Ladder Golf
Encyclopedia
Ladder Golf is a trademark
ed and patent
ed ladder ball lawn game
manufactured by Ladder Golf, LLC., a San Diego, California
based company.
of two golf ball
s connected with a rope at a ladder type structure. The top rung is worth 3 points, the middle rung is worth 2 points and the bottom rung is worth 1 point, with the goal of the game being to get exactly (and not over) 21 points.
s in the western United States or caballero
s in Mexico
used to throw at fences or branches for points.
A "ball and ladder game" had been patented in 2001 by Pennsylvania
n Robert G. Reid, a postman who had played the game with his family for decades before deciding to file for patent in November, 1999. Reid sold his patent to Ladder Golf LLC, recorded in the patent office in March 2005, and the company began manufacturing the game. The company sponsored a tournament in San Diego in April, 2005, featuring 32 teams.
in which the lawn is marked to resemble a ladder, about 40 or 50 feet long, with a putting hole placed at the ladder's end. Competitors attempt to putt the ball into the hole with the fewest number of strokes, neither straying beyond the side lines of the ladder nor exceeding a pair of rungs in a single stroke. Alternative names for the game include dandy golf, dingle balls, horse balls, slapnuts, hillbilly golf, scrotum, and testicle toss.
Trademark
A trademark, trade mark, or trade-mark is a distinctive sign or indicator used by an individual, business organization, or other legal entity to identify that the products or services to consumers with which the trademark appears originate from a unique source, and to distinguish its products or...
ed and patent
Patent
A patent is a form of intellectual property. It consists of a set of exclusive rights granted by a sovereign state to an inventor or their assignee for a limited period of time in exchange for the public disclosure of an invention....
ed ladder ball lawn game
Lawn game
A lawn game is any outdoor game that can be played on a lawn. Many games that are traditionally played on a pitch are marketed as "lawn games" for home use in a front or back yard.Common lawn games include:*Horseshoes*Lawn darts*Croquet*Cornhole*Bocce...
manufactured by Ladder Golf, LLC., a San Diego, California
California
California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...
based company.
Gameplay
In the company's most recent patent, it was described as "a tethered ball toss game in which a number of tethered balls arranged at both ends of a series of cords and secured to the ends of the cords by knots are tossed from a prescribed distance toward a number of horizontal bars." This is one in a long string of patents on the topic. The game is played by throwing a bolaBolas
Bolas are a throwing weapon superficially similar to the surujin, made of weights on the ends of interconnected cords, designed to capture animals by entangling their legs...
of two golf ball
Golf ball
A golf ball is a ball designed to be used in the game of golf.Under the Rules of Golf, a golf ball weighs no more than 1.620 oz , has a diameter not less than 1.680 in , and performs within specified velocity, distance, and symmetry limits...
s connected with a rope at a ladder type structure. The top rung is worth 3 points, the middle rung is worth 2 points and the bottom rung is worth 1 point, with the goal of the game being to get exactly (and not over) 21 points.
History
Matt Peterson discovered the game on campgrounds in the early 1990s and believes it probably originated in such locations. Others speculate that the bola is a stand-in for a live snake, which cowboyCowboy
A cowboy is an animal herder who tends cattle on ranches in North America, traditionally on horseback, and often performs a multitude of other ranch-related tasks. The historic American cowboy of the late 19th century arose from the vaquero traditions of northern Mexico and became a figure of...
s in the western United States or caballero
Caballero
Caballero, the Spanish word for "knight" or "gentleman", may also refer to:People* Caballero , people with the surname Caballero* Celestino Caballero, professional boxer from Panama...
s in Mexico
Mexico
The United Mexican States , commonly known as Mexico , is a federal constitutional republic in North America. It is bordered on the north by the United States; on the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; on the southeast by Guatemala, Belize, and the Caribbean Sea; and on the east by the Gulf of...
used to throw at fences or branches for points.
A "ball and ladder game" had been patented in 2001 by Pennsylvania
Pennsylvania
The Commonwealth of Pennsylvania is a U.S. state that is located in the Northeastern and Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States. The state borders Delaware and Maryland to the south, West Virginia to the southwest, Ohio to the west, New York and Ontario, Canada, to the north, and New Jersey to...
n Robert G. Reid, a postman who had played the game with his family for decades before deciding to file for patent in November, 1999. Reid sold his patent to Ladder Golf LLC, recorded in the patent office in March 2005, and the company began manufacturing the game. The company sponsored a tournament in San Diego in April, 2005, featuring 32 teams.
Other uses
Although the title is a registered trademark in the United States by Ladder Golf, LLC., the term is also sometimes used generally to describe the game. The term has also been utilized to describe a variant on traditional golfGolf
Golf is a precision club and ball sport, in which competing players use many types of clubs to hit balls into a series of holes on a golf course using the fewest number of strokes....
in which the lawn is marked to resemble a ladder, about 40 or 50 feet long, with a putting hole placed at the ladder's end. Competitors attempt to putt the ball into the hole with the fewest number of strokes, neither straying beyond the side lines of the ladder nor exceeding a pair of rungs in a single stroke. Alternative names for the game include dandy golf, dingle balls, horse balls, slapnuts, hillbilly golf, scrotum, and testicle toss.