Remember the film Happy Gilmore starring Adam Sandler in which an ice hockey player turned golfer was prone to outrageous outbursts of obscenities?

I'm like that too when I play real golf, and indeed when I play the sport in virtual form in Rory McIlroy PGA Tour.

There's a stage in every round when I feel an uncontrollable urge to let rip with a string of expletives.

Fortunately (or not), it's my abysmal putting that makes me want to swear rather than anything the game does wrong.

After skipping last year, EA Sports' long-running PGA Tour franchise is back, rebranded with a new cover star (out goes Tiger, in comes Rory) and rebooted.

I stop short of calling it a triumphant return because it does hit a few shots into the rough, but it's certainly a solid and successful comeback by one of gaming's legendary sports series.

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Several key features help this entry produce a below-par round (which is actually a good thing in golf and in terms of the game).

The first of these is the Frostbite 3 engine that allows for some gorgeous golf courses. The eight real-world courses and four fantasy locations (including a Battlefield one set on the South China Sea and another that uses extreme terrain around the Grand Canyon) offer up some glorious scenery with vivid colours. It's certainly the most attractive golf game I've seen.

The engine also kills off annoying loading times, with courses being rendered all at once to speed things up nicely. A knock-on effect of this is you now have to really go some to hit a shot out of bounds – you may have to play the following shot from an awkward spot on an entirely different hole but chances are you'll still be able to play it.

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One of the best features is the ability to really tweak and tailor the gameplay styles to suit your own tastes.

There are three options for how to play shots. These range from a simplistic arcade style which comes with help such as being able to apply spin to the ball up to a much more technical and challenging format.

If, like me, you particularly get along with one of the styles (in my case the classic 3-click system) but want to pull in some elements from the other two, you can by devising your own custom settings.

In a loose way, it's not too detached from the real sport in which you have to develop a playing style that best suits you.

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Once you get into a rhythm with your chosen set-up the game delivers an excellent virtual golf experience as you'd expect. You'll soon easily be hitting drives down the fairway and getting approach shots close to the pin. Putting's a bit of a nightmare, but that's probably just me …

After you've honed your skills you can create a pro and start a career, competing in various tournaments on the PGA tour.

This time you can choose to play only a few holes on each round to get your career moving along more swiftly, with the rest of the holes being simulated. You can also still play all 72 holes at each event if you prefer old-school hard work.

Career is a decent enough mode that you can spend plenty of time in, but there are a few disappointments.

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For instance, the player customisation options are limited to say the least – it basically boils down to which ugmo from this small selection of ugmos do you want to be. Character models are not this game's strong point.

Also limited is the calendar of events, with the number of real-life courses down by a dozen from the last PGA game (the number of playable real-life pros is also massively down BTW). The courses look great but they don't provide a very packed or varied schedule.

I'm not a fan of how the career mode involves a levelling up system that requires XP to unlock rewards such as new gear and attribute upgrades.

It feels a bit like the game is treating everyone like a 10-year-old kid who needs shiny new things every five minutes to stay interested, and also I feel this sort of set-up is more suited to a mobile game than a premium console title.

I don't see why I can't just play as myself in the game, winning tournaments and climbing the rankings simply by getting good at it rather than lots of artificial ratings and a pointless character profile getting in the way.

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There is a similar situation with the new Night Club mode which features more than 170 minigames such as distance-driving and accuracy challenges that take place on neon-lit courses.

There's plenty to get stuck into here too, and it can be fun in short bursts, but it's kind of ruined for me by the use of crazy boosts and power-ups along with an energy system. It's all very smartphone free-to-play stuff again.

I don't feel the game needs this sort of thing. Surely the only people who are going to buy PGA Tour are those with a pretty serious interest in golf – and therefore they are much more interested in a serious simulation rather than this gimmicky nonsense?

If you tire of playing single rounds by yourself, chasing career glory on your own or earning stars in Night Club, this Rory-endorsed game offers a good choice of multiplayer options. These include local and online match-ups as well as online tournaments.

Overall, I'd say EA Sports has some rough patches to iron out and a few bogeys to clean up but the reintroduction of its PGA series is mostly pleasing – at least when it sticks to what it does best, which is to provide an authentic simulation of professional golf.

If it stops thinking it needs to cater to casual players with low attention spans and steers clear of having too many novelty elements, future editions on the current consoles should be very good.

7 out of 10

Out now for PS4 and Xbox One – PS4 version played