The Golden Ball — Official Rules

No purchase necessary. Void where prohibited. Rose Buds LLC, Pennsylvania, United States.

1. Sponsor

This contest is sponsored solely by Rose Buds LLC. Apple Inc. and Google LLC are not sponsors of, and are not involved in any manner in, this contest. Questions or complaints about it go to Rose Buds LLC at info@tallyhogolf.com, not to Apple or Google.

The contest is sponsored and administered by Rose Buds LLC, a Pennsylvania limited liability company ("TallyHo"), operator of tallyhogolf.com. 824 North Surrey Drive, Lower Gwynedd, PA 19002, United States. Contact: info@tallyhogolf.com.

2. No purchase necessary

No purchase or payment of any kind is necessary to enter, qualify, or win. Every qualifying requirement can be completed with a free TallyHo account. A paid subscription does not add any qualifying requirement, does not unlock any qualifying item, and cannot be required at any step. Paid cosmetic items are excluded from the qualifying catalog by design.

3. What the Golden Ball is

The Golden Ball is a one-time skill contest. Exactly one prize will ever be awarded, to the first eligible player to complete every requirement in Section 6 and perfect a claim under Section 9. There is no deadline, no drawing, no random selection, and no element of chance: every requirement is an objective, machine-verified fact of gameplay, identical for every player worldwide (all players receive the same holes, generated deterministically from the date).

4. Eligibility

• Open to registered TallyHo account holders. Accounts are free.
• Void where prohibited. Excluded: residents of Quebec and Italy.
• Players under 18 (or the age of majority in their residence) require parental or guardian consent for eligibility and for any payment.
• One account per person; progress is account-bound and non-transferable.
• Employees, officers, members and contractors of TallyHo, and their immediate family and household members, may play but may not claim the prize. "Immediate family" means a parent, child, sibling or spouse, whether or not they live in the same household.

5. Contest period

• Community precondition — met on September 21, 2026. The contest could not open until at least 100 signed-in players recorded a ranked score in TallyHo Today on one UTC calendar date. 110 did so on September 21, 2026. Meeting it did not open the contest: these rules were not published that day, and nothing qualifying was counted.
• Start Date: September 22, 2026, 00:00:00 UTC, which is September 21, 2026, 8:00:00 p.m. Eastern Time. Those are the same moment. Dates in these rules are UTC calendar dates unless an Eastern time is given beside them. No claim may be made before the Start Date, and these rules are published on or before it.
• Contest Year One: the Start Date through September 30, 2027, 23:59:59 UTC (September 30, 2027, 7:59:59 p.m. Eastern Time). Every later contest year runs from October 1, 00:00:00 UTC, through September 30, 23:59:59 UTC, so year two is October 1, 2027 through September 30, 2028.
• Progress epoch: the Start Date. Qualifying items count only from the Start Date onward, so every player begins level regardless of how long they have been playing. Items earned before that date are kept and displayed but do not count toward qualification. Daily streaks and Challenge points are not qualifying items and are not reset or discounted.
• The contest continues until the prize is claimed and confirmed.

6. How to qualify

A player qualifies by holding, on one account, all 100 qualifying items: 69 balls and 31 trails, and by meeting the scoring average below.

• The app is required. The Wild power balls and Wild trails are earned in TallyHo Wild, which runs only in the free TallyHo app for signed-in players. A player using only the website cannot complete the set. The app is free on iOS and Android and no purchase is required at any point.
• No qualifying item needs a paid round of mini golf. Every item can be earned from the TallyHo app and website alone.
• Collector's items do not count. Some balls can be earned in the game but are not part of the Golden Ball, usually because they need a round at a real mini golf course, which can cost money. They are shown in the game in their own section, labelled "not part of the Golden Ball". Holding them never helps or hurts a player's progress.
• Some requirements depend on other people. Eight qualifying items can only be completed if other players take part: The Whole Squad, The Underdog, The Ambassador, The Architect, Rival and Party Host (mystery balls), and The Recruiter and Plus One (task balls). They involve friends who play, friends you play against in the Challenge, players you refer, or players who play a round you made. The criteria are identical for every player, but a player whose friends do not play cannot complete them. TallyHo does not supply friends or opponents and does not waive these requirements.
• Reminders and notifications stay your choice. Wake-Up Call and Pocket Pro are earned the moment you switch the daily reminder or notifications on. You may switch either off at any time afterwards; the ball stays yours and still counts toward the Golden Ball.
• Scoring average. In addition to the 100 items, the average of strokes minus par across the account's 100 most recent completed TallyHo Today rounds, played on or after the Start Date, must be 2.5 strokes under par or better (-2.5 or lower). Rounds that ended unfinished are not counted. An account with fewer than 100 completed rounds does not yet meet it. The average is checked together with the 100 items, and both must hold at the same time. It is not a ball and does not change the count of 100.
• Other players must be real, active players. Where a requirement involves other players, it counts only friendships both players have accepted, players who have themselves completed TallyHo Today rounds on a minimum number of separate days, and, where it involves beating or being beaten by another player, opponents who finished their own round and played competitively that day. The thresholds are identical for every player.
• The qualifying catalog is final as listed. Cosmetics added later never extend the requirement (Section 12).
• Qualifying is based on what an account has EARNED, never on what it has paid for or can currently display.
• Three mystery requirements depend on the size of the field. They count only dates, or months, on which at least 50 signed-in players are ranked on the TallyHo Today leaderboard; one of them also needs at least 25 players ranked on the Challenge leaderboard that day. They are evaluated at the end-of-day standings snapshot. Every other requirement is the same whatever the size of the field.

7. Verification and fair play

• Qualifying facts are computed on TallyHo's servers from gameplay records and reviewed before any award. TallyHo may refuse, and permanently disqualify, any account whose records show automation, falsified play, multiple-account collusion, or manipulation of the service. This includes play patterns that are statistically improbable for a human player (for example scores, times or ace rates far outside what the account's own history and the wider field make plausible), and coordinated accounts: accounts created, befriended, referred or played for the purpose of helping another account qualify.
• Server records and their derivation logs are the authoritative record.
• TallyHo's determinations on qualification and verification are final and binding on all entrants, to the fullest extent permitted by applicable law. Nothing in these rules limits any right an entrant has under the mandatory consumer protection law of their country of residence.

8. Subscriber features disclosure

A paid subscription includes gameplay conveniences that can make qualifying FASTER but never unlock anything a free player cannot earn:

Because the contest has no deadline, these change pace, not reachability.

Replays and mulligans count. A round played on a replay, or with a mulligan, counts toward every qualifying item exactly as any other round does, including the requirements based on rank, aces, or the score of every hole. Free players have the same features in smaller amounts (the table above).

9. Claiming

1. When an account completes Section 6, TallyHo's systems flag it and TallyHo notifies the account holder at the email address on the account. Claims are initiated by TallyHo, not by the player — there is nothing a player needs to find, press or submit to be considered. A player who believes they qualify and has not been contacted may write to info@tallyhogolf.com.
2. The claimant must, at claim time: (a) be actively following @tallyho.golf on Instagram and TikTok, with a 48-hour grace period to begin following if not; (b) complete step-up identity verification on the account — a 6-digit authenticator code (TOTP) or a one-time recovery code; enrollment is available at any time before a claim, under My Stats in TallyHo Today; (c) for minors, provide guardian consent and payment authorization.
3. TallyHo then conducts a manual review of the account's full play history and derivation records. The prize is awarded only after this review.
4. Exactly one claim can be pending or confirmed at any time. If a claim is voided (failed review, expired grace period, failed verification), the contest reopens for the next qualifying account.
5. Winner is responsible for all taxes. US winners: W-9 and 1099 as required.
6. Winners outside the United States. The prize is paid in US dollars by international bank transfer, or by another method TallyHo reasonably selects. The winner bears any bank, intermediary and currency-conversion fees, and is responsible for all taxes, duties and reporting obligations in their country of residence. TallyHo will withhold tax at source where it is required to. A winner who cannot lawfully receive the payment, or who does not provide the documentation needed to make it within 30 days of request, forfeits, and the contest reopens under Section 9.4.

10. The prize

The cash prize has two parts. The page and the app show one number, because that is the number a player is competing for; the rules state the two parts separately, because they are two different offers with two different sources, two different terms, and two different geographic footprints.

• Cash — Base Prize. $1,000, increased by $25 for every golf course that partners with TallyHo and $25 for every 50,000 completed TallyHo Today rounds by signed-in players, both measured from the Start Date, up to a published maximum of $4,500. The Base Prize is guaranteed, is funded by TallyHo, carries no conditions beyond these rules, and is offered in every jurisdiction where this contest is open. A published contest has to state a prize value, and "it grows without limit" is not a statable value, so the growth is bounded by a stated maximum that TallyHo may raise but never lower. The Base Prize opens at $1,000 and every increase after that is one the community visibly earned. It never decreases.
• Cash — Sponsor Bonus. A named sponsor may add a stated amount to the cash prize for a stated term, under Section 12. The Sponsor Bonus is not part of the Base Prize and is not subject to the Base Prize maximum. It is payable only on a claim confirmed during that sponsor's term, and is offered only in jurisdictions where that specific bonus is lawful without registration TallyHo has not completed (Section 12, Jurisdictional severability). Where a bonus is not offered, the Base Prize is paid in full and nothing else changes. An unsold term carries no bonus, which is the normal state and not a reduction.
• Who pays what. The Base Prize, the trophy and the lifetime access are TallyHo's obligation and are paid by TallyHo. A Sponsor Bonus is funded and paid by that sponsor, directly to the winner, within 30 days of TallyHo confirming the claim, under a written agreement between TallyHo and the sponsor. TallyHo does not hold sponsor funds. A sponsor's failure to pay does not reduce, delay or affect the Base Prize or any other prize element, which TallyHo owes in full regardless; TallyHo will pursue the sponsor's obligation on the winner's behalf but is not the payer of it. Where a sponsor pays a prize element directly, that sponsor is responsible for the tax reporting attaching to that payment.
• Cash — Total. The Total Cash Prize is the Base Prize plus any Sponsor Bonus in force at the moment a claim is confirmed, as displayed on tallyhogolf.com/golden-ball and in the app at that time. The Total may exceed the Base Prize maximum; the maximum constrains the Base Prize only.
• The Base Prize maximum can be raised, never lowered. TallyHo reserves the right to increase the published maximum at any time, on notice posted to tallyhogolf.com/golden-ball and inside the app. It will never be reduced, and no increase is retroactive against Section 11: accrual that has already spilled over to the environmental fund stays with the fund and is not clawed back into the prize. The figure above is a conservative opening number and the intent is to raise it; this clause is what makes raising it possible without reopening these rules or disadvantaging anyone who entered under the lower number.
• Trophy: a one-of-one engraved Golden Ball. ARV $150, being the retail price of the trophy plus custom engraving and delivery. Only one is awarded for the life of the contest.
• Lifetime premium access to TallyHo's paid tier (the Arcade Pass), and a permanent unique in-app title. ARV $99.90. Method, stated so the figure is computable rather than open-ended: lifetime access is valued at ten years at the annual subscription price in effect on the date the claim is confirmed ($9.99/year at the date of these rules). The in-app title has no separate retail value and is carried at $0.
• Total ARV: $4,749.90, being the Base Prize maximum of $4,500 plus $150 plus $99.90. A Sponsor Bonus, if one is in force, is additional and is stated on tallyhogolf.com/golden-ball with the sponsor's name.
• Charity direction: the winner names that year's environmental fund recipient from TallyHo's published shortlist. Naming the recipient does not change the size of the donation, which is set by Section 11.

11. The environmental fund

Separate from the prize and never paid to any player. TallyHo donates the fund annually, on or before the last day of the contest year, and the fund then resets to its base for the following year. It is a yearly gift, not a pot that accumulates.

It mirrors the player prize. Within each contest year the fund grows on exactly the same terms and at exactly the same rates as the cash in Section 10:

The one deliberate asymmetry is the last row, and it is the point: the prize is a single growing pot that one player eventually wins, and the fund is a gift that goes out every year whether or not anyone wins.

The annual donation is guaranteed and unconditional — the base is paid whether or not anyone wins, whether or not anyone plays, and is never contingent on any purchase. The activity amounts are increases on top of a floor that is already committed.

No purchase is ever required and nothing a player buys moves money to this fund. Both accruals are driven by course partnerships and by rounds played, not by consumer spend.

Contest years. The fund follows the contest year defined in Section 5, with the donation paid on or before that year's closing date. Partner and round counts for the fund are measured within the contest year only; they do not carry.

No maximum, by design. The prize is capped because a published prize value is a regulated number (Section 10). A charitable donation is not a prize, so none of those thresholds reach it, and "we give more the more you play, up to a point" is a worse promise than the one without the clause. The annual reset already bounds the exposure to a single year at a time.

Spillover. Once the prize reaches its Section 10 maximum, every further accrual it would have earned goes to the current contest year's fund instead. Nothing stops growing — past the cap, growth simply changes destination. This is the clause that makes the uncapped fund deliberate rather than an oversight: the money has to land somewhere, and the fund is where it lands.

Recipients come from the following published shortlist, each a registered United States 501(c)(3) environmental organisation:

• Trust for Public Land — parks and public green space
• One Tree Planted — reforestation
• The Nature Conservancy — land and water conservation
• Ocean Conservancy — ocean and waterway health

TallyHo makes the donation directly at the winner's direction. Naming an organisation on this shortlist is not a statement of partnership, sponsorship or endorsement by that organisation, and no organisation's marks are used. TallyHo may substitute an organisation that is unable or unwilling to accept the gift, or that ceases to hold 501(c)(3) status, with notice on this page. The winner of the Golden Ball names that year's recipient; in years with no winner, players vote from the same shortlist.

12. Increases, sponsors, and amendments

• The prize may be increased or supplemented at TallyHo's discretion. It is never reduced. Increases are effective when published on this page.
• Jurisdictional severability. This clause is the mechanism that lets the Total Cash Prize exceed the Base Prize maximum without changing what is offered in any jurisdiction that cannot receive the larger number. It works as follows:

1. Each Sponsor Bonus is published with the list of jurisdictions in which it is not offered. The list is part of the bonus's terms and is fixed for that bonus's term; it is stated on tallyhogolf.com/golden-ball alongside the sponsor's name and amount.
2. A player whose jurisdiction of residence appears on that list competes for the Base Prize. Everything else — eligibility, qualifying, verification, the trophy, lifetime access, and charity direction — is identical. No excluded player is disadvantaged relative to the contest as it existed before the bonus was added.
3. A player's jurisdiction is determined at the time the claim is confirmed, by the same verification in Section 9.
4. If a bonus is found unlawful in a jurisdiction after it is published, that jurisdiction is added to the exclusion list prospectively and the Base Prize continues to be offered there unaffected. A defect in a bonus never invalidates the Base Prize or the contest.
5. The Base Prize itself is offered uniformly wherever this contest is open and is never severed. Severability applies to bonuses only.

• Sponsor bonuses: a named annual sponsor may add a bonus to the prize applying only to a claim confirmed during that sponsor's stated term. Different terms may carry different bonuses or none; an unsold term carries the Base Prize alone. The bonus is a contingent obligation of the sponsor, not a fund held by TallyHo (Section 10, Who pays what): the sponsor pays the winner directly if and only if a claim is confirmed during their term, and owes nothing if none is. It is separate from, and additional to, any sponsorship fee the sponsor pays TallyHo for the association itself; that fee is never a prize and is never payable to a player. Sponsor money goes to the prize, not to the environmental fund: a sponsor is buying their name on a bigger prize for a player, and promotional sponsorship is kept out of the charitable pot entirely. Sponsors rotate. TallyHo does not accept sponsors in the gambling, alcohol, supplement or cryptocurrency categories.
• Non-prize terms may be amended prospectively; amendments are posted on this page with the date of change. No amendment reduces the prize.
• Amendment of October 4, 2026: the final catalog. The qualifying catalog first published with these rules listed 55 balls. On October 4, 2026 it was replaced by the 100 items in Section 6. Five mystery balls that needed a round of mini golf at a course were removed so that no qualifying item needs a paid round anywhere, consistent with Section 2. They remain in the game as collector's items, and any player who earned one keeps it. Nine new mystery balls, the globe balls and trails, the Challenge, streak and Wild trails, and the task balls were added. Every added item is free to earn, and nothing earned before the amendment was taken away. This catalog is final. No later amendment adds, removes or changes a qualifying requirement.
• Amendment of October 8, 2026: platform statement. Section 1 now states that Apple Inc. and Google LLC are not sponsors of the contest and are not involved in it. This is a non-prize term and applies prospectively. Eligibility, qualifying and the prize are unchanged.

13. Publicity

Winners aged 18 or over. TallyHo announces the winner's username and country. Use of a winner's real name, photograph, likeness, voice or statements in any other way requires that winner's separate written consent, given after the win and never as a condition of receiving the prize.

Winners under 18. TallyHo announces the winner's username and country only. No real name, no photograph, no likeness, no voice, no interview and no statement attributed to the winner will be published, and no such use will be requested as part of the claim.

• The prize is paid to the winner's parent or legal guardian, not to the winner.
• A parent or legal guardian must countersign the claim affidavit and any release. A minor cannot give a binding release, so a minor's signature alone is not accepted.
• Any publicity beyond username and country requires separate, written, opt-in consent from a parent or legal guardian, sought only after the claim is confirmed, never bundled into the claim documents, and refusable with no effect on the prize.

14. Privacy

Entrant data is handled per TallyHo's privacy policy at https://tallyhogolf.com/privacy-policy. Claim verification data (identity, guardian consent, tax forms) is used only for award administration.

Entrants in the United Kingdom and the European Economic Area. TallyHo processes entry and gameplay data to operate the contest on the basis of its legitimate interests in running a promotion the entrant has chosen to take part in (UK/EU GDPR Article 6(1)(f)). Claim verification data is processed to perform the agreement these rules create (Article 6(1)(b)) and to meet legal obligations including tax reporting (Article 6(1)(c)). Verification data is kept only as long as tax and record-keeping law requires, then deleted. Entrants may exercise their rights of access, rectification, erasure, restriction, objection and portability using the contact address in Section 1. Note that erasing qualifying records before a claim is resolved ends participation, because those records are the only proof of qualification.

15. General

• These rules are the entire agreement for the contest and control over any marketing description.
• Governing law: the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, without regard to its conflict-of-laws rules. Any dispute not resolved informally is subject to the exclusive jurisdiction of the state and federal courts sitting in Montgomery County, Pennsylvania, except where an entrant's country of residence gives them a non-waivable right to bring proceedings locally.
• These rules contain no arbitration clause and no class-action waiver.
• If any provision is unenforceable somewhere, the rest survive, and the provision applies wherever lawful.