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The first swing you take at any hole is crucial to how you’ll play the rest of that hole. Driving the ball is your chance to make one big swing and put it as close as possible. A solid drive will help make the rest of your swings a little easier, provided that you keep the ball in the fairway.
When you pull the stick back to swing your club, you can rapidly press the X button to increase power. You’ll see a red circle form within the icon of the ball on the lower left corner of your screen. If you hit the X button fast enough and then quickly make your swing, you can add as much as a 20% power boost to your shot. Be careful when using the boost, because you don’t always need that extra power just to stay on the fairway, especially if the hole is not a straight shot. On the longer holes, learning how to best use the boost will save you a stroke or two.
In this game, heavy winds affect your drive more than anything else. This is because the ball stays in the air longer and goes farther when driving, so more airtime means more push from winds. When you drive, the game presents you with a large circle around your target area. This circle represents the relative area where the ball will land if you hit it perfectly. What I figured out is that if the winds are blowing from either side for more than five miles per hour, then you need to move that targeting circle over to one side in a distance equal to half of the circle’s width. If the wind is behind you then it will help carry the ball farther, so make sure you line up the shot to avoid going into the rough. The same applies if you are hitting into the wind.
Rain doesn’t seem to bother your drive too much as far as when the ball is in the air, but it will prevent the ball from rolling quite as far once it gets on the ground.
