Boldly Go Solo

I'm no Louis Oosthuizen and I don't even play him on TV. And I've never been anywhere near the British Open.

But I did play a mean game of mini golf the other day, the kind that world champion miniature golfers might play in countries around the world.

Tee Time Miniature Golf in Stone Harbor, New Jersey, is one of a handful of regulation mini golf courses in the United States. A story on the course will be appearing in The Washington Post in a few weeks and I'll post a link to it here when it's published.

But basically, this is not one of those goofy courses with green felt lining each hole and loads of pirates and sharks and polar bears that don't play a role other than to entertain by hanging above or near the holes.

At Tee Time, the obstacles are all there to be used or to be avoided. And the course is a concrete and fiberglass fabrication imported from Germany. 

It is a course with standard holes that are used for tournament play in many countries.

When I looked up miniature golf on wikipedia, I was shocked and delighted to recognize, in the primary photo, two of the holes I'd played at the New Jersey course.

The one in the background on wikipedia is called the "Killer Loop" at Tee Time, and man, it sure killed me.

I never did get the ball in the hole. After 4 strokes, I had to call it a 5 and move on with the group playing a Friday morning tournament. This was all for fun. No worldwide titles involved. 

One of my favorite holes was the one you see in the second photo here. It's a maze and it's called "Have a Heart" because of a heart-shaped center. There are four passages to send the ball up, but only two of them are sure winners.

One's a dead end and the other leads to a tricky passage that sometimes holds onto the ball instead of letting it through to the "hole." (There is no hole. Just a resting place for the ball.)

Anyway, I was fourth out of five players and the course owner tipped me off on how to bank the shot. Everyone else's golf balls kept banging into the small, but formidable edges of the walls that create the passages.

By banking my ball on the right-side wall on the way up, it went smoothly into one of the correct passages. Who the heck knows why?

I beat everyone at the hole. But then again, I think I lost to everyone when final scores were tallied.

As for solo travelers, if a 14-year-old could show up and play alone, so can you. A teen named Patrick, the previous week's champ, wandered over by himself from his family's beach house to try to repeat.

Alas, he came nowhere close. (And is likely to try every week his family is in town, I'm guessing. I would! It's a hoot.)

Anyway, the point of the Post story is that there's a world of tournament play mini golf out there that not too many Americans know about. They may want to try their hand at the "real thing" at Tee Time.

Or at one of three courses in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina.

Or compete at the "prestigious" mini golf competitions: the US Masters, US Open, British Open, Irish Open and World Crazy Golf Championships.

Okay, watch out Louis
Oosthuizen and Tiger Woods. Once I master the game of mini golf, I'm off to stake a claim at "big golf." (Larger golf? Maxi golf?)

Photos: Ellen Perlman.

1. Hole One – "Pyramids"

2. Hole Nine – "Have a Heart" maze

3. Hole Two – "Killer Loop"