About dailygolf

dailygolf is a free 3D golf game you play in your browser. Every day there’s a new three-hole course, the same one for everyone in the world. You play it once, compare scores and come back tomorrow for the next.

Why three holes a day

A full round of golf takes hours, even on a screen. Three holes take a few minutes, which is about right for a coffee break or a bus ride. You still get the whole game in that time. There’s a par 3 to test your irons, a par 4 for a drive and an approach, and a par 5 where you can gamble on reaching the green in two.

Because everyone plays the same holes on the same day, a score means something. A 10 isn’t just a 10, it’s two under on a course your friends played too. The shared result shows how each shot turned out without giving away where it went, so posting it doesn’t spoil the holes for anyone.

Want more than three holes? Unlimited gives you a new course whenever you like and the Classics, famous holes from Augusta, Sawgrass, Pebble Beach and St Andrews rebuilt to play. Play with friends puts up to 10 people on the same holes at once, three or nine of them, each on their own device, with a live leaderboard.

How the courses are made

No two days are alike, but nobody designs the holes by hand. Each course is generated from the date, using that date as the seed for every choice the generator makes, so any device anywhere builds exactly the same three holes. The generator decides:

• The routing. Straightaways, doglegs, S-bends and sweeping curves, at 140 to 212 yards for the par 3, 350 to 455 for the par 4 and 490 to 585 for the par 5.
• The ground. Rolling fairways, mounds, ravines, uphill and downhill holes, and greens with their own slopes and contours.
• The trouble. Bunkers, pot bunkers and waste areas, ponds and rivers, island greens, trees, boulders, barns, windmills with turning sails and cart paths.
• The conditions. A wind for each hole, from dead calm to a stiff breeze, and a name for each hole.

Once a day’s course is set, it never changes. Updates to the game never touch a course that’s already in play.

How the ball flies

dailygolf aims for golf that feels right without asking you to study it. Under the hood, each club has its own launch angle and backspin, and the ball flies through a model of real golf-ball aerodynamics. Drag and lift change with spin, so a high-spinning wedge comes down steeply and stops, while a driver bores through and runs. The wind is stronger higher up, just as it is on a real course. Into the wind, spinning shots climb and stall, and a lower, easier swing with more club stays under it. Greens are soft and take spin, rough grabs the ball, and cart paths send it bounding.

You don’t need to know any of that to play. The ring on the course shows where a full swing lands on a calm day, and the power meter marks the swing that reaches the pin. The strategy guide has the numbers if you want them.

Who makes it

dailygolf is made by one independent developer. The daily course is free to play. The game is paid for by players who buy Unlimited, by the ads on these information pages and by players who buy a coffee. The game itself is ad-free while you play.

The game keeps very little about you: a random player ID in your browser, plus your scores and shots, which are stored against that ID. It has no accounts and stores no emails or IP addresses, and the name you type for a game with friends is deleted along with the game. The privacy page lists everything.

Contact

Questions, bug reports and ideas are welcome at help@dailygolf.fun. For a copy of your data, or to have it deleted, write to privacy@dailygolf.fun.