18 Holes: Course Architect
18 Holes: Course Architect Rulebook
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Components
- 3 Committee Dice (2x Blue, 1x Green)
- 18 Designer Choice cards
- 36 Committee Bonus cards
- 36 Prime Location cards
- 6 Reference cards
- 100 Blank Course Plans
Setup
- Give each player a course plan from the pad. If you have run out, scan the QR code on the last page of this booklet to print more.
- Your course plan will have two Gorse hazards filled in.
- Each player can name their course by writing on the sign post.
- Shuffle the Designer Choice deck and deal one card to each player face down. Place the remaining cards back in the box. Players look at this card before placing it next to their course plan.
- Shuffle the Committee Bonus deck. Deal two cards to each player. Players look at these cards and keep one. Place it face down next to your course plan. The unused cards are returned to the box. Each Committee Bonus will add a new scoring condition.
- Shuffle the Prime Location deck. Deal each player two Prime Location cards. Players can look at both sides of each card to decide which card they will take. Each Prime Location indicates which squares are filled in with mountains. These cannot be built upon during the game. You can either draw a mountain, or black out the square. Each Prime Location card has a star rating where more stars equals more difficult.
- Write the Prime Location score (black number in yellow circle) into the scoring section of your course plan (mountains icon).
After setup, each player will have the following: one of each card (face down) and the Prime Location applied to the course sheet – crossed out squares and scored added.
Playing the Game
The player who most recently designed a golf course goes first. If no one has, then go with the person most likely to. They start the game by rolling the three committee dice. Each player must fill squares on their course using the features shown on the dice.
See the placement section below for how to place each feature. Each turn you will add four squares to your course. After everyone has done that, re-roll the dice and draw more features based on the dice rolls. The game ends the round that one player has completely filled their course plan. Everyone may finish that round before proceeding to scoring. A filled course plan is one where every square has one of the following: mountains, gorse or a feature.
Placing Features
Tee Box and Green (Green Die)
Each face of the green die requires you to place a tee box (start of a hole) and a green (end of the previous hole) into one square on your course plan. To do this, decide which edge will be the start of the fairway for the next hole. Then decide which edge (it must be a different edge) will be the end of the previous hole. Draw two open-ended rectangles (see example). Next, draw a diagonal line through the square so that the fairway start and fairway end are separated by the line. Write the par number next to the fairway start and draw a little flag next to the fairway end.
The par will be a 3, 4 or 5. The number on the green die tells you the hole par. In the example on the right, the die shows 3 and so the hole par is 3. If the green die is wild, you can choose 3, 4 or 5. If you used a Designer Choice card, use the par from the card.
Wild: The green is the end of the previous hole and the tee box is the start of this hole. When placing your first tee box / green square note that this green is for the 18th hole. To achieve a good score you should aim to join all the tee boxes and greens of all 18 holes in a circuit.
When adding to your course, you may draw in any square that is blank or contains gorse. You may not draw over previously filled in squares. You do not need to connect the fairways up.
Placing Single Features (Blue Die)
The first blue die has single features that each take up one square on your course plan. You may rotate these features left or right to help you get the connection you want. The placed fairway does not need to connect to an existing fairway nor does it need to make a valid connection on any side.
- Place a single straight fairway onto your course plan. The fairway is drawn as an open-ended rectangle. If this completes a hole follow the steps in Completing a Hole.
- Place a single fairway corner onto your course plan. If this completes a hole follow the steps in Completing a Hole.
- Place either a water hazard, a tree or a bunker onto your course plan. You may place it on any available square. Remember that hazards need a completed hole adjacent to score. See Scoring for more details.
Placing Double Features (Other Blue Die)
The second blue die requires you to fill in two squares for each roll and in all cases the two squares must be adjacent. If there is insufficient space to place both features, you must place one. There are additional constraints with each face. See below.
- Place two straight fairways onto your course plan. The second fairway must connect and extend the first fairway.
- Place a straight fairway and a fairway corner. The fairway corner must connect, extend the first fairway and turn left. When rotating this face, both features must be rotated together such that the corner is always turning left after the straight.
- Place a straight fairway and a fairway corner. The fairway corner must connect, extend the first fairway and turn right. When rotating this face, both features must be rotated together such that the corner is always turning right after the straight.
- Place two fairway corners. These two features must be adjacent but do not need to connect to each other (or any other feature).
- Place two different hazards. The hazards must be adjacent. You may not place the same hazard twice.
Designer Choice Card
Once per game, you may use your Designer Choice card to replace, for yourself, the face of one die. After the dice has been rolled, swap out what was rolled with what is on your Designer Choice card. Discard your card by returning it to the box.
The cards are colour-coded to the dice so Designer Choice cards that have a green die only replace the green die. The same applies to the cards with the blue dice. The blue dice cards may replace either of the blue dice but not both.
Invalid Placement
You may not draw over mountain features (from Prime Location card). You may not draw over features you have added to your course e.g. fairways. All other placements are valid including drawing over Gorse. If you place a fairway that goes off the course plan or into the side of another fairway, that's valid placement. What you just placed is desperately unlikely to score any points, but it is still valid.
Completing a Hole
A hole is completed whenever you connect a tee box to a green with fairways. Count the number of squares the hole covers including both the tee box and the green. If the number of squares equals the par for the hole, score the hole. In the hole scores section of your course plan write the score (see table for scores) in the next available space. If your hole had too few or too many squares, cross off the hole as it scores zero.
| Hole | Score |
|---|---|
| Par 3 | 1 point |
| Par 4 | 2 points |
| Par 5 | 3 points |
Next, even if the hole doesn't score points, shade the fairways in so you can clearly see that the hole is complete. This will help with scoring.
Scoring
In all cases, adjacency does not include diagonals. An incomplete hole is any tee box that does not connect to a green. A completed hole is a tee box that reaches a green. A scored hole is one where the number of tee box, green and fairway squares adds up to the par of the hole. Linked holes are two completed holes that share a tee box / green. A copse is 3 or more adjacent tree hazards. A lake is one or more adjacent water hazards. When playing solo, check your scores against ours using the link on the last page of this booklet.
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Par Score: Add up the hole scores section and write the total here. In the example game, the player has scored 14 holes for a total of 30 points.
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Prime Location Bonus: This is the value on the top of your Prime Location card. The player has scored 13 points from their Prime Location card.
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Connected Holes Bonus: The start of every hole is the end of the previous hole. When both holes are completed they are linked. If you link enough holes together, you score extra points. Use the table below to see how many points you can score. The player has linked 14 holes together in a circuit scoring 10 points. In the score sheet you can see the shaded fairways loop around.
Linked Holes Points Linked Holes Points 1-9 Holes 1 14 Holes 10 10 Holes 2 15 Holes 12 11 Holes 4 16 Holes 15
Total Score: Add up all your score items to get your final score. The player with the most points wins. If two or more players have the same score they both win. Kudos!