YORKTON - Games where skill trump luck have always been favoured here.
It is better to lose because your opponent was more skillful than because the dice did not roll in your favour, or the card you needed was not what you pulled from the deck – or at least that is my view.
It may have something to do with growing up in a house where two games my Dad would almost always agree to play were rod hockey and the much-loved crokinole. Both games are all about skill, and crokinole remains my favourite game among the hundreds I’ve played.
So Table Golf Association, (yes a little unusual in terms of a name for a game), popped up online a while back, and I saw it was a finger flicking game making it at least a cousin of crokinole and I was intrigued.
The Table Golf Association (TGA) is the first dexterity game that allows you to design and play your own golf course.
What does that mean?
Well the game includes 25 two-sided wooden terrain tiles, which you use to create the layout of the course.
The tiles are very good quality – a must so they don’t warp – and because you have essentially 50 options, ‘course’ layout possibilities are pretty extensive.
The game comes with a Tee Box and several different ‘holes’ too, so you are really creating the fairways.
“You complete the course by adding tiles that include roughs, sand hazards, trees, water hazards, and a cliff, as well as the fairway tiles,” notes boardgamegeek.com
“The game includes four balls that are basically mini-shuffleboard pieces that you must flick from tee box to hole, while trying to avoid the hazards just like in real golf.’
Now if you are finger flicking game fan you might be envisioning Pitch Car, and this one holds some definite similarities with the classic car racing game, especially in terms of laying out the course. The cars are wooden disks with Pitch Car, but the idea is pretty much the same.
But, this is a golf simulation, so expect the same issues as on the real greens.
“If you do hit into the hazards, each one carries its own unique mechanism to replicate the challenges of real golf.
“For example, hitting into the sand means you must hit your next shot using the thumb of your non-dominant hand. Each hazard also limits the distance you can hit your next shot,” notes boardgamegeek.com.
“The game also includes a weather die and spinner that must be rolled before each shot to determine the wind speed and direction. Golf pro player cards, which players can choose or deal out randomly, each have a different ability players can use once per hole.”
As you might expect. whoever has the lowest score after a ‘round’ wins.
John Garcia is the games designer, himself an avid gamer with more than 300 board games in his collection, and a particular “love” for Puerto Rico, Citadels and more recently Space Base.
So what was the idea which led to creating table golf?
“I had started working on this game with some influence from Pitch Car,” he said, confirming the aforementioned similarity. “I wanted to make a golf game, but I knew that the board could not be static.
“To work, I thought it had to have modular pieces so you can create a new golf course each time you play. After several different design options, we went with modular hex tiles and it worked great!”
Garcia did have some vision in terms of what he wanted to create.
“I wanted to make a game of skill, but not bog it down with dice and card and rules, so it led to a dexterity game,” he said. “This game has been called the best golf game and I think it's because it simulates the game of golf so well on a tabletop.”
In that simulation players will be challenged, said Garcia.
“This game is not easy,” he said. “Controlling the power of your shot, and the way the slider glides over the tiles, makes it very difficult to master.
“So, just like real golf, they can expect a lot of frustration, but when you do get that great shot or hit a hole-in-one, the feeling is unbeatable.”
Garcia said he also tried to be true to all that golf is.
“We have tried to incorporate all of the nuances of golf, but when I tell someone that you have to use the thumb on your non-dominant hand to hit out of the sand bunker, their eyes always light up,” he said.
“Creating different hitting mechanics for each hazard, to replicate the different difficulties they represent, was key to making this game feel so much like playing real golf, and I think that's what makes it the best element of the game.”
The overall result is a game Garcia said he believes is unique.
“There is nothing else like this game, and in the dexterity category, it offers strategy and skill, unlike many others,” he said.
“Of course, being able to design a new hole with the 25 double-sided five-inch tiles is what truly separates it from all others, since you can play a different course each time.”
Check it out at tablegolfassociation.com
