You're the Best Around (almost)

I love the movie Searching for Bobby Fischer. There is a terrific and rare understated child performance by Max Pomeranc, a wonderful supporting cast with Ben Kingsley, Joan Allen, Joe Mantegna and Laurence Fishburne. There's a scene where Laura Linney, the chess prodigy's school teacher, speaks to the father regarding the travel to chess tournaments that the boy has taken, how the class hears about hotels in Washington, D.C. or Philadelphia but not about the monuments or sites. The dad, upset with what he perceives to be the slight, tries to describe his son's talent and how the boy is better at chess than he is at anything in his life, better than the teacher will be at anything, ever in her life. Oh to be the best.

It was no secret. The reason why I wanted the Vita was for Hot Shots Golf. It was a series that I had spent endless hours with on PS2 and PSP through various iterations. In fact, since Golf was released for the NES, I have trained in the art of the three-button-push golf sim. And while there may be more bells and whistles of super spin, more colorful and detailed graphics, even more colorful and often grossly caricatured "ethnic" characters, the object and execution has largely remained the same.

But what Hot Shots Golf: World Invitational offered, at least what I had hoped, was the chance to measure up against the best. Sure, there is a certain level of dedication to unlock the courses, characters, costumes, clubs, crowns, but live competition -- sign me up! Into the fray I ventured. Live lobbies and tournaments complete with text chat, daily online tournaments, and of course, leaderboards. Friend filters, percentile rankings. All of a sudden, there was an accessible, competitive online community. And most important, I found that it was one I could even have an occasional amount of success.

Odd that despite the bit of FPS fatigue I have, I turn daily to the same routine of firing up my daily HSG tourney. And while I have some 800 official rounds in, the competitive stakes remain high. Certainly the community is smaller than it was in the past. In fact, the DLC may have actually had the reverse effect of expanding the player pool by excluding those who have not downloaded the three new courses. Typically, a weekly tournament will contain a thousand or so entrants. The people still playing are the really hardcore; average scores for 9-hole rounds often sit at -5 for better. It takes something special to crack the Top 100 for a day, let alone an entire six-day tournament.

But there have been the occasions where I've found that something special. A miracle pin seeker, making all the putts I should and maybe some that I shouldn't, maintaining the birdie or better pace with a chip-in after missing the green in regulation. And that's why I still play.

I understand that 132/48790 is more a testament to volume than quality and I know that my PS name is not recognizable like a MrPinhigh69 or miamiheatowns, but when I play HSG, I feel more like the SR133 than the SR57 guy, and it's pretty cool.

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