NES Open Tournament Golf featured three different courses. Those courses were the US Course, Japan Course, and the UK Course. Although the Japan Course and UK Course are also playable courses in Mario Open Golf they do not contain the same holes. There are some holes in each course that are identical or nearly identical to holes found in NES Open Tournament Golf. For example, hole number one in the Australia Course is hole number nine in the US Course.

Stroke Play

The player must play Stroke Play (not in a tournament) to be eligible to be promoted to the next rank. If they have played well enough, they will be offered the chance to move to the next level. This usually requires playing two 18 hole rounds. They start off as a beginner, after which they can progress to amateur, semi-professional, and professional. Their rank is displayed on the title screen.

Match Play

In this mode the winner is determined by whoever wins the most holes. To win a hole the player must get a lower score than their opponent. If they and their opponent get the same amount of stokes on a hole, it results in a tie. At the end of all 18 holes whoever has won the most holes wins the match. If by the 18th hole there is still a tie, players will start back at the first hole until a winner is declared. In the single player mode, the first challenger is Luigi and once the player has won a match against him, they will face off with four newly created characters:

• Steve - Beginner
• Mark - Amateur
• Tony - Semi-Professional
• Billy - Professional

Tournament

In this mode players have the option of either playing Stroke Play or Match Play. Depending on the players rank and score for the round they will earn prize money. At the end of the round they will be shown a scoreboard. The ranks range from 1st to 37th place. The higher they rank for that round the more money they will win. Prize money can be viewed by selecting the Prize Money option in the Clubhouse. A record of the players total earnings is saved, even after the system is turned off.

"Bet On 1 Hole" is an option you can select if the player chooses Match Play. In this mode a computer controlled opponent will challenge the player to one hole. Whoever gets the lower score on that hole wins the match. If the player succeeds they will earn prize money, as well as the option to continue playing the next hole for an increased amount of prize money. In the event of a draw the player can continue to play for the same amount of prize money that was up for grabs on the previous hole. If they lose the hole they will lose whatever amount of prize money was set for that hole and the match will end.

Clubhouse

In this mode you are able to toggle between several different options as well as view various game data.

• Register Name
• Choose Clubs
• Options
• Player Stats
• Prize Money
• Tournament Roster
• Training
• Hall of Fame Holes
• Clear Saved Data

Mario Open Golf featured five different courses. Those courses were the Japan Course, the Australia Course, the France Course, the Hawaii Course, and the UK Course. In addition to those five courses an Extra Course is also available. The Extra Course contains a mix of holes from the other five courses.

Stroke Play

In this mode players have the opportunity to unlock new courses which will also increase their rank. Initially there is only one course available to play, the Japan Course. After clearing this course you will be allowed to play the Australia Course. There are certain score requirements to accomplish before you are able to unlock the next course. Initially you will simply have to clear the Japan Course without going over +18. Below are a list of the score requirements for each course. The sixth course in the game is the Extra Course. It contains a mix of holes from all of the other courses. The Extra Course is available to play once you have cleared the Japan Course.

• Under +18 | Japan Course
• Under +12 | Australia Course
• Under +08 | France Course
• Under +04 | Hawaii Course
• Under +02 | UK Course

Match Play

In this mode you may play against computer controlled opponents. There are three different opponents in this mode: Luigi, Tony, and Billy. You'll notice that the characters Steve and Mark do not appear in this version of the game, as they were created exclusively for NES Open Tournament Golf. Regardless of rank you may choose any of the three characters you wish to play against.

Clubhouse

In this mode you are able to toggle between several different options as well as view various game data.

• Choose Clubs
• Options
• Player Data
• Training
• Memorial Holes
• Clear Saved Data

This game was released for the Disk System on February 21, 1987. Family Computer Golf: Japan Course is very similar to the original Golf which was released for the Famicom in 1984. In this version of the game you can consistently see the bird's eye view of the course on the right-side of the screen, while the left side of the screen consistently showed a third-person view. Two modes of play are available in the game, stroke play and match play. Though the course designs are similar to those found in NES Open Tournament Golf, the controls are slightly different. You can choose between three different speeds at which you hit the ball, and you can also cycle between golf clubs. In this version however, the default club will always be a 1W, whereas in later games an appropriate club would be pre-selected for you. The scorecard in this game is nearly identical to the one found in NES Open Tournament Golf.

This game came on a blue disk card, when most disk at the time were yellow. The blue disk indicated that it could be used in machines called a Disk Fax as part of a contest in Japan. Players high scores were saved on the disk, and by using the name entry feature in the game to enter their personal data, players could send the data to Nintendo using the Disk Fax. The winners of the contest received a golden disk containing a harder version of the game.

This game was released for the Disk System on June 14, 1987. Family Computer Golf: U. S. Course is similar to the original Golf and Mario Open Golf. In this version of the game a bird's eye view of the course is shown on the center of the screen, while the right side of the screen shows a third-person view. Once you were ready to hit the ball the bird's eye view transitioned to a screen with just the third-person view. This concept was slightly modified and used in Mario Open Golf which was released in September 1991.

Mario Open Golf was one of the titles released on Nintendo's arcade machine, the PlayChoice-10. Each machine had a mix of ten different NES games to choose from. For each token, players would be given a fixed amount of time to play any of the ten games on the PlayChoice-10. The dual-screen cabinet gave instructions on the top-screen, while the lower screen was used to show the actual game. The typical amount of time per token was 300 seconds, of which the player could switch in and out of different games if they so desired. The arcade machine's main circuit board had the ability to plug-in 10 different games, similar to the circuit board of an NES cartridge. PlayChoice games varied slightly from their original NES counterparts, as additional circuitry was needed to allow the game to run on the arcade machine.

Mario Open Golf for the PlayChoice-10 was most similar to that of NES Open Tournament Golf, more so than Mario Open Golf for the Famicom. There were some differences from NES Open, however, such as no tournament mode in Mario Open Golf.

The PlayChoice-10 also featured the original Golf video game for the NES as one of the games in its library.

NES Open has received mostly positive reviews from critics. The Video Game Critic awarded the game an A rating, describing it as "one terrific golf game that was well ahead of it's time".