I'm playing Links Pro, which came out in 1994 and still works on my Mac. It wants 256 colors so it switches the monitor depth. But other than that it plays just as fine today as it did back then. I did have a bit of trouble installing it because the expansion courses don't install off of disk images, so I had to install them using my PowerMac 6100. But then I zipped the whole install up so I don't have to rely on the disk images next time.

In any case, I'm just concentrating on the Bountiful course, which comes with the game itself. I've been playing it about once a day trying to get good enough to score consistently at about 6 under par. I've had one game where I had 10 under par going into the 18th whole, which is a killer. But I triple- bogeyed and ended up 7 under par. Yesterday I was 5 under par going into the 18th and triple-bogeyed again.

Since I'm way behind on my journal I'm going to describe my strategy in this course. I play at the Pro level with no wind, that way I can record the games. In this game you click the mouse, the power bar goes up and you click again when it gets to the optimum power (or earlier/later to adjust the power), then the bar goes down and you click a third time at the optimum angle (or earlier/later for hitting left/right -- I don't know which one is hook and which one is slice). If you hit the ball harder than optimum you need to get the angle exact or you'll really hit the ball way off course.

The key to my game is to play within myself. Don't hit the ball too hard, try to get to the green in one or two strokes. My putting game is really bad so it's great if I can land close to the hole, but if not then don't try the long range putt. Better for me to play it safe and get it close to the hole and par it rather than try a long birdie, miss the hole, and end up 10-20 feet away. Let's go through a game and see how I do.

The first hole is a nice 494 yard par 5. Par 5's are your best chance to birdie. You can usually get on the green in two which leaves you an extra putt to get close to the hole. Par 3's and 4's you don't have that luxury so you have to get close to the hole with a > 25 yard drive to have a good chance at a birdie on a par 3/4. This hole has trees straight ahead and sand straight ahead too, so I want my first shot to go a bit to the right. That way shot two will be a straight shot to the hole with no sand in between. In two shots I go a bit far and end up 23 yards behind the hole, but my third shot gets me 4 feet away and I sink it easily to get a birdie.

Hole 2 is a 163 yard par 3 with no obstacles in the way. There is a sand bunker some distance behind the hole, but I've never hit into it. My first shot gets me to 10 feet away, but I go to the right on my second shot so I only get a par. Damn putting game.

Hole 3 is a 372 yard par 4 which curves to the right. The first shot is easy enough, putting me 111 yards away. There is sand in front of the hole to the left and right but not directly in front. Once again that's nothing to worry about. I try to hit a bit lightly to not overshoot the hole, but mess up and end up 41 feet short, off the green. Now I need a nice chip shot to save par. Sometimes I have a hard time judging the chip shots, many times hitting it too short or too long, but this time I hit it just right and hit the flag, ending up less a foot from the hole for an easy par.

Hole 4 is a 398 yard par 4 which curves to the left. There is sand to the left of the hole, so instead of hitting it slicing to the left I want to hit the ball straight so that the second shot has the sand on the left. In general I have an easier time controlling the angle rather than the distance, especially since the ball hits short and bounces, you don't want sand in front of the hole as you'll likely hit the sand or overshoot the hole. The second shot puts me 14 feet from the hole and I sink the putt for the birdie.