Majority of minigolf competition players don’t speak English as native language. The situation is a bit funny: people in many countries talk and write about minigolf in English language, but everyone is talking with different terminology.

Here I explain my minigolf-English, and compare it to the minigolf terminology used by some others.

Hole (Target)

This is the place where the ball must go. It is usually at the center of...

Green (Target circle)

I use the word "green", it comes from golf. Rulebooks speak of "target circle", a term invented by Germans many decades ago, when all minigolf courses in their known universe had a green shaped like a symmetric circle.

Lane (Hole, Track)

American and British players say "hole", which comes from golf. I am allergic to confusing situations, where one word can mean many different things, so I use the word "lane", which comes from bowling. Some years ago I (and many others) used the word "track", which comes from track&field sports.

In 1980’s and 1990’s the International Minigolf Federation promoted names like "lanegolf" or "trackgolf" as the official name of the sport, translated into the native language of each national federation. Minigolf leaders of that era wanted to avoid using the diminutive prefix "mini-" in connection with our sport. The global federation has changed its policies since then, and is now called World Minigolfsport Federation. Translations of "lanegolf" or "trackgolf" into various languages still remain as the official name of the sport in majority of European countries.

Beton (Concrete)

"Concrete" is the most commonly used English word for cement constructions. But English language also has the word "beton", which sounds similar to the vocabulary of most European languages, so I find it reasonable to use a common international word "beton" instead of a specific English word "concrete".

Eternite (Eternit, Fiber cement)

Those small German minigolf courses are made of fiber cement, once in history patented with the trademark "Eternit" by a Swiss company. Some people use the trademark Eternit (with capital first letter), when speaking of these minigolf courses. This feels a bit shady and misleading, when we are speaking of a course that is manufactured by some other company than Eternit Ltd, with some other trademark than Eternit.

Others use the word eternit (with lowercase first letter, as a generic noun) as name of these minigolf courses. This is typical popular culture: registered trademarks often find a new life as generic nouns in various languages, completely unrelated to the original trademark. But such foreign words, when imported to other languages, are usually written according to the ortography of the language receiving the word.

In Finland we speak of "eterniitti", according to the typical ortography of Finnish language. (Finnish construction professionals speak of "mineriitti", because the trademark in our country has been changed into "Minerit".) Majority of European countries use the word "eternit", because it fits into the typical ortography of many Germanic languages. When I write English, I use the word "eternite", according to the typical ortography of English language.

Actually I once asked from some British university professors, how in their opinion should be correctly written an English generic noun, which is originally based on a German trademark based on German ortography. The professors never replied anything, and this minigolf term is too rare to officially exist in any dictionaries. There is no official way to write the word, because officially the word does not exist in English language.

Yet some small tips:

- IN men’s competition AT Olympic Games
The words "in" and "at" are used in diverse and confusing ways by different English writers. Both words can be used, I guess, but I have a feeling that "in" is a more correct choice when talking about a category, a sub-competition inside the whole tournament. And "at" is a bit more typical word choice when talking about the whole tournament, Olympic Games, World Championships, etc.

- IN round 5
- AT lane 7 (or hole 7)
- AT the minigolf course
- ON the green
- IN 7th place (or rank)
- PUTTER (I avoid using the word "club", because it also means "team")
- CLUB-HEAD (lower end of putter)
- STROKE, POINT, SHOT (the first two are most formal and official options)
- TEE-OFF AREA (I use "start area", because we don’t use a tee in minigolf!)

Others who know better, especially those who speak English as native language, may freely confirm or deny some or all of these language tips.