Introduction | Rules | Hints and Tips | Score Card | Trophies
So, you want to organise a round of Pub Golf? This does require a small amount of prior preparation and planning, and a working knowledge of the pubs in your home town.
When we were developing pub golf we wrote the rules so that we could compete in the game and not have to stay sober. With this in mind you will need the following:
With that you should be able to play Pub Golf. I'd be interested to know if you're sucessful in playing Pub Golf, and I'd like to know any courses which you come up with - just in case I happen to visit your town!
When you're choosing the drinks for your match, make sure the range of drinks is wide and varied, that way you're more than likely to catch out the person who had a bad experience on cider/whiskey/vodka etc. when they were 14 and refuse to touch the stuff now. This forces them to wince or play the drink substitution rule.
We always tend to start off with a pint of fizzy cold lager, which is always difficult to down in one when you're not ready for it. We always include a bottle of alco-pops, make it a par 1 and insist that people have to drink it out of the bottle - without straws.
When deciding the order of the pubs you're going to visit, you may like to take into account the pub crawl 'traditionalists' who try to make sure pub crawl routes do not cross each other. This will depend on your town as to if this is possible.
If, in the unlikely event that you cant find 10 pubs in your town you may like to try one of these suggestions
We usually have two water hazards in the route, and we try to make these fairly early on, usually holes 2 and 4 or 3 and 5. The water hazard is more amusing if its a pub with longer to walk to and from. Dont be mean and make a food stop pub a water hazard pub, you'll only catch yourself out.
See if your club house will look after the trophies while you're out and about - there's nothing more annoying than to have to carry four trophies around.
Winner of the Proffesional and Ladies competitions should be obvious, however the Man of the Match and Fungus the Bogeyman trophies are usually hard to call. Winners of the Man of the Match trophy have been known to pull a clever drink substitution trick by cunningly adding their penalty drink (in this case a double vodka) into the glass while drinking the substituted drink (a pint of lager instead of scrumpy).
Fungus is tricky to call as the most appropriate person will be the one who doesnt make it back to the clubhouse for the presentation, however someone who has a 'bouncing pint' incident along the route is always a good candidate.
For trophy design - see the Trophies Section
Score cards should be filled out as people go. We usually rely on people to be honest - but this will depend on who your competitors are, and how competitive they get!
We usually create a score table once or twice on the way round to see who is in the lead. You may like to have a separate sheet for this, but scrawling over a blank score card usually suffices!
The cards are more durable if you can make them on card rather than paper, this way people dont have to use their friends backs or a beer soaked table. An example of a score card is shown.
The referee is arguably the most important person on the day of your match. He/she (or they) should be able to arbitrate in any disputes over fair play, or rule clarification. We made the rules fairly detailed to avoid a bunch of pedants going out and arguing all the way round the course.
The last rule is that the rules are subject to change without notice. This right is usually given to the referee incase someone manages to find a loophole (or is just being annoying). It is sometimes helpful if the referee is not involved in course selection, as he/she/they can sudenly make up the rule that the organisers are biased and therefore cannot win.
Referees should stay reasonably sober around the course, and may like to have the honour of presenting the trophies when the match is over and you are all having a celebratory drink back in the clubhouse.
So, you've done your preparation, and you know your course, have created/bought your trophies, created your score cards, and its time for the big day. Pub Golf is best played on a saturday, since pubs are open and no-one has to goto work on a sunday (obviously some of you may disagree with this sentiment).
Suggest that you meet in your clubhouse at midday, ready to tee off at the first hole at 1pm - hole one at one. This means that you can get round (most of) the pubs well before the main saturday evening rush-hours commence. You may like to keep the course (and therefore drinks) a complete secret until the big day. Bring spare pens, as a general rule everyone will have forgotten them.
Take the course at the pace it goes, but dont spend too long at each hole. I can never remember what time we get back to the clubhouse, but it is usually dark!
Make sure your referee is briefed about the rules, since there are bound to be some people who havent been bothered to read the rules before the game.
Introduction | Rules | Hints and Tips | Score Card | Trophies