Courses and Game Modes
Golf With Your Friends ships with 13 base courses and has expanded with several DLC courses since launch. Each course consists of 18 holes with a unique theme, environmental aesthetic, and set of hazards. On top of the courses, four distinct game modes change the fundamental objective of each hole. This guide covers every official course and mode in detail.
Game Modes
Four modes change how you play every hole.
Classic Mode
Classic is standard mini-golf. Your ball spawns at the start of the hole. You putt it across the course. It drops into the hole at the flag. Your stroke count is your score. Lowest total strokes after 18 holes wins. This is the default mode and the one most achievements are tied to.
Dunk Mode
Dunk Mode replaces the ground-level hole with a raised basketball hoop. The flag and cup are gone. Instead, a hoop hovers above the green, and you must launch your ball upward into it. This fundamentally changes shot strategy because you need vertical lift, not just horizontal accuracy.
How to score in Dunk Mode:
- Navigate the hole as you would in Classic until you reach the area near the hoop.
- Position your ball below or near the hoop.
- Use a combination of a ramp, slope, or the jump ability to get your ball airborne.
- The ball must pass through the hoop from above to count as sunk.
The jump ability is essential in Dunk Mode. On many holes, the only way to reach the hoop is to roll toward it at moderate speed and jump at the right moment to arc into the basket. Practice the timing on Forest first, where the hoops are positioned above gentle inclines.
Dunk Mode scoring: Same as Classic. Strokes count. The hoop simply replaces the hole as the target. Achieving par or better in Dunk Mode is significantly harder than in Classic because the hoop demands precision in three dimensions instead of two.
Hockey Mode
Hockey Mode replaces the golf ball with a flat puck and the hole with a rectangular goal guarded by a moving AI goalie. The puck slides instead of rolling, which dramatically changes how it interacts with surfaces. Friction is lower, momentum carries further, and curves behave differently.
How to score in Hockey Mode:
- Navigate the puck through the course to reach the goal area.
- The goalie moves back and forth across the goal mouth on a fixed pattern.
- Time your shot to slip the puck past the goalie when the opening is clear.
- The puck must enter the goal to count as sunk.
The puck's flat shape makes it extremely sensitive to surface angles. A slight incline that barely affects a golf ball can send the puck careening sideways. Reduce your power on slopes and approach goals from as straight an angle as possible.
Hockey Mode scoring: Same stroke-based scoring as Classic. The goalie adds an extra layer of difficulty because even a perfectly aimed shot can bounce off the goalie and cost you additional strokes.
Speed Golf Mode
Speed Golf was added in an April 2024 update and plays completely differently from the other three modes. The traditional emphasis on stroke economy is gone. Instead, all players race simultaneously to the hole, and the scoring system aggregates Total Time across all 18 holes rather than counting strokes.
Key Speed Golf mechanics:
- Turbo Charge Boosters: Environmental speed gates scattered across each hole that multiply your ball's velocity. Hitting these is essential for competitive times.
- Handbrake: A dedicated mechanic (activated mid-roll) that rapidly arrests your ball's momentum. After hitting a Turbo Charge Booster, you often need to brake hard to avoid flying out of bounds.
- Simultaneous play: Everyone is racing at the same time. Collision interactions at speed are chaotic and unpredictable.
Speed Golf completely changes how you think about courses. Routes that are optimal in Classic (slow, precise, low-power) are terrible in Speed Golf. Look for lines that chain multiple Turbo Charge Boosters together and practice Handbrake timing to stop before kill volumes.
Couch Mode
Couch Mode (added in late 2022) is designed for local, pass-the-controller sessions. It removes the lobby setup complexity and drops players into a randomized sequence of 9 holes pulled from the broader course pool.
Couch Mode also introduced the Max Course Length modifier, which lets the host truncate any 18-hole course to a custom length (as few as 1 hole). This makes quick sessions and sudden-death tournaments possible without committing to a full 18-hole round.
Base Courses
The 13 base courses are listed here in approximate difficulty order, from most approachable to most challenging. Difficulty is subjective and varies by game mode, but this ranking reflects the general community consensus.
Forest
Theme: Woodland clearing with wooden bridges, log cabins, and gentle hills.
Difficulty: ★☆☆☆☆
Forest is the tutorial course. Holes are short, sightlines are clear, and hazards are minimal. A few gentle slopes and one or two water features are the only challenges. The average par per hole is around 2-3 strokes. This is where you learn the game and where you come back to farm achievements that require par-or-better completion.
Tips:
- Most holes can be completed in 1-2 strokes with careful power control.
- The wooden bridges have no walls, so overshooting sends you into the water below. Use 40-60% power on bridge approaches.
- Hole 18 is the longest and most complex hole on Forest, but it is still simple compared to any hole on harder courses.
Oasis
Theme: Egyptian desert with sandstone temples, palm trees, and oasis pools.
Difficulty: ★★☆☆☆
Oasis introduces more vertical elevation changes and longer holes. Sand-colored surfaces can make it hard to judge slopes. Water hazards around the oasis pools are more punishing because the surrounding terrain funnels the ball toward them.
Tips:
- The sand-textured surfaces behave identically to grass. There is no "sand trap" physics penalty in Golf With Your Friends.
- Several holes have ramps that launch the ball into the air. Control your speed before hitting these ramps or you will overshoot.
- Use free camera aggressively. The Egyptian temple interiors are dark and the flag can be hard to spot.
The Deep
Theme: Underwater ocean floor with coral, shipwrecks, and sea creatures.
Difficulty: ★★☆☆☆
The Deep has a relaxed, visually distinct atmosphere. Holes feature gentle curves through coral tunnels and shipwreck interiors. Despite the underwater theme, the ball physics are identical to land courses. The main challenge is visibility in the darker sections.
Tips:
- Blue-tinted lighting can obscure the guideline. Zoom in closer to your ball for better aim visibility.
- Tube sections are common. Once your ball enters a tube, it follows the path automatically. Aim to enter tubes at moderate speed.
Candyland
Theme: A candy-themed wonderland of gumdrops, lollipops, chocolate rivers, and sugar-coated surfaces.
Difficulty: ★★★☆☆
Candyland is visually chaotic, which is its biggest challenge. The bright, saturated colors make it difficult to distinguish the playing surface from decorative elements. Some holes have deceptive slopes hidden under smooth candy textures.
Tips:
- Slow down. The bright environment encourages fast, aggressive play, but Candyland's later holes punish overshooting severely.
- Chocolate rivers behave like water. Falling in resets your ball and adds a penalty stroke.
- Holes 15-18 are the difficulty spike. They combine tight corridors, moving lollipop barriers, and elevated platforms.
Twilight
Theme: Nighttime cityscape with neon lights, rooftops, and urban structures.
Difficulty: ★★★☆☆
Twilight is set at night across city rooftops. The low-light environment and neon glow create atmosphere but reduce visibility. Holes feature long, narrow paths between buildings, tight turns around corners, and drops from rooftop to rooftop.
Tips:
- The narrow rooftop paths have low walls but no guardrails in some sections. Rolling off the edge resets your ball and costs a stroke.
- Neon boost pads appear on several holes. They accelerate your ball significantly. Approach them at low power or you will overshoot.
- Hole 12 features a multi-level drop through several building floors. Let gravity do the work and save your jump for the final landing.
Haunted
Theme: Gothic haunted mansion with ghosts, coffins, graveyards, and creaking corridors.
Difficulty: ★★★☆☆
Haunted relies heavily on moving obstacles. Swinging pendulums, sliding coffin lids, and rotating ghost barriers populate the course. The timing-based gameplay makes it frustrating for players who prefer pure aim-and-power challenges.
Tips:
- Watch every moving obstacle cycle at least twice before shooting. The patterns are fixed and predictable.
- Ghost barriers are semi-transparent but fully solid. Do not assume you can roll through them.
- Several holes have hidden shortcuts through walls that look decorative but actually have gaps. Scout with free camera.
Museum
Theme: Natural history museum with dinosaur skeletons, display cases, and marble halls.
Difficulty: ★★★☆☆
Museum features long, sweeping halls with polished surfaces that preserve ball speed. Dinosaur skeleton exhibits serve as complex obstacles requiring careful navigation. Some holes wind through display cases with tight gaps.
Tips:
- Marble floors are slippery. Reduce power by 20-30% compared to grass-surface courses.
- The dinosaur skeleton holes are the hardest on this course. Thread your ball through rib cages and between leg bones using gentle taps.
- Hole 14 has an escalator-style moving platform that carries your ball upward. Ride it rather than trying to jump up manually.
Pirate Cove
Theme: Caribbean pirate port with ships, docks, caves, and treasure.
Difficulty: ★★★★☆
Pirate Cove introduces significant water hazards. Docks, gangplanks, and ship decks are narrow surfaces surrounded by water on all sides. One mis-powered shot sends you into the ocean. The course also features cannons that launch your ball across gaps.
Tips:
- Cannons are fixed-trajectory. Aim your ball into the cannon's mouth and it fires automatically. You cannot control the cannon's direction or power.
- Ship deck holes have curved surfaces that funnel toward the edges. Stay in the center groove.
- Treasure cave holes are dark. Use free camera to find the flag before committing to a direction.
Worms
Theme: A crossover course based on Team17's Worms franchise, featuring the classic 2D landscape aesthetic rendered in 3D.
Difficulty: ★★★★☆
Worms is built around the franchise's signature terrain: rolling hills, weapon crates, and destructible-looking (but not actually destructible) environments. Holes feature steep elevation changes and unpredictable bounces off the cartoon-style terrain.
Tips:
- The exaggerated hill geometry creates blind spots. Free camera is not optional on this course.
- Several holes have Worms-themed gimmicks like worm characters that act as moving obstacles.
- The terrain surfaces have inconsistent friction. Test with gentle shots before committing to power.
The Escapists
Theme: A crossover course based on Team17's The Escapists franchise, set inside a prison complex.
Difficulty: ★★★★☆
The Escapists course threads holes through prison cells, guard towers, exercise yards, and ventilation shafts. Tight corridors and sharp 90-degree turns dominate the layout. Guard-themed moving obstacles patrol fixed paths.
Tips:
- The ventilation shaft holes are tubes with multiple branching paths. Only one path leads to the flag. Scout first.
- Guard obstacles move on linear patrol routes. They push your ball back if they contact it. Time your shots to pass behind them.
- Cell block holes have iron bar walls with narrow gaps. Thread the ball through the gaps rather than trying to go over the walls.
Ancient
Theme: Ancient Mayan or Aztec temple ruins with stone pathways, jungle overgrowth, and trap mechanisms.
Difficulty: ★★★★☆
Ancient features some of the most complex hole layouts in the base game. Multi-level stone temples require navigating spiral ramps, pressure-plate triggers, and stone door mechanisms. Some holes require triggering a switch before the path to the flag opens.
Tips:
- Pressure plates activate when your ball rolls over them. Some open doors. Some start moving platforms. Learn what each plate does.
- Stone ramp spirals are tight. Use minimal power and let gravity pull your ball down the spiral. Overshooting launches you off the edge.
- Hole 16 is widely considered one of the hardest holes in the base game. It requires a precise sequence of ramp jumps across floating stone platforms.
Space Station
Theme: Zero-gravity orbital station with metallic corridors, airlocks, and exterior space walks.
Difficulty: ★★★★★
Space Station is one of the hardest base courses. Altered gravity zones change your ball's weight and trajectory mid-roll. Exterior "space walk" sections have reduced gravity, causing the ball to float and bounce much higher than normal. Interior sections use normal gravity but feature narrow metal corridors with no margin for error.
Tips:
- Gravity zones are marked by subtle visual effects (glowing floor sections). Learn to spot them before your ball enters.
- In low-gravity sections, reduce your power dramatically. A normal-power shot will send the ball floating off into space (out of bounds).
- Jump behaves differently in low gravity. It launches the ball much higher. Adjust your timing accordingly.
- Hole 18 combines all of Space Station's mechanics into a single brutal gauntlet. Budget extra strokes for it.
Volcano
Theme: Active volcanic island with lava flows, erupting vents, and crumbling rock paths.
Difficulty: ★★★★★
Volcano is widely considered the most difficult course in the game. Lava acts as an instant-reset hazard (like water), and it is everywhere. Paths are narrow, surfaces are uneven, and eruption vents periodically blast your ball off course. Several holes require threading the ball through tight gaps between lava streams.
Tips:
- Lava resets your ball and adds a penalty, just like water. There is no "damage over time."
- Eruption vents fire on fixed timers. Count the rhythm before shooting. They are predictable once you learn the pattern.
- Narrow rock bridges over lava are the defining hazard. Use very gentle putts (20-30% power) on these sections. Speed is your enemy.
- Hole 11 has a lava waterfall you must roll under. Wait for the gap in the flow before committing your shot.
DLC Courses
The following courses are available as paid DLC packs. Each adds a new 18-hole course.
Bouncy Castle
Theme: Inflatable bouncy castle with trampolines, ball pits, and soft foam obstacles.
Difficulty: ★★★☆☆
Notable Mechanic: Bouncy surfaces that launch the ball into the air on contact. Nearly every surface has some degree of bounce. Controlling your ball's trajectory after a bounce is the core challenge.
Corrupted Forest
Theme: A dark, corrupted version of the Forest course with twisted trees, glowing corruption, and altered terrain.
Difficulty: ★★★★☆
Notable Mechanic: Environmental corruption effects that alter ball physics in specific zones. Some areas slow the ball, others accelerate it unpredictably.
Peaceful Pines
Theme: A serene mountainside retreat with cabins, rivers, and autumn foliage.
Difficulty: ★★☆☆☆
Notable Mechanic: River currents that push the ball downstream if it enters the water. Unlike standard water hazards, rivers do not reset the ball. They carry it along the current and deposit it downstream, which can either help or hurt depending on the hole layout.
Olympus Odyssey
Theme: Ancient Greek mythology with marble temples, Mount Olympus, and mythological creatures.
Difficulty: ★★★★☆
Notable Mechanic: Wind gusts generated by mythological figures that push the ball in specific directions. Predicting and compensating for wind is essential.
Course Difficulty Ranking Summary
| Course | Difficulty | Best For |
|---|---|---|
| Forest | ★☆☆☆☆ | Learning the game, farming par achievements |
| Oasis | ★★☆☆☆ | Practicing elevation changes |
| The Deep | ★★☆☆☆ | Relaxed visual experience |
| Peaceful Pines (DLC) | ★★☆☆☆ | River mechanics, scenic play |
| Candyland | ★★★☆☆ | Visual chaos, patience training |
| Twilight | ★★★☆☆ | Night visibility, precision putting |
| Haunted | ★★★☆☆ | Timing-based obstacles |
| Museum | ★★★☆☆ | Speed control on smooth surfaces |
| Bouncy Castle (DLC) | ★★★☆☆ | Bounce physics mastery |
| Pirate Cove | ★★★★☆ | Water hazard management |
| Worms | ★★★★☆ | Terrain reading |
| The Escapists | ★★★★☆ | Tight corridor navigation |
| Ancient | ★★★★☆ | Puzzle-like switch mechanics |
| Corrupted Forest (DLC) | ★★★★☆ | Altered physics zones |
| Olympus Odyssey (DLC) | ★★★★☆ | Wind compensation |
| Space Station | ★★★★★ | Variable gravity |
| Volcano | ★★★★★ | Lava hazards, narrow paths |
General Course Strategy
Regardless of which course you play, these principles apply universally:
Scout before you shoot. Use free camera on every new hole. Find the flag, identify hazards, and plan your route.
Control your power. Overshooting is more common than undershooting. When unsure, use 10-20% less power than you think you need.
Watch other players. In multiplayer, all players shoot simultaneously. Watch where others' balls go. Their successes show you the correct path. Their failures show you what to avoid.
Learn the par values. Each hole has a par. If you are consistently taking 3-4 strokes over par, you are probably missing a shortcut or using too much power.
Practice in Explore mode. You can play any course solo with no timer and no stroke limit using the Explore option. This is the best way to learn hole layouts without pressure.
What to Read Next
- Getting Started. Controls, shot mechanics, jump timing, and your first game.
- Multiplayer, Power-Ups, and Workshop. Collision strategy, all four power-ups, custom lobbies, the Steam Workshop level editor, and community maps.
- Achievement Guide. All 83 Steam achievements with unlock conditions, global completion rates, and recommended strategies.