Ran a few hundred ranked rounds building out a competitive mini golf leaderboard, and the biggest lesson so far: most players over-index on aim and under-index on speed control.

On a technical course, a slightly off-line putt at the right speed still funnels into the cup 60%+ of the time on breaking greens. A perfectly-lined putt at the wrong speed almost never does. The pros treat speed as the primary variable and line as secondary — most casual players do the opposite.

If you're building any kind of skill-based ranking system (mini golf or otherwise), this is the kind of insight that separates a fun leaderboard from one that actually reflects skill. We built Birdie Club around ranked rounds + real prize pools for exactly this reason — reward the players who've actually dialed in the fundamentals, not just the lucky bounces.

Curious if other competitive putters have noticed the same pattern.