Beer Pong Golf: How to Play, House Rules, and What to Look For in a Set

Beer pong golf is beer pong played with a golf club. Instead of throwing a ping pong ball across a table, you chip or putt a ball at a rack of cups 10 to 20 feet away. Land one and that cup comes off the board, and whoever owns it drinks. First side to clear the other's rack wins. It takes about two minutes to teach and it turns a driveway, a lawn, or a tailgate lot into a tournament.

Below is the full setup, the turn order, three scoring systems, and 12 house rules worth stealing. If you would rather skip the cups entirely, there is a spill-free version at the bottom that plays anywhere.

Beer pong golf at a glance

• Players: 2 to 8, in teams of 1 or 2
• Distance: 10 to 12 feet for beginners, 15 to 20 feet once everyone warms up
• Gear: a cup board or target, a wedge or putter, foam or velcro balls, a hitting mat
• Game length: 10 to 20 minutes per round
• Goal: clear every cup on the opposing rack
• Space needed: roughly 20 by 6 feet of lawn, turf, or driveway

What you need to play

The equipment list is short, and most of it you already own:

• A target. Either a wooden board with 6 or 10 cup holes cut into it, a set of buckets, or a velcro target mat with scoring zones. The board and bucket versions hold real cups. The mat version does not, which matters more than you would think once the drinks come out.
• Cups. Standard 16 oz party cups. Ten per side for a full rack, six for a quick game.
• A club. A pitching wedge or sand wedge for chipping, a putter for the rolling version. One club per player keeps the pace up, though passing a single club around works fine.
• Balls. Foam or velcro practice balls only. A real golf ball off a wedge will shatter a cup, crack a board, and put a hole in a fence. Every set worth buying ships with soft balls for exactly this reason.
• A hitting mat. A small turf mat gives you a consistent lie and protects the grass. It also fixes the biggest problem with backyard chipping, which is that a thin lie on hardpan sends the ball anywhere but the target.

How to set up beer pong golf

1. Set the two targets facing each other. Boards go flat on the ground or propped at a slight angle so the cups sit forward. Angling the board makes the cups easier to see and easier to land in, so start there if you have first-timers.
2. Rack the cups. Ten cups in a triangle pointing at the shooter, same as table beer pong. Six cups in a 3-2-1 triangle for a faster game.
3. Fill each cup about a third full. Enough weight to stop the cup blowing over, not enough to waste when a ball lands.
4. Measure the distance. Pace off 10 to 12 feet between the hitting mat and the target for a mixed group. Golfers will want 15 to 20. Pick one distance and keep it the same for both sides.
5. Put a hitting mat at each end. Both teams shoot from their own end toward the opposite rack.

Check your run-out before the first shot. You want 8 to 10 feet of clear space behind each target, because most misses fly long rather than short.

How a turn works

Play alternates by team, one ball per player, closest cup counts first:

1. Team A takes their shots, one ball each, chipping from behind the mat.
2. Any ball that comes to rest in a cup counts. A ball that lands in and bounces out does not.
3. Remove every made cup from the board. The team that owned the cup drinks it.
4. Team B shoots. Repeat until one rack is empty.
5. If both players on a team make their shots in the same turn, they get the balls back and shoot again. Two makes is the same "balls back" bonus as table pong, and it is what turns a lead into a blowout.

Two rules keep arguments off the lawn. First, feet stay behind the mat, and a ball hit from in front of it does not count. Second, the ball is dead the moment it stops moving, so no nudging it with a club and no helpful kicks from the gallery.

Three ways to score

1. Rack clearing (the standard)

Ten cups per side, clear them all to win. This is the default and the closest to table beer pong. Games run 15 to 20 minutes with four players.

2. Points to 21

Instead of removing cups, assign values: 1 point for an outer cup, 2 for a middle cup, 3 for the front cup. First to 21 wins. Points scoring is the better choice for mixed skill levels because a strong golfer cannot end the game in three swings.

3. Ladder distance

Everyone starts at 10 feet. Make a cup and you move back 2 feet for your next turn. Miss and you stay put. First to clear the rack wins, but the good players are shooting from 20 feet by the end and the field stays close. For anyone who actually wants their short game to improve, this is the format to play, and it maps onto the distance-control drills the PGA recommends for short game practice.

12 house rules worth stealing

The base game is fine. The house rules are why people stay for a third round. Add two or three, not all twelve at once.

1. Redemption. When the last cup on your rack goes down, you get one shot to match it. Make it and the game continues into overtime. Miss and it is over. Redemption is the single best rule on this list because it kills the anticlimactic finish where the loser watches the last cup fall and shrugs.
2. On fire. Two makes in a row and you keep shooting until you miss. Announce it out loud. The pressure of everyone watching is half the fun and it is usually what ends the streak.
3. Island cup. Before the round, one team pulls a single cup two feet clear of their rack and calls it the island. Land it and the shooter picks any two extra cups to remove. Miss the island and you lose your next shot, so it is a genuine gamble rather than a free bonus.
4. Re-rack, twice per game. With 6 cups left and again with 3, a team can ask for their remaining cups to be pushed into a tight triangle. Tighter clusters are easier to hit but a single good chip can knock two down, which is the tradeoff that makes the call interesting.
5. Death cup. If someone is still holding a cup that was made earlier and you land a ball in it, that team loses instantly. It sounds harsh. It is also the fastest way to teach people to finish their drink.
6. Roll-ins count double. A ball that lands short, bounces, and rolls into a cup removes two cups instead of one. Rewards the low running chip, which is the shot most weekend golfers should be hitting anyway.
7. One club, both hands. Every player must take one shot per round from their weak side. Lefties chip right-handed and vice versa. Scores drop, the laughing gets loud, and the strongest golfer in the group stops running away with it.
8. Trick shot inning. Once per game a team can declare a trick shot: behind the back, between the legs, or eyes closed. It counts for two cups if it lands and costs you your next turn if it does not.
9. Sudden death. If overtime is still tied after a full round, everyone shoots at a single cup placed halfway between the two boards. Closest ball wins if nobody makes it, so there is always a result.
10. Two-putt penalty. Playing the putter version? Any ball that fails to reach the board is a penalty and the shooter sits out the next turn. Nothing slows a game down like six straight shots left short.
11. Caller's choice. The shooter must call which cup they are aiming at before the swing. Hit the called cup and it counts double, hit a different one and it still counts as one. Serious golfers love this rule because it rewards actual aim rather than a lucky bounce.
12. Rolling handicap. Give the better players a longer tee box: every player who has won a round moves back 2 feet permanently. It keeps a group of mixed abilities competitive across a whole afternoon instead of just one game.

One practical note: the game plays exactly the same with water, seltzer, or nothing at all in the cups. Plenty of families run it as a straight chipping contest and keep score on paper, and the version with kids in the group is the same rules with a 6 foot distance.

Chipping or putting: which version fits your space

There are two families of this game and they need different amounts of room.

Chipping versions put the ball in the air with a wedge. You need 15 to 20 feet of lawn, turf, or sand, plus clearance overhead. The upside is that it is a real golf shot, so the game doubles as short-game practice. If your chipping is the weak part of your game, working on short-game fundamentals and then playing for cups is a far better use of an afternoon than a bucket of range balls.

Putting versions roll the ball along a mat into holes or cups. They fit indoors and in an office hallway, they work on carpet, and they are the right call for an apartment. They are also less physical, which is either the point or the problem depending on your crowd.

Not sure which you are buying? Look at the ball. Soft foam or velcro balls with a raised target means chipping. A flat mat with cups sunk into it means putting.

What to look for in a beer pong golf set

Most sets in this category are a board and some cups. A few things separate the ones that survive a season:

• Ball quality. Cheap foam balls compress and go dead after a couple of parties. Reinforced velcro balls hold their shape and do not care about wet grass.
• Does it need cups at all. Cup-based boards mean refilling, re-racking, and a wet board by round three. Velcro targets score the same way without anything to spill.
• Hitting mat included. Without one you are chipping off bare lawn, which ruins both the grass and your consistency.
• Pack-down size. A rigid wooden board does not fit in a car trunk with a cooler. A mat that folds into a drawstring bag goes to the beach, the tailgate, and the campsite.
• Weather and water. Wooden boards warp. Inflatable and fabric targets shrug off rain and, in some cases, float.
• Two-target option. Head-to-head play with a target at each end is the format most people actually want. Check whether that means buying two of everything.
• Club or no club. Most sets assume you own a wedge. If nobody in the house golfs, buy a set that ships with a club.
• Scoring depth. One hole means one game. Multiple scoring zones or rings means the set supports a dozen formats, which is the difference between a novelty and something that comes out every weekend.

The spill-free version: Golf Pong

Cups are the weak link. They tip, they need refilling, they leave the board sticky, and someone always has to re-rack between turns.

Golf Pong keeps the beer pong structure and replaces the cups with a velcro target mat and scoring rings. You chip a velcro ball, it sticks where it lands, and the ring it sticks in is your score. Nothing to spill, nothing to reset, and the drinking rules layer on top exactly as written above: your ring gets claimed, you drink. The Original set is $69.99 and includes the target mat, 6 rings, a turf hitting mat, 16 reinforced velcro balls, and a drawstring travel bag. Versus is $124.99 and gives you two full targets and two hitting mats for true head-to-head play, which is the format most of these house rules assume. Both use your own wedge.

Because the ball sticks instead of rolling, the game works on grass, sand, driveways, turf, and indoors on a hard floor. The full 31.5 inch frame needs about 20 feet of run, and there are dimensions for every space on the size and dimensions page. The rings also support the formats above out of the box: elimination, points to 21, and the ladder. Our quick rules and scoring guide covers the standard version in a couple of minutes.

Tighter on space, or playing near a pool? Chip Tac Toe runs the same chipping idea on a 4 foot inflatable tic tac toe board that floats. It is $64.99 for the game on its own, or $69.99 with an adjustable-length ambidextrous club included, which is the version to get if nobody in the group owns a wedge. Both games live in the Golf Pong Games collection, and if you are building out a whole afternoon of yard games, our guide to backyard party games for adults has the rest of the lineup.

Beer pong golf FAQs

Can you play beer pong with golf?

Yes, and the rules translate almost one for one. Keep the rack, the alternating turns, the balls-back bonus for two makes, and redemption. Change three things: you chip or putt at the cups instead of throwing, you use foam or velcro balls rather than a golf ball, and you stand 10 to 20 feet away instead of across a table.

How do you play beer golf?

Beer golf usually means something different: a full round of golf where each player drinks one beer per hole, and your final score is strokes plus unfinished beers. Beer pong golf is the backyard version described on this page, a rack of cups and a wedge. If someone invites you to beer golf, ask which one they mean before you show up with a target mat.

What is pong golf?

Pong golf is the same game under a shorter name: beer pong scoring, golf shots. Some sets call it golf pong, chipping pong, or backyard golf pong. They all describe a target with cups or scoring zones that you chip a soft ball into, played in teams, with the first side to clear the opposing target winning.

Why is it called beer pong?

The original 1950s and 60s version at Dartmouth was played on a ping pong table with paddles and cups of beer, so the name came from the paddles. The paddles disappeared and the throwing version took over, but the name stuck. The golf version inherited it the same way, which is why a game with no ping pong in it is still called pong.

Do you need to be good at golf to play?

No, and short distances are the reason. From 10 feet a first-timer will land shots in the first game. Chipping is the most learnable shot in golf because the swing is short and the ball does not go far, and the official Rules of Golf have nothing to say about what happens in your backyard. Set the distance so everyone makes a few, then move back.

Set it up this weekend

Beer pong golf gives you the best structure in party games, a rack, a countdown, and a comeback, and puts a golf club in your hands instead of a ping pong ball. Ten feet, six cups, two house rules, and you have a competitive game inside five minutes.

If you want the version with nothing to spill and nothing to reset, Golf Pong Original is $69.99 and packs into a bag, so the backyard, the beach, and the tailgate all get the same game. Add the second target with Versus at $124.99 when you are ready for real head-to-head, then start writing your own house rules.