How to play Darts Golf
Nine holes, up to three darts a hole, and the LOWEST total wins — this is the one game here where a small number is a good one. Hole 1 is the number 1, hole 2 the number 2, on to hole 9. Your LAST dart sets the hole: a double is 1 stroke — the hole in one — a triple 2, a single 3, and a last dart not on the number at all is 5. Par is 3 a hole, 27 for the course. You may stop after one dart or two, and that is the whole game: hit the double with your first dart and you can bank the 1, or throw again and risk turning it into a 3 or a 5.
Also played as Golf, Golf Darts.
Chuck Darts scores this game to exactly the rules on this page, and keeps the card open mid-match so anybody at the board can check one. A full leg of 501, a board of Cricket and six practice drills are playable right now with no account at all.
THE COURSE
Hole N is thrown at the number N, holes 1 through 9. That is fixed — the holes are not chosen. The app owns which hole the group is on. It moves to the next one only when every player has thrown at the current hole, so nobody plays ahead, and the order of throwing is fixed by seat. Darts recorded past hole 9 are not part of the round and do not score.
SCORING A HOLE
Only the hole's own number counts, at any ring. A triple 20 on hole 3 is worth nothing. The bull is not on this course. Your LAST dart sets the hole, and the ones before it count for nothing. Double the number and stop, and the hole is a 1. Double it and throw again, and whatever that next dart does is your hole — a single makes it a 3, and a dart anywhere off the number makes it a 5. Stop when you are happy. Every hole you play costs something: there is no zero, and 5 is the worst any hole can be. A hole finished on the DOUBLE of its own number is a hole in one and the card records it.
ENTERING A TURN
Dart by dart. This game is scored from the darts as thrown, so the app will not accept a hole typed in as a total. A hole re-recorded is REPLACED, not improved on — the last turn entered is the truth about that hole, up or down. The app's own corrections follow the darts too: a correction typed as a number is refused, and the two repair doors differ. Undo removes the last turn completely and replays the card without it, so the hole goes back to unplayed and you take it again. Correcting a turn to 0 stores it as a miss instead — and a miss is what makes that hole a 5. A turn the clock forfeited is the clock's own record: neither you nor the host can undo it or correct it afterwards.
WINNING, AND TIES
The round is complete when every player has a score on all nine holes. Fewest strokes wins. Level on strokes is not resolved by the app — real golf would play off, and the app will not invent a hole. The host settles it. If any turn in the round could not be read dart by dart, the app declines to name a winner from the card at all; the host ends the game and the fewest strokes is recorded. PLACES Second and below are ordered by strokes, FEWEST first — the opposite of every other game here. Players level on strokes share a place (2, 2, 4 — places under a winner start at second). A player who never threw a dart is placed last, not first - a seat with nothing recorded is not the best card on the table. One honest warning: strokes only exist for holes actually played, so a game ended mid-round flatters whoever has played one hole fewer. Finish the round, then end the game.
TIMED TURNS
If the host has set a turn clock in an online ranked game, running out of time records that hole as three misses — a 5. It does not end your round. If someone has to leave, the host — or that player themselves — can take their seat out of a live game, as long as two players are left at the board: the app refuses a removal that would leave one player throwing alone, so a two-handed game has to be ended instead. The app keeps the seat in the running order so everyone else's turn order holds, but nothing more is scored for or against them: their board stops where they left it, and they are placed after everyone who finished. It cannot be undone, and Rematch will not bring them back: it carries only the seats that were still in, so start the next game and add them to it yourself.
PLAYERS
Two to eight is what the game is built for. One player can play a full nine-hole card solo and it is recorded as a win.
HOUSE RULES THIS APP DOES NOT PLAY
No governing body publishes Golf. Where the independent descriptions of it AGREE, Chuck Darts now plays what they say: the last dart scores the hole, the double is the hole in one, and a blank hole is 5. Two things are still ours. The TRIPLE is 2 strokes here. The published sources disagree with each other about it — one says 2, another says 3 — and 3 would make a triple worth exactly as much as a single, so there would be no reason to aim at it. We took the 2. NINE HOLES, fixed. Eighteen is just as common and the app does not offer it yet. If your venue wants eighteen, agree it out loud before the first dart and play two cards.