Links 2001 is the most significant upgrade to the Links series in over a decade. This version of the best-selling golf sim will feature an entirely new rendering engine that delivers unprecedented ball physics and graphics, and the addition of the Arnold Palmer Course Designer, which allows PC golfers to re-create their home courses with the same tools used by the Links 2001 team.

Features:

New Engine and Graphics: Links 2001 has an entirely new rendering engine with a terrain surface that includes cliffs, arches and bunker overhangs. The ball physics also have been tuned to perfection. Trees, panoramas and golfers are now anti-aliased for seamless transitions between on-screen elements. Images have a new higher resolution (1280x1024), and the courses come alive with flying birds and falling leaves.

Arnold Palmer Course Designer: PC golfers can now re-create their home courses with the same tools used by the Links 2001 team. Links 2001 features the long-awaited Arnold Palmer Course Designer (APCD). More than a toy for entry-level builders, the APCD provides users with the power and versatility to accurately re-create their home course in a powerful real-time 3-D system. Players can tweak every inch of fairway with the APCA and create tunnels and arches with full control over each point on the course. A robust library of trees, shrubs and other vegetation allows players to sort for the climate and season that fit their home course, or they can import their own custom trees.

The Virtual Golf Association Tour: The VGA Tour allows Links PC golfers to compete in the largest golfing event on the Internet. The VGA Tour challenges the world's professional tours with the competition, courses, sponsors and prizes that used to be exclusive to touring pros. PC golf gamers compete in a series of monthly multiplayer golf tournaments that map to the real-world's best golf events for a chance to win $100,000.

New Tour Players and Courses: Arnold Palmer is joined in Links 2001 by Sergio Garcia and one other touring pro (to be announced). Links 2001 featured courses include Aviara in San Diego, Chateau Whistler in the Canadian Rockies, The Prince Course at the Princeville Resort in Kauai, Fred Couples' Westfield Course in Clifton, Va., and the newly created Mesa Roja located in the canyon lands of the southwestern United States. Perennial favorite St. Andrews Old Course has also been enhanced for this version.

New Golfer Animations: Fourteen amazing new golfer animations are captured at the highest resolution possible. New tour players and a variety of other golfers are built with lifelike, pre-shot motions including waggle, aiming and pre-shot fidgeting. Each new golfer has a unique personality and will comment on players' games as if you were out golfing with buddies.

Faster Easier Online Play: If players normally hit a seven iron 130 yards, they can adjust the club's distance to reflect their real game. This feature, combined with dozens of variables that impact the physics of their shot, makes Microsoft's Links 2001 an even more accurate simulation of a player's actual game.