How to Control Ball Flight, Shape, and Spin in PGA Tour 2K25

The latest game in EA’s biannual golf series PGA Tour 2K25 is here and if you’ve found yourself struggling to get your numbers low enough to compete on higher difficulty levels then a lack of ball control may be a key factor. Mastering abilities such as shot shaping and spin management helps you place the ball just where you need it to start racking up birdies and eagles and climbing toward the top of leaderboards.

Unfortunately, while the systems in place for ball control are relatively intuitive, the game’s onboarding does not do a great job of diving into the small details that can transform your game and take it to a new level. If you’re ready to start bending the ball to your whims and placing it on tight and fast greens, here’s what you need to know.

Why Is Ball Control Important?

While it’s certainly possible to score below par without putting much thought into the shape of your ball or the spin off your clubface, if you want to be an elite virtual golfer then you need to be able to make the ball dance to your whims the way a real pro does. Learning how the different shot shaping and spin mechanisms affect your shots, and the best way to use them to dial in your shots, is a critical skill for scoring as low as possible on the virtual links.

Choosing Your Natural Ball Flight

If this is your first time looking into the shot-shaping and spin mechanics, then you may think you’ve not messed with shaping at all, but that’s not true. Whether you’re creating a new character or picking an existing pro to play as, you will be hitting the course with a natural shot path to your swing, be that a natural fade or draw.

A draw is a flight path that sees the ball move right to left in the air, meaning you have to offset your launch angle to the right. Conversely, a natural fade will see your golfer’s default shots moving from left to right, with a launch angle left of your ultimate target. Fortunately, you don’t have to worry about this when aiming your shots as your landing arrow accounts for this, but it can affect what shots are available in tight situations.

Whether you hit a draw or fade, it impacts how your ball reacts when it lands. Because of how the natural spin patterns of the respective shots work, draws tend to roll more while fades are slightly better at checking up.

When creating your character, or choosing a pro, you may opt to choose your default flight path based on your preferred landing reaction but there is another consideration to keep in mind — your natural “swing” path on the sticks. If using the back-then-forward swing style, it can be beneficial to spend some time on the driving range to see if you have a more natural swing path for your shots as choosing the flight path which aligns with this can improve your chances of striking the ball accurately on the course.

Understanding The Effect Of Shape And Spin On Shots

Another important thing to understand when deciding whether to alter your default flight path and spin levels on a shot is the effect it can have on your shot. There are three main things to watch for when adjusting your ball contact: Whether your ball checks up or rolls on when it lands, and both the horizontal and vertical alterations on your shot trajectory.

In addition to considerations of how a draw or fade will alter your ball’s response when bouncing, you may also wish to consider the flight path each creates. Fading or drawing can be a useful tool when trying to work around a tight lie or bend the ball around a corner without striking a tree.

You can also use your flight path to match the shape or angle of the fairway or green, improving your margin for error by making your ball come down at an angle that moves with the target surface so that running too far or too short is still likely to leave you on your desired lie, if not exactly at your desired distance or position.

How To Control Shape And Spin Pre-shot

To begin shaping your shot, you first have to bring up the spin UI by clicking LB on Xbox, L1 on PlayStation, or Shift for mouse and keyboard play. This will provide you with two diagrams, one featuring a golf ball and the other a vertical bar. The ball in the interface will also feature an arrow rotating down the ball, spinning more or less quickly based on how much backspin you are striking the ball with.

To adjust the ball section of the UI you can move your left stick, and this allows for movement across both the vertical and horizontal axis. The first thing to understand about this is that the vertical axis has an inverse effect on the flight path, with a lower target taking a higher path and a higher target creating a lower, flatter trajectory. 

This compounds with the added spin to significantly increase or decrease stopping power, as balls with more spin will also come down at more vertical angles, making it easier to stop the ball or even back it up after landing, while a ball with less spin comes in flatter, too, to create more run.

Moving your target left or right on the ball is a tool for shaping your shot more than spin management, though you should keep in mind the natural effects of a draw or fade. Moving your target right will result in a shot with more drawing action, while moving your target left will add fading bias into your ball flight. The extent to which you can hit a draw or fade will be impacted by your natural path, with golfers capable of more extreme versions of their natural path.

Your right stick option does not allow for any left-to-right shaping, but does impact your shot height and spin. This can be used to further enhance the effects on the left side, such as moving your high spin shot to an even higher trajectory and spin rate to maximize bite. You can also use it to counteract the left side, such as hitting a low-spin shot on the ball UI but arcing the right side angle up to give it some height to counteract the natural dip of a low-spin impact zone.

Another important consideration when adjusting your left and right sticks is the effect it has on your landing zone. This can be somewhat confusing when getting started as in some situations a lower shot designed to roll may appear to shorten your shot at first by shortening your flight distance, or lengthening it while increasing height and spin. That does not mean the final resting place will be farther just because the landing is. 

By practicing with your shot shaping and learning how to use the two sticks together you can fine tune every shot until you’re allergic to the rough and hunting pins on every approach. With these tools in your bag you’ll be slashing strokes off your scores in no time.