Earlier this summer, I was halfway through the drive from Midcoast Maine back to Boston when something entrancing lured my car off of the expressway — a big multicolored sign announcing the presence of a mini golf course. Like a root beer float on a hazy evening or a spontaneous screening of “Jurassic Park” after some friend’s cookout, a round of mini golf is one of those Proustian delights that transports you back to childhood’s golden hours.
With a spring in my step, I forked over $12, selected a purple little thing from the bucket of golf balls, and picked up the largest putter available. What followed was a series of heartbreaks; 18 of them, to be exact.
This roadside mini golf course offered little more than a handful of irregularly shaped putting greens. There were no bells or whistles — not even a wavy slope or little windmill to whack your ball through. It was like showing up to a pizza joint only to find a couple of microwaves behind the counter instead of ovens. Just as there’s a profound difference between a frozen pie and a handcrafted Neapolitan, there are cheap, lazy mini golf courses, and then there are golfscapes.
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You see, a game of mini golf isn’t just about transporting a ball to a hole as efficiently as possible. It’s a journey through a built environment that reflects life’s wonders and hilarities. A golfscape is the highest form of mini golf — an inspired, surprising obstacle course that leaves golfers grinning from ear to ear, as they putt their way from one challenge to the next. And as we segue from summer heat waves to the crisp and opportune days of fall, you can revel in the glory of the golfscape on your way to an orchard or an old growth forest. Because New England’s coast, hills, and mountains are speckled with examples what makes a world-class mini golf course.
Mulligan’s Island in Cranston, R.I.Miles Howard.
A world within a world. Plenty of mini golf courses can feel like accessories to a neighboring environment, such as a regular golf course or a theme park. But a golfscape is an atmospheric place with its own aesthetic and logic. Take Mulligan’s Island (Cranston, R.I.); in this labyrinthine golfscape, a parcel of Ocean State grassland has been reimagined as a tropical island. The putting greens are flanked with rustling greenery, tidepools, and the occasional treasure chest. The wreck of an old ship towers over multiple greens, like the skeleton of a dreaded sea beast.
But the most eye-popping feature of Mulligan’s Island is the volcano at the heart of the course. A great rocky pinnacle, around which several putting greens are laid out, the mountain includes a cascade, wooden staircases offering passage to a lower level of the golfscape, and a summit that occasionally erupts with fire! As a manager at Mulligan’s Island leveled with me, eruptions used to happen more often. But due to the, uh . . . age of the mountain, they occur around once an hour these days. So if you time your visit right, you might get lucky and witness the inferno.
Kimball Farm’s mini golf course in Westford.Miles Howard
Water features galore. The presence of running water on a golfscape can spruce up your mini golf game in a couple of ways. A well-placed stream of water can serve as an obstacle that you must lob your ball across. Failing to execute that shot could send your ball into the drink and end your game prematurely. But other times, that stream might carry your ball across the green, under a stone, and through some unseen “off-ramp,” back onto the green, inches away from the hole. Sometimes courses make it clear when the water is a friend or foe. Others are ambiguous.
But water features add more than gamification to a golfscape. Their cooling vapor can make the course more pleasant on broiling afternoons. Last summer, as a friend and I selected our balls and putters at Kimball Farm (Westford), we had to choose between two 18-hole courses; the Forbidden Mine or the Waterfall Run. While both courses seemingly offered some respite from the heat, we went with the second option and were rewarded with multiple gushing cascades that spill from the Kimball Farm golfscape’s rock formations. Once or twice, I felt the slightest spritz of water on my face; as I did during my last visit to Moxie Falls in northern Maine.
The course at Golf on the Village Green.Miles Howard
Inspired obstacles. It’s one thing to fill a golf course with obstacles that one must send their ball through. But way too often, the magic of the course is undermined by randomness. A bridge over water here, a clocktower with a little entrance for the ball over there, and other features that leave you wondering, Why? A golfscape boasts obstacles that are inspired and cohesive. When you step into Moose Mountain Adventure Park (Richmond, Maine) you’re greeted by a course where the slopes, water traps, and timber dwellings are a scenic homage to the Pine Tree State.
A golfscape can be a mirror image of its parent town or state, but it can also draw inspiration from local history. On the shoulder of Mass. Route 9, Colonial-era American has been resurrected at Mini Golf On The Village Green (Natick) As you aim your ball toward the open door of a little replica of the Old Meeting House — or a similarly scaled model of Old North Church just a few greens away — life-size statues of Ben Franklin and the Minutemen silently watch you play.
The course at Golf on the Village Green.Miles Howard
Stuff of legends. Since miniature golf can feel a bit niche compared to the mainstream draw of regular golf (especially for us adults), mini golfscape architects and owners have to come up with innovative ways to brighten their star. Sometimes this can involve weaving tall tales. When I pulled off I-93 to visit the golfscape at Chuckster’s (Hooksett, N.H.), I came upon a sign declaring that I was about to play the world’s longest miniature golf hole. And as I climbed a set of stairs up a wooden tower from which the hole started, I realized how it worked. The hole begins on top of the tower, where a vertical pipe delivers your ball to a green that’s around 200 feet in length.
Is this really the longest mini golf hole in the? It’s hard to know. I’m not aware of any institution that field tests these claims to fame — sending agents armed with tape measures to golfscapes. But whether or not Hole 13 at Chuckster’s is the world heavyweight champion of long miniature golf holes is beside the point. Being presented with a legendary hole like this fires up the cogs of your imagination; just like the scenic accents and interactive features of a world-class golfscape.
