A ROUND OF GOLF To play a round of golf select one of the options as follow: 1 PLAYER STROKEPLAY 2 PLAYERS STROKEPLAY 2 PLAYERs MATCHPLAY 3 PLAYERS STROKEPLAY 4 PLAYERS STROKEPLAY 4 PLAYERS MATCHPLAY STROKE PLAY The object of the stroke play is to complete a round of course in the fewest strokes possible. The winner is the competitor who completes the course in the fewest strokes. You click on the appropriate number for a 1-4 player stroke play competition. The box you have chosen will be highlighted. The order of play at the beginning of the game is the order the players were selected from the roster. Shots there after are played furthest away from the hole. Players not on the green are always classed as being further away than those on the green. The order of play on subsequent holes is played in order of honour (winner of last hole first.. loser last). MATCH PLAY In match play, a hole is won by the side/person which holes its ball in the fewest strokes. A match consists in a full round of golf (18 holes) and is won by the side which is leading by a number of holes greater than the number remaining to be played. If the teams are equal at the eighteenth hole, the game goes to sudden death (starting with hole 1). 1X1 is a one on one competition and 2X2 is a competition between 2 teams of 2 golfers. The order of play works in the same fashion as in stroke play except for the fact that a player can swap to his team mate to play first at any time. COURSES Lets you select which course to play. There are 2 courses supplied with Nick Faldo's Championship Golf. Course 1 is played at San Martin, Portugal and Course 2 is played at Kinlochare, Scotland. PLAYER SELECTION The player selection screen is used to choose who is playing. There are 8 human players who can play. To select one, click on the relevant Human number icon. Repeat this procedure to add more players. To change the player's name, to enter a new name, simply type it on the keyboard and press RETURN. To select a computer opponent, click on the relevant opponent icon. The players at the top of the screen are harder to beat than those at the bottom of the screen. NICK FALDO IS THE ULTIMATE CHALLENGE. The other players you can choose are: Ian Smythe, Bob Walker and Jim Nelson. CLUB SELECTION The club selection screen is used to select which club you prefer. Select 13 clubs by clicking on the name of the clubs. The putter is provided automatically. The red bar next to the club represents the "double-click zone" (explained later). Basically, the shorter the red bar, the harder it is to hit a ball straight with that club. At first therefore, choose the clubs with the longer bars. As you play more the length of these bars will increase. Therefore the more you play the easier it gets. However, as you improve so does the standard of your competition..just like the real thing. You are able to choose which caddie will accompany you around the course. Each caddie will give different comments/advice as you progress, including sarcastic comments for poor play. To help you choose your clubs, here is a list of the clubs and the distance they will hit the ball: 1 WOOD - 275 YARDS 2 WOOD - 260 YARDS 3 WOOD - 250 YARDS 4 WOOD - 235 YARDS 5 WOOD - 215 YARDS 1 IRON - 235 YARDS 2 IRON - 220 YARDS 3 IRON - 205 YARDS 4 IRON - 195 YARDS 5 IRON - 185 YARDS 6 IRON - 172 YARDS 7 IRON - 160 YARDS 8 IRON - 148 YARDS 9 IRON - 135 YARDS PITCHING WEDGE - 120 YARDS SAND WEDGE - 90 YARDS These distances are based on the ball being hit cleanly from a tee, landing and rolling on a fairway with no wind using normal power in good summer conditions by a professional golfer. Please note: if you wish you can take less than 13 clubs onto the course if you feel confident enough. THE GAME SCREEN DISTANCE TO PIN At the top centre of the screen between the golfer direction arrows is the DISTANCE TO PIN counter. This gives you the distance between your golfer and the pin in yards. In the top right corner of the screen is the number of strokes that this golfer has played on this hole. BALL SPIN A the bottom right of the screen. The ball spin option is composed of 2 icons. The top icon selects back or top spin. This determines how far the ball will roll when it lands; top spin causes the ball to roll further and back spin reduces distance. This is displayed as a horizontal bar. Over the bar is marker which looks like a golf ball in the centre of cross-hairs. Move the marker left for back spin or right for top spin. Leaving the marker in the centre will result in a standard shot being taken. SHOT DIRECTION In the centre of the screen is the direction icon. This is displayed as a small cross-hair and indicated the direction of the ball if a perfect shot is played. The direction is chosen by placing your pointer anywhere on the game screen. The cross hair will then be placed in the position which will be the direction you will be attempting to place your shot. SAVE GAME Click on save to bring up the save game options. A box similar to the one for loading a save game will appear. Click on one of the empty slot boxes and type the name you wish to save the game under. When you have done this press return and then click on the CONTINUE box and the game will now be saved to disk. You can now continue playing the game from this point or turn off and re-load to this position at a later date. INFORMATION PANEL A pull out menu. In the top of the screen is the INFORMATION PANEL. Move joystick UP to make it available. Move the pointer to this side of the screen and it will appear automatically. This advises you on: GOLFER DIRECTION At the TOP is the CHANGE DIRECTION icons. These are displayed as 2 directions arrows, one facing to the left and one facing to the right. Click to turn the golfer in the chosen direction by a few degrees each time. Repeat as required to rotate the golfer's viewpoint. VIEW MAP This shows an overhead view of each hole. Below the map, the length of the hole is given plus the par of the hole. NOTE: You always face the pin after your first shot. Click on the map to show the localised wind. This is important because there may be small gusts blowing even if there is no predominant wind. BALL LIE This icon is very important as it displays the terrain on which your ball is currently positioned (rough, fairway, sand...). This is very important because where the ball is positioned affects the choice of the club to be used. For example a low iron is needed in very rough terrain; a sand wedge is needed for bunker play. STRENGTH This is displayed as a vertical bar with increments from 50% to 100%. Press fire and move left and right to select the power of each shot at that point. STANCE SELECTOR - DRAW OR FADE Below this is the stance selector. Click on the left arrow to move your left foot back. Click again to move back further. This OPENS your stance and makes the ball curve to right when hit, creating what called a FADE. Click on the right arrow to move your right foot back and CLOSE your stance. This causes the ball to curve to the left and is called a DRAW. These features allow the player to curve the ball around obstacles such as foliage and trees which may obstruct the view of the hole. WIND Just below the ball lie indicator is the wind indicator. An arrow shows the direction of the wind and the size of the arrow indicates how strong it is, the larger the arrow, the stronger the wind. NOTE: this only indicates the wind direction/strength overall. To see how the wind affects different parts of the entire hole, see below, under 'Course Map'. CLUB SELECTION To the left of the screen is the CLUB SELECTION panel. This is used to select which club to take for the next shot. Move the pointer to this side of the screen and it will appear. Click on a club to select it for play. The bar at the bottom of the panel represents the red bar on the club selection screen. The shorter the bar the harder the club is to use. PLAYING A SHOT To play a shot, select the club you want to use. Move the shot direction icon to where you want the ball to go and change any of the above mentioned settings to your preference. To hit the ball, Press fire and the Hitometer will appear. Click to add an extra 10% power to your shot. A W appears if this is successful. However please note that breaking the wrist is risky. Attempting to do so, but failing results in a club dexterity penalty. This means your shot bar will be decreased in size resulting in your double click zone being reduced in size (described below). Therefore the wrist snap should only be attempted by experienced players. Secondly is the DOUBLE CLICK area. This zone varies in length depending on which club is used, click twice inside the zone ensures that the flight of the ball is true. Miss the beginning of the zone will result in a HOOK and the ball flying to the left. Miss the second click will result in a SLICE and the ball flying off to the right. Miss both clicks will result in a MIS HIT. Repeat this procedure until you reach the green, each time checking for the position of your ball on the map and the lie of the ball so that you use the best possible club selection for that all important next shot. PUTTING When using the putter the POWER icon and SWING icon are replaced by a single icon representing the strength of the putt. Move the pointer to the golfer's feet so it changes to a curved arrow and left-click. The power will start to increase. Click again to stop it and the putt will be attempted. When on the green you are given the aid of a grid that helps to show the undulation of the green. Use the curvature of the green for accurate putting. BUNKER PLAY When in the bunker you need the following combinations of club/stance depending on the lie of the ball: 1 - Ball resting on top of sand A normal stance is needed and a 6 iron or higher should be used. 2 - Ball partially buried An open stance should be used and the club to use is the sand wedge 3 - Plugged ball Close your stance, use top spin and the club to use is again the sand wedge THE SCORE CARD After each hole has been completed by all players the score card is displayed. This shows you how many shots taken to reach the hole played against how many it should have taken - PAR (displayed to the left of the player scores). At the bottom of the card is the total shots played and to the left is the total par for the course. The card displays the current nine holes you are playing. To see the other nine holes click the rotating arrow symbol in the top-right hand corner of the score card.