Classic golf games oddly in some ways give me a more realistic feeling of being out on the course than the complexity and beautiful graphics of today. It's likely partially due to the simplicity of the inputs that better represent how little control I feel I have over the ball

Agreed, I think half uncanny valley of modern games and half the brain filling in all the details of the old games. Imagination! Also, I think the old devs did far more with far less.