How to play
Back Nine
Nine holes. Twelve golfer-season cards. One run at the lead.
You start three back
It is Sunday afternoon and you are three shots behind the leader with nine holes to play. Every player gets the same round on the same day.
You have twelve cards for nine holes
Each card is one golfer’s season, rated 0–100 across Power, Positioning, Approach, Short Game and Putting. Play one card per hole. Once a card is played it is gone, and three are left on the bench at the end.
Match the golfer to the hole
Every hole asks for something different — length off the tee, a precise wedge, a putt on a green that runs away from you. The card that wins hole 11 is usually the wrong answer on hole 16.
Think ahead
Two holes often want the same kind of player, and you only have one of them. Spending your best iron player early can cost you later.
Catch the leader by 18
Beat their total and you win. Match it and you go to a playoff. The leader’s score is fixed before you start and never reacts to how you are doing — but you only see it one hole at a time.
How results are decided
The golfers are real. The ratings are our opinion. Every card is a real golfer, but the five numbers on it are Golfle’s own assessment of how they play — not official statistics, and not endorsed by any tour, player or data provider. Cards say “Opinion” for exactly this reason. How we rate.
Ratings are relative, not absolute. Each rating is standardised against the rest of the pool, so it tells you where a golfer sits compared to the other golfers in the game. We do not compare across eras: what a number meant in one decade is not what it means now.
Outcomes are fixed in advance. Every card-and-hole combination for the day is resolved before anyone plays. The same golfer on the same hole gives the same score to every player, and refreshing or replaying cannot change it.
A hole result combines three things: how well the golfer’s strengths fit what the hole asks for, how hard the hole plays, and a small fixed performance component — because golf is not deterministic. That last part is deliberately kept small enough that the better choice is still the better choice.
The leader is not a real golfer. The Leader is a fixed scorecard, so no actual player is ever presented as having shot a fictional number.
Daily and Fresh Nine
The Daily is one shared round per day and your first attempt is the one that counts. Fresh Ninegenerates a brand new round whenever you want one, with the same rules — it just does not affect your Daily streak.