Golf Games: 5 Best Backyard Sets Ranked

Golf games for your yard or living room boil down to two styles: putting mats with cup cutouts or angled chipping boards with netting. If you want the most competitive, fast-playing option, Battleputt takes top rank for putting, while Chippo wins for chipping. Both swap out the frustration of a full 18 holes for portable, party-friendly target practice.

Key takeaways

• Battleputt is the top pick for flat lawns, driveways, or living rooms, running on an 11-foot rollout mat.
• Chippo is the best choice if you prefer using real wedges with safe, high-density foam balls.
• Most casual chipping setups require 15 to 20 feet of clear ball flight.
• The main drawback across all fabric chipping targets is wind instability, which requires ground stakes on breezy days.

Which golf game fits your space?

1. Battleputt: Best overall for head-to-head competition

Battleputt turns the classic college party cup layout into a head-to-head putting duel. Two players or teams stand at opposite ends of an 11-foot turf mat, putting toward a triangular cluster of six holes.

Each time you sink a putt, you drop a plastic plug over the hole to take it out of play. The first player to eliminate all six cups wins the frame.

The mat includes treated foam wedges underneath each end that act as built-in ramps, giving your putts realistic roll and pace. You use real putters and regulation golf balls.

The catch is surface sensitivity. If you set Battleputt on uneven, thick grass, the mat ripples and ruins your line. It plays best on a flat patio, a driveway, or hard indoor flooring.

2. Chippo: Best for players who love their wedges

Chippo blends cornhole with a short wedge shot. The set comes with two durable plastic target boards covered in artificial turf, two chipping mats, and specialty high-density foam balls.

You place the boards roughly 15 feet apart. Each board features three cutout holes with catch nets underneath, scoring one, three, or five points depending on the hole size and position.

You can swing your own 56-degree sand wedge or 60-degree lob wedge without chewing up your lawn turf, thanks to the included rubber-backed striking pads. The foam balls fly with real spin and trajectory but will not shatter a sliding glass door or dent your siding.

The tradeoff is storage size. The rigid boards do not fold down flat like cloth targets, so they demand serious trunk space if you travel with them.

3. Hook & Ring Golf: Best for compact indoor play

Hook and ring golf sets drop the footprint down to an 8-foot run, making them ideal for an office, garage, or narrow hallway. Instead of open netting, these units feature an elevated backboard with hanging tethered rings or gravity-fed return tracks.

You putt up a slight incline. If you hit the target with the exact speed needed, the ball settles into a center cup; if you miss or hit it too hard, the track kicks the ball right back to your feet.

It works well for solo practice while on phone calls or quick games between two people. Because the track feeds the ball back, you do not need to walk back and forth.

The limitation is replay variety. It tests one single distance, so once you calibrate your stroke to that exact eight-foot pace, the challenge drops off quickly.

4. 3-Tier Pop-Up Chipping Net: Best on a tight budget

A three-tier pop-up basket uses spring-steel wire frames that twist down into a flat circle roughly 12 inches across. When opened, it expands into a tiered cylindrical tower with three stacked pockets.

This style focuses purely on vertical trajectory control. The top basket demands a high flop shot, while the lower two baskets take lower-running chips.

Because the entire rig weighs under two pounds, you can carry it anywhere. Most packages include yellow foam practice balls and a small strike mat measuring roughly 8 inches by 20 inches.

The honest drawback is wind. Because the body is lightweight nylon, any breeze over 10 miles per hour will tilt or drag the target unless you anchor it into the dirt with metal tent stakes.

5. Floating Green Target: Best for summer pool days

A floating green brings chipping directly into the swimming pool. The target is an island of marine-grade closed-cell foam topped with synthetic green turf, usually measuring around 3 feet by 2 feet.

You place a small artificial turf mat on the pool deck, drop the island into the water, and chip floating plastic-core practice balls toward the target. The set includes a perimeter fringe that stops rolling balls and keeps them on the green.

It turns a hot afternoon outside into an entertaining challenge where misses simply splash into the water.

The drawback is retrieval duty. Even with floating practice balls, someone eventually has to jump in with a skimmer net to gather three dozen floating balls scattered across the pool.

What should you look for before buying?

Space determines whether you should buy a putting game or a chipping game.

Putting games need flat, level ground. If your backyard is mostly bumpy turf or sloping terrain, putting mats will frustrate you. Chipping games do not care about the ground beneath them because the ball travels through the air until it hits the target board.

Pay attention to ball composition. If you have children, pets, or nearby cars, never run yard games with standard Surlyn-covered golf balls. Stick to molded foam balls that carry true flight dynamics without the destructive kinetic energy of a 45-gram solid golf ball.

Photo by mk. s on Unsplash