It’s On Tap

Drinking games are great. They act as a social lubricant, getting people together and having fun for a common purpose: getting plastered. You’re at a party, it’s 10pm, and people are just standing around sipping their microbrews. What do you do? “Anyone want to play Kings Cup?” Problem solved. Another potentially awkward situation saved by drinking games. But what happens if you try to play Kings Cup at 10am? Your roommate probably walks out and says, “WTF dude? It’s 10am!” What kind of a game makes it socially acceptable to drink in the middle of the day, you ask? Enter Hillbilly Golf.

Hillbilly Golf is a tailgate/lawn game that’s great for pre-gaming, post-gaming, or just drinking in the sunshine, but it requires some equipment. You could buy a set at the store or something, but that wouldn’t be in the true spirit of the game. No, you have to build it. Here’s what you’ll need:

• About 25 ft. of 3/4 in. PVC pipe
• 6 3/4 in. PVC T’s
• 6 3/4 in. PVC elbows
• About 8 ft. of nylon rope
• A dozen golf balls
• A drill
• Scissors
• A saw (if you’re going to cut the PVC pipe yourself)

Building your own set is half the fun of the game. So once you’ve got all the ingredients, here’s how to build it (NOTE: these instructions build one half of the set. Just repeat the steps to build the other half):

• Cut 3 2 ft. pieces of PVC and 6 1 ft. pieces
• Attach T’s to the end of 2 of the 2 ft. pieces and elbows to the 3rd
• Connect the 3 with the 6 1 ft. pieces to make the “ladder”
• Cut 6 2 ft. pieces of PVC
• Connect 2 2 ft. pieces together using a T (do this twice)
• Attach elbows on both ends of the now 4 ft. of pipe (do this twice)
• Connect the two ends with the other 2 2 ft. pieces
• Attach the ladder to the base just created

Now you should have a final product that looks like this:

Lastly, you have to drill holes through each golf ball, then cut the nylon rope and tie two golf balls together so their about 12 in. apart. Make 6 of these.

Once you build it, I think you have to paint it. I recommend neon orange, neon yellow, and neon purple paint. Make that set really stand out. But if all went to plan, you should have two sets that look like the picture to the right.

Now all that’s left is the rules:

• Set the “ladders” about 20 ft. apart (adjust as you like)
• Play in teams of two, where teammates stand on opposite ends
• Opposing players on the same side alternate shots (like shuffleboard)
• Top rung = 3 pts, middle = 2 pts, bottom = 1 pt
• The balls can bounce up onto the rungs
• The opposing player can try to knock your balls off the rungs
• Score the difference (like shuffleboard, e.g. you get 3 points, your opponent gets 1, you score 2 points)
• When your turn is over (all 6 balls have been thrown), the other two players shoot from their end
• Game goes to 21

So there you have it. That’s Hillbilly Golf. If you’ve played it before, or built a set of your own, let us know what you think. If not, give it a try if you get a sunny day, and then come back and tell us how it went.