Quick Take: Microsoft Links 2003

Quick Take: Microsoft Links 2003
Andrew Penner

From Pac-Man to Enter the Matrix, PC game players have had their hands full by battling armies of evil and vicious foes (well OK, maybe the skirt-wearin’ ghouls chasing Pac-Man weren’t all that formidable). Golfers, too, have had their fair share of choices when it comes to playing golf on the tube. While Mircrosoft Links 3000 is fairly typical of other golf games (there is little bloodshed and, for the most part, the clothes stay on), there are some cool traits to one of the best golf games that’s ever been made.

But lo and behold, there is actually some consolation for those with a hunger for violence and destruction: you can break clubs over your knee. Yes, indeed. After hitting a puffball out of bounds to the right you can cue your cyber-flogger to grab the guilty weapon and, oh the horror, bust it into two lovely uniform pieces over his knee.

Or shall we say, ‘her’ knee. Among this version’s finer attributes is the gamer’s ability to choose a woman player. Namely, Annika Sorenstam. Nice touch, I say. As of late, it appears she has some game..

Other highlights of Links 3000 are the incredible graphics – textures are rendered in amazing detail – a great selection of courses, including: Kauri Cliffs (New Zealand), Gleneagles (Scotland), and Skeleton Coast, a wild and wooly fictitious course set along the African coastline.

But perhaps the best thing about this game is the Real-Time swing option, which requires mouse usage similar to how it’s done on Golden Tee (you pull the mouse back and slide it forward with enough zip to create some clubhead speed). And, if you like, you can peg it up anytime and play against a plethora of other cyber-world hackers with their Match Maker program.

Andrew Penner is a 12-year member of the Canadian PGA. He has won five professional golf tournaments in Canada and narrowly, I mean narrowly, missed qualifying for the US Open last year. Well, OK, it was a few shots. Andrew writes for a number of golf magazines in Canada, the US, and Europe. His new book, titled "One Flew Over The Caddyshack," can be ordered at www.falconpress.ca. He can be reached at andpenner@shaw.ca.