How to play

Four steps, repeated for nine zones, then one simulated season. Here is exactly how each step works, and answers to the questions people ask most.

The four steps

  1. 1

    Spin

    Two reels spin in sequence — a region first, then a player from that region. Play gives you one full re-spin (new region and player) and one player re-spin (keep the region, re-roll the golfer) per build if the pairing is a dud; Daily and Versus give everyone the exact same nine spins in the same order, so it comes down to what you do with them, not luck.

  2. 2

    Drop

    Each spin reveals a player card with nine attribute chips, one for every zone on the golfer figure: hips (power), arms (accuracy), hands (iron play), wedge (short game), eyes (putting), head (course IQ), heart (nerve), shoulders (consistency), legs (engine). Take exactly one chip and drop it on the matching zone — the rest are locked once you move on. Repeat for all nine spins until every zone is filled.

  3. 3

    Simulate

    Once all nine zones are filled, Simulate Season unlocks. Your build's attributes convert into expected performance, and a 24-event season plays out against a field of real tour players plus procedurally generated fillers — regular events, majors, a flagship championship, and, if the build's form carries far enough, a season-ending playoff. The result is graded and compared against the all-time greats.

  4. 4

    Share

    Results give you a share-card image, a copyable text grid, and a link. The link encodes the picks and the seed, not a recording — opening it re-simulates the exact same season on the viewer's own device, so a shared build is always the real thing.

Frequently asked questions

How do I get to 99 overall?
Overall rating is a weighted average of your nine attributes — iron play and putting carry the most weight — run through a curve, so a strong average alone gets you into the low-to-mid nineties. The last few points come from the balance bonus, awarded once all nine zones are filled: up to +3 if your highest and lowest attribute sit within a point of each other, and up to +2.5 if your single weakest attribute is 9 or higher. A build that is uniformly strong beats one with a flashy 10 and a weak link.
What does the balance bonus do?
It rewards a well-rounded build over a lopsided one. Once you've filled all nine zones, two things are checked: how tightly your nine values are clustered (a range of 1 point is worth +3 to overall rating, 2 points is worth +1.5, 3 points is worth +0.5) and how high your single weakest attribute is (9 or better is worth +2.5, 8 or better is worth +0.8). A build with one 10 and a handful of 4s scores lower than a build where everything sits around 8.
What is the best Salary Cap strategy?
Salary Cap gives you a $45M budget and charges a player's price for every chip you take from them — a second chip from the same golfer costs the price again. Tiers run S ($10M), A ($8M), B ($6M), C ($4M), D ($2.5M) down to E ($1.2M), and $45M averages out to $5M a slot. The most efficient builds spend S- and A-tier money on iron play and putting — the two heaviest-weighted attributes — and fill the rest with cheaper golfers who are still strong specialists in one category, rather than spreading the budget evenly across nine average picks.
When does the Daily build reset?
Daily resets at midnight America/New_York — one build per day, with the same nine spins for everyone, so it comes down to what you do with them rather than who you got. Completing a Daily extends your streak; missing a day breaks it, except for one mulligan a month that lets you skip a day without losing the streak.
Are LIV players included?
Yes. A select group of LIV Golf players is in the pool alongside the PGA Tour field, but they only appear in the four majors of the season — the same shape as how the sport actually works. A build leaning on a LIV player is a bet on four big weeks, not twenty-four.
How does the season simulation work?
Every attribute converts into an expected strokes-gained contribution — iron play and putting matter most, power and accuracy split off-the-tee performance, short game and course IQ round out the picture — which becomes an expected score and a round-to-round spread. The game then plays out a 24-event season week by week against a field of real tour players plus procedurally generated fillers, applying cuts, closing-round pressure, late-season fatigue, and a nerve-driven sudden-death playoff, all from a single seed so the same build always produces the same season.
Are the events real?
The 24-event schedule follows the shape of the current PGA Tour season — four majors, THE PLAYERS, the marquee invitationals and the FedEx Cup playoff stretch — and uses the real tournament names so the season reads the way a golf fan would tell it. Purses, field sizes and cut rules are modelled on the real events, but every result is simulated. Build A Golfer is not affiliated with or endorsed by any tour, tournament, sponsor or venue; the names are used for identification only.
Can I play offline?
Yes. Build A Golfer installs as a web app — once it has loaded once, spinning, building, and simulating all work with no connection. Opening someone else's shared build for the first time still needs you to be online, the same as loading the app itself.
Do I need to log in?
No. There is no account and nothing is sent to a server — your history, personal bests, streak, and settings live on your device only. Use the export and import buttons in Profile to back them up or move them to a new device.
How does sharing work?
The share button gives you an image, a copyable text grid, and a link. The link encodes your picks and seed, not a recording of the result — opening it re-simulates the exact same season on the other person's device, so what they see is always genuine, never an edited screenshot.
Is Build A Golfer free?
Yes, completely. It's supported by a small, unobtrusive ad rail that never appears on the spin or build screens, and there is no paywall, subscription, or premium tier.