Golf Club

Why are there so many golf games for mobile phones? Well, for starters, the sport is well suited to the restrictions of mobile handsets. You only need a narrow view, for example – from behind your golfer when they swing, and then following the ball to its eventual destination.

Golf games from console and PC are also easily adapted to mobile phones, too, since they often suit one-thumb controls to aim, set the power of your shot, and swing. Finally, the average round of golf fits pretty well time-wise to a bus or train journey where you might be playing a mobile game.

So, Golf Club is the latest contender for handset-based pitch'n'putt action. Developed by Iomo, it offers a 'custom-designed' 18-hole course (translation: they didn't license a real-world course, but we won't hold that against them), and in a nod to real-world golfing conditions, you get to play in the wind and rain, which affects your game accordingly.

The solo mode holds the meat of the game. You can play a practice round to get your shots up to scratch, take part in a competition against a bunch of virtual opponents, or tackle a series of 20 Challenges, each of which earns you money if you successfully complete a set task.

For example, the first challenge is to land a shot on the green straight off the tee on a Par 3 hole, for which you get $50.

Why the dosh? Well, there's a shop accessible from the main menu, where you can buy new sets of clubs to improve your power and control, balls with better wind resistance, and caddy tips, to give you a bit of timely advice when you're on the course at a time of your choosing.

What about the game though? Golf Club's graphics are deliberately on the cartoony side, so while it won't win any points for gritty realism, it does have a character all its own. It's professionally done stuff, with the screen showing a view of your golfer from behind, while at the top of the screen there's a separate top-down map of the current hole, which helps you to aim.

The '4' and '6' buttons move your strike left and right, while '2' and '8' are used to change clubs, and '0' toggles between different shots – normal, punch and chip. You can also see the wind speed and the ball's lie, meaning that everything you need to take a shot is on-screen. It's well designed, in other words.

Actually taking your shot is handled in traditional golf game stylee, with a dial popping up for you to press '5' once to set the power, then again to try and hit a straight shot.

Golf Club is great fun, especially if you round up a friend to try the pass-the-handset multiplayer mode. It's a little rough around the edges, but the care that's gone into it makes up for that.