How to Create Your Own Miniature Golf Course

In this DIY make your own Golf course instruction, I will be guiding you to creating your own miniature golf course, based on our miniature golf course (made in school).

This project has lots of materials that are needed if you truly want to build a good, solid golf course. All of these materials and their costs vary at a wide span on how much you want to devote to this project and what kind of golf course you are building.

Another thing you should think about is your main material. If you’re looking for a sturdy golf course, you should use wood, and if you’re thinking about a golf course that’s more of a moveable, less sturdy, but more featured golf course, use cardboard, or maybe styrofoam if you want it to have lots of detail.

This doesn’t mean that you can’t use some materials for one part, and another material for another part. In fact, that would make it more appealing and more flexible in what you can put on it and do with it.

Step 1: Materials (choose Your Own If You Wish)

Let’s rundown with some of the materials and what you’ll need to create your golf course:

Wood:

Adhesives and things to attach pieces

Wood Glue or White Glue (Try both)

Hot Glue (will help stick smaller parts and will dry a lot quicker

Duct Tape (you will need this when assembling medium parts, to be temporary and keep it stuck until things are done sticking)

L-brackets (for 90 degree angle attachment) or cardstockish material with 90 degree angles that is sturdy (find what fits)

Screws and nails (nails for temporary, to hold things together before you screw)

Editing your wood

Some tool to cut wood like a table saw, jigsaw, or even a drill for your hole

Sandpaper or a sidewalk edge to sand your wood and make it smoother, safer and will also enable you to adhere things better

Oil or Latex based paint for your wood painting

Necessities and optional additions

Dowels or thick strips of wood to elevate your golf course (if you want)

Cardboard:

Adhesives and things to attach pieces

Hot glue

White glue if it is a more long lasting thing rather than a necessity

Cardstockish material with 90 degree angles that is sturdy (find what fits)

Editing your cardboard

Acrylic paint (you will need to have many layers)

House paint or latex paint

Scissors (useful for getting the flutes to work in a way, and will cut down the hard part, too.)

Boxcutter

Necessities and optional additions

Solid cardboard, like the cardboard that is on cereal boxes compressed together, will make lots of things easier.

Using different types of cardboard to create a new cardboard course with different textures

Styrofoam:

Adhesives and things to attach pieces

Wood glue (surprisingly)

Editing your Styrofoam

Hot glue gun (can melt styrofoam very well, and can make interesting shapes and will make a good way to get unwanted styrofoam off)

Crafting knife (to make details and create different textures)

Styrofoam cutter Sandpaper (cement sidewalk won’t work)

Craft paint, acrylic paint (WARNING: Spray paint will slowly dissolve and melt styrofoam, DO NOT TRY THIS) Necessities and optional additions

Styrofoam balls, as they are sometimes just the right thing for some purposes

Different types of styrofoam, to create different textures and has lots of different purposes like getting it for a high-friction surface.

Some extra materials:

Felt

Decoration

What you choose to do during build (will be explained later)

If you’re mixing materials, most of the adhesives will stay the same. Styrofoam will stick to wood with wood glue, but don’t use hot glue to stick to cardboard, as wood glue works fine all ways.

Step 2: Blueprints!

These blueprints should show you everything you need to build!

Step 3: Using the Blueprints to Create Your Mini-golf Course

As you are building, this will not go step-by-step, because of the fact that your golf course will probably be far more different than mine, and will probably be more fond to you if I give you the blueprints and let you customize it, and build it. When you are going to do some parts, I will give you some tips on what you could use:

Felt : (shown above) An incline plane: use a 90 degree angle cardstockish material to hold up

Walls: Paint, then put on 90 degree angle, as the 90 degree angle is hard to paint and will become harder to stick.

Legs: Use strong, thick wood and use longer screws, and ALWAYS drill pilot holes before attachment

Platform legs and most thin wood: Glue quickly and patch things up after gluing, it will make things look better and will perform better

Hole: Use a plastic cup and delicately put hot glue on four sides and stick it on, it is extremely strong

More delicate pieces: Use technique with the hole

Attaching large, dense, things: Use sort of the felt strategy, except put stronger wood glue in the center of gravity to hold it and stick, then use some kind of glue, preferably hot glue

Mechanisms: Put on the blunt part of the mechanism first and then patch it down as you get your mechanism assembled

Cardstockish material: Use a hacksaw to cut it, hot glue works well.

For other things… well you’ll have to use common sense and actually use the internet, and experiment with new things!

As you’re building this, you should educate yourself, get some thinking done on how you could use this in another construction project and think about how maybe you could use the same strategy for different things, different purposes that would fit well.

The whole purpose of this is to create a golf course similar to mine, and make it while enjoying it and learning new things. This project will certainly help you think about physics, geometry, some writing about your golf course (like me!), and maybe even some public sharing and challenges.

That’s the end of our DIY Mini Golf Course instruction, now get building! (or get brainstorming and blueprinting)