Fans are delighted to be able to hit the green once more in 2K’s PGA Tour 2K21, and the game has returned with an impressive new feature set and refined gameplay. That includes the ability to create your own course and your own golfer to play on that course and for big fans of the sport, it doesn’t get much better than that. You can count WWE superstar The Miz as one of those passionate fans, as when he’s not dishing out Skull Crushing Finales in the ring he’s living and breathing golf. That’s why he was thrilled to take part in the PGA Tour 2K21 commercial, and ComicBook.com had the chance to talk to Miz all about his love for the sport, his favorite features of the game, and that challenge from Justin Thomas.
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By the way, when we say Miz is a massive fan of the sport, we aren’t kidding, and it’s something he is paying attention to pretty much at all times.
“I live golf. I live, breathe, and talk … Like, honestly, I sit there on my Instagram and most people are checking out different things with WWE or baseball, basketball. All I do is watch PGA and golf tips on things I do,” Miz said. “Literally, I just watched Justin Thomas putt, and I sat there for, I would say, at least 10 minutes watching the same video clip over and over again. He had some string and he would be like, ‘All right. This helps me get my line together right so I can hit it, and he was just nailing it in, and I was like, ‘Man, I’m going to try that.’ So, I tried it that day and I went out and only three-putted once. I was like, ‘Wow, it actually works if I really hone in.’ But then I went out and I three-putted three holes and ruined my entire score, so it all depends on focus.”
Miz had the chance to be a part of the PGA Tour 2K21 commercial featuring Thomas, SchoolBoyQ, and Chris McDonald, who played the villainous Shooter McGavin in the classic Happy Gilmore, and it was a surreal and awesome experience.
“Dude, I was ecstatic,” Miz said. “When PGA Tour 2K21 came up to me and said, ‘Hey, we want to use you for our promotion for this video game,’ and I went, ‘Are you kidding?’ No, I knew I had worked previously with 2K, with WWE, and I know that they know that I love golf, but you never think those kinds of relationships will ever pan out to anything more. You don’t even expect it. You’re just kind of going along and all of a sudden, they call up and say, ‘Hey, would you like to do a commercial with Shooter McGavin?’ I went, ‘Wait, what? You want me to be in a commercial with Shooter McGavin? The greatest villain of golf of all time? Yes. 100% let’s do it.’
“And not only that, but they created a character of me,” Miz said. “When people get it they’ll be able to create me, or them, or whoever they want as a golfer. That is cool to me. Being able to create your own golf course, that’s cool to me. Being able to play at the Waste Management Open where I was actually at the 16th hole being the loudmouth, beer-chugging guy in the Phoenix Open. That’s awesome to me.”
The cherry on top was getting to interview Thomas and just talk Golf, and Miz took advantage of the opportunity. “I got an interview with Justin Thomas, so I got to sit there and talk shop, and even when we weren’t asking questions on-air, I would ask him… I literally showed him my swing,” Miz said.
“We were on a Zoom call, right? We were on a video chat, and I was like, ‘Dude, can you tell me what I’m doing wrong with my swing?’ He goes, ‘Yeah, sure. No problem.’ So, literally, I showed it to him and he educated me on my swing, and just by showing him a video through Zoom, he could tell what I was doing wrong with my swing,” Miz said. “I was like, ‘This is amazing. I have the number one golfer in the world telling me how to be better at golf.’
Miz also challenged Thomas to a game, and even with a 30 stroke lead, Thomas still said he could take down Miz.
“Not only that but in the interview, I actually challenged him to a game,” Miz said. “I go, ‘I think I can beat you.”‘ He goes, ‘You can’t beat me.’ I go, ‘With 30 strokes I can.’ He goes, ‘No you can’t.’ I go, ’30 strokes? Justin. 30 strokes, 18 holes? 30 strokes? You think you can beat me? 30? Like, 30 strokes!’ And he goes, ‘There is no doubt in my mind I can beat you giving you 30 strokes.’”
“Ask the fans out there,” Miz said. “Ask everyone. There is no way, no way, Justin Thomas, the number one golfer in the world, giving me 30 strokes, honestly, I was like, ‘Dude, I’ll probably beat you by five. It won’t even be close.’ He’s like, ‘You will not even, honestly, I won’t just beat you, I will beat you, like beat-beat you.’ He was confident. I thought Justin was a little, not soft-spoken, but casual, cool, but man, he was so confident in what he was saying. Maybe that’s the reason he’s number one in the world. Maybe that’s why. I don’t know, but I’m ready. I’m prepared. I’ve challenged him. He accepted the challenge. Now, 2K needs to make that happen. We’ll do it for charity.”
So, the game doesn’t have customizable Caddies, if it did we had to recommend Marjo, since she has shown a love for golf carts in the past on Miz and Mrs. Granted, most often it’s either getting stuck in them or breaking them, but hey, it’s a skill nonetheless.
“Oh, my God. It’ll be anybody but Marjo. Marjo would be talking during my backswing,” Miz said. “We actually have an episode where I’m trying to get into this country club that is outside my door. I wanted to get involved with it. I wanted to be in a country club. Imagine this. Imagine your view is just a golf course, and you can’t play on it because you’re not a member of the country club. Like, I live on it, and I would tell Maryse ‘How can I live on this place and not be a member?’ And she’s like, ‘I’m not being a member of a country club.’ And so, it’s a whole episode, trust me, on Miz & Mrs, but if I’m having a caddie, I am not having any part of my family, any family members as my caddie because they will all talk behind my backswing and they will all annoy me and make me not focus.”
He wasn’t kidding either, giving some examples. “Like, my dad is so competitive that he’ll tell me everything that I’m doing wrong. Maryse will literally be on her phone the entire time, calling her friends and talking, laughing, while I’m in my backswing,” Miz said. “Marjo will just be annoying me. My mom will be cleaning my clubs, which is great, but when they’re already clean, they don’t need to be cleaned anymore but my mom loves to clean.
So, ostensibly, no family as my caddie. You know what? Maybe Madison because Madison doesn’t talk. I can just have her in a cart. I’ll make a state-of-the-art cart that can just put her in there, and let’s go.”
The good news is that he doesn’t have to worry about the family distracting him in PGA Tour 2K21, and he’s having a ball with all the options it presents.
“I can create the Miz. I can create golf course. I enjoy creating a green, creating a fairway, creating an entire hole that is just me,” Miz said. “I like being able to beat up on Justin Thomas as myself, and I don’t care if they make him as hard to beat as Mike Tyson in Mike Tyson’s Punch-Out. I will still beat Justin Thomas in the video game and in real life. So, I enjoy that. Now, Justin Thomas is very, very, very good in the video game, so he’s very difficult to beat. But man, I’ll tell you what, this gameplay is so much fun and I think people are really going to enjoy it.”
2K’s PGA Tour 2K21 is available on PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Xbox One X, PC, Nintendo Switch, and Stadia now.
