Miniature Golf Course Designs for Backyards

A round of miniature golf is fun for the whole family, from young children to their grandparents. A backyard miniature golf course provides the opportunity to have fun with a round of golf without having to pay every time you wish to play on the course, and adds a unique attraction to any warm weather gathering like a barbecue.

  1. Backyard Pros and Cons

    • When building an outdoor golf course it is important to realize there will be both pros and cons to placing your course outside. Creating an outdoor course often allows for more room to create your holes, as the course is not confined to fitting within a recreation room or basement. On the negative side with your holes built outdoors the maintenance on your holes will be higher, with the need to keep the greens clean of falling debris like leaves, and your designs will be exposed to the elements, requiring more upkeep to prevent deterioration.

    Course Style

    • There are two primary styles of courses to choose from when designing your backyard miniature golf course. The traditional miniature golf course is one most players associate with the game. Although holes in a traditional course can contain slopes and obstacles like water or sand, the primary obstacles on courses are unnatural elements, such as loop-de-loops or narrow bridges to putt over. An alternative style of miniature golf courses is one where you truly play like a miniature course. There are no unnatural obstacles, and instead the difficulty comes from trying to putt around a small course, complete with miniature sand traps and water hazards and holes where laying up is required. While the alternative style can appeal to seasoned golfers who enjoy approaching the course as they would a full size course, traditional courses often appeal more to young players.

    Permanent Courses

    • Permanent courses allow for more intricate obstacles to be used in your backyard course. If you know that your course will remain in place year round, construct borders by laying down bricks around the perimeters of holes. Purchase or construct permanent obstacles, such as the miniature golf standard, a spinning windmill to putt through. As artificial turf is a durable material, a permanent course is functional year round provided it is not covered in snow, however your course may require squeegeeing to remove excess water after heavy rains.

    Temporary Courses

    • Although a permanent course can result in eye-pleasing results, for many home owners they are cost prohibitive. Creating a course using improvised and temporary obstacles greatly reduces the cost of course design. Installing a single putting green, then making multiple holes on it with movable obstacles allows for a full course in a small space for less money. With a temporary course there is no limit to what can be an obstacle. For example, some excess plastic tubing provides a channel to put through, or a large rock from the yard provides a free impediment. With putting greens costing between $12 and $15 per square foot, according to Softrak Greens, creating a single 20 foot by 30 foot green then using bricks or two-by-fours to make walls for holes while placing down temporary obstacles allows for less total green installation then making nine to 18 holes, each several feet wide and 10 to 20 feet long.