The caddy from last year is back too, but he seems to be no better now at guessing what you actually ought to be doing than he was last year. Our best advice 
is to not bother asking him for where you ought to lineup your putt – you'll be maddeningly close without sinking it on a fairly regular basis.
Additionally, when you opt to putt from the fringe around the green, the game refuses to switch to the proper putting display, offering you instead the putter with the same regular swing display. This makes it far too difficult to put from the fringe than it has been in the past. On the upside, that'll probably force you to improve your chip shot.
One of the other complaints I've always had about the title yet again crops up this year – an absolute refusal on the part of the developer to follow the rules of golf when it comes to hitting the ball out of bounds or into the water. You are not allowed to choose to drop or rehit; you are not allowed to choose where along the appropriate drop line you want to play. It is impossible that EA can't make this happen, they simply have chosen to regard this incredibly important rule of golf (seriously, what novice player hasn't had to regularly use that rule?) as irrelevant.
Online play this year allows players to join private "country clubs" and compete against one another in challenges and tournaments. It is a neat way of organizing things, but it also feels as though it will require a lot of dedication on a part of an entire group to truly make the most of it.
One last truly odd thing before we end this review. As we think many people do, we like to jump right in and play, something that causes no small amount of trouble without a manual, but we do it anyway. After creating our golfer we started off on our journey to making the PGA Tour. Prior to 
playing tournaments one gets the opportunity to play against a computer golfer head-to-head and do a sponsor challenge. Naturally, we opted to do this and had to learn all about the swing on the course. Then, when we finally figured it out and managed to win the sponsor challenge and our game of battle golf, we started the first tournament only to then have our play-by-play announcers tell us exactly how to use the heads-up display and swing the club. It slowed the pace of play and was infuriating as we had already spent tons of time figuring it out on our own – why one isn't treated to the in-game tutorial the first time one hits the course (no matter why one is hitting the course) is unclear and certainly a mistake.
Article comments
1 - Triniman
I bought version 12 two years ago, then 13 (special Masters Ed.) and I think for me, there is little point in buying the new one. I don't these two versions as being obsolete. Very nice review, by the way.