Links Golf

About the game

3D links golf with a real swing: two seaside courses, a wind that matters, firm running turf, pot bunkers and fast greens. A 36-level Tour, rounds of 3, 9 or 18 holes, match play and an endless Gauntlet.

Links Golf is stroke-play golf by the sea, in 3D, played with one finger. Two invented links, Marram Point and Kittiwake Head, give eighteen different holes among dunes, marram grass and gorse, with the sea beside you, burns to cross, a stone boundary wall and small deep pot bunkers. Every hole asks a question: carry the bunkers or lay back, cut the corner over the dune or go round, fly it at the flag or land it short and let it run.

The ball is real. Club speed, loft, path and face decide how it leaves; drag and lift decide how it flies; a links wind that is stronger higher up pushes it about. The turf is firm, so a drive runs and a low shot under the wind is often the right one. Long grass grabs the club, sand takes the ball dead, gorse loses it, and the greens are hard and quick: a putt has to arrive slowly enough to drop, and it can lip out.

Drag to aim and to move the landing ring nearer or farther; with Assisted help the ring shows where a clean strike will land and stop in today's wind. Then hold Swing and let go at the top: your timing sets the strike, a steady finger keeps the face square. On the green, pull back for pace and read the break. The golfer makes a proper swing, from address to a balanced finish, right- or left-handed.

The Tour has 36 levels over six kinds of weather, from a soft morning to a gale: nearest the pin, finding the fairway, lag putting, bump and run, getting up and down from sand, three- and nine-hole cards, and match play against named golfers, with up to three stars a level. Play a round of 3, 9 or 18 holes on your own or against an opponent, take on the Gauntlet (sudden death in weather that keeps getting worse), or practise on the range and the putting green.

Five camera views including one from behind the golfer, separate Music and Sound switches, portrait or landscape, eleven languages, touch, mouse, keyboard or gamepad. One self-contained file with no network requests, so it plays offline at 38,000 feet.

How to play

1. The game. Stroke play on two seaside links. Count every stroke; the lowest score wins. The ball farthest from the hole plays next.
2. Aim. Drag anywhere: left and right turns the line, up and down moves the ring nearer or farther. The caddie picks a club for the distance; the buttons at the bottom left change the club, the kind of shot and its shape.
3. The ring. With Assisted help the gold ring is where a clean strike will land in today's wind, and the line from it shows how far it will run. The faint ring is where it would land with no wind. The caddie aims at the flag and does not allow for wind or trouble: that part is yours.
4. Swing. Press and hold Swing. The golfer takes the club back and the ring round the button fills. Let go as it reaches the gold mark at the top. Early is caught thin, late is caught fat. Keep your finger still: sliding it sideways opens or closes the face.
5. Putting. Drag to aim, then press Putt and pull your finger back: the further you pull, the harder the putt. Let go to stroke it. The ball must reach the hole slowly enough to drop.
6. Links golf. The wind is stronger higher up, so a low shot holds its line. The turf is firm: land the ball short and let it run. Pot bunkers cost a stroke. Gorse costs more: a ball deep in it is lost, and you play again from the same spot with a penalty stroke. Water and the sea cost one stroke and a drop.
7. Camera. The camera button changes the view: behind the golfer, over the shoulder, side on, from the tower and from above. On a green the views are for reading the putt.

Controls