I never expected to play a solitaire game. But one finally got me. I don’t know if it was the gophers? I usually stay well away from cartoonish looking characters such as the famously out of temper birds. So when I came across this latest offering from Big Fish on the App Store, I don’t know what possessed me to download it. Maybe it was that weird mercury retrograde Masters tournament I watched a couple of weeks ago. It is a solitaire-like game. The numeric sequence of the playing cards can be placed either up or down. The cards themselves are not remarkable. They just look like regular boring playing cards. There aren’t any gophers or golf clubs on the cards. But when you play them it makes the sound of a golf ball being driven. There are narrators who make mundane and repetitive golf jokes or comment about how long it is taking you to make a move.

There are numerous “courses” which are varied layouts of the cards. Each one is referred to a a hole, and your solitaire moves are shots. A golf bag provided will hold utility “clubs” which are spare cards that you can employ when there is nothing on the table that you can match your drawn cards with. When you clear the board of all cards your score may be an Eagle or a double eagle, or a perfect. If one or more cards are left behind then you may get a birdie or just make par. If not there are bogeys.

Then the gophers show up. They laugh at your bad moves, as does the sound effects of a disappointed crowd… The gophers also attempt to distract you when concentrating. You can whack them, and obtain some points as revenge though.

The game is simple, and unique. In that goofy way that only golf can be. It’s addictive, and infuriating. It redoes an old standard, and somehow managed to snare me in. One night until 2:30 am. Or it could have been the iced tea. Either way, you can place a good deal of it for free, and if you get caught up in it, the full version is inexpensive.