15 May 2009 at 20:19 | Published by: JJM | Views: 8458 | News search

Felt lanes which cannot have a green in Sweden any more.  (Photo by John Mittler 2009)

Swedish Minigolf Federation has banned felt lanes “Gentleman” and “Cradle” if they include a green. If competitions are played at minigolf courses where these lane types have a green, the green must be closed from use. This new rule took effect on 15 April 2009, and it applies to all national competitions in Sweden.

The purpose of the rule is to remove luck factors from minigolf lane types, so that minigolf will be more purely a sport based on skill and not luck. Swedish minigolf leaders believe that Cradle and Gentleman are lane types where a green does not add any skill factors to the game, but instead it adds luck factors, as the players cannot control how the ball will behave on the green.

However, Sweden did not ban the green from other felt lanes with a high hill, such as Coin Slot (Örkelljunga), Mailbox or Trapdoor. Also on these lane types the players have very little chances to control the ball on the green, but some Swedish minigolf experts defend the right to have a green on these lane types, because having a green can add skill factors to the game, as some top players will choose a faster and more difficult ball, to increase their statistical chances of getting a hole-in-one on the green.

Also the hill lanes of beton courses were left untouched by this new rule. Lanes 3 and 4 of beton courses are sometimes criticized as including obvious luck factors, as the players cannot much control how the ball will behave on the green.

Swedish Minigolf Federation is planning to promote these new felt rules to WMF and to other countries. WMF seeks to harmonize the rules of minigolf in all countries, so that all national competitions would be played with international WMF rules. But in reality, many countries are developing some own rules independently from WMF, including top countries such as Sweden.

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