How to Play the Card Game Play Nine

The Card Game of Golf 2 to 6 players ages 8 and up

Four! If you love playing golf then the card game Play Nine is for you. Golf was my Mom’s favorite pastime so we have lots of golf games—the card game, the dice game, Straight Golf dice and our original mini golf dice game Whacky Putt. She would have loved Play Nine. It’s golf them is spot on, it’s easy to learn and fun to play. It is similar to the card game golf but with different twists.

We’ll cover how to play, what we like and what we don’t like about this game. We’ll also answer the question should you add Play Nine to your Family Game Shelf.

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The Play Nine Cards

The Play Nine cards feature cute golf cartoons. There are also cards that are a hole in one that gets you minus 5 points, Mulligan cards worth 0 points, Eagle cards worth 1 point and Birdie cards worth 2 points.

Playing Play Nine

To start a game, the dealer deals 8 cards to each player. He then places the deck in the middle as the draw pile and turns one card over as the start of the discard pile.

The players do not look at the cards but instead lay them out in two rows of four face down on the table.

Next, all players tee off by turning over two of their cards.

Now the player to the left of the deal gets to go first. She can choose to take the top card of either the draw or discard pile.

If she takes the top card of the discard pile, she must put it in place of one of her cards. It can be either a card that is face up or face down. This card is now placed on the discard pile.

On the other hand, if she chooses to take the top card of the draw pile, she may look at it and decide what she wants to do. She can simply discard it or she can use it to replace any of her cards. If she chooses to discard it, she must choose a face down card to flip over.

If she chooses to replace a card, the old card would then be put on the discard pile.

Her turn would be over and play moves to the next player.

Play continues in this way until any player has only one card left face down. This is considering putting.

Putting

When a player has only one card left, she can skip her turn. In this case, she would draw a card from the draw pile, look at it and say that she’s skipping her turn and place the card on the discard pile. She doesn’t have to flip over her last card. She can skip as many turns as she’d like.

When a player does flip over his last card, he has putted and all other players have one more turn.

Now the scores are added up.

Scoring

All cards are worth the face value on them and are added up. There are a few ways to lower your score.

First, the hole in one cards are worth minus 5 points each no matter where they are placed in your hand.

Second, any cards that match and are lined up vertically (one on top of the other) cancel each other out and the stroke count is now 0.  The hole in one cards do not cancel each other out.

Third, if you have two matching sets of the same number (they don’t have to be side by side) they not only cancel each other but they also give you a bonus minus 10 points.

Fourth, if you have three matching sets of the same number they give you a stroke count of 0 and a bonus of minus 15 points.

Fifth, if you have four matching sets of the same number they give you a stroke count of 0 and a bonus of minus 20 points.

Sixth, if you have two hole in ones that line up vertically, they give you a stroke count of minus 5 points and a bonus that makes your score minus 30.

Once the stroke count has been figured out, you write down the score on the Play Nine scorecard and move onto the second hole.

For the second hole, the cards are shuffled and the player to the left of the first deal is now the dealer. The second hole is played the same as the first as are the rest of the nine holes.

Winning Play Nine

The player with the lowest score at the end of the nine holes is the winner.

What We Liked

First, we like that although similar to the card game Golf, Play Nine has its own unique twists. We really liked the golfing theme and the art work on the special cards. We also like how easy this game is to learn and play. Last, we really like the format of the scorecard. It has a place to add up the score as you go instead of waiting for the end where you have to add up the all of the holes at the same time.

What We Didn’t Like

The first thing we didn’t like about Play Nine was that if there was a player who took a huge lead in the game, it was really hard for the other players to catch up. There was hope as the player in the lead could have a really bad hole but as the player behind, the game started to feel pointless with no way to win.

Next, the game is pretty simple. That’s not a bad thing at all, but it is a game that you want to play once and then move on to another game. It’s not a game that you want to play again right away.

Is Play Nine Worth adding to your Family Game Shelf?

Play Nine is a simple, easy to learn and play game that has a great golfing theme. Young players and more seasoned players can play with no unfair advantage and you don’t need to love golf to like this game. We do recommend Play Nine, and it is a must for any golf lovers.

You can get your Play Nine copy here. Canadians can shop here.

If you want to try out the play style before you buy, try Golf the card game. And for more golf themed games check out our Whacky Putt, Golf dice and Straight Golf. And be sure to visit our Shop for loads of seasonal and original games.

Rating:

Pros: easy to learn, all ages, cute golf theme
Cons: a bit repetitive
Mom: risk assessment