Gameplay II
As you progress up the rankings it becomes more and more obvious that this is a game of hidden depths that very sneakily sucks you in. It's easy to pick up and play, but the difficulty is pitched just right so that if you do fail a challenge or lose a match you just know that you can do better. You find yourself putting in the time to develop your golfer to give them that extra 15 yards on their drive and before you know it, it's 3am and you haven't eaten or slept for two days. I warn you, this game is more dangerous then Championship Manager. It's a sign of a good game when you feel all warm and fuzzy inside for hitting a 350 yard drive for the first time. Beware, you WILL throw your head back in despair for missing a 2 foot straight putt… and feel rotten about it for the next two holes!
A quick word about your computer controlled opponents. This is my first niggle. After playing a few rounds a pattern seems to emerge where the game appears to be trying to adjust to how well you play, not how good the AI player is according to the stats. For example, playing the first course champion, he drove off the fairway into the rough on every single hole! How the hell did he get to be course champion? I've seen Stevie Wonder drive straighter. But then, after I've blasted a ball 290 yards up the fairway, he makes a 245 yard drive with a 4 iron from rough so deep that Dr. Livingstone was acting as his caddy! And it doesn't stop there, at times even the poorest of players in the game suddenly pull off amazing putts from distances so far away you'd think they'd fitted a telescopic sight to their shafts. I'm all for better players beating me, but when the level of skill of an individual player fluctuates so wildly, I can't help but feel that the game is being condescending.
