Obstacles at a Glance - The Maze

The Maze is a terrific finishing hole. If you miss the center alley, the side rails can bring the ball rolling straight back to it's starting point. It's perfect for the final hole because it can keep the scores in question, right up to the end. You can easily run up several strokes or hit the perfect shot for a hole in one.

Obstacles at a Glance - Acapulco

The Acapulco (so named by the designer because it reminded him of a water slide he once saw in Mexico), is another challenging hole. With its unique spiral design, it requires just the right amount of speed. Too little speed and the ball just rolls back down the spiral and you are back to where you started. Too much speed and the ball sails into waiting sunset. Either way, it's bound to be the talk of the round.

Obstacles at a Glance - The 360

This is probably the most recognizable of the miniature golf obstacles, the loop-the-loop (or as it's called with our course, The 360. This has been a staple of the miniature golf course for more than 80 years. Even after all that time it continues to entertain (and occasionally frustrate) miniature golfers around the world.

Obstacles at a Glance - The Tower

I've decided to give a brief description of the different obstacles that come with our miniature golf course. Along with some thoughts regarding each one.

First up is The Tower. Although this obstacle looks innocent enough, it has proven to be one of the more challenging holes of the course. The combination of accuracy (hitting between the turrets) and speed (up, but not over the hill) needed for this hole has invited the most skillful player to test their putting prowess.

First Corporate Event of the New Year

We had our first corporate event of the year last Friday in Chicago. An insurance company rented the course for their holiday party. A great time was had by all. We set the course up to meander around the cubicles and offices. They were very organized and held their own mini-golf tournament (complete with prizes). They were a great group to work with and gave excellent feedback regarding the challenge levels of the individual obstacles. The winner (most challenging) was The Tower (see picture). We had a great time and look forward to a return trip to Chicago.

Miniature Golf with a Renaissance Flair

The dates for the 2010 Iowa Renaissance Festival have been announced. They will be held on May 29th, 30th, and 31st (Memorial Day weekend) at Middle Amana Park (Medici Grove) - Amana Colonies, IA. See link to the Festival in the links section.

This is especially exciting for us because we will be joining the Festival as a vendor for the first time. Our hand crafted wooden miniature golf course will be making its debut there as Mulligan's Wee Bit O' Golf. As fans of Renaissance Festivals for the past 30 years, we are thrilled to be able to take part. We are also hoping to join the Des Moines Renaissance Festival in September, but we are still in negotiations. I'll keep you updated on this.

In the meantime, come out and join the fun at the Iowa Renaissance Festival and try your hand at a round of miniature golf. We have tried to stay as authentic as possible. However, since there is no evidence that miniature golf existed during the time period that covers the Renaissance Festival, we have obviously had to take some creative license. However, we will be using wooden golf balls and wooden golf clubs so in that sense we will be keeping with the period technology. We could have used stone golf balls, as history indicates these were also commons during the Renaissance time period, but we felt that wooden balls would be a safer option considering the number of children that attend the festival. Huzzah!!

Around the World in 80 Putts

Check out our latest link. It will take you to the children's book that I wrote a few years back. My oldest son, Adam, is the illustrator. It had always been a dream of mine to write a children's book, so it was exciting to see this happen. I'm also currently working on a miniature golf themed card game.