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WHAT THE GOLF? vs Golf With Your Friends

See how two games stack up across what matters most to you.

Short answer

WHAT THE GOLF? reimagines golf as a surreal joke machine, where every hole breaks physics and logic for solo laughs. Golf With Your Friends keeps the sport recognizable but turns the course into a twelve-player battlefield of simultaneous putts and friendly sabotage. Choose A for a comedic single-player campaign; choose B for chaotic multiplayer and a workshop full of new courses. Neither is objectively better; your pick depends on whether you want to laugh alone or laugh at your friends.

Side-by-side Comparison

WHAT THE GOLF?Golf With Your Friends
Weight
importance
Story & NarrativeDepth, writing, characters11—
CombatMechanics, feel, challenge11—
ExplorationFreedom, secrets, rewards32—
Co-op ExperienceMultiplayer, teamwork57—
DifficultyChallenge, learning curve24—
World DesignImmersion, atmosphere43—
Build / Playstyle VarietyCustomization, options23—
Session LengthHow long typical sessions are15-45 min20-60 min—

Comedy by design or comedy by collision

Both games answer the same question—what could golf be in a party game?—but they arrive at opposite conclusions. WHAT THE GOLF? treats the sport as a suggestion, replacing stroke play with a parade of absurd objectives: hitting a golf ball with a sofa, launching a cow, or steering a rocket. The humor is authored, with museum-grade comic timing baked into each gag hole.

Golf With Your Friends treats golf as the straight man. Its physics are honest, its mechanics familiar, and the comedy comes from the collision of twelve players trying to putt at once. The same hole that feels elegant solo becomes a scrum of flying balls, accidental blocks, and last-second shoves.

The decisive tension is not which one is funnier; it is whether you want the game to write the joke or create the circumstances for the joke to happen. WHAT THE GOLF? hands you a scripted punchline every hole; Golf With Your Friends hands you a crowded green and lets the chaos improvise. If you laugh at clever design, the former wins. If you laugh at human error, the latter is a goldmine. Neither approach is wrong, but they serve different evenings.

Choose WHAT THE GOLF? for a solo laugh track

WHAT THE GOLF? is the game to pick when you want to play alone but still giggle out loud. Its solo campaign is a brilliant sequence of one-off jokes, each hole introducing a new rule or a new way to smash the concept of golf. The exploration freedom stands out: the map is a collection of gag holes that reward curiosity, and the cardboard-prop whimsy gives it a handcrafted charm that feels more like a cartoon than a sports sim.

There is no narrative to follow, just a string of punchlines, but the pacing is perfect for short sessions or a long evening of chaining one absurdity to the next. The difficulty is deliberately low—you are encouraged to experiment, laugh at the failure, and move on. If you like museum-grade comic timing and do not want to depend on a full lobby, this game will make you laugh alone. It perfectly fits the player who thinks golf is already ridiculous and wants a game that agrees, rather than one that takes the sport seriously enough to weaponize it.

Choose Golf With Your Friends for lobby mayhem

Golf With Your Friends is the choice when your fun depends on friends and the ability to blame them for your own shanked putt. The twelve-player lobbies are the core: everyone puts and races at the same time, turning a calm round of minigolf into a scramble that keeps the whole group laughing. The honest physics reward practice, but the real stakes are pride—every hole is a chance to redeem yourself or sabotage someone else’s shot.

The level workshop extends the party forever, with new courses adding personalities and themes that keep the experience fresh. Unlike the scripted gags of WHAT THE GOLF?, the comedy here is emergent, born from the simultaneous chaos and your friends’ unpredictable choices. You do not need a solo campaign, because the game is designed to be played together, and the challenge is measured not by the course but by the group.

If you want a party game that turns golf into a contact sport, with cosmetics to show off and modifiers to tweak the rules, this is your green. It is for the player who believes every round is better when it ends in friendly insults.

Key facts, side by side

WHAT THE GOLF?Golf With Your Friends
Steam release date2020-10-222020-05-19
DeveloperTribandBlacklight Interactive
PublisherTribandTeam17
Price (USD)$19.99captured 2026-08-16$2.39 (90% off)captured 2026-08-14
Community playtime~3.5 hrs (collected estimate)~6.1 hrs (collected estimate)
Steam player reviews93.5% positive (4,770 reviews)captured 2026-08-1687.3% positive (75,053 reviews)captured 2026-08-14
Critic score (Metacritic)84/100 (27 critic reviews)68/100 (12 critic reviews)
Difficulty1.1/10 (very easy)3.3/10 (easy)

Playtime figures are community-reported estimates from HowLongToBeat (captured 2026-08-16), not main-story completion times.

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