Online Golf Games
Play Free or Money Games
At UTour Golf

Some Online Golf Games really rock, and this is one of them. Click on Best Online Golf to go straight to the Ultimate Tournament site.

UTour Golf from Skillground is an online golf game that is new on the scene as of October 2007. It is Skillground's newest game and is by far their most popular.

It is geared toward players who play to win cash prizes, but playing the free games is plenty of fun, too.

I got the game downloaded just fine with Firefox, allowing one add-on, but I think it's really best on Internet Explorer at this point. Next I installed the game manager, restarted Firefox and then there was a 53MB game upgrade that took a few minutes to load.

The Tutorial comes up and whips you through the basics of playing. If you are at all familiar with online golf games you'll feel right at home with this one.

When playing the game, the screen presents you with your golfer and all the information and controls. I think that the layout is very good as far as golf simulation games go.

There is lots of information on the screen, so the text may be a little small for some, but once I got playing it was a breeze.

As you get set to take your tee shot, the screen top shows the hole you are playing, its par, your stroke count, the distance in yards from the tee to the hole and the hole's elevation.

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At the middle top a compass-like graphic indicates the wind direction and strength. In the upper right is the shot clock. This timer is set up in the options panel and helps make sure that the game moves along. Nothing stops this shot clock, and if you don't get your shot off in time, you lose a stroke. Your golfer must hit the ball before the timer counts down to zero.
A little lower in the screen you'll see the "Aiming Tool". Aim your shot by moving this marker left or right with either the keyboard arrow keys or the mouse. It displays the remaining distance to the pin, and clicking on the magnifier icon zooms you up to have a closer look at the spot you're shooting at. This is important so that you don't unintentionally hit your ball into a bunker or the rough. Your club selection can be influenced by this close-up look, too.

The "Ball Shaper" is on the left at the screen bottom. This game control lets you bend the ball's flight, right or left. The UTour Golf Ball Shaper is also where you are able to apply backspin to the ball, which will of course cut down on the ball's roll when it hits the ground.

Just above and beside the Ball Shaper you see which club is in your game golfer's hands and the likely distance that a well hit ball will "carry" (ie. not including the bounce and roll distance which can vary). The up and down arrows let you choose your club.

Next is the "Shot Selector" with which, for example, you can choose "Normal" or "Power" for your drivers. Irons and wedges have six shot selection types. And while there are two selections for your putts, probably most important is your judgement regarding how ball roll is effected by weather conditions and the slope of the green.

Did I mention that I think this is a really cool computer golf game?

The "Swing Meter" is the tool for striking the ball. Just like in other online golf games, this is where practice makes perfect. It's a classic 3-click control using the mouse or the space bar, and getting it right will make a huge difference in your scores.

This is a brief outline of what's available at UTour Golf. If you like online golf games, especially if you like to make your golf games "interesting", then by all means give this one a shot. Presented by TCasey