How to play

The daily round

A new course opens at midnight UTC and is the same for everyone that day. It has two par threes, five par fours and two par fives, in a different order each day, so every round is a par 36. Fewest strokes wins.

You get one attempt. Signed in, your round goes on the daily and weekly leaderboards when you finish. Finish without an account and the score stays on your device until you sign in that day, when it is posted for you. A round finished after midnight UTC still counts towards your streak but is too late for that day's leaderboard. A hole is picked up after 10 strokes.

Taking a shot

1. Tap the hole to set your target. The ring shows where a full swing with this club would land in still air.
2. The aim line swings either side of the target. Press Lock aim when it points where you want.
3. The power meter starts. Press Swing to stop it. The shaded band is the sweet spot: stop inside it for a pure strike, which rolls out further.
4. Stop short for a softer shot. Past 100 is an overswing, which loses distance and slices or hooks.
5. Every club hits its own distance. With the pin out of reach the sweet spot sits just under 100. When the pin is within the club's reach it moves to sit just short of a red Pin line, the power that gets the ball there. Stop past the line, or take too much club, and the ball flies over the flag.
6. A wedge from the fairway has a blue spin zone straight after the sweet spot: the ball pitches a little beyond the flag and spins back.
7. There is no putting. A ball that stops on the green finishes the hole: inside the gold ring is one putt, inside the dashed ring two, anywhere else on the green three. The rings are full size for a shot from the fairway and shrink the worse the lie you play from.

The power meter

The meter runs from nothing to 100, a full swing, and on past it. Where you stop it decides how far the ball carries: stop it at 50 and the ball carries about half the club's full distance.

• The sweet spot is the shaded band. A ball struck inside it is a pure strike, which runs out about half as far again once it lands as any other strike.
• The Pin line appears when the pin is within the club's full carry. It marks the power that carries the ball to the flag, and the sweet spot moves to end on it.
• Overswing is anything past 100. The ball loses distance and curves off the line, more the further past you go and more from a poor lie.
• The spin zone is a blue band straight after the sweet spot, shown only for a wedge played from a lie that keeps full spin. A ball stopped there pitches a little past the flag and spins back, about five yards on a green with the lob wedge.

Clubs

You carry nine clubs. Each carries its own distance at a full swing from a clean lie, shown below; the club row in the game shows what each will carry from where your ball lies now. Longer clubs run further once they land, swing the aim line wider and run the meter faster. Wedges stop quickly and can spin back. The driver can only be played from the tee.

Where the ball lies

The lie line under the hole tells you how the ball is sitting before you play. A worse lie keeps less of the club's distance, takes spin off (so the ball runs further when it lands) and swings the aim line wider. Where a ball lands matters too: the same shot runs a long way on a cart path and hardly at all in sand.

Fairway and tee

A clean lie: full power and full spin. The driver can only be played from the tee. A ball landing on the fairway runs out as the club says; on the tee, a little less.

Semi rough

Power 95–99%, spin 93%. The narrow collar beside the fairway and around the green. A ball landing here runs about half as far as on the fairway.

Rough

Power 88–95%, spin 85%. The aim line swings wider and, with less spin, the ball runs on further. A ball landing here soon stops.

Deep rough

Power 70–85%, spin 55%. Further from the fairway, and much harder to play from. A ball landing here barely moves.

Heather

Power 68–82%, spin 50%. The deep rough on a highland course: wiry, purple and a little worse than long grass.

Leaf pile

Power 78–90%, spin 60%. Fallen leaves lying on a forest fairway. A ball landing in them stops almost where it falls, and no wedge spins back out of them.

Bunker

Power 65–80%, spin 70%. No shot from sand carries more than 150 yards, whatever the club. A ball landing in sand stops almost dead.

Cart path

A ball landing on it bounces on and runs further than anywhere else. Power 90–95% when playing off it.

River

Water that crosses some fairways on a slant, so one side is a shorter carry than the other. A ball landing on a bridge is carried on to the far bank; miss the deck and it is wet.

Water

One stroke penalty. The ball is dropped on dry ground near where it went in, no closer to the hole. An island green has a marked drop zone short of the water instead.

Out of bounds

One stroke penalty, then play again from where you hit it.

Trees and gorse

A ball flying low into a canopy drops under it. You can always punch out from beneath one. Gorse on a links is low enough to fly over.

Green

Ends the hole. It runs out more than the fairway. Light ground is high and dark ground is low; chevrons point the way the ball will run. The rings are smaller where the cup sits on a slope.

On the green

There is no putting. As soon as the ball comes to rest on the green the hole is over and the putts it would take are added. On a flat green, inside the gold ring (4 yards from the cup) is one putt, inside the dashed ring (9 yards) is two, and anywhere else on the green is three. A ball that drops into the cup from off the green adds none.

The rings shrink when the cup sits on a slope, and they shrink again the worse the lie your approach was played from, so the fairway is the best place to attack a pin from. The game draws them at the size they will be scored at before you swing.

Wind and gusts

Each hole has its own wind, shown by the arrow and speed at the top of the hole. It pushes the ball the way the arrow points for as long as the ball is in the air. Wind tends to be stronger on later holes, strongest on highland courses and lightest in a forest.

A gust is different: a band of fast air across part of a hole that only acts on a ball flying through it.

Ground conditions

Each day the whole course plays wet, normal or firm, and you are told which as the round starts. A wet course stops the ball close to where it lands; a firm one lets it run further. Conditions change how far the ball rolls, never how far it carries, and a wedge struck to spin back is not affected.

Course styles and features

Each day's course is one of four styles, which change the layout as well as the colours. Some holes have features of their own.

Course styles

Parkland: trees and ponds. Links: gorse, pot bunkers and wind. Forest: narrow fairways between tall trees, with piles of leaves. Highland: heather, boulders, a few pines and the strongest wind of all.

Boulders

Found beside highland fairways. A ball that runs into one, or lands on one, is stopped and popped over it, coming down a few yards further up the hole.

Gust

A band of fast-moving air across some holes, shown by moving streaks and labelled with its speed and an arrow. It only pushes a ball while the ball is inside it: climb high over it, or keep the ball low or on the ground under it, and it has no effect.

The crossing

Now and then a hole is nothing but islands in water: tee, two islands of fairway, then the green. Every shot must carry to the next island. There is no rough and no out of bounds. It plays as a par five though it is only as long as a four. A ball in the water costs a stroke and is played again from where it was hit.

Reading the hole

• Drag the hole to look around. Recentre brings the view back, and it recentres by itself for every shot.
• The coloured dots on the fairway are 200, 150 and 100 yards from the pin.
• The numbers on the green are the putts each ring is worth.
• On the green, light ground is high and dark ground is low, and chevrons point the way the ball will run.

Other ways to play

None of these affect the leaderboard.

Tutorial

A few hand-built holes with tips along the way, covering the controls, clubs, wind and the green. Take it as often as you like.

Practice

Once your ranked round is in, you can play that day's course again as often as you like. You can also replay a past day's course or a random nine that nobody has played before. Practice rounds are kept on your device only. Without a membership you can start 3 past or random practice rounds a day; members have no limit.

The target range

For members. Choose a flag at 50, 100, 150 or 200 yards and hit 5 balls at it, each into a crosswind of up to 15 mph. A holed ball scores 1000; otherwise a ball scores less the further it finishes from the flag, and nothing beyond 30% of the flag's distance.

Live matches

Play 2 to 4 players at once, taking turns shot by shot and watching each other's balls fly. Two players can play match play (holes won) or stroke play; with more it is stroke play. The course can be a random nine, a past day's course, or today's course once everyone in the match has posted their round for the day.

• Whoever is furthest from the pin plays next, and the best score on a hole tees off first on the next.
• Each shot has a 60 second clock. Lose your connection and you have 2 minutes to come back before you forfeit.
• Invite friends from the match lobby or send the link. A lobby nobody starts closes after 30 minutes.
• Friends can watch a match as it is played, and your head-to-head record with each opponent is kept.

Keyboard

Space locks the aim and then swings, left and right arrows move the target (hold Shift for fine steps), up and down change club.