This review is solely going to focus on putting as that seems to be a big issue for many people, something I don't understand.
Just to give you'll a background, I'm playing TigerWoods O9 after mastering HotShots Golf on my PSP and if you've played it you will know that putting in HotShots is much harder than on any of the Tiger Woods game iterations. This is why putting in TW09 has been second nature for me. Here is what you need to know to get good putts.
- You have to focus on reading the green. You get only one putt preview (something I honestly think should be done away with entirely. It still makes putting pretty easy, at least for me since I'm used to games like HotShots golf where you have to read the green to make good putts). Here are some tips/suggestions on reading the green:
- Don't try to make rule of thumb approximations such as, if hole is X inches higher then I should up my power by Y%. It just doesn't work well enough beyond a certain point and it won't allow you to improve your game.
DETERMINING POWER FOR PUTT:
- First focus purely on the longitudinal slope of the green, i.e. the slope along the direction of the putt so that you can try to figure out how hard you need to putt. Move the putting arrow back/forward till the shadow lines up with the hole. This means that for a perfectly flat putting green, this is the amount of power you need to hit the shot so as to just make it into the hole. Now focus on the putting lines to read the slope of the green in the direction of the hole. If it is sloping downhill, then you need to lower the power of the shot, so bring the arrow closer towards yourself. Depending on how fast the beads are rolling uphill/downhill you will need to approximate how much more/less power to add on. This is hard initially but you will just have to practice to get a better feeling for this. You do have the putt preview which will help correct any initial errors in your power approximation. More on that later.
- While determining the correct power to use, make sure to take into account changing slopes of the green. For example, the initial section from the ball to midway to the hole might be sloped steeply downhill with the rest of it sloped uphill. In this case you have to remember that the downhill bit will add significant speed to the ball which the uphill component may or maynot be able to compensate for. The best way to guess in such cases is to (as mentioned before) place the arrow on top of the hole, then eyeball the uphill and downhill component and try to guess whether the uphill/downhill slopes balance each other out (in which case you can leave the power as is) or if one of the 2 components is stronger relative to the other, and by how much. Again exact power amounts will be harder to judge initially but at least try to get good at estimating whether you need more or less power than the default (default being the power reading for the arrow placed right on top of the hole).
DETERMINING AIM FOR PUTT:
- Assuming you've done all of the above, you should have some guess for the power to use. Now focus on the lateral slope of the green. Again, it will take practive before you can make very good initial guesses. However here are a couple of tips that should make things easier.
--The lateral slope of the green has less effect closer to the ball, and more effect near the hole. The reason being that when you hit the ball, it is travelling at a much higher speed. Because of this higher momentum it is affected less by the lateral slope of the green. However as it approaches the hole and slows down (I hope it is slowing down! If it isn't you didn't approximate the power for the putt very well) the ball is affected much more by the slope of the green. This is very important to keep in mind as we have a tendency to assume that the lateral slope at all points along the putting line have the same amount of effect on the ball.
-- If you are putting downhill (ie with reduced putting power due to the downward slope) the ball tends to be affected much more by lateral slopes. This is because in downhill slopes, you reduce the power and gravity and the slope of the green plays a stronger role in getting the ball to the hole. On the other hand, if you are putting uphill, you will notice that the ball is less sensitive to lateral slopes since you are powering the ball at a high speed (At least through the initial segment of the putt). In such uphill putts, the trajectory of the ball is much more sensitive to the lateral slope near the hole as the ball slows down when it reaches it.
PUTT PREVIEW:
So after all this, you know roughly how to read the green and make a guess on where you need to aim with the arrow (which indicates your guess for power and direction). Now hit the putt preview button to see what this putt would look like. IMPORTANT: Some sites mistakenly say that the putt preview shows the putt for the direction you chose at 100% power (and not the power you set with the arrow). This is NOT TRUE. It is a true putt preview for the given direction and power guess that you made by placing the putting arrow. Now it is a simple matter of looking at the result, then going back and tweaking the power by moving the arrow to the front or back, and moving the aim left or right to compensate accordingly.
- Remember, for putting (much like in real golf), it is most important to nail the power. You don't want to send a putt going 20 feet past the hole, even if you missed the hole by an inch (laterally). Practice will improve your putting, but till you get really good, you can still make a lot of PARs by focusing on getting the putting speeds right.
- Lastly, when you have very steep lateral slopes in the green, it is harder to read the green separately in terms of X and Y (ie lateral positioning and Power). If the lateral slope is very steep downhill from left to right, then even if the front to back slope is zero (ie the green seems flat front to back), the steep slope from left to right will impart more speed to the ball as it is riding its way down the slope of the hill. In these cases you need to be very careful with getting the putting power correct, hit uphill into the slope, and then let the slope gently roll the ball back down the hill towards the hole. Putt preview is key in these cases so that you can compensate for the power an aim. Try to just get it close to the hole, if you get it in, its a bonus!
PUTTING TECHNIQUE:
This is fairly simple. If you need to hit 75% Power, then just hit B, slowly raise the wiimote back till the powermeter fills up 3/4ths of the way and then bring the wiimote down quickly. The power meter bar is scaled linearly so with a little practice and mental math you can easily figure out exactly where a particular power percentage lies. Don't rush the putt, gradually bring the wiimote back till it fills the bar exactly where you want it and then make the putt. Not a smooth action, but it is a limitation of the wiimote not being sensitive enough and it is the only way to make putting work given the current hardware.
Phew, that was long. It really is simpler if you just give it some time and practice. Most of this is second nature to me. I've only been playing the game for a couple of weeks and I usually take a maximum of two putts to get the ball into the hole (Almost done with Tiger Challenge and I haven't lost a challenge in a while). For me, the putting system has always worked great. I never thought/felt that it was broken. I think that is more an artifact of people being used to EA making putting wayyyy too easy in the past so that even beginners expected to be 14 under par in one round of golf.
There you go, I hope this helps you improve your putting game. It really is a great game and tons of fun. I especially like the online component as it works quite well. Have fun!
Buy Tiger Woods PGA Tour 09 All-Play!
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