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Each hole opens with a flight over it from the green back to the tee; Space or the Start button skips it. Then you stand over the ball, looking down the line of play, with the club already chosen. Aim, hold the Swing button (or Space) to fill the power gauge, and let go to hit. The ball's flight is traced in white, and when it stops the game tells you how far it went and where it lies.

Play on until the ball drops into the cup. The hole's score comes up with every shot you played and the round's card, then Hole 2 takes you on. After the 18th, New round starts again from the first tee, and Play it again replays a hole in a fresh wind.

The aim starts on a good line: at the pin when the club can reach it, and on a dogleg at the bend. Turn it with the left and right arrow keys (or A and D), the aim buttons, or a drag across the picture; hold Shift for fine turns. A tap on the map in the corner aims right there. The dotted line and the ring on the ground show where a full swing lands.

Hold Swing or Space and the gauge fills in 1.2 seconds, the golfer's backswing with it, and stays full. Let go to swing. The yellow flag on the gauge is the power that reaches the pin, wind, bounces, and roll included, or on a dogleg the bend; let go close to it and the shot takes exactly that power. Hold it full for your longest shot.

• Left and right arrows, or A and D: aim. Shift aims finely.
• Space or Enter, held: build power. Let go to swing.
• Escape stops a swing you are holding, without a shot. So does letting go at once.
• V, or the map button: see the whole hole, and back to the ball.
• C, or the scorecard button: the round's card. Tap a hole's number on it to play that hole.
• R, or Restart hole: play the hole again from the tee.
• Space, or the Faster button, while the ball is in the air runs it four times faster.

On the green the putter takes over and the gauge is measured in feet: it covers 10, 20, 40, 70, or 110 feet, whichever fits the putt with room to spare. The flag on it is the pace that just reaches the cup with the slope counted, and the readout tells you whether the putt runs uphill or downhill and by how many inches. A grid and contour lines on the green show which way it falls.

A ball rolling slowly over the cup drops in; one going too fast can lip out.

Every hole gets its own wind when you reach it, from any side and up to 10 to 14 mph depending on the hole. The arrow in the corner shows where it blows and how hard. A tailwind carries the ball farther, a headwind holds it up, and a crosswind pushes it sideways, so aim off to let it drift back.

The lie changes the distance: a full shot from the rough goes about four fifths as far, and from a bunker about three fifths, or nearly the whole way with the sand wedge. The gauge shows the lie beside the club.

• In the water: one penalty stroke, and the ball is dropped beside the water.
• Out of bounds: one penalty stroke, and you play again from where you hit it.
• Trees catch and knock down a ball that flies into them.
• At ten strokes the ball is picked up and you move on.

Willow Creek is an eighteen-hole course of 6,706 yards and par 72: four par 3s from 142 to 186 yards, ten par 4s from 304 to 439, and four par 5s from 512 to 557. It has doglegs both ways, a creek to carry, ponds that pinch the landing area, a lake along a whole side, greens up on a hill and down in a valley, and water wrapped round the last green.

• Front nine: Willow Bend (par 4), Short Drop (3), Long Meadow (5), Creek Crossing (4), Birch Corner (4), Island Pond (3), Uphill Climb (4), Twin Ponds (4), Home Stretch (5).
• Back nine: Pine Gate (4), Little Knoll (3), S-Bend (5), Lakeside (4), Short Four (4), Valley (4), Quarry Carry (3), Long Haul (5), Clubhouse (4).

Every swing is a stroke, and penalties add to them. A hole's score is named against its par: Par, Birdie for one under, Eagle for two under, Bogey for one over, Double bogey for two over, and a Hole in one for an ace. A birdie or better brings confetti.

The round is kept on a scorecard, hole by hole, with your total against par (E for even, +3, −2) in the game's console. A hole played again keeps its newest score. A round in progress is not saved when you leave the page.

Trust the flag on the gauge: it already counts the wind, the bounces, and the roll.

• Look at the whole hole (V) before the tee shot on a long or bending hole.
• On a dogleg, the first flag takes you to the bend. A longer shot can run through the fairway into the trees.
• With a crosswind, aim into it and let it bring the ball back.
• Stay out of the rough before a long carry over water: it costs a fifth of your distance.
• On the green, read the uphill or downhill inches and let go right at the flag.