As DVDs and video games have families increasingly glued to their digital screens, miniature-golf course owners have adapted to the new technology by replacing windmills and clown mouths with interactive challenges and animatronic characters.
(These days, Myrtle Beach, SC, attracts serious mini-golfers to an annual championship.)īy the ’50s and ’60s, the local putt-putt was a family destination and a fine place to bring a first date. The first two finishers in each of eight age groups 7-9, 10-11, 12-13 and 14-15 for boys and girls advance to the regional Sept. In 1927, a Chattanooga, TN, hotel owner built a mini-golf course on Overlook Mountain, hoping to draw traffic to his property, and three years later, it hosted the National Tom Thumb Open, America’s first mini-golf competition.
Andrews, Scotland, in 1868 because women were not allowed to complete a full back swing with an 18-hole mini-course, women wouldn’t have to drive the ball. It’s a far cry from the early days of mini-golf, which began in St. Miniature golf has its own national day, September 21, and turns up in pop culture: Homer and Marge of The Simpsons conceived Bart in the windmill of a mini-golf course Adam Sandler refined his short game at a miniature-golf course in Happy Gilmore and in Jackass 2003, they demolished a mini course with golf carts. Some courses are even quirkier, such as Ahlgrim Acres in the basement of an actual funeral parlor in Palatine, IL, or Lake George, NY’s Around the World in 18 Holes, where each hole represents a country through its famous landmarks (and a few stereotypes).
Many indoor mini-golf courses are glow-in-the-dark or black-lit, such as Glowing Greens in Portland, OR, a 10,000-square-foot tropical island/pirate adventure with optional 3-D viewing. THE JOURNEY TO AUGUSTA STARTS HERE Drive, Chip and Putt is a free nationwide junior golf development competition aimed at growing the game by focusing on the three fundamental skills employed in golf. 2004 ( MMIV) was a leap year starting on Thursday of the Gregorian calendar, the 2004th year of the Common Era (CE) and Anno Domini (AD) designations, the 4th year of the 3rd millennium and the 21st century, and the 5th year of the 2000s decade. Ripley’s Old MacDonald’s Farm Mini Golf in Sevierville, TN, features talking animated barnyard animals that cheer, jeer, and even call out “Nice putt” to certain players. Wikimedia Commons has media related to 2004. Computer technology developed by Disney (known as animatronics) has helped to make miniature golf more popular-and more challenging. It’s the kind of goofy, cheap thrill you can expect from the wackiest of America’s 1,600 mini-golf courses. But at least at Virginia’s 18-course Perils of the Lost Jungle, you can’t say you weren’t warned. When you’re about to putt, the last thing you expect is to be rushed by a lifelike animatronic gorilla.