The Orioles clubhouse is falling in love with this iPhone game
Jordan Westburg was rummaging through the App Store for new games — a foreign concept to Colton Cowser, who said he’s “never met anyone that’s just bored and gets on the App Store and downloads a game.”
The third basemen took quickly to the iPhone game he found a few weeks ago, dragging teammates such as Cowser, shortstop Gunnar Henderson and left-hander Cole Irvin into it. “Coffee Golf” is now permeating through the Orioles’ clubhouse. It started with a few players sharing scores and has since picked up to planning a near-clubhouse-wide tournament.
“Coffee Golf” is self-described as a daily golf game to go with your morning coffee. It came out in 2023. It’s simple and addictive.
Each day offers a new course — similar to Wordle, Connections and other daily games — with five uniquely colored holes. You can take any path you choose and, like full-sized golf, you’re shooting for the lowest score. But unlike real golf, which is played with a full set of 14 clubs, or mini golf, “Coffee Golf” uses three tools: driver, wedge and putter.
— Coffee Golf (@CoffeeGolfGame) November 2, 2023
To play the day’s course more than once (without ads) requires an in-app purchase. Naturally, all the Orioles in on the action shelled out the necessary $5.
There’s also a “Pro Tour” function, which offers a chance to play different courses against online opponents and earn trophies. For context, one win can add or subtract somewhere between one and four trophies depending on the difficulty.
Westburg leads the clubhouse with more than 250.
As of earlier this week, Henderson had 158 but he claimed the app update messed up his stats. Cowser had 84, much of which came in one sitting while the team was stuck on the tarmac before their recent flight home from Chicago. Irvin sticks to the daily course. And catcher Adley Rutschman just downloaded it. Even right-hander Mike Baumann, who was sent to Seattle in a recent trade, still dabbles in “Coffee Golf.”
“Westy was the one that dragged me in,” Irvin said. “And it kind of turned into dragging everyone else in.”
The team is continually adding each other as friends on the app as more players download it. Irvin pulled out his phone to check the clubhouse leaderboard. His eyebrows crinkled, “Who is chivalrousexcitingbiscuit?” “Someone didn’t update their name yet,” Cowser laughed.
All of these scores are merely considered practice right now. There’s bragging rights for shooting lower than a teammate on a daily course. There’s talk of strategy in a course’s approach. Trophies are probably a mark of time spent on the game as much as it is skill.
It’s all practice for the real thing, of which Irvin will be the master of ceremonies.
Their ultimate plan with the game is to organize a weekend tournament. Cowser and Irvin started brainstorming back and forth how this “Coffee Golf Masters Tournament” might work.
The tournament would run from Thursday to Sunday, like a real major championship. There needs to be some proof, too. Otherwise, “I will cheat,” Coswer said. “Yeah, he will cheat,” Irvin confirmed. So to play that day’s course, you must be at the field.
Irvin called it, being “on Coffee Golf grounds,” otherwise known as Camden Yards. Shooting a round before getting out of bed in the morning is off limits. And even if they all paid to play a course with unlimited tries, this tournament would likely have a strict one-round-per-day rule.
“We’re thinking the next major event is probably the best time to do it,” Irvin said. “U.S. Open [is June 13-16], that’s coming up.”