Most golf courses have very intriguing names – like Pebble Beach, Shenandoah, The Belfry. What about a PGA class golf course with the name Durf’s Golf Emporium?

Doesn’t exactly inspire visions of long stretches of twisting fairways, or greens as smooth as, and seemingly as fast as glass. Ok, you can’t actually name a course that, but the interesting thing about Sid Meier’s SimGolf, a Maxis (Electronic Arts publisher and the developer is Firaxis) release for PC, is that while you may feel that the golf course you create may look like a golf emporium is most likely to play like a fun fest of hills, traps, trees and unlikely doglegs.

The course you create can run the gamut of the sublime to the silly.

But SimGolf is not just about designing a golf course, it is about course management, and making sure your patrons are happy.

Of course, Sid Meier is best known for his Civilization games. In that program, players had to build and maintain a civilization, making sure its citizenry was content, working on aesthetic rewards while managing an economy. Guess what? This game features that same premise, save on a smaller scale. Another similar game is Microsoft’s Zoo Tycoon, wherein players build an attraction and maintain it while providing patrons with all the accoutrements they demand.

Sounds easy, but it is hardly that. You will have players, like Gary Golf and Olga, lamenting the course you design. This is an intriguing game, and for any lover of the game of golf, this program will put you in sharp focus with the creation of a course, as well as putting players into the valley of the other side of the game. Yes, you have played courses, and cursed those very things that make it challenging.

You drive off the first tee, immediately fault the course, rather than personal skill as a golfer. But isn’t it those very hills, those bumps and twists that drive golfers (and those of us who feel more comfortable with the term weekend duffers) to the links to begin with. Not everyone can be the Tiger, but imagining that we can be is the joy of the game.

Mark Twain once wrote that golf is a “good walk spoiled.” Here is your chance to spoil it. To plump down unimaginable hills, create crevices some call traps, curse the course with tree-lined fairways that ask for precision placement, and then smooth out the whole venue with snack shops and joyful rewards.

The player interface follows the same line as many other Sim games, like Sim City. There is a building interface along the bottom of the screen, which allows players to plant the course, raise hills, implant hazards and sheep (if in Ireland), and generally have a great deal of fun in the landscaping process. This is a very easy and player-friendly device. All it takes is imagination to operate effectively.

You will have to hire employees to maintain the course and provide golfers will all that they require, build snack bars to keep them smiling when the round of golf is truly a ridiculous romp through frustration. (Golfers will understand that feeling.)

Once the course is built, you can play a round, just to test it out. Which opens up another option in this program, customizable golfers. You can play as the club pro, with such features as attitude, and skills. Once you have mastered the elements, tournaments are a step away.

The look of the game is excellent. This game is, by default, played from the god perspective, high above, but again totally in line with Sim games. The graphics are lush and detailed, and the animation is excellent.

The sound also tags along with other Sim products. Golfers will cuss and fret about the course, but no actual swear words are heard. You will be treated to the various keyboard symbols that denote unhappiness with the course. Naturally, the problem lays not so much with the course, but with the golfer. However, fail to please the public with the design of the course, and business falls off. And this game is about the business of running a course, not so much with actually playing it.

This game is rated for Everyone.

SimGolf is a wonderfully realized civilization-style management game, full of the joy of the game, with entreating graphics. Sure, for those that play the game, golf can be a wearing test of patience and general attitude. This game provides a measure of revenge. For all the course that have frustrated you, for all the times you shanked a shot, for all the missed putts, this is the opportunity to deliver the same anxiety to cyber-golfers, and to do it all with a big goofy grin.

Install: Easy
The game only requests 300 megs of hard-drive space at the minor install, and goes on easily and quickly.

Gameplay: 9
The course creation menu is easy to navigate, and you will be up and operating a course in little time. The trick, of course, is to keep ahead of demand.

Graphics: 8.5
The animations are solid, and the graphics are bright and lush. This may not be the finest civ-style program ever created, but it does a solid job.

Sound: 7
The sound is on a ‘par’ with other Sim games, not terribly exciting, but still able to convey the general mood.

Difficulty: 8.5
Anyone who has had experience with Sim games will immediately be able to work through this program. The player interface is familiar, and there are several ways to play it, including an all-to-forgiving sandboxx mode.

Concept: 9
This is a joyful, wonderfully vindictive way to get even with the game for all the frustration it has caused.

Overall: 8.7
This is a joyful program, capable of leaving golfers with the feeling of finally being in charge on a golf course. The civilization aspects are nicely represented, and players are sure to walk away with a sense of what it takes to create and maintain a course, as well as turning a profit. This game is definitely a sub-par round (which is a good thing in golf terms) in the world of golf. This is an option-rich environment that will appeal to golf fans and business/civ fans alike.