Since I was a kid I’ve always loved golf but either because of the costs or my age, the only thing I could afford was playing at the MINIGOLF, and having now the opportunity to play it IN MY LIVING ROOM is something I’ve never expected.

This Walkabout Mini Golf has everything I wanted from a game like this: fun and spectacular tracks, near-perfect physics, cross-platform multiplayer and hidden treasures to fill the dead times. For these reasons I was committed to gather as much information as possible to become a better player, so to lower my handicap and be able to compete online.

Obviously the following is not the "Tiger Wood's Bible", but if these tips would make you improve somehow, I'd have achieved my goal. But remember: practice makes perfect so, with the excuse of finding hidden balls and unlocking putters, let's rush headlong into this sport.

Sorry in advance if there are mistakes or typos: english is not my mother tongue. Please, let me know if there's any way to improve this guide. Thanks. ;-)

(pic: Ashita tenki ni naare - あした天気になあれ ©1984 Tsuchida Production)

First step: pick up the putter, or rather, our controller. In common golf there are different ways to hold the club and since everyone's hands are different, only by trying them all can you understand which is made for you. The aim is just one: to have as much control as possible, aka: a secure grip during the swing, the impact and the follow through.
In Walkabout Mini Golf we will use only one controller held in two hands and this is a bit complex ‘cause these things are not made for it, so we need to make a virtue of necessity and imitate reality in the best way possible.

In the image you see:

1. The 10 fingers grip, with the thumb of the lead hand resting on the palm of the trail hand.
   
2. The Vardon grip, with the little finger of the trail hand resting between the index and middle finger of the lead one. Used by Arnold Palmer, Sam Snead and Gary Player, among the others.
   
3. The interlock grip, with the little finger of the trail hand crossed with the index of the lead hand. Used by Jack Nicklaus and Tiger Woods, among the others.
   
4. A Custom VR grip, with trail hand into the lead hand, in case you have a rather short controller or particularly large hands.

Personally, using Valve Index and having spent some time with the game, the 3rd grip is the one I find most stable and comfortable, but having seen several friends playing, it seems like the number 4 is the most used. I repeat: the important thing is having stability and control during the shot.

Note that if you are LEFT-HANDED, you can change the leading hand in the settings: just click the cog on the scorecard or on your Avatar at the counter and look for “INVERT HANDS”.

Second step: position yourself correctly. Like the grip on the putter, it is important that you find your posture, a good stability with your feet at the right distance, with relaxed shoulders.

Obviously we're talking about a VR game here, so our reference points are not comparable to those in reality: the putter has no weight, we can't see our feet and the FOV of our headset may even limit our view when we look down (strap it properly!). But there are also some nice positives: in Walkabout Mini Golf the shaft of the putter will automatically change its length to adapt to our posture, while with the trigger you can instantly teleport to the ball and be ready to hit in an instant.

Now look at the drawing. Start by trying to visualize the trajectory for the shot: imagine a straight line that connects the ball to the hole (or to the area you want to reach). Move yourself near the ball and lean forward so to have it directly under your eyes. This is done to decrease the curvature of the movement when you hit. But since this is a videogame, don’t feel ashamed to keep your back straight and to stay a little far if you need more strength in it: sometimes the game asks us to use the putter as an iron!
Anyway, keep your knees a little bent and your feet open, perpendicular to the trajectory, at a distance consistent with your height (in VR you will have to go blind as you will not see them! XD). The putter head should be perpendicular to the established trajectory... and THIS is the most important thing! The angle "a" of the image must always be 90°, with the putter face perpendicular to the path throughout the whole swing, up to the impact and beyond. This leads to…

Unlike golf, the mini golf swing shouldn't be a problem: it mainly affects shoulders and once you understand the geometry of the shot you should be fine.

After visualizing the route and aligning ourselves as previously mentioned, the whole upper part of your body (putter+arms+shoulders) should rotate all the way AS A SINGLE BLOCK. Like a pendulum: backwards first, then forward until you hit the ball and then BEYOND the point of impact as if you want to indicate the hole with the head of the club. The putter must constantly follow the trajectory as if it would be on tracks and the inclination of its head must remain perpendicular to these tracks.

CURIOSITY: in the history of golf there have been other putting techniques used by famous golfers that could also be used by you. If you’re not OK with the classic movement, look online for the Side Saddle method or the Croquet... Ok, this one is illegal since '68 but not in VR (XD)!

Give the right amount of energy to the shot is perhaps the most difficult thing to learn in WMG and, unlike the trajectory of the ball (that can be improved using the previous precautions), here the practice is everything... especially since your virtual putter has almost no weight.

The hole is a little less than 11cm/4,25” wide and in its diameter fits two and a half balls. In the very moment the center of gravity of our ball is above the hole, it begins its fall, but depending on its speed and how centered it is to the hole, it could just change direction without entering, or even jump over the opening entirely! It all boils down to "how long there’s no ground under the ball".

There are calculations made by competent people (not me!), who say that if we train by putting towards a circle with the same dimensions as the hole, only if we manage to stop the ball directly over it, the entire surface of the hole can attract the ball down. Every inches BEYOND the circle (i.e. every fraction of force more than necessary) would decrease the area capable of making it fall down.
The optimal shot would be the one that makes the ball go beyond the circle by 30cm/12” maximum. In this case, given the speed of the sphere, the area capable of attracting it down rather than deflecting it is a 7cm/2.7” band (see my pic). For every additional 30cm/12” of distance from the circle, the portion capable of drawing the ball down is reduced by 2cm/1”. So, if you exceed the circle by 90cm/35”, the soft spot would end up being 3cm/1.2”, which on the green translates into an unlikely bullseye.

In short: the harder you putt, the more precise/centered the trajectory will have to be.

The following are some trivial tips from someone who has spent his time on the green, but feel free to add more strategies in the comments! You might as well be better than me in this.

You can access the settings directly from the counter at the beginning, by clicking on your Avatar, or using the cog on the scoreboard during a game.

Under PUTTER there will be:

• The default strength upon impact. If we increase it the ball will be lighter, in short.
  
• The angle of the club head when you hold the putter (very important!).
  
• The ability to make the putter immaterial until you click on the grip button (useful for practice swing, perhaps).
  
• The invert hands mode, for left handed players (ON= left handed).

Under MOVEMENT:

• The lock ball position mode, to center the ball in the available space in the room (ON= when teleporting you will always be placed more or less in the center of your playing area).
  
• The usual Turning/Locomotion options, to rotate the view by some degrees or have continuous movement. You can even change the motion speed.

Under AUDIO there are the volumes for effects, music and voice chats.

Under OPTIONS:

• The stroke limit to skip a hole (ON= triple bogey maximum).
  
• The on-screen locator for your ball... in case the teleportation is not enough for you.
  
• The switch to see the ball trail when it moves.
  
• The switch to see the names of other players during matches.

Do some tests in Practice and retouch these preferences with purpose. The hole #18 of the Arizona Modern would be perfect to test all of them: it's a long course and the shadow of the handrail is a great route to follow.

I understand the desire to play each course, but to have good results you need to prepare.
The aforementioned hole #18 of the Arizona Modern is an OK training ground, but the fantastic Welcome Island recently added is excellent. Click on the sign "Driving range" or "Practice Green" to activate one or the other. And with a few friends it's even more fun!

Keep in mind that during the training you can even pick up the ball pushing the stick down (like a hidden one), you can lob it in the air and catch it, throw it wherever you want, and if you lose it reach over your shoulder stick-down to get a new one. Handy! And while you’re at it, why don't you try to reach the top of the promontory or take a ride on the raft? You won’t regret it. ;-)

Don't underestimate the Practice mode of a course, too! You can repeat your shots over and over. To reset the ball to its previous position (“Undo”) just push the control stick down. You’ll see improvements in your swings and game in just 10 minutes.

Perhaps the most important trick of all. It is not always easy to imagine a straight line for a shot, especially if the hole is quite far away and to aim at it you have to rotate your head! Well… you have the perfect ruler in your hands: the putter!

Click on the image to zoom in, if you need it.
At the beginning of the game choose a simple club (I know you have all the putters and you want to show them off, but indulge me!), then, during the game, use it to visually align the ball to the hole (or to the area you want to reach, in any case) (1).
The textures have often details that stand out from the rest, such as pebbles or colored dots. If one of these happens to be on the trajectory you have previously aligned, you are good to go (2)!
Grab the controller with two hands, aim at the "dots" above and putt with the correct strength (3). If you do not enter the hole right away you will surely be closer to it than if you had a random shot.

It seems obvious, but getting an idea of the slopes and obstacles up to the hole is a must for your strategies. Use the teleportation or the "Flyabout" mode (hold the stick upwards for a few seconds... the controller should vibrate). The important thing is being aware of the 3D space around you, planning the steps required to get in the hole with as few strokes as possible.

Be confident in your game but know your limits. I am not saying you shouldn't look for alternative routes through rocks or shrubs, but you should do so only after gaining a little experience on the courses! At the beginning of your career in Walkabout Mini Golf the quickest way to learn how the designers think is following the intended path, as more often than not they hide specific methods to get a Hole in one in plain sight…

On Youtube there are dozens of videos showing where the balls are hidden in the courses or how to solve the treasure hunts in hard tracks. But if you want to find them yourself, I can advise you to use the "Flyabout" mode to move quickly (hold the stick upwards for a few seconds… the controller should vibrate). Even better if in Practice mode, so you can click on the hole numbers on the map/scorecard to warp there. Note that with the free flight you can also go under the floor to make certain geographical details disappear, sometimes leaving just the hidden ball visible.

Also remember that the treasures are also visible on the overview map, albeit microscopic in size.

You know, mini golf is a cross between classic golf and billiards. Several holes in Walkabout are proof and in some cases you will need some imagination and good timing not to bogey badly (damn wind!).
I kept this chapter last because it’s perhaps the dullest. I didn’t want to write a book about physics (some professors would have hated me), so if you want to know more about this, you’ll have to look for some more authoritative sources online. XD

It is useful to know how a ball behaves when it hits an inclined surface but since its exit trajectory is made up of different forces, we will try to get there by points.
Let's start by emphasizing how in Walkabout Mini Golf YOU CANNOT GIVE ANY SPIN EFFECT to the ball with the putter, it’s the ground and the inclinations that can give it momentarily.
When the ball travels on the court, its direction and spin match. As soon as it hits a surface, however, there is an immediate change in direction which does not immediately correspond to a change in spin. In other words, the ball needs a few moments (proportionally to its speed) to align the two components, in the meantime the ball skids and then few degrees are added to the exit angle.
Take a look at the pictures. For convenience, I draw reference points and letters in blue to indicate the corners. As always, click on the image to zoom in.

In sketch 1 you can see how the real exit angle is slightly more open than the imaginary “no spin” one (the blue dashed line). The rate of this change in spin (indicated by the arrow inside the circle) is proportional to the speed of the ball, so if you hit it harder there will be more slip and it will curve later. The fact remains that the mental calculation that must be done must always be relative to the straight line perpendicular to the plane, the one dashed in blue. A simple technique to adjust the shot without going crazy is to move the point of impact back a little.

In sketch 2 we see a double bounce. Same rules as the previous one, including those of the speed of the ball, that could "straighten" the trajectory a little more and bring it near the one "without the spin" (in blue).

In sketch 3 the rebound on a rounded surface. As you can see, it works in the same way as the others on a common plane, with the perpendicular line on the impact spot and the entry/exit angles slightly different.

A little different is sketch 4, in which the inclination of the ball over the plane decreases with each bounce and ends up following the shape of the surface. Often in Walkabout Mini Golf you will have to use this kind of shapes to steer the ball, so it's important to remember that the key is the angle of entry: the closer to the plane, the fewer bounces it takes for the ball to follow the surface.

In Walkabout Mini Golf sloping surfaces are always designated by a series of stripes. Obviously, the shots in these contexts are the most difficult, since a curved trajectory is harder to conceive than a straight one. There are several variables to take into consideration: the hit strength and direction (as usual), then the inclination and height difference between the starting point and the arrival, this changes the potential energy in the ball and therefore its kinetic one.
The following diagrams aim to clarify the concept of conservation of energy.
The idea is that different forces act on the ball at all times, even when it’s still, but their sum remains constant. Gravity, for example, is canceled out by the floor the ball is resting on but nevertheless provides it with potential energy. When we add kinetic energy to the system through the putting stroke, the position of the ball changes as the balance of forces does, but their sum remains the same until everything slowly returns to the initial state due to inertia.

In the first case the speed of the ball at point "a" (the base of the slope) is neither more nor less than the one at point “b”, after the parabolic trajectory. At the apex of the arc, the ball has its maximum potential energy and its minimum kinetic energy, so it’s stationary. In "a" and "b" is the other way around: it has max kinetic and minimal potential. Ongoing with its trajectory beyond "b", the kinetic energy of the ball dissipates due to friction till the ball stops.

In the second case the speed of the ball in “c” is greater than in “d”. The missing speed (kinetic energy) is turned into potential energy. In other words, since the ball ended up on higher ground, it has more unexpressed energy but this made it stop sooner on the landing.

In the third case the speed of the ball after the stroke in "e" is the same as in "f", but then part of its potential energy becomes kinetic! It’s added to the one already acting on the ball and the final speed in “g” is way higher.

Fourth case: if the ball in "h" is released without adding further kinetic energy (ie: without pushing it too much), it’ll arrive in "i" at the same height as the start. Then it’ll come back and forth with shorter and shorter oscillations. It’ll stop on the bottom only after the friction has consumed all its kinetic energy.


This is it. I hope you enjoyed the guide and that it can help you with your games.
See you in Walkabout Mini Golf!

-Fbs