Let’s see, what’s a five-letter word that describes a golf hazard?
Got it. Barkley.
No, wait, that’s seven letters. Sorry, Sir Charles. Well, never mind.
The real story is that Tuesday was the first-ever Wordle Day, courtesy of The New York Times, which kicked off the fun by creating Wordle Golf, a series of 18 Wordle puzzles designed by Tracy Bennett, the Times’ games editor.
Wordle is a clever word game invented in 2021 by a Welsh engineer, Josh Wardle. It went viral later that year and was bought by The New York Times at the start of 2022 and has built a huge following because of the game’s fun factor and simplicity.
Why did it go viral? There’s the fun of having a brain-teaser. A reader tries to guess the answer to that day’s five-letter puzzle and types in a word to start the game. If letters are in the correct location, the squares turns green. If a letter is in the word, but not in the correct location, the square shows yellow. And if the letter is flat out wrong, the square is a dark gray.
The fewer guesses a reader needs to deduce the answer, the better. But the reader gets only six wrong answers before striking out for the day. The addictive nature of the game causes many frequent readers to play the game on a daily basis in hopes of building a Joe DiMaggio-and-beyond-like streak of how many consecutive days they solved the answer.
Wordle Golf is a variation of the original. First, you get some friends involved to join you. (You do have friends, don’t you?) Then you solve each Wordle puzzle and mark your score. The player with the lowest score is the winner. The game can be played over a period of days — nine is a typical golf-related number — or you can play all 18 at your own pace.
The game is easy to understand but not always so easy to solve. Think “Wheel of Fortune” meets “Scrabble” while reading “The Times Crossword Puzzle” over adult beverages at the 19th hole. You can score a quick lesson here.
The puzzles appear in The New York Times and to play, you’ll have to subscribe here. Luckily, the Times is offering a six-month trial subscription for a mere $1 a week. And hoping you get hooked on Wordle, not to mention, say, world news.
Meanwhile, I’m still stuck on that initial golf hazard query. It’s annoying. I feel like I’m buried in a bunker or something. Well, I’ll probably figure it out eventually.
Cover Image: Su Oh at the 2018 ShopRite LPGA Classic.
Photo: Brian Spurlock | Golffile
