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Cursed to Golf for Steam: a roguelike where golf decides whether you come back to life
Picture this: you're a pro golfer stepping up for the decisive tournament — and a lightning bolt hits you. You wake up not in a hospital but in Golf Purgatory, and the only way back to the living runs through your club and ball. That's how Cursed to Golf opens — a 2D golf roguelike by Kyoto studio Chuhai Labs and publisher Thunderful, released on August 18, 2022. Forget manicured fairways: here you face caves, spikes, fans, teleporters and bosses, and every wasted shot drags you closer to the start of the run.
How golf actually works here
The camera is side-on and the course plays like a platformer level. You carry three clubs: the driver for distance, the iron for mid-range, and the wedge to pop the ball up over obstacles. Each hole gives you five shots — that's your core resource. Run out before the ball drops and the run resets, sending you back to the start of Purgatory. So every swing is a calculation: wind, terrain, traps, and the little spin you can apply mid-flight and after the ball lands.
Statues, strokes and Ace Cards
To avoid burning out on shot five, gold and silver statues are scattered across the levels: smash a gold one for four extra shots, a silver one for two. Spare shots double as currency — you spend them in shops on Ace Cards. These are single-use abilities that bend the rules in your favor: rewind the ball to its last spot, teleport it, freeze a trap, replay a stroke. A well-built deck turns a hopeless hole into a clean one-shot finish.
18 holes, curses and bosses
A full run is 18 holes drawn at random from roughly 70 hand-built levels split across biomes. Between the regular holes sit cursed ones: optional levels that slap on temporary restrictions — like blocking your usual aiming — but hand out a powerful reward if you clear them. At the end of each biome a boss waits, and you don't fight them, you out-golf them under special rules. Thanks to the random hole pool and your Ace deck, no two runs play the same — that's the roguelike heart of Cursed to Golf.
The look and why people love it
Cursed to Golf runs on dense pixel art: a gloomy yet charming Purgatory, expressive characters, readable hazards. The game is praised for how its "just one more shot" loop pulls you in — you're always on the edge, and every lucky bounce feels like a small win. The difficulty is fair and at times sharp-toothed: this is a game about skill and planning, not relaxed couch golf.
Exactly what you're buying
This is the standard edition — the full base game of Cursed to Golf, nothing trimmed. You receive it as a Steam Gift; once the gift is accepted, the entire game lands in your Steam library and updates as usual. There are no extra editions or mandatory DLC to chase — all the content is already inside.
How the gift delivery works
This is not a key — it's a Steam Gift. A friend-bot handles delivery: it adds you as a friend itself, sends Cursed to Golf as a gift and then leaves — you don't have to send anyone a friend request or confirm one manually. Steam Guard is not required to accept the gift. Just make sure the game isn't already in your Steam library, otherwise the gift can't be accepted. Delivery usually takes a couple of minutes, after which you simply accept the gift — and the game stays on your account forever.
Gift region
The gift belongs to the Russia region: it's accepted on a Steam account whose country/region is set to Russia. If your account is in another region, Steam may not let you accept the gift, so check your region before buying. The game is officially listed for Windows; on Steam Deck and Linux it runs through Proton, but there's no native build.
Tactics: how to actually finish a run
The core habit in Cursed to Golf is thinking one shot ahead. Don't waste strokes — sometimes a short safe lay-up beats blasting a driver over a pit. Plan your statues: a gold one worth four shots often matters more than cutting a corner. Save Ace Cards for the hard stretches instead of dumping them on hole one — a single card played at the right moment can save the whole run. And lean on spin: a little adjustment in flight and after landing pulls the ball out of a seemingly lost spot. Take cursed holes when you're confident in your shot reserve: the reward is worth it, but the cost of a mistake is high.
How long it takes and who it's for
A full run is a compact session you can realistically clear in an evening, but mastery builds over time: you learn to read biomes, draft an Ace deck, and beat bosses with fewer losses. The game shines if you love short, deliberate "just one more" sessions, respect fair difficulty, and get a kick out of one precise shot redeeming a whole hole. If you're after a calm golf simulator, Cursed to Golf is a different beast: it's a roguelike puzzle wrapped in golf.
If this kind of golf clicks for you
If you enjoy a familiar sport turned inside out, look at WHAT THE GOLF? and its absurd holes. If it's the roguelike "die, restart smarter" loop you're after, check Dead Cells and Hades: the same run-based logic, steady skill growth and randomized builds that drive Cursed to Golf.
💚 Same game — another format
A few links that might help: Cursed to Golf as a Steam key.