Only in the last few years have the Brits started winning golf again. To coincide with this, the game has become a popular subject for computer coders.

On foreign machines such as the Atari ST and Amiga, Leaderboard has been the most appealing option to would-be Faldo's. Now the game has migrated to the Arc but it doesn't venture alone along the acorn-scattered fairways. Accompanying it comes a product from Impact under the newly released and most prestigious 4th Dimension label. The contender is Holed Out!, following the great success of the BBC Micro and Elk versions of the same game.

Incidentally, both of us would like it to be known that we think the review of the BBC version of Holed Out! in the June issue didn't do the game credit.

Both Arc releases hit the streets at roughly the same time, and so the question all potential buyers will be asking is which of the two is up to par.

The answer? Not so simple. Each game has a host of features, sometimes common, sometimes not.

Let's begin with the graphics. Leaderboard offers obvious qualities such as detailed trees and clouds but Holed Out! seems slightly more aesthetically pleasing. This could be down to a number of things, the most evident being that the whole screen is dedicated to the display. In Leaderboard, information such as club selection, wind direction, etc, is constantly present in a strip down the right hand side, whereas Holed Out! makes use of the Arc's window environment to update the data only when relevant.

Another thing we liked about the latter is the characters themselves. They are detailed to include creases in jeans and jackets, something that Leaderboard lacks. Apart from these variations, there is little difference between the two games in graphics terms.

Sound is definitely a feature of Holed Out! There are samples for all sorts of situations: hitting trees, splashing into water, dropping into the hole and of course whacking the ball. However, the sounds in Leaderboard are somewhat meagre, as if they were added last thing.

Gameplay itself is the most important thing and both games score very highly on this front. The club selection in Holed Out! is done very nicely, you can select from a list with the mouse, but Leaderboard makes it a chore by having you go through your club bag in search of the required piece. Once you know what you're doing, aim the crosshairs and let rip! The power indicator zooms up, and the trick is to stop it where you want it. In Leaderboard, on professional levels there is 'snap' to deal with - curling the ball round an obstacle - and although Holed Out! has a similar mechanism, Leaderboard requires skill and this makes it far more realistic.

Speaking of realism, we would say the ball behaves much better in Holed Out! in terms of rolling back down a hill if it wasn't hit hard enough, and such like. That's not to say that Leaderboard is a failure on this point. They both have good gameplay.

After many games, the two courses in Holed Out! became quite familiar. I can see that, unless 4th Dimension releases further holes, this game could well become boring after a (long) while.

Leaderboard, on the other hand, has four different courses plus a limited facility for designing your own. This will give it a much longer life expectancy.

Putting is the only part of the course that is given a different perspective view by the two games. Leaderboard provides an effective isometric 3D effect while the overhead plan view of Holed Out! makes it easier to judge distances and slope. However, this also makes it unrealistic. When have you ever seen Nick Faldo climbing a ladder to study the green? We can't decide, they're both good.

It would be nice to see some contoured fairways. As it stands, both games are two-dimensionally aligned. However, niggles aside both come up to scratch in a fashionable manner. Both are worth getting, even if you're not a dedicated golf enthusiast.