Well before smartphone and video games became the go-to for fun, people who wanted to spend a leisurely afternoon with friends turned to lawn games. Not quite as exhilarating or taxing as sports, they nonetheless brought people outdoors for a little bit of competition with friends and family.
Lawn games have started to gain new popularity as people have sought alternative forms of fun. So, take out your regulation cornhole bags and take a look at the best lawn games you can try today.
Croquet
This is what you get if you took to golf and made it somewhat similar. The principle of playing is the same; you take a mallet to hit a ball through wickets set out in a course. Think of it as overland golf.
While you can essentially set it up any way you want — for the fun of things — you can also set things up a with a whole set of rules that involves a regulation course and set rules. It’s really a low-stress version of the sport it inspires and is perfect for people of all ages.
Lawn Bowling
Did you know that the bowling we enjoy in those alleys actually began life as being played on the lawn? The principle is the same with the lawn version, except there isn’t much in the way of rolling as you’d experience in the smooth lanes of a bowling alley.
Instead, what you do is skip the ball a little bit on the lawn then have it roll after to hit pins a set distance away. Again, there are regulations that you can opt to follow if you really want to be legalistic about it, but nothing should stop you or your friends from simply having fun.
Cornhole
This is actually one of the simpler yet more enjoyable lawn games out there. Two teams that are around 27 feet apart take turns chucking regulation cornhole bags onto a cornhole board — trying to shoot them in the cut-out hole.
Scoring is based on how many bags you score in or around the hole itself — in the hole equals three points, anywhere else on the board is one. The great thing about cornhole is that it isn’t too complicated to explain and set up. It’s definitely quite universal and something that’s perfect for the laziest and most relaxed of afternoons.
Lawn Darts
A final, relatively simple lawn game worth trying out is lawn darts. Again, those familiar with regular old darts has a good idea of how this is played.
You set up a target — or draw one out in chalk — a good distance away from a starting point then chuck weighted darts and try to earn more points than your opponent. It’s not too hard to set up nor play, but this isn’t a game to play while drinking with friends as those darts are actually weighted and heavy — causing potential injury.
There are even more lawn games that are worth trying out. These range from amalgams of other sports or games to classics that have long histories. The one thing that they all have in common is that they’re extremely enjoyable.
