How to play
A round at Lanternwood is nine holes and takes ten to fifteen minutes. You can stop at any time; the round is kept in this browser and picks up where you left it.
The first three holes are free every time. A full round is $1.00, or $1.95 a month for unlimited rounds: pricing.
A shot, step by step
- Align. The white line on the grass is the align line: it shows where you are aiming. The ring on it marks where the chosen club would land the ball on flat ground with no wind. Turn the line left or right.
- Pick a club. The caddie picks one for you and says why. Change it if you like. Where there is water the caddie plays safe: it lays up short, or tells you how far the ball has to carry. On an approach shot the align line is already set to allow for the wind and for a ball above or below your feet, and the caddie says how far off the flag that is.
- Safe or bold. A few times a round the caddie offers a second line: across a corner, over the water, or straight at a flag that is cut beside sand. It tells you what the bold line asks (how far it must fly, what a miss finds) and what it gains. Press Bold line (or the B key) to take it, and the same button to go back. The safe line is always the first advice; the bold one can cost a stroke.
- On the green the caddie reads the putt for you: the align line is already set to one side of the hole to allow for the slope, and the caddie says how far ("a cup right of the hole"). Getting the power and the strike right is up to you.
- Swing. With the three-tap swing, the first tap starts the marker, the second sets the power, and the third, as the marker comes back to the strike line, sets how cleanly you hit it. Early pulls the ball left; late pushes it right. The dashed mark on the meter is the power the caddie suggests.
- Watch. The camera follows the ball. Click, tap or press Space to skip ahead.
A fresh set-up every round. Every round sets the course up afresh: the hole is cut in one of four places on each green (the top-left panel says where, for example "pin back left"), from the regular tees about one tee in five is moved forward for the day, the day is still, breezy or blowing, and it is early morning, golden hour or dusk. The time of day changes how the course looks and sounds, not how the ball flies.
Steady swing. If you would rather not time anything, choose Steady swing in the menu. You set the power with a slider and hit. The strike is then a modest amount of ordinary variation, the same for everyone, so a Steady shot is never perfectly straight. Steady rounds score normally and are marked "Steady" on the scorecard.
Controls
| Action | Keyboard | Mouse | Touch |
|---|---|---|---|
| Aim left or right | Left and Right arrows (hold Shift for fine steps) | Drag on the course, use the Align arrows, or click the small map | Drag with one finger, or the Align arrows |
| Change club | Up and Down arrows; 1 to 9 and 0; P for the putter | The + and − buttons, or the wheel over the club | The + and − buttons, or swipe the club |
| Take or give back the bold line | B | The Bold line button beside the caddie's words | The Bold line button |
| Swing, three taps | Space, three times | The Swing button, three times | The Swing button, three times |
| Swing, Steady | [ and ] set the power, Enter hits | Drag the slider, click Hit | Drag the slider, tap Hit |
| Look around | A and D; W and S tilt | Drag the sky (the top of the picture), or drag with the right button | Drag with two fingers |
| Look ahead to the landing area | Z | Wheel, or the Look ahead button | Pinch, or the Look ahead button |
| Slope grid, Map view, scorecard | G, M, C | The buttons | The buttons |
| Menu, sound on or off | Esc or comma; N | The buttons | The buttons |
| Skip the ball's flight | Space | Click | Tap |
The Tab key moves between the on-screen buttons and stays inside the game, so the course is never scrolled out of view. The last stop is "Leave the game", which takes you to the links at the foot of the page; Esc opens the menu, which has "Leave the course". On a phone the Scorecard, Slope, Map and Sound buttons are in the menu.
House rules
- Water: one extra stroke. You drop on dry ground where the ball last crossed the bank, no nearer the hole.
- Out of bounds (beyond the fence): one extra stroke, and you play again from the same spot.
- Ten is the most you can take on a hole. If you reach ten you pick up, the card says 10, and you walk to the next tee.
- There are no lost balls.
- From sand or deep rough you cannot use the Driver or the fairway woods.
- The flagstick lifts out of the way when you putt.
How the ball behaves
Instalign Golf is a physics game. Each shot is worked out from the ball's speed, launch angle and spin for the club you chose.
- In the air the ball is slowed by drag and held up by its backspin. Sidespin from a mistimed strike bends it left or right.
- Wind pushes the ball all the way, less near the ground than high up. The flags, the trees, the chimney smoke and the clouds all move with the same wind, so the course itself shows you where it is blowing.
- On landing the ball bounces according to the surface: lively on a path, soft in the rough, dead in sand. A wedge with a lot of backspin stops quickly on a green.
- On the ground it rolls, slows with the grass, and follows the slope. Putts break.
- The lie matters: rough and sand take distance and spin off the next shot and make it less accurate (deep rough most of all), and a ball above or below your feet starts a little left or right.
- Trees knock the ball down. A trunk sends it sideways.
The distances are tuned to ordinary amateur golf: a full Driver carries about 240 yards in still air, a 7 Iron about 152. It is a believable model for a game. It is not a measuring tool and it does not measure a real swing.
After the round
The scorecard lists the round's best moments (the closest approach, the longest putt, how your bold lines went). Picture of this round draws the card as a picture in your browser, and Save the picture puts it in your downloads; on a phone, Share it hands it to the phone's own share sheet. The picture is made on your device and is not sent to us. It shows the course, the date, the day, your scores and those moments, and nothing about you.
If the 3D course will not show
The 3D view needs WebGL 2, which every current browser has. If your device cannot show it, or it stops working during a round, the game switches to the Map view: the same course seen from above, with the same ball, the same controls and the same score. You can also choose the Map view yourself with the Map button or the M key. If the picture is slow, set Picture quality to Low in the menu.