DESCRIPTION

PGA European Tour is the third golf game released on the Nintendo 64 and first to feature a professional license. The following choices are available at the title screen: Quick Match, Non-Tour Golf, Start New Tour, and Continue Last Tour. The first mode, Quick Match, is 18-hole stroke play on a random course for one player. No options are available to fiddle with.

Non-Tour Golf contains various modes of play. You can choose "Strokeplay," where the goal is to get the least number of strokes. One to four players can participate, and you can assign empty slots to computer players. "Matchplay" is for two to four players. Your goal is to attempt to win more holes than the other golfer. Within Matchplay, you can choose from Singles (individual scores), Fourball (two teams of two, best score counts), and Foursome (two teams of two, one ball per team).

"Skins" allows two, three, or four individual players or two teams of two to play each hole for money. Finally, the "Practice" option lets practice any hole, go to the driving range, practice putting, and get help with your short game.

Start New Tour is the choice to select if you want the challenge of becoming the number one golfer on the PGA European Tour. A Continue Last Tour option becomes available after saving your game. You can save one tour game that starts you on the hole you're currently on; saving during the middle of a hole just puts you back at the start of the hole. Moreover, you can choose a short or long tour. In the Challenge Tour, short will make events one round and long will have two rounds. When you reach the European Tour, short will make each event two rounds and long will make each event four rounds.

PGA European Tour also contains an array of options to set it apart from other golf games on the system. You can create up to four golfers to go along with European Tour professionals such as Nick Faldo, Ian Woosnam, Justin Rose, Colin Montgomerie, Jose Maria Olazabal, and Darren Clarke. You can name your golfer, dress him, choose his clubs, and more. Then you can choose from four actual courses: Quinta da Lugo, The 'K' Club, Kungsangen, and Druid's Glen.

Many other options exist, too. For example, when setting up a round of golf, you can choose the round type (front 9, back 9, or 18 holes), weather (sunny, cloudy, overcast, rain, foggy, changeable, or random), wind (calm, breezy, medium, strong, changeable, or random), pin position (four pin positions to choose from), and if you want gimmies and mulligans on or off. ~ Scott McCall, All Game Guide