hit the ball in the hole within par. all environmental stuff affects your play, so specifically you have to pay attention to:
- wind (upper right - the speed and direction really do matter, but also how you hit the ball causes it to be more or less affected by the wind)
- weather (rain only, causes all drives / putts / etc to be underpowered to a random degree)
- elevation (i.e. if the green is 10 feet below your golfer, you have to not aim for the flag on the hit meter but rather just below it. the flag on the meter is ALWAYS relative to your position without environment taken in to consideration)
- lie (the lie of the ball where you're hitting from will often have a slope that you have to counter with the direction you hit and the lie of the course you hit it too matters in terms of slope - the more brutal courses they almost always slope towards sand traps or pits so you have to try to get the ball either slow down or roll to a flat area on drives)
putting is the most susceptible to the slope of the course and rain and it just takes practice to know how far to the left/right to adjust based on the 'speed' of the slope.
spin is important and a little confusing. basically this is it:
- back spin = hold down while hitting (distance and impact) + getting 'good' impact (in the pink with the default meter) = slows the roll of the ball
- super back spin = hold forward while hitting distance, hold back while hitting impact + getting 'perfect' impact (in the white with the default meter) = slows the roll considerably, can cause the ball to actually roll backwards after landing (based on spin skill). if it hits the pin it can cause a special shot ('homing shot') to magically sink the ball in the hole. homing shot randomly misses which is weird.
- forward spin = hold forward while hitting (distance and impact) + 'good' impact = causes the ball to roll farther
- super forward spin = hold back while hitting distance, hold forward while hitting impact + 'perfect' impact = lots of forward roll, can cause a 'rising shot' if it hits the pin
- side spin = hold a direction left or right to hook the ball left or right + 'good' impact
- super side spin = hold opposite direction of the way you want to hook while hitting distance, hold direction you want to hook while hitting impact + 'perfect' impact = really wide hook, also can cause a 'spiral shot' if it hits the pin which is hard as shit to hit
I almost always use forward spin on drives unless I need to avoid a hazard and back spins/hooks on every shot to the hole after that depending on the situation.
different golfers have different strengths, just experiment. if you're willing to part with the money, the level 5 big air / pin hole clubs and balls on psn as dlc makes it easier to do what you want starting out.
There's no harm in turning on easy difficulty. There is a pretty massive difficulty uptick in I think challenge set 4 and beyond and getting crowns on each challenge will make you want to throw your vita sometimes but I love this game.