Golf. It's a - sporting cliché alert - good walk spoiled. Or, in the case of computer golf, a good sit down spoiled. However, Real World Golf 2007 comes with its own peripheral club which allows you to stand up and hit the ball for real. Well, virtually.

The Real World Golf plastic golf club looks like it's been designed with leprechauns in mind, being only a foot long. As well as this, there's a sturdy black base unit which sits on the floor and plugs into a USB port. Two gloves, which the player wears, are attached to this unit by thin wires. These extend and retract as you move your hands, and have the added bonus of making you feel like an upside-down Thunderbirds puppet.

The movement of the gloves is tracked by sensors in the base unit, so when you swing the club over the top of the unit, your shot is worked out and the results displayed on screen. Despite the fact that your driver is effectively only a foot-long handle, you can easily imagine where the rest of a full length club would be, and it genuinely feels like you're whacking a golf ball for real.

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This was quite a pleasant surprise for us, as we were fully expecting Real World Golf to fall into the "nice idea but..." gimmick games category. It certainly doesn't; from a meaty, well struck drive to a delicate green-side chip, the feel of playing various different golf strokes is well captured. It's even possible to fade or hook shots just as you would in real life.

A full section of introductory videos and exercises are provided, with instructions on how to grip the club and swing properly for novices. There's also a clever swing trainer tool, which maps the path of your swing onto an ideal line graph. This shows you where you're going wrong, so you can adjust your action appropriately, bringing improvements that will hopefully show in your real world golfing, too.

Lest we get carried away here, Real World Golf isn't a perfect simulation of golf. It's impressive on the fairway, although still considerably easier to hit more powerful and accurate drives than in real life. However, around the green matters become more unhinged. When chipping, the ball flies too far too easily, and conversely, when putting, you have to really clobber the ball several times harder than you would in reality.

It helps to imagine that the green is waterlogged, or indeed coated with treacle. It's strange that this made it past testing, as it seems quite plainly wrong. Having said that, you do acclimatise to the levels of power needed after a few rounds. Speaking of wet greens, there are no conditions to worry about save the wind, and no bad lies to fret over either (though your ball will occasionally be declared unplayable).

However, despite relenting on the realism front in certain areas, Real World Golf provides a solid and entertaining golfing experience. The fact that it's easier to get to grips with than real golf makes it more accessible to beginners, while seasoned golfers will still be challenged to get those perfect scores on the game's large variety of tournaments and courses. There are fifteen diverse courses in total (including the Belfry) and a vast swathe of unlockables such as arcade style mini-games.

Real World Golf also has a multi-player mode, although having to continually swap the gloves between turns becomes a bit tiresome. You can buy an extra set of gloves, and to be honest that's probably a wise move if you're intending to engage in a lot of competitive play with your mates.

A further weakness is the graphics, which can be described as average at best, but they do the job and visuals really aren't the point here. At forty quid, the game isn't much more expensive than most, and is good value for money when you consider it comes with a quality motion-sensing peripheral that turns your bedroom into a virtual fairway.

As a golfing simulation this is surprisingly good, although it's much easier going than the real thing and its accuracy goes astray around the green. Even so, the peripheral works well and it's great fun to actually whack the ball for "real" rather than pushing your mouse around the desk. There are plenty of courses, tournaments and unlockables to keep you entertained, too.