spglasser: I try to approach it from the standpoint of is I was new to the game and this is what i was presented with. In other words had no comparison to know what it lacks
Everyone's experience is valid and their own, and people's mileage may vary but I agree with this attitude and find it a positive way to approach playing the new version.
It's part of the human condition that we often consider something that replaces a loved thing in our lives to be inferior, whereas I do try to come at the new version from the standpoint that it is not necessarily better or worse, just different.
How would it be if this was the only version of the game we'd ever known and then it was replaced by a 'new' flash version? I would expect howls of protest in the forums from people complaining that the avatar is tiny and swings in an unrealistic manner, the ball is hard to see, the screen resolution is cut off at only 4:3 ratio, the meter is much more unstable, the putts break differently....and so on. All those differences would seem like backward steps to many because they were unfamiliar.
But like I said, everyone's experience is different.
Nigel.