Summer just isn't summer until I've played at least one game of miniature golf: There's something so carefree and old-fashioned about spending a leisurely hour or two knocking a ball through windmills, down slopes and alongside cooling fountains. Even on the hottest afternoons, miniature golf seems an ideal chill-out destination.
The game truly is old-fashioned: It originated in the early 1900s as a shorter version of regulation golf but soon evolved into a wildly popular pastime. Miniature golf's prevalence boomed during the Great Depression, when as many as 50,000 courses beckoned tourists throughout the country, says Paul Hemingway, one of six directors of the Professional Miniature Golf Association, a network of independently owned courses.
Tom and Julie Wilson of Leesburg play a round of miniature golf with children Ryan, 9, and Erica, 5, at Woody's Driving Range.
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"Miniature golf served as an inexpensive escape: I can go out and show my family a good time without breaking the bank," he says. Over time, as more entertainment options arose, miniature golf courses became less profitable, and many closed.
Today, the association estimates that about 4,000 courses are operating throughout the United States, and Hemingway says trends point largely to "family entertainment centers," which feature not only miniature golf but also driving ranges, game arcades, laser tag, batting cages, bumper boats and other activities.
"The stand-alone miniature golf course is almost hard to find, with the exception of touristy areas," he says.
Another trend is toward landscaped courses, much like the garden-style settings popular during the 1920s: "natural, almost a parklike feeling with synthetic waterfalls, streams and rocks -- a nice aesthetic experience, if you will," he says. Newer courses, however, offer more vertical challenges and attention-attracting features such as huge waterfalls, he says.
The game for the most part attracts families and dating couples, but "the Tiger Woods effect" has drawn more single guys into playing miniature golf competitively, Hemingway says. Tournaments take place, primarily in areas with higher numbers of courses, such as the Carolinas.
In the Washington area, courses range from older styles adjacent to driving ranges to new, park-operated, naturally landscaped designs. Northern Virginia even boasts a course that's more elaborate than the themed variety usually found at beaches.
Although my family never manages to meet our goal of visiting a different course every week, we have visited a variety, including three with unique features.
HISTORIC MINI-GOLF IN THE NATION'S CAPITAL
It seems only natural that Washington, a city steeped in history, should be home to the country's oldest continuously operating miniature golf course.
"Rumor has it," acknowledges Michael Williams, director of marketing for Golf Course Specialists, the company that operates East Potomac Golf Course and its adjacent East Potomac Miniature Golf for the National Park Service. But, not uncommon in the nation's capital, controversy surrounds the notion. At least two other courses -- Geneva-on-the-Lake Mini Golf, dating to 1924, in Geneva on the Lake, Ohio, and Putts 'N Prizes, built in 1929, in Lake George, N.Y. -- also lay claim to the title.
"The history of it is kind of shadowy," Williams says of the East Potomac course. Records indicate that the miniature golf course opened in 1930, although the neighboring full-size golf course dates to 1921. Still referred to in some publications as Circus Mini Golf Putt-4-Fun, the course at some point may have been circus-themed. Both the miniature and full-size courses are part of East Potomac Park, which definitely is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
Regardless of its exact status, "this is certainly one that's been a landmark for years and years, and I think it's safe to say it's not going anywhere," Williams says of the city's sole miniature golf course, which maintains the "charming and antique" ambiance of its early days.
Set on about a third of an acre, East Potomac features a design typical of early garden-style miniature golf courses. Native stonework outlines the greens, and plants and ponds provide natural landscaping. The uncluttered holes give the course a deceptively simple appearance, and, during an early afternoon visit, I tell my almost 12-year-old daughter, Anna, that we should be able to play through pretty quickly. My mini-golfing companion's skepticism proves on the mark, as we quickly discover the difficulty of making par on just about every hole of the par-53 course.
