How to Play

What Is Fergus?

Fergus is an on-course card game for real golf. Instead of just playing your normal round, you draw cards that add fun house rules along the way — some are playful challenges, some are welcome breaks. Two characters set the tone for the two kinds of cards you'll draw:

 

Fergus's Rules

Discipline and challenge. Fergus is a gruff, old-school Scottish traditionalist and longtime caddie — his cards test your game.

Rusty's Breaks

Rule-bending and advantage. Rusty is warm, a little goofy, and always looking out for you — his cards give you a break, and now his cards are named for it.

 

The Three Ways to Play

 

Quick Play

No setup at all. Tap Quick Play and start browsing cards immediately — use Back and Next to move through them at your own pace. There's no round, no scoring, and nothing is saved. It's just a fun way to see what's in the deck, anytime.

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9-Hole Game / 18-Hole Game

Pick a deck filter (see below), then play through a real round. One card is drawn per hole. Every hole starts face down — tap the card to turn it over. If it doesn’t suit the hole, tap Redraw and take a different one, as many times as you like.

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Deck Filters

Before a 9-Hole or 18-Hole round, choose which cards you want in play:

• All Rules — both Fergus's Rules and Rusty's Breaks, mixed together

• Fergus's Rules — only challenge cards

• Rusty's Breaks — only advantage cards

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Ways to Play With Others

Beyond picking a mode and a deck filter, Fergus is flexible about how a group actually plays together. A few popular ways to set up a round:

 

Solo Challenge

Play alone and set your own goal — beat your personal best, break a specific score, or just see how the round unfolds. Fergus and Rusty don't care if you're playing with friends or by yourself.

 

The Handicap Duel (1v1)

A built-in equalizer for mismatched skill levels. The stronger player selects the Fergus's Rules filter (all challenge, no breaks); the weaker player selects Rusty's Breaks (all advantage, no challenge). Same round, different decks — a fairer fight.

 

Everyone, Own Phone

The standard way to play as a group: each player has their own device, drawing and playing their own cards independently, hole by hole.

 

One Deck, One Group

For a more communal experience (or when there's only one phone to go around), the whole group plays from a single device — one card drawn per hole, applying to everyone together.

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Team Challenge (2v2)

Pair up into two-person teams and decide how you want to combine your outcomes — best ball, combined score, or whatever your group prefers. A fun way to add some team spirit to a round.

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Playing a Card

Every card shows a rule and a bit of flavor text explaining it. Once it’s face up you have two choices:

• Play it — take the hole by whatever the card says, then tap Score Hole

• Redraw — leave it and turn over a different card instead

Cards don’t repeat within the same round until every card in your filtered pool has actually been played — redrawn cards stay eligible to come up again.

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Redrawing Is a Group Decision

Fergus runs on the honor system — the app itself doesn’t check who’s agreeing to what. A single tap can technically redraw a card, but that’s not how it’s meant to be played: redrawing should be a group decision, agreed by everyone playing. One player can’t unilaterally wave off a card they don’t like.

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Trivia Cards

About half the cards ask you a question before they tell you the rule. Here’s how they work:

• The front of the card shows the question and its answer choices.

• Tap an answer to turn the card over and see whether you got it right, along with the rule that now applies.

• Answer right and it goes your way — one of Rusty’s Breaks gives you the relief, one of Fergus’s Rules lets you off it. Answer wrong and it doesn't: with Rusty the break slips away and you get no help, and with Fergus the rule holds and you play the hole by it.

• There’s no clock and no skipping — a trivia card can’t be redrawn until you’ve answered it.

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Mulligans

Some Rusty’s Breaks cards award a Mulligan instead of an immediate effect. A Mulligan isn’t used right away — it’s held onto and can be redeemed at any point later in the round for a free replay of a shot, no penalty. If you finish the round without using one, you can claim it at Round Complete for −1 stroke off your final score.

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Power Packs

Power Packs are optional mystery packs you can purchase anytime — even mid-round. Each pack contains 3 cards, and you won't know which ones until you open it. A pack might give you three different cards, or three of the same — that's part of the fun.

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Some Power Packs are themed — for example, a “Legends of the Game” pack draws its cards from unforgettable moments in the Fergus-verse, its own world of legendary players, majors, and courses.

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The Three Power Card Types

Challenge

A real, specific golf challenge with a stroke consequence. Always redeemed for yourself, after pulling off the feat — Challenge is never used against another player.

Rule Swap

Two players swap rules for the hole. Since Power Cards only work by showing your screen to the group, this is simple: show your card to the player you're swapping with, and you each play by what's shown.

Not Today

A veto. Cancels a card you just drew normally, or blocks another player's Rule Swap aimed at you.

 

Using a Power Card

The CARDS and MULLIGAN icons sit in the header for the whole round, dimmed when you’re holding none. Tap CARDS to see your Power Cards and open new packs — anytime, whether or not you have cards yet. Tap a card to play it; you’ll be asked to confirm before it’s used. Once played, a card is permanently spent — it’s shown as used and can’t be played again.

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If another player uses a Rule Swap against you, you get one immediate chance to counter with Not Today, if you own one: tap the icon, tap Not Today, and show the group your screen.

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Since Fergus runs on the honor system, playing a Power Card always means showing your screen to the group — the same way redrawing a card is a group decision, using a Power Card is meant to be seen, not just claimed.

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Power Cards can be declared on any hole — but only after that hole's regular card has been drawn, and before anyone tees off. Once the first tee shot on a hole has been hit, that hole's declaration window has closed; you'll need to wait for a later hole to declare. Declaration timing is separate from how long a card actually lasts — a Rule Swap applies just to the hole where it's declared, but a Challenge may set a condition that lasts the rest of the round, depending on the specific card.

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Pack Odds

Every Power Pack contains 3 cards. Each card is drawn independently, with an equal 1 in 3 (33.3%) chance of being Not Today, Rule Swap, or a Challenge — so a pack can contain any combination, including duplicates.

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Limits

You can play up to 1 Power Card per 9-Hole round, or 2 per 18-Hole round — regardless of how many packs or cards you actually own. Buying more packs gives you more variety to choose from, not more plays.

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Scoring (9-Hole / 18-Hole)

After playing each hole's card, tap Score Hole to enter your strokes for that hole using the +/− stepper. This also advances you to the next hole.

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The Scorecard

Tap SCORECARD in the header at any point to see your whole round at a glance:

• Tap a hole number to see which card was played that hole.

• Tap a score to edit it.

 

Gross & Net

At Round Complete, you'll see two scores:

• Gross — your total strokes across every hole

• Net — your Gross score less whatever you claim at Round Complete: −1 stroke for each unused Mulligan you claim, and the stated reward for each Challenge you pulled off

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Voting

Every card has a thumbs up / thumbs down. Vote honestly as you play — your votes tell us which cards are landing and which are falling flat, so the decks keep getting better. They don’t change what you draw: every card in your deck has the same chance of coming up.

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That's It

No accounts, no setup, no waiting. Pick a mode, and start playing. Fergus and Rusty will take it from there.