Mini Golf

aka Miniture Golf...
I got hooked on it big-time in Lake George, NY this weekend. I played 4
different courses in less than 2 days. The colored golf balls, the
windmills, hole-in-one, wacky shots, water falls...the list goes on.
I'm a junkie!
(are there any places for a good fix around NYC?)

Not to mention the Tikis! I've been to quite a few courses that have a Tiki-themed hole. I think Lake Tahoe has a really retro-bizarro course that has a big Tiki(?). I have some pics somewhere maybe I can find them.

OHHH! PLEAAAAAASE! Don't mention Mini Golf! I just got back from my yearly East Coast romp with my hooked 7 year old son and sisters family. First Niagra Falls Canada, Mini golf and Wax museum Capital of the WORLD! There was even one where we stayed! Off to NYC thank God there was no space in Times Square for a course. On to my sisters house in Marlboro Mass. played there! Hop the ferry to our yearly stay on Martha's Vineyard. What do I spot, a mini golf course! We played in between clamming, the beach and antiqueing.
I don't share the fondness but what can you do-If you can't beat 'em-join 'em!

I've always been intrigued by the mini golf place right next to Disneyland. It looked like a pretty interesting one, but hey -- Disneyland calls, the last thing I'm gonna do is ditch The Happiest Place On Earth for some putt-putt. Does anyone here know the place I'm talking about?

I like the Pirates Cove in Gulf Shores, Alabama. They have a killer course. I played golf for years then I realized how boring it is unless you are drunk with a bunch of friends. Now I enjoy, as we call it in the south, "goofy golf" sober. Pirates Cove is actually harder than your average goofy golf course. I give it a 9 on a scale of 1 to 10.

Tikis or not, I find miniature golf mind-numbingly boring...I don't know if it was the year my family went on vacation and we stayed right next to a Putt Putt complex - they had 3 different courses and I must have played each one at least 5 times...not to mention the traumatic experiences of hitting a ball into the middle of a highway or breaking the window of the little snack shop with another pastel colored golf ball...I can play for 4 holes and I'm ready to lose my mind but hey, to each his own!

:drink:

Just Cool!!

JohnTiki

Greetings to all from The Pi Yi Lenai in luxurious Bel Air Maryland!

[ Edited by: johntiki on 2002-09-05 22:26 ]

Well, Mini-golf is the descendent/bastard child of the most boring sport in the world--18 hole golf.

amen to that!

I've heard that the mini golf place in Sherman Oaks (San Fernando Valley) has tikis and a Don the Beachcomber sign.

Adventure Golf in Denver, Co is one of the best mini-golf experiences I've ever had and I've been to a few. It's owned and operated by the city of Hyland Hills, which operates Hyland Hills Water World (I think #8 water park in the world). Anyway there are three seperate courses: -A haunted mansion course -A Disney-esque course (there's a pirate section, a castles section, etc) and the Jungle Adventure course.

The Jungle Adventure course was added to the park 5-7 years ago, but features some pretty exotic settings (ruins you play through, animatronic gators in swamp, etc), but best of all features a 14 foot volcano that shoots giant gas balls (erupts) whenever a player can make the most difficult shot. In addition, the final hole features two wisecracking tikis that taunt you and then shoot water at you if you miss the final hole. It may not be the most challenging mini-golf to be found, but it is certainly an adventure.

On 2002-09-04 20:09, Humuhumu wrote:
I've always been intrigued by the mini golf place right next to Disneyland.
...
Does anyone here know the place I'm talking about?

There used to be a miniature golf right across the street from Disneyland, on Harbor Blvd., on the northeast corner of what is now called Disney Way. I think the street had a different name in the 1970s. It's the street that Melodyland (church) is on.

When I lived in Anaheim in the '70s, I started attending Melodyland and I heard the other people in the youth group complaining about how their Melodyland youth outings used to almost always go to that miniature golf, and how tiring that got. Since I had always wanted to go to that miniature golf with somebody, I was so dismayed at having just missed that era of all their trips! I never did get to go, and now that miniature golf is gone.

The address of Melodyland I see online is 400 West Freedman Way, so maybe Freedman Way is the old name of that cross street where the miniature golf was. How that area has changed! It was nearly unrecognizable to me the last time I visited a few years ago. The entire Haster St. overpass area, the areas flanking both sides of the I-5 before it was widened, the entire area around the Howard Johnson's, all had the street layouts so drastically altered that the area didn't even look familiar, other than the HoJos itself, which mercifully was virtually unchanged in architecture and landscaping since the '70s, other than losing part of their back parking lot to the widened I-5.

Ah, the good old days. Back then things had character. There was a Polynesian themed motel just south of that miniature golf corner for a while, too. I used to be able to run down the dirt bank of Haster onto Disney Way. There used to be an attractive camper grounds area [Trailerland Park] on the southwest corner of Ball Rd. with many shade trees and lots of young honeys always running around there in swimsuits. A family Mexican restaurant. An old lady always doing gardening in her front lawn near the corner. Now it's all sterile, bland hotels, an extremely noisy and extremely wide freeway, a chain Taco Bell, etc. That's what I hate about "progress." In my opinion all those changes are "regress."

P.S.:
Look what I just found, after posting this message! A postcard showing Harbor Blvd. with Disneyland on one side and your miniature golf on the other! I can't quite read the name of it, though.

http://65.254.59.194/~vstapf/apc/25.html

Check out that site's main web page, too. Excellent collection of vintage Anaheim postcards!!!

http://65.254.59.194/~vstapf/potf.html

And indeed former Freedman Way = current Disney Way:
http://www.yesterland.com/otherlands.html

Addendum (2-27-06):

I'm told there was a second miniature golf near Disneyland, at the Disneyland Hotel. If I recall correctly, this was on West Cerritos Avenue, now West Magic Way, on the north side of the street across from the hotel's main entrance. Check out this vintage score card for that miniature golf course! I wish I had photos of it.

http://keeline.com/DL-MiniGolf/

[ Edited by: mbonga 2006-02-26 03:12 ]

[ Edited by: mbonga 2006-02-26 03:33 ]

[ Edited by: mbonga 2006-02-27 02:21 ]