Worth buying the full course suite when purchasing Links 2003?

[Fore!play]

Hi, new member to the forum and brand new to Links 2003. Seems like a great community here; glad I’ve found it!

I’m planning to purchase Links 2003 from Links Country Club, and I’m wondering whether it’s worth it to purchase the full set of courses also (the game itself is $6.99; the game and all 47 courses is $14.95 total). Are there essentially better/updated versions of most of the official 47 courses freely available? Any feedback is greatly appreciated! Thanks!

[AJ Allen]

For the sake of only a few extra $$ I would grab them. They are MS courses, which means they are locked, so nobody can edit and re-release them. There are heaps of other great courses available for free, but those ones aren't, as far as I know.

Cheers, AJ

[JimEvers37]

For just a few extra bucks I would recommend purchasing them. As you'll find out soon, you can't have too many courses to play. Some of the MS courses may have been made by a designer and posted here, but not all of them have.

Welcome to the game and the forum, as you've seen here if you have any issues or questions they've probably been addressed here or create a new post and somebody can usually help with the problem.

Jim

[Fore!play]

Thanks for the prompt feedback, AJ & Jim! I just wasn't sure whether those official courses had become obsolete by updated designs from members of the community. I found the "master" list of Links courses elsewhere in the forum; some of the courses in the MS official course package that I cross-referenced to the master list seem to have newer versions designed by the community. One such course, for example, is Kapalua Plantation, for which there are 2 updated versions (2007 & 2009) by Andrew Jones.

In any case, it's short money for the 47 courses, so I will follow your advice and purchase them!

Thanks for the warm welcome, Jim. I've been educating myself a bit by reading through the forums, so I think I have a pretty good idea of what I'm getting into. I downloaded the Links 2003 demo, which didn't work well for me on my 5-year-old Intel integrated graphics laptop, until I discovered the dgVoodoo fix, so I'm optimistic that the full game will run ok using the same fix. That said, I'm expecting I may encounter some hiccups... If I do, hopefully all you veterans will be able to help me out!

Thanks,
-Erik

[MarkBhoy]

Thanks for the prompt feedback, AJ & Jim! I just wasn't sure whether those official courses had become obsolete by updated designs from members of the community. I found the "master" list of Links courses elsewhere in the forum; some of the courses in the MS official course package that I cross-referenced to the master list seem to have newer versions designed by the community. One such course, for example, is Kapalua Plantation, for which there are 2 updated versions (2007 & 2009) by Andrew Jones.

In any case, it's short money for the 47 courses, so I will follow your advice and purchase them!

Thanks for the warm welcome, Jim. I've been educating myself a bit by reading through the forums, so I think I have a pretty good idea of what I'm getting into. I downloaded the Links 2003 demo, which didn't work well for me on my 5-year-old Intel integrated graphics laptop, until I discovered the dgVoodoo fix, so I'm optimistic that the full game will run ok using the same fix. That said, I'm expecting I may encounter some hiccups... If I do, hopefully all you veterans will be able to help me out!

Thanks,
-Erik

Was the game supplied as a digital download? Am just wondering before committing to purchasing.

[pmgolf]

I don't know how to answer that. Of course it's digital, but you download actual installation files that you keep and store on your computer for reinstallations. They are not .iSO type files however.

Pete

[MarkBhoy]

Thanks for the advice Pete, am going to try and see if I can get the demo working first before I go full on with the actual game plus all those courses. Had so much fun many moons ago with this game.

[MarkBhoy]

Demo worked great after making sure it wasn't in Program Files directory so having the full game installed as we speak.

This was always the best golf game ever for the PC as far as I was; and still am, concerned.

[pmgolf]

Mark, you realize that the game costs less than a 6-pack of beer, don't you? And instead of buying any courses you can download literally hundreds of courses for free that are w-a-a-y better than any of those older courses. I'm not a rich man, but I'd pay $7.50 to watch a monkey set up an email account!

Pete

[MarkBhoy]

Yep mate, bought it and ready to rock those fairways again.