PGA2000 -The Bad News and the Good News1 and the Good News2.

[SteveHorn]

Dave! You can very easily change the type of shot you want to hit. The hot keys as Adam already indicated. B=blast, C= Chip or at the top of the screen under action both chip and blast are avalible. Also as I said in an earlier post somewhere clicking on the shoes at the bottom of the screen gives you the punch shot, flop shot, fade, draw, straight and 2 custom settings. Just make sure your club is set to a standard shot before clicking on one of these options for desired results. ALL SHOTS TAKE PRACTICE AS IN REAL LIFE.

[stillgolfing]

Thanks to all who replied. Much appreciated. I will persevere and hopefully overcome. I'm going to copy all the suggestions posted to my own PGA2000 helpfile and work my way through them.
Judy:
You were right to call me out. I was getting snippy due to frustration. Please accept my apology. If it wasn't for you help initially (via PMs and Forum postings), I wouldn't still be here. I wasn't being facetious when I stated that my Links game improved, it really did and surely from anyone's point of view that's a good thing. Now I have to keep trying to play PGA2000 to score well on Links2003!
Cheers, Dave

[tincup]

Dave,
I am not a tri-clicker, but several of the guys I play against regularly are and they are almost unbeatable.

One of the best tri-clickers in the game is The Magician. I asked him about the scale speed and whether there was some trick for slowing it down. He said no... that the scale speed is geared to the level of player you selected (basic, standard, or advanced). So I guess the only way to get a slower scale is to back off to a lower skill level player. But then other things change too... like yardages on clubs.

He could not offer any solutions other than lots of practice to get used to the scale speed.

Dar

[Indy Anna Jones]

I just created another player and put her on basic... OMG is it slow! I didn't notice much difference in length but I did notice that the ball didn't move and the wind didn't affect it. I don't know if that's the route to try until you get used to it or if that might not impede your learning curve even more when you try to step up.

Re Links, as I said before I love the looks of the game and I can share your frustration vis a vis 2K in not being able to play it well. I guess the main difference I found between the two is that PGA is so much more forgiving of mishits (misclicks?) than Links. I've gotten pretty close to the yellow part of the swingbar (on the lower side) on a 2-footer/vd greens without a lipout; with Links it was a definite lip out. Possibly it was easier for me to follow a horizontal bar than a circle also, since I played Nicklaus for so long.

I think I suggested Coyote Bluff to you before; I'm also going to recommend Aspiration Valley as a good but fairly easy beginner course. There's enough variation for shot interest, but the greens aren't difficult (CB is very easy.) The stock Couer d'Alene is also a pretty good starter type course with regular green speed.

[stillgolfing]

Judy;
Possibly the fact that one bar is horizontal and the speed is linear, and the other is vertical, rotational and incrimentally faster does create problems for some. That's why I and (checking back through old Links posts) many other Links players have struggled with the PGA2000 clickmeter through the years. For instance putting has always been considered too easy in Links, so the group that manage the program (they had aquired the basic game code at some point), eventually created a Mod, ( 1.06) to introduce faster green speeds. Initially you had to choose to boot up the mod1.06 game or the regular game (1.05 at that point in time), but a couple of years ago mod 1.07 was introduced, which incorporated the new faster green speeds into the game as user selectable choices.
Personally, I always felt the normal green speeds for Links were realistic enough and the fast green speed required unrealisticly fast clicking on short puts. In PGA2000, I have no complaints about the linearity of the speed for full shots. I can hit it on the bars most of the time, so my tee to green game is pretty good. As I have said before, I still find that linearity (starts fast stays fast) hard to manage on short shots and putts. Possibly this is a cross gaming code/design PC platform issue, as basically, the complaints of the users who prefer the other game are similar.
Cheers, Dave

[Robert@]

Suggestion..even though I`m not a clicker I have played the click method at onetime...perhaps instead of trying to hit the bar exactly for putting try stopping the meter short of it(easier) which of course will push a putt,but that can be compensated with turning your player more to left,thus giving you basically a straight putt. It works also the other way around by letting the meter go past the mark pulling a putt,just make the stance correction for it.

[Indy Anna Jones]

There's a pretty simple technique for making a straight putt; I think I explained it in the PM I sent.

After you determine and setup for your line, move the pointer arrow 3 clicks to the right, then "miss" your 3rd shot click to the left of the bottom line. The "clicks-miss" counter each other which makes the putt go straight, eliminating the need for the "perfect" third click. Of course you still have to set the putt line correctly, but hey that's the challenge!

[stillgolfing]

There's a pretty simple technique for making a straight putt; I think I explained it in the PM I sent.

After you determine and setup for your line, move the pointer arrow 3 clicks to the right, then "miss" your 3rd shot click to the left of the bottom line. The "clicks-miss" counter each other which makes the putt go straight, eliminating the need for the "perfect" third click. Of course you still have to set the putt line correctly, but hey that's the challenge!

I'm not sure we are on the same page here, as I don't remember saying I had a problem with straight puts per se. I certainly don't ever remember missing a short straight put on those occasions where I was able to click correctly.
To clarify I would say now, with some experience my fastest click click click is good for most puts 4 ft or less. It's just in those situations where I have to let the meter travel a little further (for 5 to 15 ft putts) that I struggle, because now there is an extremely short pause required before the 2nd click (.14 secs for a 10ft putt - a full putt appears to travel 70ft - and the yellow bar takes 1 sec to travel between the black bars for a full backswing and another second to return on the downswing). Consequently, as I mentioned earlier somewhere, I have less trouble with the longer straight putts (25 -70 ft), that's because (now that I know where to make the 2nd click for typical distances) the bar speed is linear and there is more time to make that 2nd click. I will say, as a result of all the great help and feedback, my game is improving and I am excited about downloading and checking out more of the recommended courses.
Cheers, Dave

[Indy Anna Jones]

The method I describe is good for any length of putt Dave. Basically what it does is eliminates the need to hit the bottom line on the nose.

[stillgolfing]

The method I describe is good for any length of putt Dave. Basically what it does is eliminates the need to hit the bottom line on the nose.

Thanks Judy, now I understand. Next practice session I'll give it a try. For now, I'm going to go with what I've got and try out some of the recommended courses, which, I'm willing to bet (based on the few designer courses I've played so far) don't have any flat putts on them anyway.
Cheers, Dave