FORE! Part One

Posted on July 24, 2010
Filed Under Free or Cheap, Fun Places, On The Web | Leave a Comment

BY CHIEF STAFF WRITER PAYPABAK WRITER

It’s been at least two years since Alidar Moxie mentioned playing golf in SL to me. I have always wanted to try it. Last year she even gave me clubs and a HUD. We knocked around some balls from her skybox, but that was about all. So finally, I gave it a try. Headed to Green Acres, an 18-hole course on a beach-like sim called Romantic Times. What I found was somewhat frustrating but mostly due to SL misbehaving. The golf was fun!

It was also free and I will be writing about another course where it is fifty Lindens for three hours of golf, so free is nice. And it’s relatively simple:

Go to nearby first tee.
Touch barrel for free golf clubs and HUD to use them.
Menus will give you further instructions as you use the HUD and clubs.

Each of cleverly laid-out golf holes has a tee box where you start with the Driver. Look for two green arrows with white borders pointing to next hole with numbered flag. After each hole, look for nearby numbered tee box. Play as long and often as you would like, but after three hours the clubs expire, so you need to return to first tee and touch barrel again. You can set up the HUD to show the trajectory of your shot (makes night golf an interesting option, see my photo below). My one complaint was when I ended up in the rough, the plant prims got in the way of clicking on my ball.

A nice touch is there are couples dances at the ruins of an old stone cottage near ninth hole. You will find free gifts in the Pro Shop as well as stuff to purchase including real life gear. See Green Acres Golf Course Web site for more information. And of course, there is a putting and driving range to practice using the system.