I’ve had the opportunity to play a substantial number of golf games, and many of them approach the game from a similar standpoint. In most games, you play as the golfer trying to make your way around the course in as few shots as possible. Many of them are presented with overhead drawings of the holes, and have some kind of numerical chart to reference in order to see how good your shot was. History Maker Golf does away with most of these stereotypes and provides a tabletop golfing experience unlike any other.
I haven’t mentioned them yet on the blog, but History Maker Golf (HMG) is a release by Plaay Games. Plaay has been around since 1999, and has largely been a one-man show. The biggest difference between most Plaay games and games by APBA or Strat-O-Matic are that Plaay’s games don’t focus as much on the individual stats of the players, but more on skills and conditions. That means there’s a whole lot less math, and a lot more emphasis on building a story. I’m a big fan of Plaay’s games, and will likely be covering several of them in the near future.
COMPONENTS
The first innovative element here is that the holes are not represented in a graphical way. The holes are individual cards bursting with all kinds of information. Let’s zoom in on one.
I’m going to explain how all this works in just a minute, but for now just know this: it’s less confusing than it looks. I do like the flavor text on the cards, some of them are just flavor but others actually offer strategy tips for playing the hole.
You are given two courses inside the box. For copyright reasons (I’m sure), the courses don’t have their real names…but they are the Augusta Country Club (The home of the Masters) and the Kapalua Plantation Course.
You also get a huge stack of golfers in the box. The golfer cards are a more sparsely populated than the hole cards, but still offer up a lot of details. The set offered up in the box are stars of the 2000s.
The last important component in the box is the book of shot results. It’s a nicely spiral-bound book. It’s super-easy to find the proper page, although I might still invest in some tabs to attach to the booklet, just to make it a bit easier to flip. While the pages are large, the text is a bit small (there’s just so much that can happen on a golf course!).
There are also a number of clear chips used for special shots, and some small dice. The rulebook has a nice index on the front cover, making it easy to find the appropriate section. Let’s see how this all comes together to make a golf game.
GAMEPLAY
As I did with “Pro Golf”, I’m going to play one hole out just to show how the game works. I’m going to use the hole and golfer cards I showed above (Adam Scott @ Augusta, Hole #1).
Rolling the dice, I got a 5 on the white die. Augusta’s 1st hole is known as an extremely challenging hole, so the hole has the control. I rolled a 16 on the grey dice, which means my tee shot ended in a fairway bunker.
Fortunately, Adam Scott is a strong bunker player and he hits a great shot out of that bunker. He earns a blue chip (think of it as a momentum marker) and gets to roll on a special WOW! chart. He expertly hits the ball to just a couple feet from the pin and has an easy birdie putt, which he drains (by rolling a 1-4 on the green die).
If there’s one downside of playing a game of this type is that there aren’t many decision points. You aren’t making the decisions of 7 or 8-iron for an approach shot, or whether you want to lay up on a tough hole.
THOUGHTS
What you end up getting with HMG is much more of a narrative take on golf that oddly works surprisingly well. You aren’t going to be able to keep detailed stats like you can with some other games of this type, but if you are someone (like I am) that enjoys writing up blogs or session reports, then you will be able to get much more realistic and engaging events to share.
One of my favorite parts of this game is that there are rules included to run a full tournament in just a few hours. If you really want to, you can even run full seasons with prize money rankings and everything. HMG isn’t just a golf game, it’s a full-blown golf sandbox.
This is especially true if you dig into the plaay.com website. You can find several free courses and golfer sets made by both enthusiastic community members and the original designer. One of the most intriguing free offerings is a set of U.S. Presidents that played golf. Perhaps a tournament is in order? It even states that for a few dollars, the designer will send the tools to make your own content. It would be kind of fun to see what Tiger Woods could score on the course I grew up playing.
History Maker Golf is unique in the world of tabletop golf games. Many games get stuck in time because they rely on the technology of the era to shape their systems. 1970s game designers weren’t prepared for graphite shafts, Titanium club faces, John Daly’s overswing, Bryson Dechambeau’s…everything. History Maker Golf has made a golf game that’s engaging, fun, and can adapt to any era of golf with just the changing of a few keywords. I think it’s a great thing. If you are a golf fan, I think History Maker Golf is well worth the effort.
It Came From The Basement!! 