Friday Timewaster

World Golf Tour (WGT) is the best online golf game I've tried to date. It's based upon real-world photographs of the courses, which works out better than you might think. Unlike the now-defunct Tiger Woods PGA Tour Online from EA, WGT is difficult to "game." What I mean is that it plays very much like real golf: the controls are simple, but mastering it to get a good score takes a good deal of practice. I'm currently nursing a 13 handicap and feel it's quite the accomplishment. The fact that I suck at WGT almost as badly as I suck at real golf is something I consider a pretty high accolade.

It's free to play, of course (punny... you see that?), but if you want better than the starting equipment you'll need to start spending money. If you just play for personal challenge, that's irrelevant. If you want to compete in online tournaments, you'll definitely need to invest some cash. The credits are exactly equal to cents, so fifty bucks will get you five thousand credits. To put that in perspective, while the first generic driver upgrade is only 35 credits, a new top-of-the-line TaylorMade R1 will set you back 2,995 credits. Just as with real golf, it's all about how much you have of two things: time and money. Many people have the latter, most of us don't have the former. Thus you see a lot of guys on the course swinging $500 drivers, but they can't two-putt to save their skins, (see that? 'Nother punny... I'm on a roll, momma!). Speaking of putting, it's just as damned hard in WGT as in real life. Yeah, you got the perfect read... now make it happen, Alice.

Easy to learn, challenging to master. That's the hallmark of a good game, whether real or virtual. WGT has it. Also, it hands out little badges in four grades for everything from birdies to bone-headedness -- because like hamsters in a lab experiment, we're all addicted to incremental reward systems these days. "DING! You've zipped your pants! Congratulations!"


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