The first of T&E Soft's original on-location golfing trilogy, followed by Waialae and Pebble Beach. Unlike my trip through the PGA Genesis games, I worked backwards to here, starting with the lone-localized Pebble Beach until I backtracked to Augusta. These are all essentially the same game with the courses being the only differing factor, though of the three, I'd say this one is the least interesting: Augusta's mostly dense forests don't evoke the same beauty of Waialae's open skies or Pebble Beach's rocky coastline. The soundtrack is comprised of a lot of over-complicated melodies that feel like they're trying too hard, and forcing a jazz rhythm through angst rather than a relaxed flow - still good tracks, but lacking the earworm melodies of both later games. On the flipside, Augusta is also a tad easier of a course than later entries, balancing out its more roughly-designed greens with simpler fairways, fewer bunkers and water hazards, and very generous Par 5's. It felt really gratifying to score an honest -4 on my first run through - no save states or trickery involved.

There's one for New 3D Golf Simulation title to go on Genesis, and I'm kind of dreading it lmao. Iykyk