It’s Not Easy, Hitting the Green

Oct 20, 2010

I confess that I have been looking for a good golf simulation board game for a while now. I have tried all of zero games. Golf is ideal video game material, and does very well in that medium, but I have played some good baseball and football board games in my time, why not a good game of golf?

I recently saw that APBA Games has released an updated version of their golf game, and I am looking to give it a go. Here’s what their website says:

For more than 50 years APBA has been the unchallenged KING of quality sports entertainment products! Now with APBA Golf, you can get in on the excitement. Fun, quick and easy to play, APBA Golf puts you right in the middle of the action.

APBA Golf comes with 20 All-Time great professional golfer cards to choose from! These legends of the links will allow you to enjoy the thrill of golf, the way it was meant to be played. Each player card is crafted in a way to perform for you with woods, irons and putters in astonishingly characteristic fashion, regarding both accuracy and distance!

APBA Golf is a great game to enjoy some quick golf fun or to replay an entire round or tournament! Oh-did we mention that APBA Golf is as realistic as playing an actual round? Like a professional caddy, you must consider all the elements on the golf course and recommend the right club for your golfer…or suffer the consequences of a poor shot.

APBA Golf comes with a famous D.C. Metropolitan course which is well known for hosting professional tournaments in the Washington D.C. area. With this classic course, APBA Golf allows you to play each hole, from tee to green, according to the actual layout of the course, including hazards, bunkers, doglegs, trees, and undulating greens.

You make all the calls. You pick the club, you decide whether to play cautiously or aggressively. Depending on the lie of the ball; whether you’re in the fairway, the rough, in a trap or on the green, your shot depends on how you choose to play it!

So what are you waiting for? Get out of the clubhouse and on to the tee!

I admit, I am intrigued. The game will offer different courses, which is a pre-requisite in a potentially good golf game in my opinion. Plus it offers pro golfer stat cards, similar to the way Statis Pro or Strat-o-matic games operate, so I’m excited to give this one a try. I’ll let everyone know how it goes.

The other golf game that I have been trying to get my hands on is GolfProfi from Aza-Spiele. It is on sale for 21 Euros (around $30 US) to the good old U.S. of A. until Oct 24th, but what will shipping be? Is the game any good? It looks good, its got high production values, and you use dice to represent different clubs which I like a lot.

Here’s what Handelsblatt (Handelsblatt) had to say:

The designer succeeded to develop a game that simulates the complex kind of golf sport pretty realistically. The game’s brilliant aspect is the system of clubs. With the help of its mechanisms the game achieves true golf feeling at a plain living room table. And so, if it’s raining cats and dogs, the question is: Heading for the golf-course outside or rather play a round in the living room?”

These are the two golf games on my radar. If anyone can suggest others (that are good), I’d be much obliged.