Golf croquet rules in plain English.

Which rulebook is current?

The 6th Edition of the WCF Rules of Golf Croquet, dated February 2022, is current. Its introduction says the game didn’t change in substance, apart from the new Advantage play. The WCF has added official rulings since, the latest we found dated October 7, 2024. The USCA has no golf croquet rulebook of its own and uses the same edition.

How do sides and turns work?

Two sides play four balls: blue and black against red and yellow. In singles, each player plays both balls of their side. In doubles, each player plays one ball all game. The balls go in the fixed order blue, red, black, yellow, one stroke per turn. Running a hoop or hitting a ball never earns an extra stroke. The only extra strokes are the ones handicap play gives a weaker player.

How does a game start?

A coin toss decides who plays first, and the winner chooses whether to go first or second. The side that goes first has blue and black and plays blue first. Every ball is first played in from within one yard of corner IV, and the first four turns bring all four balls in.

How is a hoop scored?

A point is scored when a ball runs the hoop that is next in order, and it goes to the ball’s owner. A ball has run the hoop when no part of it sticks out on the side it came from, and it scores if it rests that way when the turn ends. A ball that enters from the wrong side can’t score in that stroke, and a close call counts as having run.

The owner gets the point even if the other side’s stroke drove the ball through. If two balls run the hoop in one stroke, the one nearer the hoop beforehand scores.

How long is a game?

A game is played for 7, 13 or 19 points, and a majority wins: 4, 7 or 10. Thirteen is the usual game.

Hoops 7 to 12 are the same six hoops again, in the order of hoops 2, 1, 4, 3, 6 and 5, each run the other way. They aren’t simply hoops 1 to 6 backward. The beginner’s guide has a drawing.

What is offside?

When a point is scored, any ball wholly past the halfway line on the next hoop’s side is offside, whichever side owns it. Which line applies depends on the next hoop.

West is the left side of our drawings. A 19-point game adds hoops 13 to 18 (see rule 8.1.3).

What happens to an offside ball?

Before playing its own next stroke, the other side can require that ball to be played next from either penalty area, whichever it chooses. Nobody loses a turn. The penalty areas are half-circles with a one-yard radius at the middle of the east and west boundaries. If you play the ball before they decide, they can still make you replay it from there.

When is a ball not offside?

A ball is not offside if it got to its spot by the stroke just played, by a stroke of the other side, or, within the limits of rule 8.3, by contact with an opponent’s ball in its last move.

What counts as a fault?

A fault is an illegal way of making a stroke. The faults are:

• Touching the mallet head with a hand in the final swing, or driving a ball by kicking, dropping or throwing the mallet.
• Hitting with the side or shaft of the mallet, hitting twice (a double tap) or pushing, which means keeping the mallet in contact with the ball.
• A crush: the ball touches a hoop, the peg or another ball while it is still on the mallet.
• Hitting a ball that rests against a hoop upright or the peg, other than away from it.
• Touching another ball with the mallet, or any ball with your body, or shaking a ball by hitting a hoop or the peg.
• Damaging the lawn.

If nobody stops play before the next stroke, the stroke stands as played and the game carries on. Otherwise the other side chooses to leave the balls where they stopped or replace them, and then plays next. If the balls are left, a point for the other side counts and a point for the offender doesn’t. If they are replaced, no point is scored.

What if the wrong ball is played?

The fix depends on which ball was played, and a player who sees a wrong ball coming must stop play.

Replace and Replay puts the balls back, cancels the stroke’s points and has the right ball played. A Ball Swap trades the two balls’ places, leaves the other balls and points alone, and gives the other side the next stroke.

What if a ball goes out?

A ball is out as soon as any part of it would touch an imaginary vertical wall rising from the boundary line. It goes back touching the boundary where it left, and its next stroke must be played into the court. A doubtful call is out. Six-wicket croquet uses a different test: there a ball is out when more than half of it is over the line.

Are jump shots allowed?

Yes. A jump shot, hit down so the ball bounces up, is legal if the mallet doesn’t damage the lawn, because damage is a fault. Our shots guide shows how it works.

Are there time limits?

Time limits are optional. If one is used and time runs out, the default is two more turns for each ball, then the higher score wins. A tie plays on to the next point unless the organizer calls it a tie.

How do handicaps work?

Handicap play gives a weaker player extra strokes for an even game. A handicap can be as high as 20 or as low as minus 6, and lower means stronger. In singles, the higher handicap gets extra strokes equal to the difference in a 13-point game, fewer in a 7-point game and more in a 19-point game. A difference of 10 gives 5, 10 and 15 strokes in games of 7, 13 and 19 points. Doubles use half the difference. An extra stroke follows a normal turn, uses the ball just played and can’t score for the player’s own side. Advantage play uses starting scores instead, with a target of 4, 7 or 10.

Do clubs and backyards play the same rules?

Yes, if you are playing golf croquet. The same rulebook covers a club lawn and a backyard, because it allows smaller courts of the same shape. Tournament organizers may add requirements, such as narrower hoops, and friendly games often relax details like the start area.

Most backyard sets, though, are for nine-wicket croquet, a separate game with nine wickets, two stakes and extra strokes. To play golf croquet with one, keep the full court’s 5-to-4 shape and scale it to your lawn. See backyard croquet and types of croquet. You don’t need to know any of this to play with us in Birmingham, Alabama.

How do USCA and WCF wordings differ?

The rules are the same, because the USCA uses the WCF rulebook, but its shorter golf croquet synopsis words some things differently.

Where the two differ, trust the rulebook. Even the WCF’s How to Play page strays in two places: it says a fault scores nothing (the rulebook lets the other side’s point stand) and calls a penalty area a yard across (the rulebook gives a one-yard radius).

Can I trust older rules guides?

Check the date first, because older guides can disagree with the current rulebook. A 2015 coaching manual, for example, says the toss winner must play blue, but now the winner chooses to go first or second. It also says a ball isn’t out until more than half of it crosses the line, but the rulebook says any part.

Last updated November 2026.