Cornhole Distance and Board Dimensions Guide

Regulation cornhole distance is 27 feet, measured from the front edge of one board to the front edge of the other. That is the figure the American Cornhole League and the American Cornhole Organization both use for adult play, and it is the number that governs every sanctioned match.

Set the boards that way and the two holes end up roughly 33.5 feet apart, because each hole sits near the back of a 4-foot board. Here is the full official setup, then the casual variations, scoring and the origin of the name.

The official cornhole setup

Everything below comes from the current ACL rulebook. The board itself matters as much as the gap between boards, since the hole placement and the slope are what make a regulation throw feel right.

Measurement	Regulation spec
Board distance (front to front)	27 feet
Hole distance (center to center)	About 33.5 feet
Board length x width	48 in x 24 in (4 ft x 2 ft)
Hole diameter	6 inches
Hole placement	9 in from the back edge, 12 in from each side
Front edge height	3 to 4 inches off the ground
Back edge height	About 12 inches
Pitcher’s box	3 ft wide x 4 ft long, beside each board

Measure the 27 feet from the closest edges, not the centers of the boards. A tolerance of half an inch is allowed in tournament play, so a tape measure and a flat surface get you there.

How far apart do you set up the boards?

Place the two boards facing each other with 27 feet of clear space between the front edges. Players stand in the pitcher’s box to the left or right of the board on their end and pitch toward the far board. Each player throws four bags per round.

The foul line is the front of the board. You can wind up and step, but your foot cannot cross the front edge before the bag leaves your hand. Step over and the bag scores nothing for that throw.

Casual and youth distances

The 27-foot figure is the only distance the governing bodies define. Neither the ACL nor the ACO publishes a shorter “junior” standard, so anything you see for kids is a house rule rather than an official spec.

In practice, families shorten the gap so younger or newer players can reach the board. Common backyard choices land somewhere between 12 and 21 feet, picked by feel rather than by rule. If you are training to play in a league, practice at the full 27 feet, because a bag that carries 15 feet is a very different throw from one that has to travel 27.

For more on where cornhole fits among casual competition, see our look at the differences between indoor and outdoor sports.

Board dimensions and hole placement

A regulation board is a rectangle 48 inches long and 24 inches wide. The hole is 6 inches across, centered 9 inches down from the top edge and 12 inches in from each side, which places it dead center left to right.

The board is not flat. The front edge sits 3 to 4 inches off the ground and the back rises to about 12 inches, giving the surface a gentle upward slope toward the hole. That slope is why a bag can slide up the board and drop in, and why a flat sheet of plywood on the grass never plays the same.

Why is it called cornhole?

The name comes from the filling. Traditional bags were sewn from fabric and packed with dried corn kernels, so a bag that dropped through the hole was, literally, corn in a hole. The game spread through the American Midwest, particularly Ohio and Kentucky, which is why “cornhole” stuck there while other regions called the same game bean bag toss or corn toss.

Competition bags today are usually filled with resin pellets rather than corn, because plastic resin holds its weight and shape in wet weather where real corn swells and rots. The name outlived the ingredient.

The bags matter too

The board gets the attention, but a regulation setup also specifies the bags. Under ACL rules a bag measures 6 inches by 6 inches and weighs roughly 15.5 to 16 ounces, about a pound. Each player throws four bags per round, and the two sides use different colors so scoring stays clear.

Serious players use dual-sided bags, with a faster “slick” side that slides toward the hole and a grippier “stick” side that stops on the board to block. That is a competition nuance rather than a rule, but it is why tournament bags cost far more than the filled sacks in a backyard set. For casual play, any pair of matched, similarly weighted bags works fine.

How do you keep score in cornhole?

Cornhole uses cancellation scoring, and the first side to reach 21 or more at the end of a round wins. A bag through the hole is worth 3 points. A bag that lands and stays on the board is worth 1. A bag on the ground scores nothing, even if it touched the board first and slid off.

Cancellation is the part newcomers miss. After both players throw their four bags, you compare the two totals for that round and only the higher scorer banks points, minus the opponent’s total. If Red scores 7 in a round and Blue scores 5, Red adds 2 and Blue adds 0. That back-and-forth is what keeps close games from running away.

Two casual games that share cornhole’s pub-and-backyard territory are worth a look next: how to play darts and how to rack pool balls both reward the same kind of repeatable, low-setup practice.

Get the boards 27 feet apart, keep your foot behind the front edge, and count by cancellation to 21. Those three things are the whole regulation game.