Mini Golf
Putt round nine holes in as few strokes as you can
How to play
Sugar Putt on Matsuri is a free online mini golf game on a candy course: nine holes a round, putted with a drag and a release, in as few strokes as you can. It plays in any browser on phone or desktop and inside Telegram via @MatsuriGamesBot, with no download. Everyone gets the same daily course, and a finished round can be sent to a friend to beat.
Sugar Putt is a mini golf game on a candy course. Drag back from the ball like a slingshot to aim and set the power, then let go to putt; the dotted line shows where it heads and its first bounce. Walls bounce the ball back, jelly bumpers throw it off faster, caramel slows it down, and a ball in a chocolate pond costs a penalty stroke and goes back to where you putted from. Later holes add a turning cookie windmill and a sliding wafer. Each round is nine holes with a par of two to four: sink it fast and slow enough to drop, as a fast ball lips out. After six strokes the ball is picked up. The daily course is the same for everyone, so the leaderboard is a fair race.
- Press anywhere and drag back, like a slingshot: the further you pull, the harder you putt. Let go to putt (or aim with ← →, set power with ↑ ↓, Space putts).
- The dots show where the ball heads and its first bounce. Round bumpers bounce it back, the slow patches slow it down, and a pond costs a stroke.
- Sink each of my nine holes in as few strokes as you can; a ball that comes in too fast hops over the cup.
How to play Mini Golf
Drag back from the ball like pulling a slingshot: the direction you pull sets the aim, the length of the pull sets the power, and letting go putts. You can start the drag anywhere on the course. A dotted line shows where the ball heads and its first bounce, but not where it will stop, so judging the pace is up to you. The ball rolls on felt and slows down by itself, bounces off the candy walls and the chocolate-bar islands, and drops when it reaches the cup slowly enough; a ball that arrives too fast is pulled round the rim and lips out, or skims straight over.
Each round has nine holes picked from hand-drawn layouts, and they get harder as you go: the first is a plain lane, the last ones wind round islands and past moving sweets. Jelly bumpers throw the ball back faster than it came, caramel patches slow it hard, and a ball that rolls into a chocolate pond costs a penalty stroke and goes back to where it was putted from. Later holes may have a turning cookie windmill or a sliding wafer; they move only while a ball is rolling, so the course waits for you while you aim.
Par is two to four strokes a hole. Each hole scores 100 points for each stroke under par plus three: a par is 300, a birdie 400, an eagle 500, a bogey 200, a double bogey 100, and worse scores nothing. A hole-in-one adds 200 more. After six strokes without holing out, the ball is picked up and the hole counts as seven. A round of pars scores 2700 on any course.
Mini Golf strategy and tips
- Learn your pull. The power grows with the length of the drag, and twice the pull rolls about twice as far on open felt, so after a few putts you can judge a putt by eye. The ring round the ball turns from green to yellow to red as you pull harder.
- Aim to finish just past the cup, never short of it. A ball that stops before the hole can never drop, while a gentle one that rolls a little long still falls in; only a hard putt lips out.
- Use the walls on doglegs. The dotted line shows exactly where the first bounce goes, so a bank off a wall is a dependable way round a corner or an island, and it often beats a straight line that brushes a jelly bumper.
- Respect the ponds. A penalty stroke plus the lost distance makes a pond the costliest mistake on the course, so on a bridge hole a softer putt that stops in front of the gap, leaving a short straight one through it, is often worth it.
- Time the movers by stroke, not by clock. The windmill and the wafer only move while your ball rolls, so a slow putt gives them more time to swing into its path; a firm putt through a windmill gate gets past before the next blade comes round.
Modes and difficulty
The daily course is the same nine holes for everyone and changes at 00:00 UTC; only your first daily round counts on the daily leaderboard. Practice lays out a new course whenever you like, and your best practice round goes on the all-time board. After a round you can send a challenge link, and your friend plays exactly your course with your score to beat. You can also stop a round early: the holes you finished count.
Playing Mini Golf on Matsuri
Every hole is drawn by hand, then mirrored and dressed with the day's sweets by the seed, and the pars were set by playing each layout many times with a search bot that aims a little off, as a person does. The server replays every putt through the same deterministic physics to check the score. Mocha cheers your birdies and holes-in-one, a round pays candy for Mocha's wardrobe, and the scorecard you share shows one mark per hole without spoiling the course.
A little history
Miniature golf goes back to the Ladies' Putting Club founded at St Andrews in Scotland in 1867, where women putted on a short course of their own. Courses with obstacles became a craze in the United States around 1930, when thousands of small rooftop and roadside courses opened, and windmills, bridges and water hazards have been part of the game ever since.
Update log
- · Sugar Putt arrives: candy mini golf, nine holes a round, drag back to putt past jelly bumpers, chocolate ponds and windmills. A daily course, the same for everyone.
Questions
- Can I play mini golf free in my browser?
- Yes. Sugar Putt is free, has no ads and needs no download or signup. It runs in any browser on phone or desktop, and inside Telegram via @MatsuriGamesBot.
- What is the daily course?
- Each day everyone gets the same nine holes, with the same bumpers, ponds and windmills, so scores on the daily leaderboard are directly comparable. Only your first daily round counts, and the server replays every putt to check the score.
- How is a round scored?
- Each hole pays 100 points for every stroke under par plus three: a par is 300, a birdie 400, a bogey 200, a double bogey 100 and anything worse nothing. A hole-in-one adds 200 more. A chocolate pond costs a penalty stroke, and after six strokes the ball is picked up and the hole counts as seven.
- What do the sweets on the course do?
- Candy walls bounce the ball back, jelly bumpers throw it off faster than it came, caramel slows it down, and a chocolate pond sends it back to where you putted from with a penalty stroke. Later holes add a turning cookie windmill and a sliding wafer, which move only while your ball rolls.