I should preface all of with that the last PGA Tour game I played was 2005, so it's been awhile.

First, let's start off with the good:

• No loading screens between holes feels great. It shows the scoreboard for about 5 seconds and then you are on the tee for your next shot.
• The game looks great up close. Grass actually feels thick.
• Local multiplayer is still alive and well.
• My gameplay has been 99.9% smooth. The only place I've noticed a frame drop during play was on a single putt on Paracel Storm.

The OK:

• I disagree with OP, the putt preview always loads within 4 seconds for me, and has never interrupted gameplay. Much better than what I remember in '05, waiting 15+ seconds only for it to fail.
• Spin gameplay and heartbeat shots are still how I rememember them, awesome. Smashed drives are a bit annoying with BOSE all over it and not as cool of camera shots.

The bad:

• Grass pops in and clashes a bit from afar. I like that they tried to give it some depth and not just have clear textures for fairway and rough, but it doesn't look great.
• Menu is laggy framerate wise, but 98% of the time is responsive.
• My first impression of the Night Club challenges are not great. However, I've only done two challenges. They both consisted of just re lining up shots to hit to big targets with the same music and bland sound effects playing the entire time. No clear point values for "bullseyes" or anything all that fun.
• Golfer selection is low. Only 5 fictional characters, not that many pros.
• One black screen occurred in my 3 hours of play, just on the menu. I had to quit the game after waiting 25 seconds.
• Only stroke play and match play. I mean I guess.

The ugly:

• Character creation, and the custom character tour... is awful. I remember tweaking how my swing looks, an in-depth character creator, custom art gear, putting all my skill points where I want, earning money and buying equipment, and unlocking goofy celebrations. This game has none of that. You simply play golf holes, the game auto-levels up your skills, and you unlock new equipment based on how much XP you've earned. Granted, I've only played one tournament so far, so there may be more variety of challenges to come, but I'm not sure.

It's a solid game with good content but less than previous versions. Feels more like a $30 download game that could be expanded later rather than a full release.