How to play Wii Sports Golf

I'm assuming that you already know how to use the Wii-mote.

With the Wii Sports CD inserted turn on your console. A start up warning will appear and after you've pressed A on the Wii-mote, the main menu is displayed. In the upper left corner you will find Wii Sports. Select "Start". After some safety warnings you will be asked to press A and B simultaneously, after which the Wii Sports menu is displayed.

Select Golf. You are then asked how many players (up until four) will be joining the game. Make your selection. For each player you can select a Mii to play with. You can also play as "Guest". For each player you will also have to indicate whether they are left- or right-handed.

After all players have been setup, you can select a course being either a 3-Hole Game (at Beginner, Intermediate or Expert level) or a 9-Hole Game.

So, here we are then. With the driver in our hand, at the tee, ready to swing. There are four areas on the screen that you should pay attention to:

The club

In the lower left corner on the screen, you can see which club you're using. Wii Sports make things quite easy by selecting the appropriate club for you, but it you want you can change this selection by using the up- and down-key on your Wii-mote. You can select the Driver, Iron, Wedge or Putter. Each club has its own characteristics.

When hitting the ball off the tee you will mostly want to use the Driver as it will drive your ball the furthest away.

While on the fairway and in the rough your club of choice will be the iron. Note that when in the rough, your driving force is limited.

The Wedge comes into play when your ball ends up in a bunker. The controlled driving force is limited to just one notch (see the Power meter below).

As soon as you're on the green, you will want to use the Putter.

The Power meter

Right above the selected club you will see a Power meter. This meter shows the force of your swing. As you can see, there are three white dots and a yellow diamond. Under normal circumstances this diamond indicates the maximum level of force, where you will have full control over your swing. Using force beyond the diamond will cause your swing to be uncontrolled and unpredictable. As explained before, this maximum level on the Power meter will be reduced when your ball lies in the rough (50%) or in a bunker (25%).

Wind, distance, par.

In the top right corner the Wii displays some useful information. Which hole and par, how far away from the hole you are and wind speed and direction. Especially those last two are values to take into account when you aim your swing and the strength you want to apply.

Course overview

The lower right corner shows an overview, containing your current position, the hole and a blue line with white dots. As you can guess, the white dots correspond to the white dots on the Power meter. If your swing registers 25% of the Power meter (the first white dot), then your ball will first hit the ground at the position of the first white dot in the overview. By using the left and right key on your Wii-mote, you can control the direction of your shot.

First, look at the overview to get an idea of how much force you want to put into your swing. If the hole is between the first and the second white dot, then taking a swing at 100% strength will cause the ball to end up past the hole. So basically you will want to register between 25% and 50% (the first and second white dot) on the Power meter. But don't just swing just yet. There are two things we haven't taken into account here. For starters, the ball will first hit the ground at a point on the blue line that corresponds to what the Power meter registers. All very nice, but what happens then? Correct, the ball will bounce one or more times and roll until it comes to a stop. So you want to make sure that the place where to ball hits the ground is either exactly in the hole (which is difficult, trust me) or well before the hole. Secondly, we haven't looked at the wind. The longer the ball is in orbit, the more time the wind has to change its course. In addition, the stronger the wind, the stronger its impact on the course of the ball, obviously. So you will want to correct your aim and the force you use.

Now that we've survived the wind, water and bunkers on the way, we've finally reached the green. It's time to get that Putter out of the bag. Since the ball will travel on the ground, rather than through the air, we can make a long nose at the wind. That won't bother us anymore. However, its place will be taken as now the terrain will come into play. There will be dents and hills on the green. Enter gravity as our new opponent.

Luckily for us, Wii Sports provides us with additional information. First of all, the grass is neatly mowed into squares. And these give us some indication of how the terrain looks. Look at the lines carefully to determine if your aim should be to the left or right of the hole. In addition you can press 2 on the Wii-mote to bend through your knees and look at the green, just like those pros do. And finally, you can also press 1 to get a graph of the green. Lighter areas are higher than darker areas. If the ball will be going uphill then you'll want to hit it harder than when it will be travelling downhill.

Now that we have analyzed the circumstances, we can make our put. And just like in real life, putting is not swinging. Use subtle movements of the wrist to give the ball the speeds you want.

So now it's up to you. Go ahead and play. And remember: practice makes perfect.