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Music

Links Shoots an Ace

Rating: NNNN


LINKS 2001 for PC, $85. Rating: NNNN

GRAPHICS: Sharp, right down to the chunks of fairway your five iron ripped up.

ADDICTIVENESS: Sky high, especially if you dream of shooting even par.

PROXIMITY TO THE REAL THING: The grass is cut short and the birds are singing.

ANTI-SOCIAL FACTOR: Golf is played in foursomes.

the only two times i’ve everwanted to throw my computer through the window in a fit of rage was when the machine stopped working and when I started missing putts on Links 2001. That’s how realistic this golf simulator is.Links 2001 is as frustrating, fun and then outright infuriating as a real four-hour stroll on a golf course. The scenery is stunning, and players like Sergio Garcia and Annika Sorenstam (no Tiger) look and act like they do in the flesh.

More importantly, the game plays like a real round of golf.

Monster drives to the middle of the fairway are inevitably followed up with a ridiculous sideways shot that ends up under a tree, in a lake or buried in one of the mammoth sand traps.

Even more difficult are the greens, built around absurd geometric angles that will get even the calmest putters pulling their hair out.

Miss a shot and your partner will make a snarky comment.

Hit the ball well and you’ll wonder exactly when disaster will strike next.

The playing landscape itself is stunning, but if real courses like St. Andrews, Mesa Roja and Chateau Whistler, reproduced down to the actual position of rocks and bunkers beside the green, don’t do it for you, just design your own course.

You can also go online and play head-to-head with users around the world.

Public humiliation was never so easy.

mattg@nowtoronto.com

GRAPHICS: Sharp, right down to the
chunks of fairway your five iron ripped up.

ADDICTIVENESS: Sky high, especially if
you dream of shooting even par.

PROXIMITY TO THE REAL THING: The
grass is cut short and the birds are
singing.

ANTI-SOCIAL FACTOR: Golf is played in
foursomes.

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