Tens of thousands of golfers will compete at TPC River Highlands this week.

Granted, only 152 will be playing the in-real-life (IRL) Travelers Championship. The rest will challenge the Connecticut terrain virtually, as TPC River Highlands is one of 17 officially-licensed courses in PGA TOUR 2K21, the HB Studios-produced video game published by 2K Sports. The Travelers Championship is the eighth of 13 virtual events in the inaugural season of the PGA TOUR eSeries.

Since the title’s release in August 2020, gamers have been digitally navigating No. 17 at TPC Sawgrass, No. 16 at TPC Scottsdale, and other trademark PGA TOUR holes. With a controller instead of clubs, they employ similar course strategies to the pros.

On Tuesday and Wednesday of this week, five professional gamers will compete against five PGA TOUR pros – Max Homa, Joaquin Niemann, Carlos Ortiz, Harold Varner III, and Matthew Wolff – in a charity event that will be live streamed on Twitch and benefit The Hole in the Wall Gang Camp. Streamers will play in two-hour blocks, with the TOUR pros joining for at least 30 minutes. The action will be shown live on the streamers’ Twitch channels.

Fans can participate and donate to the cause by following prompts and instructions during the streams.

How did these incredibly realistic gaming worlds come to be?

The creation of courses in PGA TOUR 2K21 began with “photogrammetry,” the “science and technology of obtaining reliable information about physical objects and the environment through the process of recording, measuring and interpreting photographic images.”

In golf terms, that means capturing the contours and terrain of a course, which was the task of PGA TOUR 2K21 partner Terra Imaging.

“They went to many of the courses and flew a Cessna aircraft over the course and took thousands of pictures that they then converted into a 3D heightmap,” PGA TOUR 2K Senior Producer Shaun West says. “That was cleaned up of any noise that would be created by buildings, trees or people on the course.”

Using drone technology, Terra Imaging got each course mapped down to the pixel before handing over a 3D map to HB Studios. From there, trees, patrons and grandstands were added, as well as flourishes unique to each tournament. Fans playing in the virtual Travelers this week will notice a floating red umbrella on the water at TPC River Highlands, a detail that was added digitally by using branding provided by the tournament.

While PGA TOUR 2K21 has modernized course-mapping, video games have included real-life courses for more than three decades. As technology improves, so does photogrammetry, giving PGA TOUR 2K21 the most current look in the industry. HB Studios wanted to do more than master the bird’s eye view. They wanted to get the slopes and surfaces down.

That started with incredibly precise data from Terra Imaging.

“Now we have to optimize that for game use,” West says, “but the resolution we're able to create and how that impacts the physics and the game and the realistic holes and bounces that you see on the courses, that has continued to improve.”

Gamers also can thank the drones for the fact that PGA TOUR 2K21 mimics real golf like never before. The game goes beyond the visuals, though. While most of the audio gamers hear at any tournament course comes from the 2019 Northern Trust (manually captured cheers and boos), one exception is No. 16 at TPC Scottsdale, where the sound is archived from that iconic hole.

“You have to build that insane environment you see on TV, with people yelling and screaming, really trying to throw the golfers off their game,” West says. “Then amplifying that even further once they actually hit the green and land the ball close to the hole, the place absolutely erupts.

“So being able to have 15,000 fans in the stands when you're playing that hole is one technical challenge that we had to overcome to maintain the performance when you play it.”

Most gamers will never play any of the game’s real-life courses in tournament conditions, but they can virtually deal with the pressure of chasing a FedExCup crown. They can shape a drive all the way to the green at No. 10 at Riviera, or reach the 18th green at East Lake in two.

The pros can also use the game as a way to study for an upcoming tournament. Last year, while on a PGA TOUR stream playing The Golf Club 2019 -- HB Studios’ precursor to PGA TOUR 2K21 -- Carlos Ortiz gave fans a glimpse into his preparation.

“He was setting up his shots how he would have been playing that course, which was TPC Louisiana,” West says. “I could see that on the flip side, too, if a pro were playing a course for the first time, it would be interesting to see how they could play one of these courses in the game and have a rough understanding of how that could help them prepare for playing it in real life.”

It turns out a PGA TOUR LIVE host for the Zurich Classic of New Orleans this year actually did use this technique to prepare for his broadcast. That person was me.

I have never played TPC Louisiana, but from playing PGA TOUR 2K21, I know where not to hit the ball on No. 9 and No. 17 -- two par 3s with water on the left. Whether you pull your gaming finger to the left or come over the top with your actual swing, the result is the same. Splash.

I can also tell you about how to shape your second shot around the cypress tree in the middle of the fairway on No. 11, or where to land your drive safely on No. 18 (sorry, Louis Oosthuizen).

Along with the most accurate virtual courses, PGA TOUR 2K21 also boasts the most fantastical. Using the game’s course-designer mode, fans can build venues from scratch, customizing features like trees, bunkers and greens, while adding buildings, boats, animals and other quirks.

“There are tens of thousands of courses published in our game that you can go find and compete on,” West says. “I think you'd be hard pressed to find two that look alike. It's really phenomenal how creative they are at really putting their own touch on their courses and making them stand out.”

A series of user-generator courses will soon be available as part of the online multiplayer game mode, as PGA TOUR 2K21 looks to highlight its budding architects. That begs the question: Will a custom course ever be reverse-engineered to become a real-life course?

“I think it's something we would have to approach a designer with,” West says with a laugh. “If we knew there was an opportunity with someone who's creating great content to build a course for us, I think that we could see how that might work.”

The world may not be ready for a community-designed TPC PGA TOUR 2K yet. But the way virtual course-mapping continues to evolve, you never know.

In the meantime, everyone can play like the pros at the Travelers at TPC River Highlands this week.