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As the blurb on the cassette cover says, "If you like golf, this will be just your cup of tee" (Ho, ho). Some people hate computer golf; I rather like it. As far as golf games go, this is one of the better ones.

All it really lacks is a way of linking the strength of each stroke to some test of skill. The best golf games tend to have a 'strength' measure. This is usually a column which rises and falls rapidly at the side of the screen. You have to decide at what point in the column's rise and fall you want the shot to be taken.

This device gives you a sporting chance at 'hitting' the sort of shot you think the situation demands.

Microdeal's version of Golf, as I said, doesn't have this. Instead, all you can do is select the club or iron number that you want to take. It then allocates a 'strength' to the shot.

The graphic display of the golf course is on a hole-by-hole basis, as is the custom with such games. And there are the usual water hazards and rough off the fairway. I don't remember trees posing anything of an obstacle, so the course must be a Scottish one. The rough certainly has a lot in common with Scottish rough: you have a very slim chance of hitting a good ball out of it!

The computer usually decides that you have topped the ball or otherwise mis-hit it, and it can take a couple of shots to get back to the fairway.

Getting off the fairway in the first place would be less likely if the program didn't have a built in 'slice and hook' factor, which arbitrarily judges your drive (or fairway shot) to be off-line, from time to time.

Aiming the ball is relatively simple, and is done on the clock golf principle (that is, 3.0 is mid-screen, right, 6.0 is bottom-middle, and so on). Once you are on the green, the scene shifts to a close up of the pin and displays the ball's position. You then have to input both the direction of the putt, and the strength of shot. This is more under your control, and one-putting becomes easier once you've played a few holes.