Two Under The Golfers Card Game: The Funniest Instructions in Golf Card Game History
Every game in this series has its own personality. Some are earnest, Some are clever, Some are quietly brilliant. And then there’s Two Under The Golfers Card Game.
Two Under The Golfers Card Game — designed by Mike Waterkote and Jim Courtright, published by HRC Inc. — arrived in a beautiful wooden box, black with red and gold trim. Inside: two decks of cards, two poker chips, a stack of scorecards, and the single funniest set of instructions I’ve ever read in a card game.
This game didn’t just want you to play. It wanted you to laugh while doing it.
The Instructions Deserve Their Own Section
Most game instructions read like an IKEA manual. Two Under’s read like a standup set written by a golfer who’s spent too much time at the 19th hole. The opening alone sets the tone:
“Legend says Two Under was invented by a veteran clubhouse manager who realized that, unlike a golf club that is held with two hands, cards are held in one hand. This, he understood, leaves the other hand free to hold a drink.”
It only gets better from there the game was “intended to be a viable alternative to a brisk round of golf, minus golf’s downside; the walking, fresh air, exercise, and the considerable distance to the clubhouse bar.” On scorekeeping: “Give that job to someone whose current job description includes accuracy and integrity. Like an accountant or electrical engineer. Do not give the scorekeeping job to anyone with a job in sales, the legal profession, or politics.” On the difficulty of remembering your cards: “Most golfers we know can’t remember the birthdays of their children let alone their wedding anniversary.”
And my personal favorite, the closing line of the entire instruction set: “So we hope you enjoy the time you spend with Two Under. We know we will enjoy the money you spent on it.”
Waterkote and Courtright understood something that most game designers miss: the instructions are part of the experience. If you can make people laugh before they deal the first card, you’ve already won.
How It Plays
Beneath all that humor is a solid draw-and-swap game with some genuinely smart twists. Each player gets 4 cards face down, arranged in a row. You peek at the two closest to you — once and only once. The two far cards? Total mystery until the round ends.
On your turn, you draw from the deck or discard pile and decide whether to swap it for one of your four cards. Aces are 1, number cards are face value, Jacks and Queens are 10, and Kings are 0. Your goal is to get the lowest total possible.
Here’s where it gets interesting. Any pair of matching cards — two 7s, two Jacks, even two Out of Bounds cards — scores as 0. That changes the math completely. Suddenly a 10 isn’t a disaster if you can find its twin. Two Wild Cards can become any card you want. Two Mulligan cards each knock 2 strokes off your score. And two Out of Bounds cards penalize you 2 strokes each — unless you get both, in which case they pair up for 0.
When one player flips all four cards face up, everyone else gets one more draw and then scores are tallied. That’s one hole. Play 9 or 18, lowest total wins.
The lowest possible score in a single round is -4 (both Mulligans plus a 0 total on the remaining cards). The instructions note this with characteristic understatement: that would require someone to be “insanely lucky.”
The Presentation
Two Under didn’t come in a cardboard tuck box. It came in a wooden box — black, trimmed in red and gold — with two decks of cards, two poker chips, a pad of scorecards, and the instruction cards. This was a gift-quality product. You could put it on a coffee table or a bar shelf and it looked like it belonged there.
That wooden box tells you something about the target audience. This wasn’t aimed at kids or casual game-night players. This was aimed at the golfer who drinks, bets, and gives grief to their foursome. The poker chips suggest the designers expected money to be on the table. The scorecards suggest they expected you to play a lot. The two decks suggest they expected large groups.
Every detail said: this is a clubhouse game.
The Mystery of HRC Inc.
Like so many games in this series, Two Under’s creators are hard to track down. The game was published by HRC Inc. and designed by Mike Waterkote and Jim Courtright. I found Amazon listings for it in Australia and Mexico, which suggests some international distribution. The ASIN is B073F394XM. It surfaces on eBay occasionally, sometimes sealed, sometimes with the wooden box showing a little wear.
But I can’t find a company website for HRC Inc., and Waterkote and Courtright don’t have a visible public profile as game designers. Whoever they are, they knew how to write. The instructions alone are worth the price of admission.
What Two Under Gets Right
Two things set this game apart from every other draw-and-swap golf card game I’ve come across.
First, the voice. The instructions create a world — a clubhouse, a rain delay, a bar tab, a foursome that gives each other grief. Before you even play the game, you’re in the right mood. That’s brand-building in a way that most card game makers never think about.
Second, the pairs mechanic. Making any matched pair worth 0 fundamentally changes how you play. In most draw-and-swap games, a 10 is always bad. In Two Under, a 10 is one card away from being worth nothing. It adds a risk-reward layer: do you hold a high card hoping to match it, or dump it for something safe? That’s a real strategic decision dressed up in humor.
From the Clubhouse to the Kitchen Table
Two Under was built for the 19th hole (checkout our post The 19th Hole) — the bar, the rain delay, the clubhouse. Golf the Card Game was built for the kitchen table, the family room, the anywhere-you-want-to-play moment. Different settings, different mechanics, but the same underlying truth: golfers want to play golf even when they can’t play golf.
GTCG takes a different approach — with the Fore! Card, Wild Cards, and the Mulligan mechanic creating a game that’s distinctly its own thing. But I tip my cap to Waterkote and Courtright for understanding something fundamental: a great game starts with great personality. The rules should make you smile before the first card is dealt.
If you know Mike Waterkote, Jim Courtright, or anything about HRC Inc., reach out. These two deserve credit for making the most entertaining set of game instructions I’ve ever read. Find us at playgtcg.com or on social media.
This post is part of our ongoing series exploring vintage golf card games throughout history. From wooden box presentations to photocopied inserts, the love of golf at the table has never faded.