Pro Golf 2010 World Tour

It's quite hard to make golf sexy. They've managed it with cricket, the one-day game revolution turning the likes of Flintoff and Harmison into Beckham-esque pin-ups.

Tennis, too, with its modern barrage of short skirts and hairy chests a-go-go (not always on the same player) has given the sport the kind of sex appeal Henman and Navratilova could have only dreamt of.

Golf, however, is often the domain of the middle-aged on a quiet Sunday afternoon, or businessmen taking out their frustrations with life at the driving range. Not even the legendary Tiger Woods has managed to migrate from 'Golf Monthly' to feature in Heat magazine's 'Torso of the Week' section just yet.

Gameloft's latest Pro Golf World Tour reflects this atmosphere of performance over publicity, giving rise to a perfunctory replication of the sport. This is golf with no added sparkle or shine, but rather the kind of package anyone can have a swing at, whether you've got the run of the green or are just plain green.

Taking the form of tournaments comprising holes from different courses, one off holes you can choose yourself, and a Career mode designed to throw challenge after challenge at you, sinking a shot in Pro Golf is actually rather simple.

You modify the direction of your shot with the '2' and '4' keys (displayed, as you might expect, on a handy map), while power is handled by a gauge that swings left to right and back again. The aim is to tap the '5' key when the cursor nears the flag icon for optimal distance.

Pro Golf then swings straight into accuracy mode - again a sliding gauge with a sweet spot determining just how crisp your shot will be. Unlike some of its rivals, however, Pro Golf also lets you take charge of the ball mid-flight, the number keys adding a last dose of spin to the ball that can rescue a wayward shot.

Putts on the green are very similar, only this time just the power is in your hands. Get that right and, more often than not, you'll sink the ball. Even if you don't quite manage it, Pro Golf's 'Auto Putt' system then kicks in, tapping the ball home for you - but only if it's merely millimetres away in the first place.

It's a move that doesn't really lend itself to realism, but in this respect, Pro Golf isn't exactly sure where it stands anyway. Real players make the game's line-up, sending the World Tour the way of simulation, but the after-touch and Auto Putt systems are a tad arcadey.

The visuals are bright and clear, but there's little character in them, giving the feel of a game doing a job rather than offering a spectacle.

This is not necessarily a slur, and for anyone wanting a quick and easy way of taking to the green that also offers a sense of progression and career, Pro Golf 2010 World Tour is a perfect fit.

But when others swing more wildly towards either cute and cuddly interpretations (such as Everybody’s Golf) or more realistic simulations (like Tiger Woods PGA Tour 09) of the sport, Gameloft's latest tee-off feels a little like it's playing on the safe but sterile middle ground.