1999). Camelot’s first Mario Golf, after making the first Everybody’s Golf in 1997. It scored 91 on Metacritic and is on Switch Online’s Expansion Pack.
Links 386 Pro (1992) and Tiger Woods PGA Tour 2004 (2003). The PC benchmark and, for a lot of people, the golf game. Neither is sold anymore.
Golf Story (2017) and Desert Golfing (2014). The two older indies we still recommend most. Golf Story is $5.99 on Switch until November 20; Desert Golfing is $1.99 on iOS and Steam.
| Game | Where | Price |
|---|---|---|
| PGA Tour 2K25 | Steam, PS5 / Switch 2 | $39.99 / $17.99 sale to Nov 6 |
| EA Sports PGA Tour | Steam, PS5, Xbox Series | $69.99 on Steam |
| GOLF+ | Meta Quest | 3 free courses; GOLF+ Pass for more |
| Everybody’s Golf Hot Shots | Steam, PS5 / Switch | $39.99 / $25.99 sale to Oct 31 |
| Easy Come Easy Golf | Switch / Apple Arcade | $19.99 / subscription |
| Mario Golf: Super Rush | Switch | $59.99 |
| Nintendo Switch Sports | Switch / Switch 2 (Resort) | $39.99 / $49.99 |
| Normal Golf Game | Steam (Windows) | $9.99 |
| Cursed to Golf | Steam / Switch | $1.99 sale to Nov 9 / $19.99 |
| Golf Club: Wasteland | Steam | $1.99 sale to Nov 3 |
| What the Golf? | Steam / Switch / Apple Arcade | $19.99 / $9.99 sale to Oct 31 / subscription |
| Super Battle Golf | Steam | $12.99 |
| Golf With Your Friends | Steam / Switch | $3.74 sale / $19.99 |
| Walkabout Mini Golf | Steam VR, Meta Quest, PS VR2 | $24.99 on Steam |
