Playing Animal Kingdom Golf

Welcome to Animal Kingdom Golf, the exciting game within the game! While keeping track of your strokes, you'll also be on the lookout for the elusive Animal coins. But beware - if you're the last player to find the animals, it could end up costing you some real coin!

The goal of Animal Kingdom is to avoid collecting too many coins and to get rid of them as quickly as possible. Before the first tee, establish the stakes of the game - whether you're playing for pride, entertainment, lunch, or cold hard cash.

One of the most exciting options is to play for money.

Begin by assigning a static value to each coin (such as $1, $5, $10, etc.), or you can make it more interesting by setting a progressive value that doubles each time an animal is passed to another player (for example, the Woodpecker might be worth $.50 the first time it's earned, then $1.00, $2.00, $4.00, $8.00, and so on).

Having an animal coin in your possession during the game could cost you the established stakes (if any), but don't worry, there is only one coin per animal, and it will be passed on to the next player who earns that animal. For example, if Player A earns the Woodpecker by hitting a tree and Player C later hits a tree and earns the Woodpecker, Player A will pass the coin to Player C.

Animal Kingdom Golf can get even more interesting when you hit multiple animals on a single swing, which can happen in a variety of scenarios:

For example, your poor tee shot hits a tree (Woodpecker), bounces off the cart path (Roadrunner), ends up bouncing in the water hazard (Frog), and, sadly, it didn't pass by the ladies tees (Pussycat). Ouch!

Similarly, hitting your ball into a green-side bunker (Camel), failing to get out of the sand with one stroke (Mole), and falling short of the green within 20 yards (Cricket) happens way too frequently, and the laughter never gets old.

Don't start tossing clubs just yet...

There are now three ways to get rid of an AKG coin in your possession:

Someone earns an animal that you have in your possession and takes it from you (e.g., someone hits a tree when you have the Woodpecker in your possession).
Birdie a hole with AKG coins in your possession. After the hole is completed, the player with the birdie can choose any AKG coin in their possession to return. Note that birdies cannot be banked for future animal returns. If you get a gross birdie with no animals in your possession, all you get is a birdie. Nice work!
If you pick up an Animal coin or multiple coins and you still manage to achieve NET PAR or better, the coin(s) will go back in the bag if it wasn't in play, or it goes back to the person who had the coin last

If you're playing the dollar value variant of the game, at the end of 9 holes, each player counts up the animal coins in their possession and returns the coins. The game starts over on the 10th hole so you can win (or lose) even more money and possible friends. At the end of the second 9, count up the animals in your possession and add those to the animals found on the front 9, and pay the difference in coins to each player in the group and repeat for the next tee time.

No matter how you play, Animal Kingdom Golf is a fun and exciting way to add a new dimension to your golf game. So gather your friends, establish the stakes, and start playing today!