If you’ve ever played Wii sports you’ve had one of two experiences.
- You were a natural and you scored under par on every hole, dominating your competition.
- You played the worst round of golf of your life and nearly took out your competition with a flung Wii remote.
Either way, what you’re looking for is consistency.
Consistency can be pretty hard to achieve in a game where your club is virtual, has little weight, and making a full swing will always result in an overpowered shot.
If you’re looking to impress your family at the next family gathering, or just looking for a way to keep playing golf without having to trudge out in the snow, then keep reading as we get into how you can improve your game in Wii sports golf.
As long as you’re not planning on speed-running Wii sports golf, we’ve got the guide for you!
Let’s get started!
Wii Sports Golf Explained
The basics
Firstly, just in case you were unaware, Wii Sports Golf isn’t a standalone game, it’s a playable sport in the game Wii Sports that came with every Nintendo Wii when they were first released in 2006.
So if you’re looking to buy ‘Wii Sports golf’ you might not have much luck.
Secondly, you can’t play a full 18-holes on Wii Sports Golf, and there are only 9 playable holes.
While this might seem restrictive at first, you’ll soon learn that the fewer holes means the more practice and optimising you can get in on the standard 9.
The courses are split into 3 stages of beginner, intermediate, and expert, with a choice to play them separately or in one long game.
If you’re looking to kill some time and play golf indoors, play all 9. If you want to practice and beat all your friends next time you have a game night, take it stage by stage until you can confidently conquer them all.
Thirdly, you don’t have access to all your clubs.
You step out onto the fairway with a Driver, an Iron, a Wedge, and a Putter.
You’ll find that this is actually plenty for the courses you come up against, and that the clubs have many different uses, but more on that later.
And Finally, don’t expect anything simple.
Some courses are more straightforward than others, but expect playing from island to island in the middle of the sea, over a raging river, or doglegs with hidden fairways through the trees.
This game is far more about getting lucky than shot shaping, although that will come into it later if you’re hoping to win at Wii sports golf every time you play.
Planning a shot
While we can advise you on how to play your best, we can’t take the shot for you.
Luckily, it’s very easy to have a few practice swings on Wii sports golf, and perhaps even more useful than when playing real golf.
As you step up to the tee, or the tv, you’ll notice a small bar at the left side of your Mii, or your little golfer.
This bar tells you how powerful your swing is, and is very important if you want to play well.
There are 3 dots on the bar to show you your power level. These dots also correlate to the angle and direction of your shot, shown on the mini-map to the right of your golfer.
You can use this mini-map to plan how powerful you want your shot to be.
For example, if you want to get around a dogleg but don’t want to hit too far so that you end up in the rough, look for where the point you are aiming for sits on the mini-map scale, and apply this to your swing power.
The problem with this is getting your swing power exactly correct is definitely the hardest thing you can do in Wii sports golf.
This will however be an essential skill if you’re to shape your shots correctly.
Laying up is the key to success in this game. The courses have been designed so that the best you can hit on the majority of holes is an albatross, and hole in ones are incredibly unlikely, if not impossible.
The Rough isn’t just rough
Playing out of the rough might be your special skill in the real world, but don’t expect to play anything too interesting out of the rough in this game.
Not only does hitting into some sections of the rough immediately disqualify your shot and send you back to where you just played from, but it also reduces the possible power of your shot when you’ve landed in the playable rough.
What this means is that your power bar will be halved or cut down by a section, making a hooked or pushed shot even more likely and difficult to avoid.
If you do find yourself in the rough, there are a few things you can do.
Firstly, you can play your shot as if you are playing out of the fairway.
There’s a chance you’ll suffer the consequences, but most of the time there’s not a lot of difference. You might still be able to reach the green without an added recovery shot.
Secondly, you can account for your mistake and make a recovery shot.
It might cause you to miss out on the win if your competitors, but it might also save you another recovery shot down the line.
It’s also important to bear in mind that the ball doesn’t really run in wii sports golf, meaning that it won’t roll very far down the fairway once it’s landed.
It therefore definitely will not run if you land in the rough, so avoid at all costs.
Use all the information given to you
You get given a lot of information as you step up to the tee in Wii sports golf.
You get a detailed and accurate depiction of your swing strength, a mini map that shows you the course you are playing on with a to scale distance meter, the wind speed and direction, and when putting you get a topographical view of the green.
It would just be shooting yourself in the foot to ignore all of this information.
If you’ve got 12mph winds coming in from the west, play into it!
Our special tip is to ever so slightly overcompensate. You’d be surprised how much the ball curves in the air under strong winds.
The same goes for for the topography of the green, your ball will follow the curves more than you think, and you’re not able to plumb bob or use aimpoint to make sure you’ve got it exact.
Gap your clubs
For every shot you make, your player will automatically be holding the club that the game has decided is the most appropriate for this shot.
While it’s mostly accurate, it’s not always the best club you could be using.
For example, it’s actually easier to chip in from the apron with the driver.
Don’t ask me why, it just is. Try it out, it does take a bit of practice.
Similarly, you might find that you can use your iron to hit a half power shot that your wedge requires full power for, which could result in a hook.
Or maybe you find it easier to hit a shot with full power than you do a half power shot, in which case use your wedge!
There are plenty of different approaches you can take to any hole, just make sure you cycle through your clubs before taking a shot to make sure you’re not missing out on a tactic that could set you up better than the club you’re using!
Be Bold
The most important technique we can suggest you use in Wii sports golf is taking risks.
This isn’t real golf! The stakes are far lower! It’s far more worth your time going for a shot you’re not sure you can make in the virtual world than it is in the real world!
So what if you hit a triple bogey, you can just go to the main menu and start again!
It’s much easier to practice at Wii sports golf than it is real golf, so you can get through plenty of games in a fraction of the time it would take to play a real game.
Play tactically, go for broke, try and chip the ball in rather than getting close. It’s far more worth it, and you’ll probably enjoy playing far more if you’re innovative with your play.
So, that’s our guide to Wii sports golf and how you can ensure you win every time you play!
More than anything, this game is about having fun, as is only really a nice distraction for when you wish you could get out and play in the real world but perhaps the weather is too bad.
Play it with your family, play it by yourself, but don’t take it too seriously. We’ve all heard the horror stories of the Wii remotes flying through the tv screen.
