Play Nine Card Game Review: Playing Golf Without A Ball!

Play Nine is the card-game version of golf. It’s nearly impossible to imagine what the gameplay could be like, right? We’re making a review with that intention so that we can explain the rules, design, and content, and most importantly, share our most sincere thoughts with you. But, can it be played with the whole family though? 

The Box & Cards Of Play Nine

To begin with, Play Nine’s box is pretty attractive, and it’s one of the reasons I decided to buy it in the first place. 

Every design used in the box has a hidden meaning. For instance, the yellow background represents the color of the golf flag. The green represents grass, where golf is played. Anywhoo, this side of the box, the front, besides the name written in huge letters, includes the main information too: age range, number of players, and game time! And to give you a glimpse, you’ll be shown a few of the cards too (updated in the current version)!  

It’s not the usual over-filled with information back of the box. There’s a short game explanation, a few cards again, and details about the creators. And because of the wide audience, all text is written both in English and French. 

Play Nine has a total of 108 cards, including 8 cards of each value (from 0 – Mulligan to 12 – Out of Bounds) and four Hole-in-One cards. Take a look at some of them:

It’s not a typical standard numbered cards game. Play Nine has pretty cool card illustrations used in them, with most of them being chucklesome too!

How Do You Play Play Nine?

Play Nine can be played by 2 to 6 players, golfers, or non-golfers who are 8 or older. A typical game could last 30 to 90 minutes.

• Deal each player 8 face-down cards, and flip the top card of the remaining deck to start the discard pile. 
• Players flip 2 of their cards over, and when it’s their turn, they can either flip another card or draw one from the decks. 
• When one player has turned all their cards over, all others have one last turn, then they have to reveal everything & count the score.
• Cards are worth their face value unless they’re matches, which could either be worth 0 strokes or count as negative points. 
• Whoever has the lowest overall score, just like in Golf, wins Play Nine.

Rules in detail are explained well on the official rules page.

Also, besides the deck of 108 cards, it comes with the scoresheet too!

By the way, if you need a CAH game, or a drinking one, we have plenty of options already at our Edition Cards Shop.

Honest Thoughts On Play Nine

First things first, Play Nine is absolutely a fun family card game. The truth is, even people who are younger than 8 (in my case, a 5-year-old) can understand the game well with a little help. It has easy rules, great colorful artwork, and is a great resemblance for those who play Golf. if played with kids, it’s actually a great way to practice math skills. Me and my family used to take it with us when traveling, and it performed great. 

Gladly, even though the cards remain the same, the game is replayable. At least a few times with the same people, and that’s mostly because no one will ever get the same hand of cards or have the same combinations, so it’s a new strategy always. To top it all, they’ve also made a game app, for both IOS and Android, and you could install it through this link and play without a deck of cards: https://playnine.com/pages/app. 

There’s something on the dark side too. Nothing about the gameplay or the content, but mostly about the card’s quality, which gets bad after a few times of playing. Also, people have complained that their pack had some cards missing, or a bunch of them were damaged. Hopefully, they’ve fixed these issues already, and none of this ever happens to you. 

The most trusted site remains the official site of Play Nine, so make sure to purchase there!