It was really hot in Los Angeles today. It got up to 106 degrees where I live. In other words, the perfect time to sit in the air conditioning and get in a little golf. 36 holes, to be exact. I won four different tournaments, earning tickets that give me new hats. The more hats I win, the more likely I am to keep the ball on the fairway. Logical? Who cares? I have a fairway hits stat of 95.2%.

I also won a commemorative biker outfit. It's a tight leather affair that you'd think would be uncomfortable during golf, but sometimes style trumps everything else. I wear it with a red beret. I'm dressed to strut down a Paris runway. The gratuitous cleavage is a little disturbing, considering that I'm a 10-year-old girl.

This is Hot Shots Golf: Open Tee 2, the sequel to the PSP's infamously addictive golf RPG. Yeah, you read that right: golf RPG. It's a whole genre, ranging from Mario Golf for the Gameboy to Super Swing Golf adapted for the Wii (a port of a Korean online micropayment game called PangYa). These games combine RPG stats, costumes, and the simple triple-click golf interface long abandoned by "serious" golf games with celebrities adorning the box covers.

Hot Shots Golf presents you with dilemmas such as: Will you level up the tomboy with the weak drive but wide impact zone, or the gentle princess who's very precise but winces at the thought of a filthy sandtrap (those descriptions, by the way, are straight out of the game)? Are you going for more hats, or do you need accessories to perfect your fancy spin? And should you use a 1 wood to get past the tree at that elbow or maybe hit short with an iron and then cut across the rough? It's a game of loyalty, unlocks, accessorizing, and the occasional wild slice. But most of all, it gets the unique combination of serenity and supreme frustration that is golf. Who cares if it's cutesy?

The main problem is that there's very little to set this sequel apart from the previous Hot Shots Golf. I could pretty much get the same experience, minus a few of the specifics, by digging up my original disc and popping it into my PSP. This is just a collection of new costumes, characters, and courses. I have no idea what else could been added, but it's not my job to think up that stuff. I just complain about it.

The highlight of my day was on the 16th hole of the South Alps Country Club. I got a hole in one. It was pretty amazing. I broke out a pair of pom-poms and did a cartwheel, landing neatly on one leg and one knee, with my arms flung out. A cloud of confetti spontaneously erupted around me. Meanwhile, in the game, my character gave a cute little cheer. Hot Shots Golf set up a little sign right by the green to commemorate my hole-in-one. Now every time I play the 16th hole on South Alps, I'm reminded how awesome I am.