Have you ever noticed that some people tend to do really well at mini-golf, despite the fact that they’ve never played before? There’s certainly some luck involved when it comes to mini-golf.
The reality is that mini-golf is a nice combination of both luck and skill. However, those who play more often will find that they are able to outperform many other mini-golfers.
Let’s take a look at a few reasons why skill is important when it comes to mini-golf.
Does Mini Golf Take Skill? 3 Recommendations For Improving
As with any other sport, activity, or overall pastime, the more you do something, the higher the chances are that you’re going to get better at it. Mini-golf works in the same way.
Overall, it doesn’t take a ton of skill to play mini-golf. However, the more skill that you have, the better you’re going to perform which will help you be more competitive.
While mini-golf is popular and is mostly seen as a fun activity that you can enjoy with a group of friends, there are many people who play regularly… and they do so to get better.
With that being said, here are a few recommendations that you can use to improve your mini-golf skills. After all, these might be useful if you go on a special mini-golf date, or maybe you finally want to stop coming in last.
1) Know Your Mini-Golf Course
Depending on how many mini-golf courses are in your area, you may or may not have too many mini-golf options to choose from. This can be a good thing because it allows you to continuously play the same mini-golf courses.
Similar to real golf, this is beneficial because it allows you to:
- Get a feel for the holes that come with the course.
- Eliminate any surprises (since you’ve played there before).
- Understand if the greens are going to be slow or lightning fast.
Most importantly, you’ll know where to aim in order to increase your hole-in-ones. This will save you plenty of strokes and perhaps even help you from hitting your ball out of bounds.
When you also have the option to choose from multiple mini-golf courses, you have the option of choosing the best price that you want to pay for mini-golf, which is nice.
All of the previous benefits can serve as a huge advantage when it comes to not only improving your skills but winning more at mini-golf.
Don’t forget that mini-golf can also be very competitive. In fact, there are even professional mini-golfers who practice playing many hours per day to become the very best that they can be.
2) Develop A Putting Routine
This is one of those tips that I think a lot of people are going to dismiss. However, this is something that I’ve done with a lot of different pastimes and sports such as mini-golf, and it works very well.
You want to do your best when it comes to developing a putting routine. If you’ve ever watched professional golfers then you know exactly what I’m referring to.
Now, I will be the first to say that you don’t need to take 10 minutes for every shot. You also don’t have to lay flat on the ground to analyze your next putt either.
On the other hand, when it comes to putting, make an effort to:
- Keep your feet evenly spread apart with the ball in the middle.
- Visually see where you’d like the ball to go when you make your putt.
- Use the same amount of force with every shot (unless required otherwise).
When you develop a proper putting routine, it allows you to get into the flow and eliminate many other possible variables. This sets you up to develop your skills and get better at mini-golfing overall.
This will also allow you to drop the almost-full-swing putts that you often see. If you haven’t noticed, these usually aren’t allowed when playing mini-golf and don’t come with a great result.
3) Pick The Proper Mini-Golf Putter
This is a tip that you want to keep in mind before you even start mini-golfing. After all, after you pay to play, picking your putter and grabbing the scorecard are the first things that you’ll do.
Here are a couple of quick rules of thumb when it comes to picking a putter:
- The shorter you are, the shorter you’re going to want your putter to be.
- Likewise, the taller you are, the longer you’re going to want your putter to be.
The last thing that you’ll want to do is be completely hunched over for every one of your shots.
Picking the proper putter will help when it comes to improving your putting skills, simply because you’ll have the right tool. Otherwise, it’s kind of like wearing basketball shoes to run 10 miles.
While it’s doable, you’re not putting yourself in the best situation to perform optimally.
It also looks pretty funny if you’ve ever seen a tall person using an extra short putter. Next time you go mini-golfing, keep an eye out for that as it should definitely provide a smile for you.
Lucky Mini Golf Or Skill? Closing Words
Gary Player, a famous professional golfer once said that:
The harder you work, the luckier you get.
Granted there are going to be plenty of first-time mini-golfers that get the occasional hole-in-one. It’s expected, and that’s also what can make mini-golf such a fun and exciting activity (especially when played with friends).
On the other hand, as the golf professional Gary Player stated above, the harder that you work, the luckier you get. So when it comes to mini-golf, those who play and practice more tend to excel at a much faster rate.
- Related Reading: Regular Golf Vs Mini-Golf.
- Related Reading: Putt-Putt Vs Mini-Golf.
While newbies and beginners will get the occasional hole-in-one, the person who practices and refines their skills will find that they get multiple hole-in-ones when they play.
So if you’d like to have both luck and skill on your side when it comes to mini-golf, don’t forget the recommendations that we talked about previously in this article:
- Know your mini-golf course.
- Develop your putting routine.
- Lastly, make sure that you pick the proper putter.
Just these three simple tips can go very far when it comes to maximizing your mini-golf skills and outperforming your group of friends. Even better, maybe you’ll be able to use these skills to dazzle that special someone when you go on a mini-golfing date 🙂
