Crazy golf is the British name for mini golf: short putting holes with windmills, ramps, loops and water in the way. Here is how it is played, how scoring works, and where to find a course. Plus a free daily crazy golf game you can play in a browser in about two minutes.
Crazy golf is a putting game played on short holes with obstacles built into them: windmills, ramps, loops, tunnels, water channels and banked walls. You use one putter and one ball, you play nine or eighteen holes, and the player with the fewest total strokes wins. It needs no golf experience at all, which is why it works for families and mixed groups.
Nothing, other than where you are standing. Crazy golf is the British and Irish name, mini golf is the American name, and putt-putt is an older American brand name that became generic. All three describe the same game: putting only, short holes, obstacles in the way.
Adventure golf usually means a larger landscaped outdoor course with themed scenery: rocks, waterfalls, pirate ships, jungle planting. Crazy golf tends to mean the smaller, more mechanical layout with windmills and ramps, often at the seaside or indoors. The rules and the scoring are the same.
Nine or eighteen. Eighteen is standard at larger outdoor and adventure courses and takes about an hour for a group of four. Nine holes is common indoors and at seaside courses and takes around half an hour.
Most crazy golf holes are set at par 2. Longer holes, or ones with a moving obstacle, are sometimes par 3. Par matters less than in full-size golf, because the winner is decided by total strokes and a hole in one is a realistic result on any hole.
Count every stroke you take on a hole and write the number down before moving on. At the end, add every hole together for each player. The lowest total wins. Most courses also apply a maximum per hole, usually six, so one disastrous hole does not decide the round.
Putt only, play the ball where it lies, and take turns with whoever won the last hole going first. If the ball leaves the playing area, place it back at the point where it left and add one stroke. If it finishes against an obstacle, you may move it one putter head away. Stop at the agreed stroke limit and record that number. Courses vary, so the house rules on the board always win.
You take the stroke limit. Most courses cap a hole at six: when you reach it, pick the ball up, write six down, and move on. Agree the number before the first hole so nobody argues about it at hole eleven.
About 45 to 60 minutes for eighteen holes with a group of four, and roughly half an hour for nine. Groups larger than four slow down noticeably, which is why most courses send players out in fours.
Yes. TallyHo Today is a free daily crazy golf game in your browser: three new holes every day, the same three for every player in the world, about two minutes to play. No download and no payment. The TallyHo app adds TallyHo Wild, three extra holes a day with heavier obstacles, unlocked once you have played the day's round.
Yes. TallyHo is a free digital scorecard for crazy golf and mini golf. Only one person in the group needs it: they add everybody by name and tap the scores in, so there is no paper card and no pencil. At a partner course you scan the QR code and the course, the holes and the pars are already loaded.
Seaside towns, indoor leisure centres, adventure golf parks and pub gardens all run crazy golf. The TallyHo course directory lists partner courses with a digital scorecard and a live leaderboard already set up, and any course can be added free.
They do not need one, but paper costs money every week and tells the operator nothing. A digital scorecard removes the printing, puts a leaderboard on the wall that players want to beat, and shows the operator how many rounds were played and when. The TallyHo free tier covers all of that with no contract.
Competitively, yes. It is played as minigolf under the World Minigolf Sport Federation, with national teams, ranked players and world championships on standardised course systems. The version at the seaside is the same game played for fun.