Sports Story Beginners Guide Tips and Tricks – How to Golf

If you’re playing through Sports Story, odds are good you’ve played its predecessor, Golf Story. If you have played that game, the golf mechanics of Sports Story will feel familiar. If you haven’t played that game, though, or it’s just been a while, you might want to brush up a bit before you attempt to become master of all sports. Here’s a beginner’s guide for Sports Story, including how to golf.

Sports Story Beginners Guide Tips and Tricks – How to Golf

General play in Sports Story is divided between two modes, which I’ve named “play mode” and “explore mode.” When you’re not playing any kind of sport in Sports Story, you’ll be in explore mode. In this mode, you can walk around freely to talk to NPCs and solve puzzles. You can hold B to run instead of walk, and after you get your first golf club, you can press Y to set up a tee anywhere. You have unlimited regular golf balls, so feel free to tee and shoot as much as you want. You can also just chuck golf balls by hand with X if you want to annoy people.

Related: Where to Find the Britannia Cricket Team in Sports Story

Important NPCs have icons over their head indicating what they can do for you.

• Crossed Arrows: They have a challenge for you to complete for Punch Cards and rewards
• Checkered Flag: Talk to them to accomplish a goal
• Horizontal Arrows: They want to trade something with you
• VS Sign: They want to play you in a sport

Remember to thoroughly explore exploration areas for free balls, money, and other helpful items. You should also visit shops whenever you can to buy new gear and golf clubs.

Playing Golf

Speaking of golf, let’s get to the meat and potatoes here. Sports Story’s golf mechanics play a role in every other sport you play, so you’d do well to know them in and out.

When you’re playing golf in play mode, you could either be completing a challenge or playing an actual round of golf. In the latter case, your goal is, as always, to get the ball in the hole in as few strokes as possible to get the lowest score.

When you’re teed up, use the left stick to control your shot; left and right changes the direction, while up and down control the estimated distance. Your estimated distance is indicated by the left pip on the power meter. You can also use the right stick to put a little English on your shot, good for curving it around obstacles. When you’ve got your shot lined up, press A to switch to Tee View, and press it again to start your windup. Press A to stop the red pip at your estimated distance, then again on the right shadow to set the angle. Ideally, you want to stop it at the distance you set, then right in the middle of the shadow for a neat shot. Make sure you have your shot lined up before you start the windup, because once it starts, you can’t back out.

As you move the ball closer to the hole, you’ll need to switch up the clubs you use. Clubs come in four categories:

• Drivers and Woods: Drivers are for your initial long-distance shot, while the Woods are for additional long shots.
• Irons: Workhorse mid-range clubs for most basic shots.
• Wedges: Special clubs for knocking the ball out of rough terrain or sand traps.
• Putters: For sinking the ball in the hole on the green.

You can switch which club you’re using by pressing up and down on the D-pad, with your estimated shot distance changing accordingly. Remember that some clubs don’t work as well on certain kinds of terrain, which will be reflected in your shot distance estimate.

There are a couple of UI elements you should be mindful of. Firstly, on the bottom-left, above your selected club, is the power meter. As you take shots, the meter fills up, gradually adding lightning bolts. For one lightning bolt, you can activate your club’s special ability prior to taking a shot by pressing X. Different clubs have different abilities, such as increased shot distance and faster recovery, so try them out for yourself.

Second, and perhaps more important than anything else, is the weather compass on the top-right. This compass shows the direction the wind is blowing, while the number indicates how hard it’s blowing. Even weak gusts of wind can throw your ball’s trajectory off, so remember to factor the wind in when lining up your shots. Always check the wind, even in spots you wouldn’t think there’d be any like in a cave. Trust me, it’s there.

Finally, one new element for this game is unique balls. You can swap between different types of golf balls by pressing left and right on the D-pad. Each ball provides unique effects to your shot, though, unlike your regular balls, you have a limited number of special balls. The game will teach you about these as you go.

If you ever need to practice your golfing skills, you can start up a Free Golf session from the file selection screen on the game’s title menu. You can also play with up to three friends locally!

Once you’ve got your golfing basics nailed down in Sports Story, go check out our guides for leveling up your Sport License and getting juice for Coach. Go visit our Facebook page, too!