A date night plan
Mini golf with tiny clubs and appropriately tiny rivalries
Choose a course for two, agree a friendly scoring style and enjoy a round of obstacles, unexpected rebounds and encouraging commentary.
Is this the plan for you?
Time to allow
Allow about 90 minutes for a round, check-in and any short queue. Ask the venue how long its course usually takes and what happens during busy periods.
Budget notes
Set a small outing budget for entry and travel, with drinks optional. Confirm ticket prices, booking fees and whether equipment is included for the specific course.
These are planning suggestions, not live prices or bookings. The shorter and longer versions give you room to adapt the activity to your day.
Illustrative artwork; not a photograph of a tested outing.
Mini golf offers a wonderfully manageable kind of adventure: a small ball must get past a windmill, and apparently this is now everyone’s business. Choose a course that suits your budget and energy, then let the obstacles do the entertaining. A good date can include both a clever putt and a ball that politely returns to your feet.
Keep the rivalry playful and agree how closely you want to count. You can use the course’s scoring rules, set a shared challenge or ignore totals entirely. There is no obligation to turn a decorative pirate ship into a referendum on your relationship’s sporting abilities.
Your supply checklist
Tick off what you have gathered, or print a fresh checklist. Ticks are for this page only.
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A suitable indoor or outdoor course plan
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Tickets or payment within your limit
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Comfortable footwear for the course surface
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Layers or sun protection for an outdoor round
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A scorecard and pencil, supplied or brought
Make it happen
1. Pick the course you will both enjoy
Look at the venue’s current information about obstacles, steps, surfaces and access. Decide whether you fancy an outdoor course or the predictability of an indoor one. Check opening times and booking arrangements, and ask about any access needs directly. A shorter, easy-to-reach course can leave more energy for enjoying the date than a much larger outing.
2. Choose the size of the competition
Agree whether you will keep individual scores, aim for a shared total or give each hole a separate little challenge. Follow the venue’s rules about maximum strokes and turns. Decide how to handle a ball that leaves the course without inventing an argument on the spot. A kind scoring agreement is more useful than a dramatic dispute at hole three.
3. Use the first holes as a warm-up
Collect equipment and listen to staff instructions. Start gently, leave room for other players and watch where people are standing before taking a stroke. Let the first couple of holes teach you how the course behaves. Offer a suggestion only if your partner wants one; sometimes they would prefer the entertaining discovery of the wrong tunnel for themselves.
4. Make room for the unexpected route
Take turns enjoying the obstacles and praise any clever recovery, even if it follows a truly improbable bounce. If the course is busy, keep play moving and wait in the appropriate places. Use a midpoint pause to check energy and whether scoring is still fun. You can switch to a shared target if the individual totals have stopped being entertaining.
5. Finish with an unofficial award ceremony
Complete the round within the venue’s rules and return your equipment. Compare the favourite hole, funniest rebound and most encouraging bit of commentary. Keep the scores only if they add something to the memory. If you fancy another stop, check the budget and energy first rather than assuming the winner has also won the right to choose everything afterwards.
Make it work for you
Different levels of experience
Compare personal best holes, work towards a shared total or alternate choosing a gentle challenge. Keep any handicap simple and agreed before the first score is written.
A seated or step-free plan
Ask the venue about the actual route, equipment and accessible holes. General accessibility labels may not describe every obstacle, so confirm what works for you.
The weather changes
Choose a suitable indoor course or postpone an outdoor booking according to its terms. Do not make a slippery or uncomfortable round the price of keeping the original date.
Before you begin
Follow course rules and staff guidance, keep strokes controlled and give other players space. Check surfaces, steps and access in advance, and never climb obstacles to retrieve a ball.
The miniature golf honours list
Use the first two lines before playing and award the others at the end.
1. Our scoring style and agreed maximum per hole:
2. The course rules we need to remember:
3. Most satisfying putt:
4. Most surprising route to the hole:
5. Best recovery after a difficult start:
6. Favourite obstacle and the reason:
7. Next round: rematch or shared target?
These prompts are included when you print the plan and checklist.
The ball eventually found the hole. The round gave you several better things to talk about than the total.
How did your date go?
Was a step unclear, or did you find a useful shortcut? Tell us the activity and what you would change.
Email feedback about this plan →Your email app opens so you can choose what to send. Please leave out private details, children’s names and photographs of other people.
Make choosing the date part of the date
Put a few possibilities you both like into a board and enjoy finding out which one wins. The sample game is an easy place to start.
A few more possibilities
An arcade date with a pocket-sized budget and big cheering →An escape room for two excellent, occasionally baffled detectives →Indoor skydiving: a date with wind, goggles and encouraging thumbs-up →Published by Daniel Jenkins · Guide text updated 28 October 2026
The activity lists were supplied and edited for Deal or Date. Guides and illustrative artwork use AI assistance. They are planning suggestions rather than accounts of personal trips or product tests. Venue prices, entry rules and accessibility need checking with the place you choose.
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