Windmills and Dinosaurs: Playing Miniature Golf

I recently played a miniature golf course with my wife in Panama City Beach, Florida during our 10th anniversary trip. We won't discuss who won that matchup but we are still speaking so we are good!

After the game I kept the score card and read the back of the card which gave a short history of miniature golf.   

The first miniature golf course in the world was the "Men's Putting Club of St. Andrews" in Scotland and was founded in 1867.   This started a mini-golf revolution in Europe but it didn't reach the United States until 1916.  In 1927 the "Tom Thumb Miniature Golf" near Chattanooga, Tennessee became popular.  The game has had times of ups and downs in popularity over the years.

The game uses artificial surfaces and a geometric layout requiring bank shots and featuring artificial obstacles such as tunnels, ramps, windmills, dinosaurs, etc.  

It's easy to interchange "Putt-Putt" with "mini golf" however, Putt-Putt is actually the trademark game of an American company that builds and franchises miniature golf courses in additional to other family entertainment venues. Putt-Putt golf was founded in Fayetteville, North Carolina in 1954 as the world's first and only copyrighted and branded miniature golf game.  All of the Putt-Putt courses are built to exact standards to create a version that can be played by all ages.  There are currently Putt-Putt locations in California, Indiana, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Kentucky, Virginia, Tennessee, Georgia, Florida, Louisiana and Texas.

The governing body of worldwide competition in miniature golf is the World Minigolfsport Federation (WMF).  In the most recent list of world rankings, the top woman is Vanessa Peuker from Germany.  The top male minigolfer is Fredrik Persson from Sweden.

In the U.S., the Professional Putters Association and US Pro Mini-Golf Association (USPMGA) offer competitive tournaments and rankings of players in the U.S.   According to the USPMGA, Olivia Prokopova from Texas was the 2021 Master's Champion.   

According to the Travel Channel, these are the best miniature golf courses in the United States:

• Skyline Mini Golf (Minneapolis, Minnesota) - roof top of a downtown museum with views of the Minneapolis skyline
• Philly Mini Golf (Philadelphia, Pennsylvania) - Every hole features an historic landmark such as Independence Hall, Liberty Bell and Ben Franklin Bridge
• Par-King Skill Golf (Lincolnshire, Illinois) - has 19 mechanized obstacles and seven water features
• Around the World Miniature Golf (Lake George, New York) - features obstacles like Paul Bunyan, Statute of Liberty and Las Vegas-style roulette wheel
• Shoot for the Stars Mini Golf (Branson, Missouri) - guided by your "agent" through Hollywood themed course
• Mini Golf at Big Cedar Lodge (Ridgedale, Missouri) - One of the holes requires your skills to putt into and through the mouth of a massive Bass.
• Crave Golf Club (Pigeon Forge, Tennessee) - Indoor and outdoor courses with ice cream cones, candy canes, gumballs and jelly beans as obstacles.
• The Fringe (Roswell, Georgia) - A section of the popular Area 51 entertainment complex
• Duffer's Mini Golf (Wildwood, New Jersey) - Finding Nemo-themed course with chatty pelicans, oversized sharks, an octopus and a shipwreck.
• Disney's Winter Summerland Miniature Golf (Disney World, Florida) - A winter and summer course for you to choose from.
• Coal Country Miniature Golf (Fairfield, West Virginia) - Mining-themed course with each hole with a unique piece of coal mining equipment for obstacles.
• Pelly's Mini Golf (Del Mar, California) - Course with 20 sculptures of marine life including whales which actually spout water from blowholes.
• Conservation Course (West Palm Beach, Florida) - Connected with a science center with opportunities to learn about Florida's Everglades.

The best miniature course in the world is claimed to be Dino Park Mini Golf in Phuket, Thailand.  The course is based upon pre-historic creatures and a multi-sensory experience with towering dinosaurs which move and roar at random, holes located in a bubbling lava cave, putting through waterfalls and at the base of an erupting volcano.  

In case you were wondering, no one is currently known to be making a living playing miniature golf as money prizes are pretty low and sometimes none at all.  You won't get rich doing it however there are over 40,000 registered players from 37 countries participating in competitions.  

There are approximately 5,000 mini-golf courses in the United States.