Miniature Golf's Beginnings

Although the first miniature golf course in the United States was built in 1916 (by James Barber of Pinehurst, North Carolina)  I think most people agree that Garnet Carter was truly the Father of Modern Minigolf.

Garnet Carter was the first person to patent a game of miniature golf.  He patented it under the name “Tom Thumb Golf” in 1927.   And it really was kind of an accident. 

He owned a hotel at Lookout Mountain in Tennessee, and he built a regulation golf course to draw customers to his business.  (HA!!  I originally typed costumers!!  Let’s imagine if he wanted hundreds of costumers playing golf at his course!!   That would be festive!!)

Anyway, near the clubhouse he built a putting green.  You could putt while waiting for your tee time, or to warm up, or whatever.  Carter noticed that people were spending WAY more time than he had anticipated on the putting green before finally teeing off.   He jokingly referred to this little putting green as his “Tom Thumb course”.

It was so popular that he decided to charge a fee for playing the little “Tom Thumb course” and even the fee didn’t keep its popularity from increasing.
Eventually he created a whole 18 hole course in miniature, and got his wife, Frieda Carter, to decorate it with fairies and gnomes (ah - the fabulous garden gnomes!!  What AREN’T they good for?!)

His first course, at Lookout Mountain, and the other Tom Thumb courses that were built subsequently to be like it, were all actually MINIATURE golf courses.  You know, they had miniature dog-legs, and miniature roughs, and miniature sand traps - just like regulation golf. 

Man, I was driving out to DeKalb to visit my dad yesterday.  I was driving on I-88.    And, on the side of the road, there was a line of geese - walking on the shoulder!!  Seriously, there must’ve been 200 of them.  Adults, teenagers - all single-file.  Kind of trudging along.  Some of them were awfully close to getting in the far right lane- I was worried about them.  The cars were whipping by at 85 mph (what can I say - Chicago drivers).  But, what was going on there??  Has anyone ever heard of such a thing??  If they were travelling in a group, why weren’t they flying??  It seemed somehow so sad - I felt as if they ought to be carrying sad little goose luggage to their new homes or something.

I couldn’t stand not knowing, so I just did some on-line research.  This is amazing!!  It turns out, geese can't fly while they’re molting, which usually takes place in mid June to mid July!!  Which is right now!!!   So, the goosey parade was on account of it was molting season!!!  Who knew??

The web-sites I visited said that geese are grazing animals, so they often like to walk in order to graze, but I don’t think that’s what was going on - I don’t think there’s much good grazing on the shoulder of the express-way!!

So, back to the minigolf history.  

So, Garnet Carter THOUGHT he was building a golf course for children, but, to his surprise the course was taken over by adults, who enjoyed the fairy-land setting and enjoyed the challenge and hilarity of putting a ball through the miniaturized fairways.

Carter began manufacturing courses for national distribution under the patented name Tom Thumb Golf.  By 1930 there were over 25,000 miniature golf courses in the U.S.  In 1932, he sold the rights, and used the profits to open Frieda's Rock City Gardens. 

But just think about it:  in 1927 Garnet Carter invented minigolf, and just 3 years later there were 25,000 courses in the U.S.  That’s really amazing.  Especially considering the Stock Market Crash happened in October of 1929.  You know, that means there were on average 25 courses built every day during that three year period!!  Whoa!!!

Coming next:  guest golfing in DOLLYWOOD!!!!!

All illustrations ©2010 Michael James.

Santa Fe Trails Mini Golf

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So, after our funny warm-up at the Sugar Grove Miniature Golf, we went about a quarter block further south on Route 47 and found the place we had originally set out to find:  The Sugar Grove Family Fun Center. 

This place has all kinds of entertainments - they’ve got some sort of bumper-cars.  Only they’re boats.  I think.  I really didn’t understand it.  Don’t bumper-boats sound like a recipe for disaster??

 

In any case, this place is some sort of relative of the funny Sugar Grove Miniature Golf and Driving Range.  But, the vibe at the two places couldn’t be more different.

This course was true MINIATURE golf.   Where each hole is like a regulation golf hole, with rough and slopes and all.  And there’s a sort-of Wild West theme going on, too.

This was Aaron’s favorite course, by far.  Also, it was the course where Aaron’s golfing suddenly took a leap forward, which may account for part of his enthusiasm.    But also, it was just a fun course.   We played in near-rain.  And the astro-turf was SOAKED (that’s my excuse for such a poor score!!).   We definitely want to go back and play again in better conditions.

I think the thing I liked the most about this course was that a whole BUNCH of baby frogs had just metamorphosed from tadpoles to froggies and were hopping EVERYWHERE on certain holes!!  I spoke with the woman at the front desk - I didn’t know if these were some sort of rare miniature frogs (on account of the miniature golf - ar, ar) or if they were truly babies.

She said they were babies, and that they hatch every year here!!  She said most of them get eaten by the birds, though!!  Wow.  Nature is brutal.  I asked where they lived and she said, “in the pond”.  I said, you mean, that pond with all the BLUE water???  Because, I just couldn’t stop taking pictures of the blue water.  It was like Tidy-Bowl!!  Seriously, all those little blue babbling brooks and such. 

She said, oh, that blue coloring, isn’t it nice??  And it’s eco-friendly.  Really!!  Well, I guess if frogs can hatch in it every year . . .

Oh, look!!  A tunnel conveniently provided for cleaning the rain off your glasses during the game!!

Seriously, the really delightful thing about this course was talking about what might be the best strategy to get to the hole in the fewest strokes.  There were a lot of differently shaped fairways.

 

Statistics:

Par:  46
Aaron:  49
Peg:  58

Difficulty (1-6 putts, 6 putts being the most difficult):  4 putts
Rating (1-10 balls, 10 being the most wondrous):  8 balls

Although this was Aaron’s favorite course so far, it was too serious for me.  Not enough goofy creations.   My favorite course so far is still good old Novelty Golf on Devon!!

Coming soon: Guest reviews from Tennessee!

Sugar Grove Miniature Golf

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 Our intended course for today was the Sugar Grove Family Fun Center at 9 S. 825 Route 47, in Sugar Grove, Illinois.  You know, I mapquested it, but it seemed like you just head south on route 47, so I didn’t really pay much attention to the address.

So, we were headed south on route 47, and it seemed like we were going kind of a long way.  And then we saw a minigolf course on the left, so we figured we had reached our destination.  We pulled into the parking lot, and it seemed like there was another minigolf course just down the road, which looked more like what we thought we were looking for.  But, since we were already parked, we decided to play the Sugar Grove Miniature Golf.

This course was hilarious.  It took us about two holes to realize that ALL THE HOLES ARE EXACTLY THE SAME!!!!  WOW!!!  Seriously,  the decorations are all different, but - look at this shot of the polar bear.  Cool bear, but look at all the other holes!!  It was so funny!!


The course was astro-turf, and it was in great shape.  There was a driving range immediately next to the mini-golf.  It’s a great place to practice - and for $6.00 for 18 holes a little cheaper than in Chicago. 

And another thing:  dig this knight carrying a shield!!  Do you recognize the shield??  It’s the Tri-Force shield!!  The Hylian shield!!!  The shield that Link uses in the Legend Of Zelda games!!!  They just STUCK Link’s shield on this anonymous knight!!!  The decorations are so crazy like that. 

 

For instance, look at this statue of Darth Vader.  It’s CLEARLY Darth Vader.  Only, look at his eyes!!  Those aren’t Darth Vader’s eyes!!  These eyes are big and sympathetic!!  You’d never make an evil emperor with droopy anime eyes like this!!!  And, what’s that barbeque skewer he’s holding??  Perhaps he’s hosting a party for wookies???  What’s up with these decorations???

 


And:  LOOK AT THIS!!!  Doesn’t this look like a giant butt??  With a tail??  We got to this decoration and I said to Aaron, OMIGOD, it’s a giant butt!!!  And he said, “no way!”  Of course, when we got around to the other side . . . I was so WRONG!!!!

This hippo hole was WAY better than the hippo hole at Skokie Sports Park!!!  And, dig this warped Pinocchio.  See what I mean about the decorations??  They’re all just a little off.  Like somebody made them in their garage from their memory of the characters.  And, why does this gorilla have such a pointy head??

 
AHA!!!  A loop-de-loop!!  There were two of them on this course.   The hole is STILL exactly the same - only there’s a loop-de-loop on it.  HA!!!

 

Oh, and see this hole with the seal - look!!!  The hole is different!!  Not counting the loop-de-loops there were exactly TWO holes that were different from the rest.

 

On the back 9 we noticed that the actual holes, the cups, were no longer “finished” with plastic or metal in the bottom.  They just were sand.  And they had lots of ants in them!!!  I hope we didn’t harm any ants!!

The 19th hole was a ball return, just like at many courses.  Only, this 19th hole was a legitimate hole on the course - you put it on your scorecard just like any other hole!!!

Statistics:

Par:  45
Aaron:  50
Peg:  51

Difficulty (1-6 putts, 6 putts being the most difficult):  2.5 putts
Rating (1-10 balls, 10 being the most wondrous):  4.5 balls

This was a great warm-up course, great to practice.  But not very exciting.

Coming Next:  Sugar Grove Family Fun Center

The Evolution of Golf Balls

 
 
It’s about the balls.

I remember spending long summer days trying to figure out what was inside a golf ball.   We’d find old ones in a big vacant lot every now and then.   We’d get one that

had a cut in it, peel off the white outer layer and then start unwrapping the rubber bands.  This part went on FOREVER!!!  I only remember getting to that liquid-filled center ball ONCE in my entire childhood.  Usually we’d get bored before then!!!  Also, the rubber bands that wrap the core are thinner and more fragile than the rubber bands you put at the end of your pigtails.  So, there was a lot of breakage and a lot of searching for the next loose end!

As far as I can tell, golf began in the 1400s.  In Scotland.  At that time, golfers used wooden balls and wooden clubs.  But in 1618 the “featherie” was introduced. MAN!!  This was a ball with a leather exterior, filled with - I kid you not - exactly one top-hat full of feathers.

Sheesh, doesn’t it seem somehow like a magic trick gone awry???  OOops, a rabbit was supposed to appear inside the top-hat, but all I got was a hat full of feathers!!   Wrong magic word??   Sigh.  Guess we could use them to stuff a golf ball!!!

Anyway, they’d boil down the feathers and cram them all into the leather, and stitch it up.  As the whole mess cooled and dried, the feathers would expand, and the leather would shrink, causing the ball to be compact and hard.  The outside was

then painted, and - wahoo!!!  It was a golf ball!!!

These balls were expensive.  An experienced ball maker could only make 2 or 3 in a day, so they cost the equivalent of $20 each.  Man, it made people motivated to find their balls on those long slices!!!

In wet weather, the stitches would rot, and the ball would often split open after hitting a hard surface.  Even so, the “featherie” ball was the standard golf ball for about 230 years!!

Oh, man, today on the way to my sing-along (I run a sing-along for the elderly on Saturdays) the illuminated light on the corner of Sheridan and Bryn Mawr had a bunch of burnt out bulbs (or whatever it has - LEDs?).  So, instead of saying, “Turn Left on Green Arrow Only” it said, “Turn Left on Gr . . . Arr . . . Only”.  HA!!! 

That totally reminded me of the Mutant Enemy credit - you know, the card at the end of Firefly??  The Joss Whedon card with the mummy walking across the screen saying, “Gr . . . Arr!”

OR, remember Bobby Henderson??  He was the scientist who wrote to the Kansas State Board of Education saying that he believed that a Flying Spaghetti Monster created the universe, and they should include THAT in the curriculum of Intelligent Design. 

He wanted to make the point that correlation does not imply causation.  So he said that global warming was caused by the lack of pirates in the world.  When there used to be a lot of pirates, there wasn’t global warming.  So, perhaps if we all talked like pirates, the temperature would go down.  He created world “talk like a pirate” day (September 19th) and claimed that the world temperature dropped on that day.

Of course, he came up with Pastafarianism (right - that’s what you are practicing if you worship the Flying Spaghetti Monster) before there was such growing

awareness of modern-day pirates.  I’m not sure he would’ve chosen the pirate theme if he’d written his letter in 2010!!

ANYWAY, I kind of expected we were not supposed to turn left except when pirates  came along and directed us!!!

Right, it’s about the balls.

In 1848 the gutta-percha ball was invented.  It was most often called “the guttie”.    The guttie was cheaper than the featherie, plus, golfers could repair their balls by rolling it on a “smoothing board” after each round.

But, of course, there were slackers.  There are always slackers.  The slackers neglected to smooth their balls after each round, and soon their balls were completely covered with dents from the play of the game.  And it turned out the dented slacker balls flew WAY better than their more compulsive friends’ smooth balls.  This is how they figured out that all those dimples made the balls fly more true.  (Doesn’t it seem as if there ought to be a moral here - about slackers being good??  I wish I could think of it!!)

It was in the 20th century that multi-layered balls were developed - the kind that we disected as kids - with the white layer, the rubber band layer, and then the rubber ball filled with liquid.

On January 1, 1932, the golf ball was standardized in the United States at a maximum of 1.620 oz., wih a diameter not to be less than 1.680 inches.

And now, featheries and gutties are sold at auction for ridiculous prices.  Go figure.  There’s an on-line golf-ball museum, if you’re interested.  They have photos of the various types of historical balls.  Check it out:
http://www.golfballmuseum.co.uk/ishop/818/shopscr55.html.

Coming next:  Sugar Grove miniature golf!


Firefly, the Mutant Enemy logo, and Mr. Owl © of their respective owners.
All illustrations ©2010 Michael James.

Par-King Skill Golf, Part 2: Black Course

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Today’s blog is Par-King, Part II:  the black course.  But first, here's some Par-King trivia:

      -The lowest verified score on a Par-King course is 33.
      -The lowest possible score is 17.  (you can get a zero on the
            roulette wheel - hole 18)
      -The rollercoaster is made of over 750 wooden pieces.
      -The chances of winning a free game are 1 in 32.

The first hole is The Guitar.  I liked this hole simply because it WAS a guitar!!

 
The Tiki Hole was cool - I like putting into someone’s mouth.  And there were troughs and lots of cool rolling around, but basically, it didn’t matter how you entered the Tiki mouth - the outcome on the putting green was random.

 
The Four Aces was interesting - there was a hole mid-way down the fairway that would supposedly put you in a good place on the green, and Aaron tried this approach, but Barb and I just went for the longer putt and I think it worked better that way.  That hole mid-way doesn’t necessarily put you into the final hole.

 
OK, what was up with the Whirligig???  Where does the ball have to go in to get the good outcome??  We each went into a different place, but we all came out the same place.  ARGH!!!  This made us sad.

The Roller Coaster!!!  You know, the only thing that does this hole justice is the little film that the Travel Channel did.  It is way, way cool.  Travel Channel movie (The link will allow you to download the video in MP4 format): 
http://www.par-king.com/tc_clip.html

Look at this lovely alligator!!  You know, I read someplace that if you play a B flat to an alligator he won’t attack you.  I think they REALLY need to test this on Mythbusters.  If this is true, wouldn’t you think they’d make Alligator-deterrent whistles that just play B flats???  Or is it crocodiles??  It seems to me the article I read played the B flat on a French Horn.  Could be people who go to Florida should be sure to take along a French Horn player.

 
I liked the statue better than the hole.  And, dig his shoes!!!  I WANT this pair!!!

Another rotating hole!!

  
Oh, look at these lovely fish!!  

 

OK, is it just me, or does hole 12 bear a creepy resemblance to John Wayne Gacy?  Eeeeeeew!!!  Also, he tips his head, and you need to putt in when he’s tilting the right way.  But it’s hard not to get knocked back.   This hole is just evil.

 
Once again with the Mt. Rushmore.  How weird.

  
Nice elephants.

 
Oh, LOOK!!!  Here I am with my best friend in the whole wide world!!!  How WONDERFUL!!!  On this hole, exercise moderation, and take the middle path!!!  

 
And then, hole 18 - the roulette wheel again.  I’m not fond of the roulette wheel, as we said last time - and LOOK, you can see why!!!  There’s my ball in FIVE!!!!  

 

Statistics:

Par:  41
Aaron:  48
Peg:  48
Barb:  48

Difficulty (1-6 putts, 6 putts being the most difficult):  3.5 putts
Rating (1-10 balls, 10 being the most wondrous):  6.5 balls

Once again, the random-ness of some of the holes, and the impossibility of figuring out where your ball was going inside some of the machines brought down the score of a creative and whimsical course.  We all thought little kids would really dig this course, though.  And I also have to say, we loved the music.  They played The Monkees, Five for Fighting, and a lot of classic rock.

Coming next:  a history of the golf ball!!!

Par-King Skill Golf, Part 1: Red Course

 NOTE: You can click on the embedded photos to make them larger.

Today’s course was Par-King Skill Golf at 21711 Milwaukee Avenue Lincolnshire, IL 60069.  This is a course with a lot of history.  It began life as George's Gorgeous Golfing Gardens.  That original course (built in the 50s) is gone, and the current course dates back to the 60s, although some of the original decorations are still in use in this course.  The clown and the turtle were created for the original course.  Every winter all the decorations are taken indoors and re-painted and maintained.

There are two eighteen hole courses at Par-King, and there’s no discount for playing both eighteens!!  Man, ALL the courses we’ve played before had a discount for playing both courses!!!  $7.00 is the fee for 18 holes here, and that seems about right.  But most other courses give you the second 18 for half-price, and Par-King doesn’t.  Bummer.

Anyway, there’s a red course and a black course.   We played the red course first.

You know, they had a different type of putter here than I’ve seen anywhere else. These putters didn’t have a line on top.  You know - a line on top of the head of the club - so you could see which way you’re heading your ball, sort of.  I have to say, I really missed that line.   But then, I’m geometrically challenged.

We liked the plastic tee plates.  They didn’t seem to trip us up the way the metal tee plates did at Novelty Golf.  They weren’t as pretty as the metal plates, but we liked that there were three different tee options.

 
The second hole, Totem Pole, had a really cool red silhouette that was slightly sunken, so once your ball got into there you couldn’t roll any further from the hole.  
 



 


On the Carousel hole - I got a hole-in-one!!!!  Wahoooo!!!

 

The Statue of Liberty was the first water hole.  You were supposed to hit your ball

across a narrow bridge.  You know, I have to say, there were signs by all the water holes saying that there was a TWO stroke penalty for going into the water.  TWO strokes!!!  Who ever heard of a two stroke penalty???  My sister, who was our guest golfer today, said they just weren’t explaining it right, they meant that we should just pretend we were teeing off at our second shot.  Hmmm.   In any case, the two times one of us went into the water, we didn’t use the TWO stroke penalty - we just used the one stroke penalty, like in real golf.  Sheesh!!

 

This hole rotates!!!  

Super Looper!!  OK, we loved this hole!!  You putted into the center, and your ball goes up the elevator and then comes out at the top of a loop-de-loop.  Man.  It was so fun to watch the mechanics.  It reminded me of the game Mousetrap.  Man, I loved that game.  






 
The Buck-a-Roo is great if you get your ball in the designated area, because then the bucking bronco statue moves and the cowboy rides him.  But, my sister’s ball got STUCK inside the mechanical thing - here she is attempting to free her
ball, which had gotten stuck on top of a ledge in the corner.   She says we should re-name this the Big-Butt-Blog!!!



 


Barb got her ball stuck on the Queen’s Castle, too.  Huh.  

 

The Sears Tower (right, the Willis Tower) had an elevator inside - it just comes out the other side, though.   (But, wait, if this is a REPLICA of the Sears Tower, built while the Sears was still the Sears, then is this replica STILL the Sears???)

 

Barb got a hole-in-one on this heart hole - she’s a straight shooter!!!

 

Oh, look, it’s a Farmville hole!!

Hole 18 was a roulette wheel.  Man, we REALLY didn’t like this hole!!!  If you’re a
kid, and you’re getting sixes on all the holes this might be a nice hole, but the thing is, you just putt in and your ball goes to a roulette wheel, and you just take the score of where your ball lands!!  How much does that suck???  There is a one in 32 chance that you’ll win a free game on this hole, but to me that doesn’t make up for getting a SIX or SEVEN that ruins your score!!!!!!!  SHEESH!!!!!!

Statistics:

Par:  41
Aaron:  47
Peg:  47
Barb:  43

Difficulty (1-6 putts, 6 putts being the most difficult):  3.5 putts
Rating (1-10 balls, 10 being the most wondrous):   6.5

You know, there was too much randomness on this course.  We LOVED the goofy decorations, and the Rube-Goldberg-like contraptions.  But there were way too many holes where you couldn’t figure out where the ball needed to go into the contraptions in order to come out the pipe that would give you a good placement.