Boorad's World
 

On Thursday, July 10, I found myself attending a Rockies-Brewers game at 1pm CDT.  We arrived earlier than that, and had a few adult beverages on our way to a nice tailgate.  On our way into the parking lot, we saw some people playing Cornhole (as Cincinnatians call it).  But more interesting to me was a game being played a couple of cars down from us.  I hadn't seen it before.  It involves golf balls separated by a length of nylon rope being thrown like horseshoes to wrap around three horizontal bars for different scores.

The game appeared two days later on Cape Cod where I was attending a family reunion.  It was all the crowd wanted to play, after it was set up and people began to watch.  And throughout the week of vacation, we all wondered what it was called.  I thought, after this self-induced Internet blackout of vacation, a quick Google search would solve it for me in seconds.  Not so fast, my friends.  Here's a bit of what I found...

Like most outdoor games, it's a game of many names. It's also commonly referred to as:

Norwegian Horseshoes, Ladder Golf, Snakes, Hillbilly Golf, Polish Golf, Horseballs, Tower Ball, Bolo Golf, Gladiator, Bola, Snake Toss, BlongoBall, Ladder Toss, Bolo, Rodeo Golf, Dingle Balls, Bolo Polo, Cowboy Golf, Redneck Golf, Pocca Bolo, The Snake Game, Willy Ball, Ladder Ball, Slither, Zing-Ball, Snakes & Ladders, Hillbilly Horseshoes, Flingy Ball, Top Toss, Norwegian Golf, Monkey Bars Golf, Swedish Golf, Polish Horsehoes, Dandy Golf, Montana Golf, Lasso Golf, Australian Horseshoes, Ladder Game, Monkey Balls, Rattlerail Toss, Golfball Horseshoes, Arizona Golf Balls, Spin-It, Ball Dangle, Bolo Ball, Poor Mans Golf, Bolo Toss, even Testical Toss!

Sheesh.  I guess there needs to be a bit of consolidation on the naming front.  I trust some enterprising company to come along and standardize this puppy soon.  Otherwise it will spin out of control.  As the beer flowed on vacation, the family came up with suggestions that are not listed above, and perhaps should not be listed anywhere, now that I think about it.

 


Comments

Patty

Tue, 22 Jul 2008 07:05:30

We went to a teamate of Tess's house this past weekend and they had a much smaller version that they ordered online(cheap plastic), so it must be mass-produced somewhere, but Reid's was much better! It did not have golf balls and was about half the size.

 

boorad

Tue, 22 Jul 2008 07:13:26

Yes, that sounds like the game I played in the parking lot in Milwaukee. Way more flimsy than Reid's, and way smaller. Pfft. hacks.

 

Eric

Tue, 22 Jul 2008 08:14:08

The official UConn name for this game is Ladder Ball. So that's obviously the name.

 

larsivi

Tue, 22 Jul 2008 09:59:12

WTF? What does this have to do with Norway? Norwegian this or Norwegian that ... never seen the game ... wouldn't be surprised if the Swedes are crazy enough though. :P

 

shtiny

Wed, 23 Jul 2008 14:12:25

Who writes these comments... first you rip on the true Mecca (Miller Park) then a random rip on Swedes....If I were from Norway, I would take ownership of this product, as it clearly rocks, and is better than almost anything that comes out of that backwards country.

 

boorad

Wed, 23 Jul 2008 14:24:08

Interesting. Never did I forsee the day when larsivi and shtiny would mix it up on the Internetweb.

 



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