Ladder toss (also known as ladder ball, monkey ball, ladder golf, ball rope, goofy balls, testicle toss, cowboy golf, and hillbilly golf and other names) is a lawn game played by throwing bolas (two balls connected by a string) onto a ladder.
Each ladder has three rungs, each rung scoring a different point value. One common method of scoring is to have the rungs be one, two and three points. In one variety the top is worth 1, middle is 2, and bottom is 3. Points are tallied at the end of each round, after all teams have thrown their bolas. The bolas suspended on the ladder score the points for that rung, often with the goal of getting at least 21 points to win.
Another variety of scoring would be 1pt for the bottom rung, 2pts for the middle, 3pts for the top, and a bola on each of the rungs scores an automatic 10pts. This makes the game move faster, but is just as hard. If the ball bounces off the ground and lands on a bar it does not count as a point.
There are a few optional ways to earn or lose points:
- A "tight dangle bonus" is when the balls can no longer be wrapped around the horizontal rods. This is worth an additional point to each tight dangle.
- A "springboard bonus" occurs when the balls launch back in the direction they were thrown. A springboard bonus is worth one additional point.
- Points are cancelled where the bolas of the opponent land on the same rung. For example, if Player A throws onto the middle rung he or she scores 2 points, but when the opponent lands on that same rung, the scores cancel, netting to 0. Points only cancel on the same rung. Player A could have two bolas wrapped on the bottom rung (1pt) and Player B one bola wrapped on the middle rung (2pts), assuming no other bolas stuck, the net score would be 2 - 2 for that round of play. This optional play makes the game more competitive and the game may last longer.
Suitable For
| Indoors on Artificial Grass |  |
| Indoors on Hard Surface | |
| Outdoors on Grass | |
| Outdoors on Grass (event) | |
| Outdoors on Hard Surface | |
| Outdoors on Wood Chip | |
| Outdoors Under Cover | |