Are you stuck in the northern climes, glued to the tube watching Tiger win one tournament after another on sun-drenched southern courses? Before you snap and find yourself sneaking onto your closed local course garbed in seven layers of sweaters and hip boots, consider investing in the world's best golf simulator, by Full Swing Golf.
I use the word 'invest' because this system will set you back $40-50,000, about the cost of a weekend at Pebble Beach.

But your money will bring you as close to the real course as you'll find in the virtual world. Full Swing Golf includes a enclosure with a hi-def projector, 680 infra-red ball tracking sensors and a touch screen game controller to register the distance and direction of your ball strike. Different surfaces are available to simulate the tee boxes, bent grass fairways, and rough (not the knee-length gorse of the U.S. Open, though; reasonable rough.) Players can choose among 50 championship courses that have been digitized in exacting detail.

The entire system can be internet-connected to allow you to play against other live opponents and compete in on-line tournaments. Practice features allow you to record and work on the weak parts of your game ( in my case, that would be everything).

The system still doesn't quite capture the full flavor of a round of golf, though. For that, they'd need to include a foursome of glacial-paced golfers preceding you that refuse tot wave you through, a sprinkler that decides to start halfway through your back swing, a swarm of mosquitoes in the tee box, and blisters that appear on your heels halfway through your first round wearing your new $300 shoes.

Come to think of it, this game may be better than real golf. Especially if my wife would put on a bikini and bring me a beer every few holes.