A woman hitting a ball between two rocks on the green
Probably gonna hit one of the rocks, eh?

How Long Does Mini Golf Take Per Round?

How long a round of Mini Golf takes depends on several factors, including the complexity and difficulty of the course, how many players in your golf party, and the skill of the individual players.

Another thing that determines how long a round of putt-putt takes is how many other groups are playing the Mini Golf course that day as well. And lastly, the total number of holes played affects the overall length of time, as 9-hole courses run half as long as 18-hole courses, clearly.

One thing to remember is that much like traditional golf, there is a little bit of etiquette when it comes to pace of play in that you should let faster groups play through. However, unlike traditional golf, bocce, pickleball, and all other sports that older people play, a round of Mini Golf will be over shortly.

Number of Holes

While the difficulty of a course factors in, especially when the number of strokes stated to achieve par varies, a typical 18 holes of golf takes somewhere between 40-45 minutes.

  • 9 Hole Course - 20 minutes
  • 18 Hole Course - 40 minutes
  • 27 Hole Course - 60 minutes
  • 36 Hole Course - 80 minutes

Pace of Play

Your pace of play, as well as the pace of play of others is certainly a factor in how long you will spend at the mini links. Your playing time as an individual may differ greatly from the playing time of your whole family, should you bring them out. Same goes for children’s birthday parties, as the rambunctiousness of those parties tends to dramatically slow the pace of play when it comes to a round of miniature golf.

A mini golf pro teaching a student how to play the game
One, two, three, eyes on me!

Size of Your Group

The size of your group definitely affects how long holes take, since everyone must putt first before golfers take their second shot. You can speed up your pace of play by eliminating that rule and allowing for more of a rolling putting situation. It will probably be harder to manage your scorecard, with people rattling off their scores while you’re all trying to putt in scramble fashion. But, it does allow you to play mini golf faster.

Lifting the Stroke Limit of Holes

Miniature Golf Courses all have their own set of rules that they play by. Most of them tend to follow a Six Stroke Limit per hole. If your party decides to lift that limit, you may find the overall time to complete the course increase, especially if you have a lot of beginners with you.

Experience

Player experience matters, both in terms of their putting ability and the frequency with which they play the course. Knowing the nooks and crannies of a Mini Golf course allows you to play much faster.

Experienced mini golfers can make assumptions as to the hazards of each course and what will cause stroke penalties. Those with the fewest strokes will play much faster.

Beginners tend to end up with their ball in the drink. Often.

Obstacle Size and Aggressiveness

Adventure Golf, Crazy Golf, whatever you want to call it ... most Mini Golf courses have inventive obstacles and traps that are designed to knock you around the fairway a bit. Those with excellent golf club skills and a boldness to overcome them are rewarded with bonuses including direct paths to holes-in-one and a reduction of total strokes should they succeed.

However, these castles, windmills, lighthouses, and more always, always add time to the completion of a course.

A mini golf speed course in Palm Springs
Several holes on the same green is how you play a speed round for sure

How to Play a Speed Round of Miniature Golf

Sometimes we just want to go fast, like Rapid Hole Mini Golf. Taking these steps to a game of Mini Golf will be the equivalent of what the golf cart did for traditional golf. It does, however, require an empty or near-empty set of Mini Golf fairways.

  • First person to get their putter and golf ball starts immediately, letting the last person pay the bill.
  • Each player plays each hole free of the, “Everyone must hit the ball once first” rule. This independence allows players to cruise through each hole.
  • Each player keeps their own score.

You should be able to cut the average time to complete most putt-putt courses down from 40-45 minutes to 20-25 minutes. If you’ve played the course enough to know it by heart, you could possibly average under 1 minute per hole. But you’ve gotta be excellent and there’s got to be no one in front of you.

Wrapping Up

A round of Mini Golf is a great way to enjoy an hour of fun, especially if you’re parenting and need something to do.