Golf With Your Friends Tips and Tricks
Each entry below is one mechanic, what it costs you, and the update it was last checked against. Filter by category or difficulty to narrow the list, and use the anchor beside any heading to link straight to a single tip.
Controls
#Classic mode has no jump until the host switches it on
Jumps are a lobby setting you switch on and not a base ability, so a lobby that never touched them has no jump at all. Check the setting before you plan a route around clearing a wall, because the button does nothing until the host enables it.
Checked against Olympus Odyssey
#You get one jump per shot and it does not come back
Two with the Double Jump power-up, and that is the whole allowance until your next stroke. Spending it early in a long roll leaves you with nothing for the ramp or the gap that the hole was actually built around.
Checked against Olympus Odyssey
Hockey Mode
#The puck slides instead of rolling, so slopes throw it sideways
Its flat shape makes it far more sensitive to surface angle than a ball is, and an incline that barely deflects a golf ball can send a puck careening off. Cut your power on slopes and come at the goal as straight on as the hole allows.
Checked against Olympus Odyssey
Speed Golf
#The line that wins in Classic is the wrong line in Speed Golf
Par stops mattering and the clock takes over, so the tidy low-stroke line loses to a messy fast one. Plan the route before the hole starts instead of after it, because thinking time is the thing the mode actually charges you for.
Checked against Olympus Odyssey
Achievements
#Solo counts for every course completion, and it aims better
Classic, Dunk, and Hockey all unlock the same way alone as in a group. Solo is the better choice for a par run, because other players' balls knock your shots off line, particularly in any lobby with collision turned on.
Checked against Olympus Odyssey
#Oasis Hole 4 is a par 4, so an ace there counts as an albatross
That is the shortcut for the albatross grind, since a hole-in-one on any par 3 does not qualify. Players report aiming straight at the flag at roughly 75 percent power and restarting the hole after each miss until the count is banked.
Checked against Olympus Odyssey
Dunk Mode
#Dunk and Hockey achievements ask for completion, never par
Scoring is about getting the ball in the hoop and not about landing it efficiently, so a tidy low-stroke line wins you nothing. Raise the stroke limit to 20 in lobby settings before you start, because the default runs out mid-attempt.
Checked against Olympus Odyssey
Scoring
#A 14 on a 12-stroke limit is the penalty, not a bug
Failing to sink the ball adds an automatic two strokes on top of your 12 active ones. If you want room to experiment on a hard hole, the host can raise the stroke limit to something like 20 in lobby settings before the round starts.
Checked against Olympus Odyssey
#Par is a cumulative total, so one bad hole never ends a run
You only need the final score to land at or below the course total across all 18. A birdie on an easy hole cancels a bogey on a hard one, which means restarting after a rough hole three throws away a run that was still perfectly alive.
Checked against Olympus Odyssey
Ball Shapes
#The acorn ball can make a hole genuinely unwinnable
It can wedge in geometry it cannot roll out of, and Team17 treat that as a documented community complaint about the shape and not a bug, so there is no fix waiting for it. Pick a different shape on courses with tight gaps.
Checked against Olympus Odyssey
DLC
#Only the host has to own a DLC course, everyone else plays free
Nobody in the lobby is locked out because they skipped a pack. Players report Workshop maps behaving the same way, with the map downloading for joiners when the host has it subscribed, though Team17 has never documented that rule officially.
Checked against Olympus Odyssey
Power-ups
#The Randomizer only ever changes your opponents' ball shape
It reshapes every other ball in the lobby and leaves yours alone, so it is the swingiest power-up in a close game. Shapes like the cube and the acorn handle so differently that a well-timed randomizer can cost three players a hole at once.
Checked against Olympus Odyssey
Workshop
#Console players cannot play Workshop maps at all
The level editor is keyboard and mouse only, which makes creation PC-exclusive in practice, and the console versions cannot load community courses either. A cross-platform group is limited to official courses however the host is playing.
Checked against Olympus Odyssey
Controllers
#For the blank controller bindings, try enabling Steam Input first
Team17 support points at turning Enable Steam Input on in the game's Steam Properties, which is the opposite of the advice that circulates. One thread traced the same symptom to a second input device taking priority in Windows' controller queue.
Checked against Olympus Odyssey
Lobby Settings
#Hotseat carries a separate Turn Order setting from online play
Its three options are Random, Lowest Score, and Lobby Order, and they are not the same control as the Simultaneous versus Ordered Turns choice sitting above them, which governs online games only. Changing one does nothing to the other.
Checked against Olympus Odyssey
Ball Shapes
#The Icosphere and Cylinder balls appear in no source at all
Neither turns up in a patch note, a wiki, or any independent reference, so treat both as unconfirmed. The per-shape physics claims that circulate alongside them, such as a bauble being heavier, have nothing behind them either.
Checked against Olympus Odyssey
Bugs
#Custom gravity can stay wrong into the following round
A Team17 community manager acknowledged a case where it sat at 0.50 and persisted until the game was restarted. If your shots suddenly carry much further or shorter after any lobby with altered gravity, check the value and restart the client before you start blaming your aim.
Checked against Olympus Odyssey
Courses
#No official source says rivers carry your ball downstream
The claim circulates widely and is documented nowhere, so do not plan a shot around riding the current instead of taking the reset. The official description covers natural bumps and slopes, rune stones, and hazards including crocodiles and snakes.
Checked against Olympus Odyssey
Hockey Mode
#The Hockey goalie never reads your shot, it just slides
It slides along a set path and never reacts to your shot, so it is an obstacle on a timer and not an opponent. Study the route, then time your approach to arrive during the gap instead of trying to outplay something that is not watching.
Checked against Olympus Odyssey
Workshop
#Out of bounds is well calibrated on official courses only
The 1.0 launch reworked the system to stop players being flagged out of bounds when they were not, and on official courses the kill volumes behave. Workshop geometry sometimes triggers a false reset where you land in what looks like perfectly safe ground.
Checked against Olympus Odyssey
What to Read Next
- Courses and Game Modes. All 13 base courses, the four DLC additions, and how each mode changes the objective.
- Multiplayer, Power-Ups and Workshop. Lobby settings, every power-up, ball shapes, and the Workshop.
- Achievement Guide. The full list, with the par runs that account for the rarest unlocks.
- Getting Started. Scoring, jump rules, and controller setup before your first lobby.