Now you can do it anytime with this super cool iPhone Golf Swing Analyzer app that leverages on the iPhone video capability. Not sure how well it works but check it out at iSwing.

Also check out the Youtube video of the App:

Pretty full featured and functional.

When the Wii version of the game came out, Woods welcomed a controller that players swing like a golf club, but he saw room for improvement. “It was too easy,” he says. “If you rotated the [club] face, nothing happened. Now if you rotate your wrists, it changes your shot. The ball goes to the right if you under-rotate, which is what happens in a golf swing.”

Check out the full write up via: Fast Company

Just a gentle reminder, that Tiger Woods PGA 09 will be out this month. According to Gamespot, it will be launched August 26 in North America, and August 29 in Europe to be exact.

So it looks like us PAL owners will not t have to wait that long for our copy!

I wait with bated breath!

EDIT: Tiger plugs the game in his August newsletter from TigerWoods.com

Later this month, we’re going to launch our new video game: Tiger Woods PGA Tour 09. We’ve made some exciting changes, like the new “true one-to-one golf swing,” that I really think you’re going to like. In fact, the game just recently won the Best Sports Game of E3 2008 for the Wii. ~ Tiger Woods

Get well soon Tiger, we miss you!

play golf, I’m lousy at it, but I play golf. The main reason to why I haven’t really improved, a least I think so, is that I only play 3-5 times a year. The last couple of years I have played to a handicap around 48, which I’m not entirely satisfied with.

But in november 2007 we got a Nintendo Wii at work, so people can play in their lunchbreak and after work. I have played a lot of golf on the Wii, and on the Wii like in real life, I have a really bad slice. So game after game on the Wii, during the winter, I have tried to correct this slice, and I have succeeded. So a little month a go, when I was out playing my first real game of golf this year, to my big surprise, I did in real life as I did on the Wii, and my slice was almost gone. Now I have played a couple of more games, and each time to a handicap around 40 and almost without slicing. With this in mind, I have played a lot of Golf on the Wii for the last week, to prepare for the next game of real golf, which will be on sunday. This time I have focused on controlling my swing speed, to be more persistent. Hopefully It pays off.

Looks like there is evidence that Wii Golf does help your real golf game! Best of luck Bo and let us know how it goes.

Via: Bo Henriksens’s Weblog

That’s the conclusion of a study sponsored by The American Council on Exercise (ACE), which has just announced it’s research findings.

Conducted exclusively by University of Wisconsin, La Crosse Exercise and Health Program, the study, released Tuesday, shows that playing the five Wii games – golf, tennis, baseball, bowling and boxing – will burn anywhere from 3.9 to 10.2 calories per minute.

“While the caloric benefit was rather modest, the take home message from this study, as the researchers indicated, is that playing these games on Wii is better than sitting around,” said Thayne Munce, Ph.D, a professor at University of Illinois at Chicago, Department of Kinesiology and Nutrition.
The study called for eight men and eight women between the ages of 20 to 29 years old to play the Wii games as they would be playing the sports in reality. The participants played the games for 10 minute intervals, and researchers recorded their heart rates and oxygen uptake every minute.

According to the study’s results, boxing burned the most calories, compared to the other games – 216 calories for 30 minutes of play. Wii Boxing is also intense enough to qualify as a way to improve or maintain cardiorespiratory endurance, according to the Indianapolis-based American College of Sports Medicine.

At the low end, 30 minutes of Wii Golf only burns 117 calories.

However, playing a real game of golf or boxing will burn more calories, experts said, and the skills used for playing Wii sports and playing real sports are not necessarily the same.

“While many of the Wii Sports games are fairly realistic, one should not mistake the skill set required to be successful in these games with the real thing,” Munce said. “I don’t think that anyone is going to become an all-star baseball player by skipping practice and playing their Wii.”

On the upside, Wii Sports are a great alternative for people, like senior citizens, who cannot play sports because of physical ailments.

“If we can get these older people to engage in a variety of movement activities, we can help them maintain better joint mobility,” said Cedric X. Bryant, Ph.D., chief science officer at ACE.

Interestingly enough, adults are more frequently the purchasers and players of Wii and its games, according to Chicago video game merchants.

“I don’t see many kids coming in here looking for Wii games,” said Cordero McCalure, an 18-year-old senior game adviser at the GameStop in the South Loop. Since the Wii was released in 2006 – and sold with the Wii Sports game as a package – more adults have purchased it than kids, he said.

Best Buy employees in the South Loop agree that more adults play with the Wii than do kids, but it’s hard to tell if adults are buying it for themselves or for their kids.

Nintendo’s newest Wii gadget, Wii Fit, is specifically targeted to adults as a workout device. And ACE is already researching its potential health benefits.

Even though kids are the stereotypical video game users, it appears that Wii games which promote physical activity are ultimately more popular with adults.

Xbox and Playstation 3 are more popular with kids, according to McCalure, because, “You can sit down and play instead of doing all the movements.”

“Kids don’t want to play the Wii,” he said.

Via: Medill Reports

Nintendo’s upcoming Wii MotionPlus accessory for the revolutionary Wii Remote controller again redefines game control, by more quickly and accurately reflecting motions in a 3-D space. The Wii MotionPlus accessory attaches to the end of the Wii Remote and, combined with the accelerometer and the sensor bar, allows for more comprehensive tracking of a player’s arm position and orientation, providing players with an unmatched level of precision and immersion. Every slight movement players make with their wrist or arm is rendered identically in real time on the screen, providing a true 1:1 response in their game play. The Wii MotionPlus accessory reconfirms Nintendo’s commitment to making games intuitive and accessible for everyone. Nintendo will reveal more details about the Wii MotionPlus accessory and other topics Tuesday morning at its E3 media briefing.

Via: MTV Multiplayer

Check out Motus’ Darwin controller being played with Tiger Woods PGA 08 on XBox.

Looks pretty impressive, check it out and also visit the official Motus site.

Via: Neo Geo

Apparently Custom Play Golf, one of the most realistic golf games on the PC is making their way to the Wii Q1 2009. Called CustomPlay Golf 2009 it will be published by Lexicon.

From the forum we have a little nugget of information from Dean Baker of CPG:

It’s very early days for the Wii version but it will probably use a modified version of the engine and we would want to offer online play for sure.

The deal we have with LiveCaddie means we get courses licenses, Kungsangen came from them and some others will follow.

Check out the rest of the forum discussion thread.

Here is a little more information from Nintendic:

Lexicon is aiming to make the follow-up to CustomPlay Golf 2 the most feature-rich golfing title out there, complete with 15 full-sized championship courses; crazy and mini golf extras, driving ranges, and play mechanics based on realistic physics. There will also be a substantial customisation editor, allow players to create a player and shape it to their heart’s content.

“We are excited to be working with the CustomPlay Golf team as their experience and knowledge in the creation a golf game is exceptional. Lexicon Entertainment believes they can create a new unique benchmark as they truly understand the most important nuances of this great sport and we believe a golf title that will have gamers coming back for more,” said Christopher Allcroft, President of Publishing for Lexicon Entertainment UK Ltd.

“We are pleased to be working with a publisher who shares our vision of creating the best golf game going. Our goal is to create the most realistic golf game and to add as many options and varieties of the game as we can! We also look to work closely with our fanbase to keep improving everything we do and we will continue to strive for perfection. We strongly believe Lexicon to be the perfect partner to help us take our game to a much wider audience,” said Dean Baker, CustomPlay Games Ltd.

Personally, I think for the realism issue the swing mechanics need to be razor sharp. Perhaps with a niche golf focused game, they can get it right, but personally my feeling is the sensitivity (or insensitivity) of the Wii remote hardware is letting us down here.

What every it is, if we can get the licenses of all the courses with gorgeous graphics, and good online play, I’m pretty pleased. Do stay tuned for more Wii-Golfing news here at WiiGolf.net.

Once again a big thanks to Spikel for the heads up!

A fun party golf game, ah, I supposed news worthy, but not likely for those looking to get that Single Handicap on the Wii!

Crazy Mini Golf will have 74 holes in 4 wacky courses to play through and features different game modes including Single Hole, Championship Challenge and the Crazy Golf Tour.

Gameplay will take full advantage of the Wii’s motion controls with two different play modes. Beginners can press the A button when the shot is lined up, then swing their arm golf style and press B just before hitting the ball. For real mini golf fans, there is the sim mode where how you hit the ball and how hard you hit the ball is fully motion controlled.

Via: ThatVideoGameBlog and Wiibite.