Strokes
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Best
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Six holes of golf played the way the pros think about it: which club, how hard, and where the wind will take it. Drivers, woods, irons and wedges each fly their own distance, rough and sand cost you yards, water costs a stroke, and every hole finishes with a putt you have to read. Par is twenty-four.
You play six holes: two par threes, two par fours and two par fives, twenty-four strokes in all. The map shows the part of the hole in front of you, with the tee at the bottom and the flag at the top. Pale green is fairway, darker green is rough, cream is sand, blue is water and the darkest edge is out of bounds.
Drag anywhere on the map to aim; the dashed line and ring show where a full shot with the chosen club would land in still air. The row of clubs below lists how far each one carries, from the driver at two hundred and twenty-five metres to the sand wedge at seventy-two. A club is suggested for the distance, but you can pick any other, except the driver and three wood from a bunker.
Press SWING and a power bar starts moving back and forth. Tap again to hit: the power is whatever the bar showed at the moment you tapped. One point zero is a full shot; hitting less than that is how you play a shorter approach with the same club. Past one point zero the ball goes a little further but scatters far more. Wind, shown top right, pushes the ball in the direction of the arrow.
On the green the clubs disappear. Drag to the spot where you want the ball to roll to and press PUTT. A putt that reaches the hole and would have run no more than about a metre and a half past it drops in; one that is short or races by stays out. Water and out of bounds cost a penalty stroke and you play again from the same place. A hole is picked up at four over par, and your score is the total for the round, so lower is better.
Take enough club, then take off power. Every club flies a fixed distance at full power, so for an approach of one hundred and thirty metres the nine iron at full or the seven iron at about nine-tenths are both options. The smoother choice is usually the one where you can hit close to full power, because the timing is easier near the top of the bar than somewhere in the middle of its run.
Aim off for the wind rather than hitting harder into it. The arrow shows where the wind blows the ball, and it moves a long shot further than a short one. With a crosswind, drag your aim to the other side of the flag by a few metres; into the wind, take one more club; with the wind behind you, one less. Never push past one point zero to fight a headwind — the spray costs far more than the distance gains.
Play away from trouble on the tee. A drive into the rough loses a sixth of its distance on the next shot and a bunker a third, but water costs a whole stroke. On the long holes, look at where the driver ring lands: if it reaches a bunker or water, a three wood or a five iron that stops short is often the better par.
Putt past the hole, never short. A putt that finishes short can never drop, while one that reaches the cup with a little pace to spare falls in. Drag your target point about half a metre to a metre beyond the hole on a straight line, and concentrate on the line more than the length — the hole is small, but the speed window is generous.