20how scoring works
The cup is what turns a rolling ball into a finished hole. A ball that drops in disappears and the game prints how many shots you took, counted from wherever you first set the ball down. Tossing a Golf Ball in by hand does nothing at all; the ball has to have been struck with a club at least once before the cup will acknowledge it.
it is also a switch
Sinking a putt sends out a wire pulse, and that is the part worth building around. Feed the output into a door, a row of lamps or a set of statues and the hole reacts when someone finishes it. A course with wired cups feels built rather than decorated, and it costs you a few wires per hole.