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The Two Rules That Trip Everyone Up (Culture)

Jan 31, 2026

Golf Croquet has remarkably simple rules. You can learn the basics in five minutes.

But there are two rules that trip up almost every new player—not because they're complicated, but because they feel counterintuitive.

Rule 1: Wrong Ball

In Golf Croquet, you must play the balls in a colour sequence: Blue, Red, Black, Yellow. Always. Every turn.

The tricky part? If you accidentally play out of sequence—say you hit Blue when it was Red's turn—your shot doesn't count and the balls go back to where they were.

This catches everyone at first. You're so focused on making the hoop that you grab the nearest ball without thinking.

The fix: After a few games, it becomes automatic to know which ball is next but early on it's tricky. Everyone at every level has played the wrong ball. It's just something that happens. It gets fixed up according to the rules and play goes on.

Rule 2: The "Offside" Rule

In Golf Croquet, you can't position your ball more than half way towards next hoop before anyone has scored the current hoop. Your ball gets moved back to a penalty spot.

This rule exists to stop players from "running away" and ignoring the current contest entirely to goal hang at the other end. It keeps the game interactive.

The fix: Don't think too far ahead in the early weeks. Focus on the hoop everyone is playing. If you end up offside it doesn't matter, it happens many times in all levels of the game just take your ball for a walk to the penalty spot.