Mini Golf

01

Format & scoring

• The aim: get the ball from the tee to the hole in as few strokes as possible.
• Max per hole: 7. Six strokes taken and still not holed? The hole ends there and one more point is added.
• Round: 18 holes, played in order 1–18 unless the tournament director sets otherwise.
• Ties: not addressed in the USPMGA rulebook — the organizer sets the tie-break format for a given event.

02

Starting each hole

• Start mat: every hole is teed off from its marked teeing-off point.
• Ready to play: address the ball with the club in both hands, then begin your backswing — that’s the moment you’re officially “ready,” and only a stroke from here counts.
• No practice strokes: practice strokes or rolling a ball on the runs are banned for the whole tournament.
• Play promptly: the first player in a group gets 90 seconds to play their first stroke at each hole.

03

Ball choice & playing it as it lies

• One ball: one ball per hole. If it’s badly damaged or lost (not found within 5 minutes), swap in another and replay from where you took the stroke that lost or damaged it.
• Play it as it lies: the ball is always played from where it comes to rest — the rulebook lists only three exceptions to this (see “Ball out of play” below).
• Don’t adjust the course: obstacles must be fixed by design, and players can’t change or add anything to a run.

04

Ball out of play

The rulebook plays every ball from where it comes to rest (that resting spot is what golf calls a “lie”) — except for three named situations, each handled differently:

• Out of bounds: reposition the ball at the point it left the playing area, plus 1 penalty stroke.
• Stuck in an obstacle: if the ball stays inside an obstacle’s construction, reposition it back in the direction it came from — the rulebook doesn’t attach a penalty stroke to this case specifically.
• Rolls back over the tee line: if it comes to rest back over the teeing-off line, play it from the point where it crossed that line.
• Lost or unplayable: example — you putt, the ball vanishes into a windmill’s gears, and it can’t be fished out. You don’t guess where inside the windmill it ended up; instead you go back to where you were putting from (its spot before that stroke) and hit again with a fresh ball. That stroke you already took still counts against your score — you’re just not tacking on an extra penalty stroke on top of it.

05

Path of the ball & holing out

• Don’t touch it: a ball in play can only be touched under another player’s (or a referee’s) watch, except to place it on a repositioning marking.
• Don’t steer it: nobody may influence its path after the stroke, except shielding it from wind — a referee can order a retake if outside interference affected it.
• Holed: only once the ball comes to rest in the cup and can’t leave on its own — resting on the lip doesn’t count.
• Turn order: this rulebook doesn’t use golf’s honors system (lowest score plays next) — the organizer sets play order and rotates it each round instead.