Sim Golf takes the formula of a simple design and addictive gameplay and turns it into a nice and enjoyable game.
For the latter, I can assure you that I despise golf, which I do not even consider a sport, just as I would not consider Scabble a sport but a past-time activity. Anyway, you do not need to be into the "sport" at all, the whole concept of Golf is stripped down to a very basic level, consisting only of three key skills (Length, Accuracy, Imagination) and six possible ways too "launch" the ball.
After all, this game is not about being a golfer (although you have your own little avatar with whom you can play your own course in exhibition mode, tournaments etc., neat), but a gold resort tycoon. You need to design the courses (which is simple enough), add all sorts of buildings (snack bar, driving range, caddy garage etc.) and landmarks (Dutch Windmill, Easter Island Head, Sundial and so on.), last but not least you can hire staff of various kind to keep your course up and running.
All in all, this game is about strategic placement of the various elements which are available to you. Obviously, there are numerous, streamlined menus available which give you an overview over your golf holes, depicting their ups and downs, so that you can tackle those problems and maybe manage to get them to be included in the Top 100 or even Top 18 holes of the nation.
Another nice little touch is added by the (editable) gold players which flock to your resort, who all sport their own personalities and skills and will frequently comment on your golf course, which gives you even more hints where you should drive the shovel into the ground.
To me, the downpoint of this game that it is designed way to linear and there is nothing ever happening that does not result from your immediate actions, so that (if you play it safe) the game never challenges you. As soon as you get the hang of how to build a golf course (which happens after approx. 2 hours) there is nothing to stop your from succeeding. Do not get me wrong, even this can be fun, but a few more "events" and "unpredictability" would have done the title good and make it feel more dynamic.
Furthermore, once you have build one golf course to completion, which does not take very long, you can buy more expensive sites of land to develop new golf courses and while there are many themes of sites availabe which vary in music and presentation the gameplay is exactly the same, so that you simply do everything all over again, which becomes rather boring very quick. I never saw the point in starting a gold course from scratch, when I already established a superb course in the first place.
Basically, you will see everything the game has to offer after three hours of gameplay and all that is left is to repeat it and maybe vary your course a bit, but again, the initiative to do so is left to you.
Neat little game but way to overrated for what it actually delivers.
River