The Front Nine
The Front Nine Rulebook
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Components
- 61 cards: 36 Course (hole) cards, 14 Special cards, 4 Club House cards, 3 Market cards, 4 Player Aid cards
- 18 Resource cubes: 6 brown (trees), 6 yellow (sand), 6 blue (water)
- 4 orange money cubes (used as the money marker)
- 3 Resource Development pawns (brown, yellow, blue)
- 1 Start Player token (double-sided)
Setup
Brown (trees), yellow (sand) and blue (water) cubes are Resource cubes and are used to fill the market spaces. Use the resource columns indicated for the number of players; the extra resources are returned to the box.
Give each player a Player Aid card and a Club House card, placed in front of them, with their money marker in the set starting position. An orange money cube is placed on the £10 square to show the current funds (£15 is suggested for the first game or for a faster game). Each player's cube is moved as their money changes during the game.
Sort the Course cards by their specific Par and randomly draw a number of cards from each deck equal to the number of players (table below). Return the remaining Course cards to the box without looking at them.
| Number of Course Cards Used | Par 3 | Par 4 | Par 5 | License card Resource Cube Maximum* |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2 Players | 3 | 12 | 3 | 2 |
| 3 Players | 6 | 17 | 4 | 3 |
| 4 Players | All (8) | All (22) | All (6) | 4 |
*For the first (or quickest) game, it is recommended to remove the License cards.
The undealt Course cards and the Special cards are shuffled together. Draw nine cards one at a time and place them face up in a single row. This row of cards is called the Course Track ("Progetti di Percorso"). The first card has a value of £0; the ninth card has a value of £8 (see Example 2). If a Par 5 card is drawn, put it at the bottom of the deck. Once the row has nine cards, shuffle the cards to form a face-down deck.
Game Structure
The game is played over several turns. A turn consists of four phases. A player may perform only one action per phase.
- MARKET: Buy / sell Resources, or pass.
- BUSINESS: Buy 1 card from the Course Track and add it to your hand, or pass.
- DEVELOPMENT: Pay to develop (build) 1 to 3 cards from your hand, or take income.
- RESET: Move the turn-order token and refill the Course Track.
Phase 1: Market (for Resources)
In reverse turn order, players may buy and sell a maximum of 2 cubes in total (for example, buy 1 and sell 1, or buy 2, or sell 2). The value is the £ cost shown on the Market space of each resource. A bought cube comes from the market, and a sold cube is returned to it. The cubes may be of different colours or of the same colour.
Bought Resources are stored on the player's Club House card, in the four Resource spaces. A sold Resource is placed on the highest empty space in the corresponding market column. A player may not buy Resources unless they have empty spaces to store them on their Club House card.
Resources cannot be discarded or exchanged to make room.
Each player may perform an action only once in this phase (exception: Market Offer card).
The Market Offer card may only be played in Phase 1, BEFORE completing a normal buy/sell action. All three Resources must be taken, and the cheapest ones must be chosen. A player must have a minimum of 3 empty spaces on their Club House card. Cards must be discarded to the discard pile after use.
Phase 2: Business
In turn order, each player takes one action: one or the other.
A / Buy a card from the Course Track: The 1st card on the Course Track is free (however, although free, it is still called "bought" when taken); the 2nd costs £1, the 3rd costs £2, and so on. The bought card is placed in the player's hand. The empty space left in the Course Track row is closed up by sliding the remaining cards down, so that the cards for the next player are £1 cheaper. The cards in the row are replaced in Phase 4 (Reset). Each player may hold a maximum of 3 cards in hand. Once per turn, a player may pay £1 to discard a Course card from their hand to the discard pile (regardless of how many cards they hold in hand). A new card may be bought in the same turn.
B / Pass. If a player decides not to buy a card, the 1st card on the Course Track is moved to the discard pile, so that all the remaining cards cost £1 less.
Phase 3: Development
In turn order, each player takes one action: one or the other.
A / Develop card(s) from hand. In turn order, players may develop Course cards and Special cards from their hand as many as they can afford (£ and Resource cubes). The cards are then placed face up on the table.
Course Cards
The first Course card built must be adjacent to the Club House. The light green tee-access section of the 1st card must touch or overlap a black arrow on the edge of the Club House card.
The cost to build a Course card (hole) is shown on each card as a land cost (£) and a variable Resource cost. As more holes are built, the land costs (£) increase (Resource costs remain constant):
Land Cost:
- Holes 1–3: face value (£)
- Holes 4–6: face value (£) x 2
- Holes 7–9: face value (£) x 3
The Resources needed for development are taken from the Club House and/or the special License card and returned to the market, to the most expensive available row first. The player who has the most developed Resources shows this with the matching coloured pawn on their Club House card.
When placing Course cards, the player must line up the light green tee-access section of the new card (green arrow) with the flag exit section of the last Course card developed (red arrow). The access and exit sections do not have to align perfectly and may be offset, but the two light green sections must touch in some way. If the access or exit is at an angle, the join may be angled.
No card may ever overlap, and cards must always be in contact with one another. Once developed and placed, no card may ever be removed or changed.
Course cards must form a simple, unbroken chain from the Club House to the last developed hole card, and must have no branches or unconnected sections.
Special Cards
Driving Range, Buggy Hire and Pro Shop must have one side (not a corner) adjacent to the player's Club House and aligned with one or more arrows. If a player owns more than one of these cards, EACH must be directly adjacent to the Club House.
Example 1: The 1st Course card is angled, and its light green access corner lines up with the leftmost arrow on the Club House. The Driving Range card lines up with 2 Club House arrows, although only one was needed.
The License, Design and Natural Resource cards are placed face up on the table when they are developed, but they do not need to be adjacent to the golf course or to any building.
B / Take Income: Add all the income values from a player's developed Course cards, plus any income from their developed Special cards, and adjust the money total on the Club House card. If no Course card or income card has been placed, the player receives £1 as income. NB: A player's money total can never exceed £20. If you have more than £20, only £20 is kept and the rest is lost to taxes.
A player who has developed a License for a Resource takes the corresponding Resource cube of lowest value (if available) from the market and places it in an empty space on that License card. Resources cannot be moved between the Club House and License cards. NB: Remember that the cube limit on License cards depends on the number of players (spaces = number of players).
Phase 4: Reset
Restore the Course Track to 9 cards. If the deck runs out, shuffle the discard pile to form a new deck. The Start Player token passes to the next player clockwise. Check the end-game conditions.
End of Game
The game ends after Phase 4 of a turn in which:
A / A player has developed their 9th Course card, or B / the Course Track has fewer than 9 cards and the deck and the discard pile are empty.
Scoring
Money, undeveloped cards and Resource cubes score no points. The Club House card is flipped to its Victory Point (VP) side.
One Resource cube is used to mark VPs on the score track with the money cube (for tens and units).
If scores in categories 1–2 (below) are tied, add up the points for the tied positions and divide by the number of tied players. Round down if necessary.
Each player scores points as follows:
1 / Distance from the Club House: Use the scale on the side of the box (numbered golf balls) to measure the straight-line distance from the Club House to the nearest edge of your last Course card (9th hole).
If the distance is greater than the 19th ball on the scale, you score 0 VP. The closest player scores 5 VP, the 2nd 3 VP, the 3rd 1 VP.
2 / Resources: The number of trees, sand and water on each player's developed Course cards is added up separately, including the bonuses for the Special "Natural" cards (woodland, waterfall, dune). All three Resource types score points separately. The player with the highest number of each Resource scores 5 VP, the 2nd 3 VP, the 3rd 1 VP.
Points x2 for each Special Design card developed. A player must have at least 1 Resource (including the "Natural Special" cards) to be eligible for points.
3 / Special "Stars" bonus points for Income cards: 1–3 VP. (Source note: this line is brief in the Italian original and the exact condition is not spelled out; it is transcribed as printed. See the Income Cards section below for the income card VP values.)
4 / Course Par: Total par of all completed holes. Points from Par = 5 − (difference between your Par total and 36). Example: If the Par total is exactly 36, you score 5 VP. If the Par total is 34 or 38, you score 3 VP. If the Par total is less than 31 or more than 41, you score 0 VP.
The player with the highest score is the winner.
Tie breaker: the player with more Resources (developed + "Natural") wins.
Example: Developing a Course Card
(Example 3: Course Card. The figure is not reproduced; the text of the example is transcribed.)
To develop this Par 4 Course card in Phase 3, a player must pay £2 *, 0 trees, 0 sand and 3 water Resources, which are returned to the market. This card will then generate £2 of income (plus income from other developed holes) for every future Phase 3 in which the income option is chosen.
* This assumes the holes are being developed from 1 to 3. If developed from 4 to 6, the cost is £4; from 7 to 9, £6.
Income Cards
(Driving Range, Buggy Hire, Pro Shop)
In Phase 3B, take the standard income plus:
- Driving Range: +£2. +1 VP at the end of the game.
- Buggy Hire: + the total par of that player's Course cards divided by 5 (rounded up to the nearest £). +2 VP at the end of the game.
- Pro Shop: + the number of holes developed by that player (in £). +3 VP at the end of the game.
Small Table Variant
If table space is limited, Course cards may be stacked on top of one another when developed, instead of being laid out in a line. The score for distance from the Club House is ignored in this variant.