Backyard putting green ideas

How big should a garden putting green be?

Smaller than you think, and longer than it is wide. A green only needs to be big enough for a few different putts:

• 2 × 4 m is a practice strip: one cup, straight putts, fits beside a patio.
• 3 × 6 m takes two or three cups and a gentle break, and is enough for a family game.
• 4 × 8 m or more lets you add a slope, a bunker and putts of real length.

Artificial putting turf usually comes in rolls 2 or 4 m wide, so sizing your green in whole roll widths saves on seams and waste. Leave a border of lawn or gravel all round so you can stand at the edge without stepping on the green.

Shapes that play well

• Kidney or bean. The classic. The inside curve gives you putts that break round it.
• L-shape or dogleg. Fits a corner and makes a proper two-putt hole from one end to the other.
• Long and thin. Along a fence or path, for lag putting practice.
• Crazy golf lane. Edge it with timber sleepers and you have a mini golf hole: banks off the sides, a gap to aim through, a cup in a dead end.

Where to put the cups

Two or three cups are plenty. Put one near the far end for long putts, one just off a slope so the ball has to break into it, and one close to where you stand for short, missable ones. Keep cups at least a metre from the edge, or every missed putt ends up in the flower bed. A regulation cup is 108 mm across, and the ball 42.67 mm: anything much smaller than that and it stops being fun.

Slopes, borrows and levels

A perfectly flat green gets boring quickly. A gentle rise of 5–10 cm across the green, built into the sub-base before the turf goes down, gives every putt a borrow. Avoid steep slopes near cups: the ball won't stay in the hole's neighbourhood long enough to drop. If your garden already slopes, put the cup on the high side and let the break come to you.

Cheap obstacles for a crazy golf green

• Sleeper rails along one side, for bank shots.
• A bridge made from a scaffold board over a strip of blue gravel “water”.
• A tunnel from a length of drainpipe cut in half, or a flowerpot on its side.
• A sand trap of play sand in a shallow tray sunk level with the turf.
• Bumpers: short posts or upturned pots to bounce off.

Keep anything moving, like a windmill, for the second summer. It's the thing everyone wants, and the thing most likely to need fixing.

Try it on screen before you dig

Before you order turf, build your green in the game. Use Open green tiles (they're open on every side, so several join into one wide green), set the tile size between 0.8 and 1.5 m so the grid matches your garden, then add a sand trap, some water and a cup, and putt it with real ball physics. If the hole you love on screen is unplayable, better to find out now.

Looking after it

Brush artificial turf every few weeks to keep the pile upright and the pace even, blow leaves off before they stain, and top up infill sand in the spots that get walked on most, usually around the cups. A green that's brushed runs true; one that isn't starts to break in odd places after a year.