Mission HillsCroquet Club
Mission HillsCroquet Club
Quick to Learn. Endless to Master.
The fastest-growing form of croquet in the world, and the friendliest way onto the lawn.
Golf Croquet is croquet at its simplest and most sociable. All four balls chase the same wicket, each player takes a single stroke in turn, and the first ball through wins the point for its side. Then everyone moves on to the next wicket.
There are no extra strokes and no long turns, so the game moves briskly and everyone stays involved. Underneath, it is a game of angles and nerve: when to go for the wicket, when to knock an opponent away, and when to quietly set up the next one. At the top level it is fiercely competitive. Our Club Pro, Blake Fields, won the WCF Golf Croquet World Championship in this format.
Golf Croquet uses the standard six-wicket court with a stake in the center. A full court is 35 by 28 yards, and the game scales down nicely to a smaller lawn. The course runs twice around: the first six wickets, then the same wickets again in the opposite direction, twelve contests in all. The corners are numbered I to IV, clockwise from the southwest, and each carries a flag in one of the ball colors.
Diagram: U.S. Croquet Association
Diagram: U.S. Croquet AssociationA coin toss decides who picks colors. One side plays blue and black, the other red and yellow. In singles each player plays both of their side's balls. In doubles each player keeps one ball for the whole game.
Every ball begins from within a yard (3 feet) of corner IV. Blue always plays first.
Play follows the colors painted on the stake: blue, red, black, yellow, and around again. Each turn is one stroke, played with either face of the mallet, never the side or the shaft.
The first ball to run the current wicket in the right direction scores a point for its side, even if an opponent's shot knocked it through. If two balls go through on the same stroke, the one that started closer to the wicket gets the point.
A ball that leaves the court is placed just inside the boundary where it went out.
The first side to 7 points wins. If it's 6 all after twelve wickets, wicket 3 is played once more to decide it.
You can't simply park a ball beyond the next wicket and wait. Once a point is scored, any ball sitting more than halfway to the following wicket is "offside," unless it got there on that stroke or was knocked there by an opponent. The other side may then have it moved to one of the penalty spots on the east and west boundaries, level with the stake.
Every stroke is a choice between attack and defense: run the wicket, knock an opponent out of position, or block their line. Good doubles partners talk constantly. That is half the fun.
Whites, a firm handshake before and after, and calling your own faults. Golf Croquet moves quickly, so be ready when your color comes up.
Golf Croquet is the heart of our social calendar. It's the game at Sunday Funday every week at 2 pm, at our Thursday clinics and in most of our club tournaments. If you're new to croquet, this is where to start.
This guide is our own summary. For the official version, see the USCA's Golf Croquet synopsis and the full USCA rulebook.