Paper App Golf makes minimalism a virtue

My interest in Gladden Design’s Paper app series was rekindled when I heard about Paper App Golf. Golf seemed like a good fit for the Paper App mission statement of a minimalist game you could carry in your pocket and play anywhere.

Oddly enough, I find golf an interesting subject for board games, particularly solitaire games, while I’m not very interested in the actual sport itself. I think part of that is that golf can be functionally a solitaire athletic sport. 

In a nutshell, each hole is a grid of dots and you roll a six-sided die to see how many spaces you draw the line per turn/stroke. You also always have the option of putting just one space. Amazingly, this is not the simplest golf board game I’ve played! (I’d say that goes to Par Out Golf)

The grit of the game comes from the terrains. Fairways give you a plus one to distance and let you draw a line through trees. Sandtraps, on the other hand, give a minus one. You can’t stop in water but you can draw over it. Near some holes are slopes, automatically moving the line. And you just draw the line normally in the rough.

There is also a speed variant if you can’t be bothered with dice. The ball can move six spaces if it starts on the fairway, three everywhere else and you can still putt one space.

Look, if you’re looking for a deep, involved golf game, you are looking at the wrong game. If you’re are looking for a game you can play while waiting in line at the bank, then you’ve come to the right place. And you probably don’t care about the weird looks you get at the bank.

I have to compare Paper App Golf to Paper App Dungeon, the game that made me aware that the series existed. While Golf is somehow even simpler than the minimalist Dungeon, I enjoy it more. The mechanics are cleaner and fit the theme much better.

Paper App Golf is very niche. It’s a game to play when you have basically no time, no space and no concentration. And there are times like that when I need a game break so I know I am going to keep playing it. I think the dice-less variant just turns it into a meh puzzle but I appreciate that the option exists. 

Paper App Golf isn’t that good a game but it does a very good job at what it’s meant to do.