Golfie

• Designer: Jimmy Dorion 
• Publisher: Unigoat
• Players: 1-8
• Age: 8+
• Time: 25 minutes
• Played with review copy provided by publisher

Welcome to the course! In this golf-inspired board game, each player must take action on the 9 cards on his or her course in order to score as few points as possible. For a 9-hole, the game is played in 28 actions. Each action is determined by the 28 shuffled action cards.

May the best golfer win! 

Take a score card and write each player’s name on a line. Shuffle the Action deck and put it aside, and then place the Final Hole card at the bottom of the deck.  Then shuffle the Field cards and deal each player 9 cards, which are arranged in a face down 3×3 array.  Each player then chooses to reveal one card in the top row and one card in the bottom row to start the game.  Additionally, each player gets a character card which shows their special icon.

In each turn, the top card of the Action pile is revealed, and then each player resolves the action shown.

• Hole – each player scores one card from their top row (can be face up or face down).  Discard that card, shift the cards below up, and then refill from the deck.
• Zone to play (a ball on a tee) – Reveal or Move the card in the position shown.  If you player icon is on the card, you can target either zone.
• Double zone – Move or reveal on both designated areas
• Golf cart – Reveal or Move any card

Check to see if you have formed a combo (a row or column of 3 cards of the same rank) or if a Lost Ball card has been revealed.  If either has happened, discard those cards, make a mark on the score sheet in the appropriate area, and then shift all cards up and re-deal cards to the bottom of the array.

After the Final hole card is shown, you will have completed 9 holes. You then shuffle the entire Action card again (with the Final Hole card being totally randomized to the deck) and continue playing.  The game ends immediately when the Final Hole card is again revealed – thus it is rare that you will finish all 18 holes.

Whenever the game ends, tally up the scores.  Players sum their strokes for each hole.  Each combo created is worth -2 strokes while each Lost Ball is worth +1 stroke.  The player with the fewest strokes wins the game.

My thoughts on the game

Golfie is a riff on the traditional card game of Golf.  Here, it’s pretty much simultaneous solitaire as there isn’t anything that players can do to each other (well, other than laugh at their misfortune when luck goes against them).  

There aren’t too many actions in the game, but man, it would have been nice for the cards themselves to have words/icons on them to show what is supposed to happen. 

There is definitely a bit of randomness to the game.  First, if you get a disproportionate number of the twelve Lost ball cards in the deck, well, there’s not a lot you can do about it.  You should have just drawn random Field cards better.  Also, if you haven’t had a chance to reveal a lot of cards and you get a bunch of Hole cards in a row – well then just have the best luck at flipping up face down cards that you’ve had zero chance to see to that point. Again, drawing the lowest numbered cards at random from the deck is the best strategy here.

If you are very unlucky and draw a bunch of 5s and 6s, you can try to get them into combos in order to remove them from your play area – otherwise, they will inevitably move to the top of your grid and you’ll have to score them at some point.

This is a fine filler game, and it has the advantage of playing up to as many as 8 players – this is a nice range to accomodate.  The game moves quickly, and it will make a nice stopgap when you’re in between games or waiting for the rest of the group to show up to game night.

Ratings from the Opinionated Gamers

• I love it!
• I like it.
• Neutral. Dale Y
• Not for me…