Microsoft Links2003

Reviewed by Jerry Levine

As a user of the original Links golf game many years ago, I was curious about what advances had been made. I was not disappointed. I tested Microsoft Links 2003, which contains six famous golf courses, and Links 2003 Championship Courses, which contains twenty more famous courses. If I had enough time, I could spend all my waking hours playing the most realistic golf game that I have ever seen.

You do need reasonably powerful equipment to use this software to its fullest capability but it will run under Windows 98, ME, 2000 and XP with 64 Megs of Ram (128 for XP), a 16 MHz video card and a 400 MHz processor. Fortunately I have a 1 GHZ computer running XP with 256 MHz of RAM and a 64 MHz video card, which the program recognized and configured itself for.

The game is made to both play by yourself, with others, with famous computer players and online in tournaments. It tries to go online automatically when you run it although I did not allow it to do so. There are four methods of swinging, from very easy to very difficult. The first method is “Easy” and that is what it is. Just aim and give one click. The game decides the distance and club. The next more difficult method is “Classic”. This requires three clicks of the mouse, aiming and club selection.

The next is called “Real Time”. You draw the mouse back and then push it forward. The distance back and the speed forward as well as moving the mouse straight decide how straight and how far the ball goes. You decide the club and direction but you don’t have to click the mouse. More difficult is “Power Stroke”. This is much like “Real Time” but you have to click the mouse once at exactly the right time. Very difficult but I will try to work up to it.

If you are a golfer or just want to pretend, this is a great game to play. The graphics and sounds are excellent and it seems to know exactly what to say to you while you are playing. The golfer also reacts realistically to the quality of shot that you hit. You feel like you are really playing golf on a championship course. It is also a wonderful learning tool. I give Links 2003 and Links 2003 Championship Courses my strongest recommendation.