Luke's Balls (classic)

From Uwphitau

History

In many circles, Luke's Balls is known by the markedly mundane names of Blongoball, Bolo Ball, Ladderball, Polish Horseshoes, or Ladder Golf...

These are all stupid.

In Phi Tau, we refer to this game by the name of the man who introduced it to us, the esteemed, Mr. Luke Amundson, and his most remarkable balls.

The game is, by some accounts, the second most fun game in the world. It dominated Phi Tau life for a good amount of time until it was put on hiatus due to the destruction of the original Luke's balls ladders.

The game arose from the ashes on Sunday, May 4th, 2008, when the members of eta class rebuilt the ladders. This rebirth, or renaissance, allowed many a Phi Tau to ignore homework on Sunday afternoons and instead enter that long dark teatime of the soul.

Assembling and Playage

1. Assemble as shown in the Picture. The 2-ft. pipes will be used for the back of the footprint as well as the ladder rungs. The front of the footprint doesn't need to be as long as the back because all the force is coming from the front.
2. Tip: After threading the nylon rope through the holes you've drilled in the golf balls, tie a knot right in front of and behind the ball to hold it secure at the end of the rope. Then, use a match or lighter to slightly melt the knot. This will help the knot stay tied. (If you made your holes a little big, you may want to wind the rope thru the knot twice to make the knot a little bigger so that it won't pull back thru the holes.) Place a golf ball at each end of the ropes.
3. You'll need 12 ropes (24 balls total): three of them should have one color,three more a different color...etc (total of 4 different colors). You can use Krylon spray paint to paint the balls if needed - paint before attaching to the rope. Need a suggestion on how to hold the ball for painting? Untwist a wire coat hanger and thread the balls on that while spraying.
4. Set the ladders about 20 feet apart (this is up to you)
5. Teams of 2, 1 person from each team on each side.
6. Team 1 throws first, followed by the opponent on that same side.
7. Points are as follows: --which can be altered to your desire
8. Top Pole = 3 Points
9. Middle Pole = 2 Points
10. Bottom Pole = 1 Point
11. Feel free to switch it around, top being 1, if you choose, sometimes its harder to get it on the bottom rung. Some say that if the balls touch the ground, no points are scored.
12. Score is determined very similarly to Baggo (Cornhole, Bags), points cancel each other out. So if you score 4 but the other team scores 2 on that same round, you only get 2 points. Play up to 21, thats it! A variation is that you have to get EXACTLY 21 and points scored that would put you over 21 are deducted.
13. For a scoring variation, all balls that land in the base of the ladder can be scored one. The first rung can be scored 2, second rung 3, and top rung 4. This makes it a fast-moving game and works well when younger players are involved. For the one-pointers landing in the base, only one ball must be inside the area. The exception to this is a shot that lands both balls on the outside of the frame with just the rope on the inside of the ladder area. This is the only shot that counts for a point without any ball inside the base area.