My seven-year-old son wanted to go miniature golfing for his birthday, but he didn’t want to leave our house to do it. He wanted to build an 18-hole miniature golf course in our yard. -So, we did! Afterward, I thought this would be a fun party with several families. You could have a pile of supplies and let each family build three holes.
Invitation
Here’s the simple invitation we sent to all of his golfing buddies:
Golf Clubs/Balls/Tees/Scorecards
As the guests arrived, they checked in at the club house and received their scorecard, ball, and putter. We borrowed putters from lots of neighbors. Many of the kids were able to bring a putter from home. In the end, a couple of kids used random irons. That worked out just fine. I purchased a box of golf balls and tees. You can find these online or at any sporting goods store. I printed my own score cards and gave each foursome one card and a pencil. Here’s the scorecard with the rules printed beneath. Mini Golf Scorecard
The Golf Course
Dividing the Yard into 18 Holes
I bought four rolls of brightly colored plastic marking tape at Harbor Freight & Tools. They use this tape (which is not sticky) to mark off areas during construction projects. I used this tape to divide both the front and back yards into 18 sections. I used 3-inch-long nails to pin the ends of the tape into the grass. These were our 18 holes. Most holes were long rectangular sections, but a few were triangles. In each section, I stuck a flag with the number of the hole. This helped our golfers know where to go next and where to mark their score. I made the flags with dowels and paper. You could also use sprinkler flags.
Building the Holes
We found that the best thing for the actual holes were large 24 oz. paper cups. We laid them on their side and stuck a nail inside and through the cup into the ground to hold it in place.
We used all kinds of stuff to create the obstacles leading up to our holes. Here are some of our ideas:
PVC or dryer vent pipe for tunnels
Multiple 2 X 4’s, rocks, and bricks made great tools for building obstacles.
A castle made from a cardboard box with a hole through the middle (the doorway).
A ramp that drops into a toddler’s potty. (The kids thought that was hilarious.)
Weave the ball around a bunch of boots or shoes.
Make an animal face with a hole for the mouth.
We built a wooden ramp up and over a small kiddie pool—water hazard!
Plastic rain gutters make great ramps and slides.
Boxes- Oh what you can do with boxes! Ooh- and plastic crates or bins are great too.
Tree branches are challenging to hit a ball through.
Tires are great obstacles.
Orange cones (We have them for soccer drills.)
2 X 4’s set at different angles are fun because balls bounce off them and go a different way.
Toys! You can incorporate any cool toy buildings into your course. Think Little People, Legos, blocks, etc.
You can also use a lot of other toys. We used our big stuffed alligator and plastic snakes for a fun swampy hole.
We used a bicycle right in the middle of a hole. They had to hit the ball between the wheels to get through to the hole.
Treats/Cake
We served golf ball cake pops- which were donut holes on a stick, dipped in white chocolate, and sprinkled with white nonpareils (sprinkles).
The birthday cake was frosted with chocolate icing, then sprinkled with green colored coconut (grass) and white Sixlets that looked like tiny golf balls. I wrote the birthday boy’s name with red golf tees and stuck a flag made from a bamboo skewer with a 7 (the birthday boy’s age) written on it. We saved the cake to eat after dinner and gave the kids cupcakes. The cupcakes were frosted, sprinkled with the coconut grass, and had a large white gumball on top. You can kind of see them on the far right side of the photo above. Super easy and super cute!