A flight of locks is a staircase for boats, and we wondered what it would be like to climb one with a putter instead. Lock Flight Golf is the answer: nine holes, each laid out from the bottom chamber upwards, decorated with painted roses, balance beams, bullfinches and fingerposts. The decorations are only there to look at, so the ball rolls past them freely, but the walls, bumpers and gates are very real.
You play every hole the same way. Put your finger or cursor on the ball, drag back, and a dotted guide shows the direction and strength of the shot. Let go and the ball sets off, losing speed to friction, bouncing off edges and slowing in sand. Hit the water and it returns to try again. Hole out and the scorecard records your strokes against the par.
How to play Lock Flight Golf
- Press Play on the start screen and the first hole, Bottom Lock, appears with your ball waiting on the tee.
- Press on the ball and drag back away from the hole; the dotted guide shows where it will travel.
- Pull further for more power, ease off for a gentle tap, then release to send the ball rolling.
- Bank off walls and bumpers, steer clear of water and sand, and watch the gates before you commit.
- Hole out to move on; the scorecard tallies your strokes against each par across all nine holes.
Lock Flight Golf controls
Getting better at Lock Flight Golf
- Short, soft putts are often better than a hopeful blast, because a ball that rolls slowly is easier to stop near the hole.
- Before every shot, look for a wall you could bank off; a clean angle can reach a hole you cannot see straight.
- Watch a moving gate through a full open and close before putting, then time your release to its rhythm.
- Sand drains speed quickly, so add a little extra power when your line has to cross it.
- Playing for par on every hole adds up to a better round than chasing one heroic hole-in-one.
Why we built a golf course out of a lock flight
Anyone who has worked a flight of locks knows the rhythm: open, fill, close, move up, repeat. That steady climb felt like a natural shape for a round of nine holes. Each hole is a fresh chamber with its own puzzle, and reaching Top Lock Basin feels like arriving at the summit pound with the kettle about to boil.
It also gave us lovely obstacles. Brick walls are perfect for banking shots, gates open and close like the real thing, and water is everywhere, as you would expect on a canal. Holes are generated from a library of templates we designed and tested, so every one can be holed and the course still has its own character on this site.
Reading the brickwork before you putt
The ball behaves the way your hands expect. It slows steadily as it rolls, loses a little energy every time it bounces, and drags to a halt in sand. That means angles are worth studying. A shot played firmly into a wall leaves at a sharp angle, while a softer one tends to settle just past the corner. Most holes reward a moment of looking more than a fast trigger finger.
Slopes add a quieter twist, gently pushing a slow ball off its line. The trick is to aim a touch uphill of the hole and let the slope bring it round. When you miss, the stroke still counts, but the next shot often becomes simpler, so a calm second putt is rarely a disaster. Par is a friendly target, not a stern one.
Questions about Lock Flight Golf
It comes back so you can play the shot again. The stroke still counts on your card, so water is something to steer around rather than something that ends your round.
The nine holes on this site are built from our own templates using a fixed seed, so the course stays the same for you to learn, practise and improve on.
Every hole has a par. The scorecard counts your strokes hole by hole and adds them up, so a lower total is better and every stroke saved really matters.
