Golf games are very popular so we thought we’d try out the GOLO Dice Golf game. Over the years, we’ve told you about many golf games—Dice Golf, Straight Golf, Golf Card Game. We even made our own mini golf dice game Whacky Putt (our personal favorite). So how would we like GOLO? Let’s find out.
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Setting Up GOLO Dice Golf Game
To start, you need to understand the GOLO dice. There are 9 12-sided dice. Two of the dice are blue, two are red and the rest are white. The red dice represent a par 3 hole. The white dice are par four holes. And last, the blue dice represent par 5 holes.
Each dice has numbers that correspond with the par number. The red ones have sides for 3, 4, 5 and 6 strokes. The white have 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 strokes. And last the blue ones have 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 and 9 strokes.
There are special symbols on the dice too. A star shape represents an eagle. The circle represents a birdie and the square shows the par for the dice.
Playing GOLO Dice Game
To start, we’ll show you how to play the basic game. Later we’ll cover the other variations.
To start, you roll all of the nine dice. Now you may set aside your low rolls. You must set aside at least one die but you can set aside as many as you’d like. Next, reroll all of the dice that you didn’t set aside. Again, you must set aside at least one die. This continues until you have set aside all of the dice.
Now you add together all of the dice to get your score for nine holes.
It is now the next player’s turn.
To play an 18 hole game, you would repeat the process and add the two rounds together.
Winning GOLO Dice Game
The player with the lowest score after the 9 or 18 holes is the winner.
GOLO Variations
GOLO comes with a score card for a tournament. The game is played the same but is much longer. There are four rounds with 18 holes for each round. You score is the sum of all four rounds or 72 holes.
Golf Club Score card
The third way to play GOLO is to use the backside of the score card. This variation is played similar but with a twist. The card resembles one from an actual golf course. Each hole has a set par number. To play, you roll all nine dice to start. The first hole on the card is a par 4 so you must choose one of the white par 4 dice to set aside. Next, you can choose to re-roll or take one of the blue dice as a score as the second hole is a par 5. You can set aside any number of dice as you wish, but they must be in the order of pars on the score card. You need to re-roll all of the unused dice when you decide to reroll. The winner is the player with the lowest core after 18 holes.
You may play with any golf course in the world with by following this format.
Easier Scoring
The game that we have came with a scorecard that was already used (we bought it used). To start, this confused us as the players didn’t use the same way of scoring the round. Instead of adding up all of the dice, they chose to keep score with how many strokes they were over or under par. We tried out this method and found it to be easier to do the math on.
Match Play
This variation of GOLO is for two players. It uses the score card. For the first hole, each player has a turn to roll all of the dice. They score according to the par for that hole. A player wins a hole if she has a lower score than her opponent. The player who wins the most holes is the winner.
Other GOLO Rules
The game comes with a few more rules if you wish to make it more challenging.
To start, there is the bottoms rule. Before rolling, a player may call bottoms. When this is called, the scores on the bottom of the dice are used.
Next is the out of bonds rule. When a dice lands outside of the playing area, the roll is invalid. The player rerolls all the dice but gets a two stroke penalty.
The Mulligan rule is next. This takes affect when a player catches a die that is going to fall out of the play area. This player can then reroll that die with no penalty.
What we Like
First, there are many options to play so you can find the variation that fits for you, including playing a shorter or longer game depending on your time. We like that it’s pretty easy to play as long as someone in the group understands how to play. We also like that you get to play with big 12-sided dice. There are not many games that have that feature.
What We Didn’t Like
First, the instructions were complicated. Once we were playing, we found that the basic game is actually very easy to play but the instructions were poorly laid out. This made our first attempts to play quite annoying.
Next, the scoring is a LOT of math. For a light, easy game it’s a real downer to either have to add up all the numbers or wait while someone else adds them up. We found that the plus or minus way of scoring is less math and moves the game along faster but we did have some ties with doing it like this.
Last, in a big group it’s a little boring while you wait for it to be your turn. If a player rolls all 9 times, it can take a long time to complete a turn.
Is GOLO Worth Adding to Your Family Game Shelf?
The answer to this might depend on your love of golf and your ability to do math. First, if you love golf, GOLO is a fun twist on the sport. The golf theme does come through in a way that I haven’t seen in other games. This game might be just the thing to add to your golf collection. On the other hand, if you don’t enjoying doing math then it probably isn’t for you. Over all, I’s say that if you have the room or have a golf lover in the family , GOLO is worth a try.
To add GOLO to your game collection, shop here. Canadians can shop here.
If you’re looking for more fun golf games, check out our Whacky Putt and all it’s fun seasonal editions, Golf dice, Straight Golf, Golf card game and Golf Solitaire. Be sure to check out our Family Game Shelf shop for even more fun with tons of seasonal and original games.
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