Guide · Mini golf
Timed tee slots, second rounds and the weather: what a mini golf course should sell
A mini golf course is a queue that moves at the speed of the slowest group on hole four. Sold as an open gate, a sunny Saturday turns into a forty minute wait at the first tee. Sold as timed tee slots, the same course serves more people, more happily, and tells you which hours are worth more than others.
Pace of play sets the capacity
A course does not have a capacity in the way a room does. It has a pace. A family of four takes somewhere between forty five minutes and an hour to play eighteen holes, and the group behind them can only go as fast as they do. The number of people a course serves in an hour is set entirely by how often a group can tee off without catching the one in front.
The arithmetic is worth doing once. A tee slot every ten minutes, with groups of up to four, is twenty four players an hour on one course, and a second course doubles it. Every group that stands at the first tee waiting for a gap is a slot you sold that the course cannot deliver, and a queue in the sun is the review people write.
Tee slots are how a course serves more people. The queue at the first tee is what an open gate costs.
An open gate sells everyone the same 2pm and lets the course sort it out. A tee time sells them 2pm, 2:10 and 2:20, and the course never has to.
Timed tee slots, and how wide
- Ten to fifteen minutes between groups suits most courses. Closer and groups bunch on the slow holes; wider and the course runs empty between them.
- Group size at booking, up to a maximum of four to six, because a group of eight is two groups and needs two slots, not one that holds everyone up.
- Sell the tee time, not a finish. People play at different speeds, and promising a round in forty minutes is promising something hole four decides.
- A late group plays from their next available gap, not the slot that has gone, and the booking page says so.
- Walk-ins go into whatever the booked slots have left, not on top of them.
The wider argument for timed slots against open entry is in timed entry or open sessions, and a course on a sunny weekend is one of the clearest cases for the timed side.
Off-peak rounds, and the weekday afternoon
A course is worth a different amount at three on a Saturday and at eleven on a Tuesday in term time, and pricing them the same leaves money on the busy day and players on the quiet one.
- Two clear prices, peak and off peak, on the same slot, rather than a discount code. Weekend and holiday afternoons peak; term-time weekdays off peak.
- The after-school hour on a weekday is a family slot at the off-peak price, and it sells to the same families who will not pay peak on Saturday.
- Evening rounds, if the course is lit, sell to couples and groups of friends at a price that looks nothing like a children's round.
- Resist discounting a Saturday that is selling. Spend the discount on the Tuesday that is not.
The second round, sold before they leave
Almost every group that finishes a course would play another at the right price, and almost no course asks them at the right moment.
- A second-round price, lower, as its own ticket, offered at booking and at the desk when they hand the putters back.
- Two courses, one visit. If you have two, a combined ticket sells both in one decision.
- The return visit is the second round in slow motion. The email address you took at booking is how the family who came in May hears about the summer evening rounds, and there is a guide on emailing the people who actually visited.
Club hire, and what the desk does
Putters, balls and a scorecard are inside the price for almost every course, and the desk's job is to scan the booking, hand them over and point at the first tee. A desk that is also taking payment, working out which group is next and explaining the rules is the queue you built the tee times to avoid. Club sizes for small children, if you carry them, are worth asking at booking so the right ones are waiting.
The weather
An outdoor course lives and dies by the forecast, and the decision about rain wants making before the season, not at two on a Saturday with the afternoon booked.
- Light rain plays. Most courses run in it and most players expect it. Close for lightning, standing water on the greens, or a course that cannot be walked safely.
- A decision time and one message to every group booked for the afternoon, so the car park is not full of people who did not hear.
- A move to another day as the default, made by the family themselves, rather than a refund. A rebooking is a full slot; a refund is a lost one and a fee paid twice.
- An indoor course, if you have one, is the hedge, and a rainy-day price on it fills the afternoon the outdoor one lost.
Parties and holiday clubs
A children's party is a round, a table or a room, food and a host, sold per head with a minimum so a party of five does not book a room priced for fifteen. Ages are captured at booking because they change the clubs and the pace. A holiday club is a supervised morning of rounds and games on a weekday, which is exactly the slot that otherwise runs empty. The arithmetic of a per-head party price, where the minimum sits and how food changes it, is worked through in what a soft play should charge for a party; it is written for soft play and the maths is the same with a course instead of a frame.
Group trips and corporate bookings
A group is a block of consecutive tee slots under one organiser and one payment, not twelve separate bookings that may or may not all arrive. A school or a club takes a weekday morning; a corporate evening takes the course for two hours with food afterwards and often wants an invoice. The organiser's details are the lead for next year.
No-shows, and the slot that stayed empty
A no-show at peak is a tee time you turned another family away from. Taking payment at booking is the plain fix, and it matters most for parties and groups, where a room or a block of slots was held on a phone call. Where you would rather not take the full amount in advance for every round, the guide on cutting no-shows without taking deposits works through the alternatives.
A sample week
| When | What the course is doing |
|---|---|
| Weekday mornings, term time | Off-peak rounds; school and club groups as a block of tee slots. |
| Weekday afternoons | The after-school family hour at the off-peak price; holiday clubs in the holidays. |
| Weekday evenings, if lit | Evening rounds for couples and groups; corporate bookings taking the course. |
| Saturday and Sunday | Peak-priced tee slots every ten to fifteen minutes; parties late morning and mid afternoon; second rounds offered at the desk. |
| Every slot | Group size captured at booking, walk-ins into what is left, a move to another day when it rains. |
Where booking fits
Booking is what turns pace of play from a problem the course sorts out into a timetable you set. Each tee slot is a session with a time, a price and room for one group, so the first tee is never a queue and a full afternoon is visible a week out. Peak and off peak are two prices on the same slot. A second round and a two-course ticket are their own ticket types. A party is its own event with a per-head price and a minimum, a group takes a block of consecutive slots under one organiser, and families move their own booking to a dry day without ringing you. The desk scans them in and hands over the putters.
That is how Hatch works, with the money going into your own Stripe account as bookings are made, and there is more on booking software for mini golf venues. The past-visitor and no-show pieces above are the companion reading.
Common questions
How long does a round of mini golf take?
Forty five minutes to an hour for a family of four on eighteen holes, and the group behind can only go as fast as the one in front. That pace, not the size of the course, is what sets how many people it serves: a tee slot every ten minutes with groups of up to four is twenty four players an hour on one course. Sell a tee time rather than a finish time, because how long a round takes is decided on the slow holes.
Should a mini golf course use timed tee times?
Yes, on any day it is busy. An open gate sells everyone the same 2pm and leaves the course to sort out the queue at the first tee, which is the review people write. Tee slots every ten to fifteen minutes, with the group size captured at booking and walk-ins sold into whatever the booked slots have left, serve more people from the same course and never make the desk decide who is next.
How should a mini golf course price off-peak rounds?
As a second clear price on the same slot, peak for weekend and holiday afternoons and off peak for term-time weekdays, rather than a discount code. The after-school hour on a weekday is a family slot at the off-peak price, evening rounds on a lit course sell to adults at a price that looks nothing like a children's round, and a second round offered at the desk is the easiest extra sale a course makes.
What happens when it rains at a mini golf course?
Light rain plays, and most players expect it; the course closes for lightning, standing water or greens that cannot be walked safely. The part that matters is deciding this before the season and printing it on the booking page, then setting a decision time, sending one message to every group booked for the afternoon, and offering a move to another day as the default rather than a refund, made by the family themselves.
Written for UK mini golf, crazy golf and adventure golf venues. Slot spacing and round times here are the common shapes rather than rules: your course, its slow holes and your local weather set your own.