The only thing missing from Wordle‘s status as a cultural institution was a day devoted to it, and now we have that, too.
Welcome to Wordle Day, or May 6, to be precise. Why today? “Because Wordle uses five letters with six guesses to find a secret word, we thought May 6 would be the perfect date to celebrate the game that has sparked a joyful daily routine for so many people across the globe,” said New York Times Wordle Editor Tracy Bennett.
Okay, that makes some self-serving sense, and who are we to argue with that logic when most of us are hooked on daily plays of the word game that asks us to figure out a five-letter word in six tries?
If you have any questions about Wordle’s popularity or why it deserves a day, look at these stats. According to the NYT, there have been, to date, 5.3 billion Wordle game plays. A massive 2.8 million people use the same starter word every day.
Wordle’ is certainly an institution here, where our daily Wordle today column provides some hints then walks you through how we solved it. I hope you don’t read those posts before trying to solve the puzzle on your own, but you do you.
Wordle is also a competitive sport. In my house, my wife and I end each evening completing several puzzles, including Wordle, Connections, Strands, and Quordle (the only non-NYT game).
Wordle is invariably our first stop, and, yes, there is a competition to see who can solve it in the fewest tries. So, it should come as no surprise that to celebrate this totally made-up day, The New York Times introduced Wordle Golf.
This is not another word game (thank goodness, I can’t take on any more). Instead, it’s a reimaginging of the standard Wordle competition into a golf game format.
As with golf, there are 18 holes…or, er…puzzles. You can play against seven other players (or more if you, I guess, print out more Wordle Golf sheets).
Each game is scored similarly to a golf game, meaning you want the lowest score (more strokes in golf raise your score and are generally considered a bad thing).
The scoring system for Wordle Golf breaks down like this:
- 6 points for a guess on the sixth try
- 5 points for a “Bogey” or fifth attempt guess.
- A guess in four is “Par” and worth 4 points,
- Three is worth 3 points and considered a “Birdie”
- 2 guesses is worth 2 points and a rare “Eagle”
- 1 is the miracle of a “Hole in one” and worth 1.
In theory, you can spend most of May playing Wordle Golf, but it does mean that no one should skip a day.
It’s a silly game, but probably less difficult and frustrating than 18 holes on a real golf course.
Who knows, if you’re a real Wordle pro, this might be just the kind of challenge you’ve been waiting for. Let’s just hope there’s not another “CORER”. That was the word, according to The New York Times, that broke 5.6 million streaks.
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lance.ulanoff@futurenet.com (Lance Ulanoff)
