What would drive two grown men to try to play every mini golf course in Massachusetts?”Friendship,” James Parsons said with a laugh.Parsons and Kyle Courcy are former co-workers whose post-pandemic office days in 2022 left them with plenty of empty time and a few wild ideas. With most colleagues still remote, the pair started kicking around ways to break the monotony. Before long, kicking turned to putting.And a challenge was born: play every mini golf course in the Bay State.”It was like, why not?” Courcy said. “You’ve got Everest, Kilimanjaro… this is our version.”The mission has taken them indoors and out, across Greater Boston and deep into corners of Massachusetts they’d barely heard of — even after living nearby for years. Along the way, mini golf became a lens for discovery.”It’s kind of cool exploring the state,” Parsons said. “Finding towns I didn’t even know existed.”The task is bigger than it sounds. The duo estimates there are about 90 active mini golf courses statewide. When we met them at Faneuil Hall’s Putt Across America, they were marking course number 73. Early on, they could knock out four or five courses in a day. Now, the remaining stops are farther apart, seasonal, or open at unpredictable hours.”It’s become harder,” Courcy said. To document the journey, Parsons and Courcy built a website that tracks their progress and offers reviews for fellow putters — from tricky windmills to classic clown-mouth holes.
What would drive two grown men to try to play every mini golf course in Massachusetts?
“Friendship,” James Parsons said with a laugh.
Parsons and Kyle Courcy are former co-workers whose post-pandemic office days in 2022 left them with plenty of empty time and a few wild ideas. With most colleagues still remote, the pair started kicking around ways to break the monotony. Before long, kicking turned to putting.
And a challenge was born: play every mini golf course in the Bay State.
“It was like, why not?” Courcy said. “You’ve got Everest, Kilimanjaro… this is our version.”
The mission has taken them indoors and out, across Greater Boston and deep into corners of Massachusetts they’d barely heard of — even after living nearby for years. Along the way, mini golf became a lens for discovery.
“It’s kind of cool exploring the state,” Parsons said. “Finding towns I didn’t even know existed.”
The task is bigger than it sounds. The duo estimates there are about 90 active mini golf courses statewide. When we met them at Faneuil Hall’s Putt Across America, they were marking course number 73. Early on, they could knock out four or five courses in a day. Now, the remaining stops are farther apart, seasonal, or open at unpredictable hours.
“It’s become harder,” Courcy said.
To document the journey, Parsons and Courcy built a website that tracks their progress and offers reviews for fellow putters — from tricky windmills to classic clown-mouth holes.