It’s a bank holiday Monday, and I’m sure a lot of you are missing your round of golf at the moment. We can’t even invite you down to our demo centre for a go on one of our simulators. These are definitely strange times we live in.
We expect to have some news on when we will have SkyTrak back in stock soon, and we are in talks to start distributing another very affordable golf tracking device at the moment, so we hope to have news on that shortly.
We are also reviewing the governments phased re-opening information, so we will be able to make a decision on re-opening our demo centre, so if you want to keep up to date on these issues make sure you sign up for our email newsletter at the bottom of this page.
In the meantime, if you are at a loose end and want to at least pretend to play some golf, here are four free to play golf games that might keep you occupied until the 18th rolls around.
WGT
We’re going to start with the best. This game is brilliant – end of story. The graphics are great, the courses are very accurately mapped and rendered, and the game itself is realistic, fun, and addictive as hell.
It is built using high end GPS and 3D rendering technology, and it has a brilliant physics engine. You can expect your clubs & balls to wear
It is free to play but you can spend real money in game, in fact, as with many micro transaction games it sort of steers you that way, and full disclosure – I have spent money, but I have thoroughly enjoyed the game.
Essentially you spend real money to get in game credits to buy better gear. Many players are content to use the free clubs and balls, and you’ll still have fun without spending a penny.
I’ve been playing with some friends in Australia online, so it is a great way to catch up with people you haven’t seen in a while and get a virtual round in. A word of warning – this can kind of encourage the buying of credits as it can get real competitive, real fast.
WGT Golf includes:
- Pro Shop with upgraded virtual golf clubs and golf balls from Callaway, Cobra, Ping, TaylorMade, and other top golf equipment manufacturers
- Over 15 world famous golf courses
- Head-to-head multi-player game mode
- Thousands of country clubs
- Realistic 3D golf simulation to recreate swinging, driving, chipping and putting from different lies on the fairway, rough, bunkers and greens
Here’s the courses you can play:
You can play it on pretty much any platform – PC Browser based, it’s now on Steam, it has an iOS app, an Android app, and of course it all syncs across platforms as you sign up with WGT to play.
When you do sign up it tends to send more emails than I like to receive from any one sender, but that’s what the unsubscribe button is for.
If you have ever enjoyed any PC or console golf game, from Microprose Golf back in the day, to the Tiger Woods series or anything in between, you don’t need to read the rest of this list – play this one.
BANet Minigolf
Here we move on from the most complex of the games to the most simple. This is a very straightforward and very basic mini-golf game that I found on Reddit, and thanks to the creator and poster u/banet for letting me link to it. This is for people who just want to kill 20 minutes without signing up to anything, or inviting pop ups on their phone, or having an app trying to flog them crystals or gems etc.
It is reminiscent of an old Atari ST/Commodore 64 era mini golf I played when I was a kid, so there is a bit of nostalgia here to.
Although it is a very simple game, it can be a bit tricky – watch your power levels. I was blasting the ball around the course for the first…well, too long really. You can play it here.
Golf Battle
This is a bit of colourful, frantic fun. It’s another mini golf game, but this one pits you against 7 real live opponents as you strive to complete the courses in as few shots as possible. By default, you are signed up as a guest, but you can link it to your Fac
ebook account if you wish, which then allows you to invite your friends to play with you.
I got pretty good at this one, and the little tip I would say is don’t let the fact that you are all starting off in a huddle force you to spend too little time lining up your shot. It’s against par, not the clock as such, so take a breath, take a shot.
It is very much a modern app in that it is clean and colourful, it doesn’t crash, and it spends considerable effort trying to get you to buy credits to unlock chests and gems and all those hooks that seem to be on page 1 of the app developers handbook these days.
I have been playing this on my iPhone but it is available on Android too, so just search it in your app store and you should find it. I didn’t spend money on this, and I don’t think you need to. This is something you will play for 20 mins and wander away from, unlike WGT which really sucks you in.
Golf Clash
This is another app-based game for iOS and Android, so again search your app store. It basically pits you against one real human in a turn based single hole of golf at a time.
It is good fun. The controls are intuitive, the graphics are cartoony but nice and colourful and it’s not overly complex or demanding. As with Golf Battle, you can play as a guest or you can link your Facebook account or Google Play account etc. to get a real profile.
Another similarity with Golf Battle is that it has all the trimmings of an app out to try and get a few micro-transactions out of you; coins, chests, daily sign in bonuses, etc, etc, etc. Again, I didn’t spend a cent and had good fun playing it.
There is one thing I would consider a drawback to this game, and it is that if you are going second on the round you can see the settings the first player is applying – power, direction and angle, so it gives the person going second a bit an advantage, particularly on the tee off, but it wasn’t so bad that I didn’t want to play – you still have to hit the target.
The one thing I found slightly irksome was the statements that would appear on screen from time to time like ‘putt the ball to win’ – a bit on the ‘well, OBVIOUSLY’ side, but I could be just getting cranky with age.
Well, Happy bank holiday to you. Don’t forget to sign up for our newsletter if you want to keep informed on what we have going on, and I hope you enjoy some of these games.