August 6, 2020 • 48 mins
Playing miniature golf is a very fun thing to do and, you’re about to find, learning about its origin and history is very fun as well. Join Josh and Chuck as they tee off on the mini golf story!
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hey, everybody. I don't know if you've heard, but we
have a book coming out finally, finally, after all these years.
It's great, it's fun. You're gonna love it. It's called
Stuff You Should Know Colon, an incomplete compendium of mostly
interesting things. Ye. And it's twenty six jam packed chapters
that we wrote with another guy named Knowls Parker, who's
(00:22):
amazing and is illustrated amazingly by our illustrator Carl Manardo.
And it's just an all around joy to pick up
and read. Even though we haven't physically held in our
hands yet, it's like we have Chuck in our dreams
so far. I can't wait to actually see and hold
this thing and smell it. And so should you, so
pre order now. It means a lot to us. The
(00:43):
support is a very big deal, So pre order anywhere
books are sold. Welcome to Stuff You Should Know, a
production of our Heart Radios How Stuff Works. Hey, and
welcome to the podcast. I'm Josh Clark, and there's Charles
w Chuck Bryan over there, and there's Jerry there figuring
(01:06):
out all the new contrivances of modern life. Yeah, I
mean we should tell people what's going on. I think
it's interesting, right, No, well, I'm gonna tell him. So
Jerry has figured out now how to operate the studio
McIntosh recording system and not be in the office. It's
(01:28):
pretty great. It's it's covid riffic actually. And so she
was just up on our skype on video and she's
still there. But when she switched it to mute, it
went to the distressing picture. Do you see that thing? No,
I just see j R. Like the letter J and
the letter are. Oh see there she is. She's back.
(01:48):
When she turned it off, there was I get a
photograph of Jerry that looks like she's like sick in
bed or something. It's weird. This is uh, well, it's
just Jerry's look maybe. So no, that's that's a diet
of nothing but me. So for fifteen twenty years, we'll
do for you. The weirdest thing is this is as
close as we've come to normal in the four months.
(02:10):
I know. Not only is it like normal, it's almost
like a throwback. Remember when we had the studio where
we would look out the window and she was there. Yeah,
that was great. That's kind of like this again. She
was a window creeper. Yep, professionally and in her personal
life too. So this is stuff you should know everybody.
I don't know if I said it. There are probably
(02:31):
a few people who are confused and aren't anymore. Um,
but we haven't gotten started yet, so prepared to be
confused again when we explained something in particular, Chuck, miniature golf,
I gotta ask, are you a fan? Uh? This made
me want to play again? Like I grew up playing
putt putt charm and have very fond memories of all
(02:52):
the different colored golf balls, you know, all like the
water trap that was really just a stagnant little pull
of concrete. You know. Put Pa was wonderful and great,
and there were arcades and birthday parties there that featured
heavily with g I. Joe action figures and stuff like that,
the good kind of three and three quarter inch ones. Um.
(03:14):
And yeah, I am a fan, if not just nostalgically, um,
in general. Yes, and which style And as you as
a listener will see soon, there are a couple of
different things. But did you grow up playing just sort
of the bare bones putt putt or the more miniature
golf clown's mouth windmill volcano. Well, Chuck. If you ask
(03:40):
me if I had a rich childhood, I will always
tell you, yes, sir, Yes I did. And the reason
why is because I grew up having putt putt close
by and Toledo when we played that a lot. And
then when my family would vacation in the summers on
Cataba Island on Lake Erie, and this is like pre
cleaned up like Gary, there was a like a run
(04:01):
down little like mini golf with like clowns, bows and
windmills and all that stuff right by the place where
we used to stay, like walking distance, and so we'd
play there a lot too. So I had the best
of both worlds, a really great, just top notch childhood.
So I grew up playing putt putt at Stone Mountain Park,
which we went to a lot because it was near
(04:24):
our church, and the youth group would go and do
put putt nights and stuff. So that was a lot
of fun. Uh. And I was sort of partial to
those that were like, you know, the real put putt
where it requires a little bit of skill. But I
am also a sucker for the beach town uh volcano, waterfall,
(04:47):
uh go kart bumper boat arcade scene Yep, don't forget
a laser tag. I never really did laser tag that.
I think that came around a little after I was,
you know, in my prime years for this kind of thing. Yeah,
it wasn't the same here, but I was looking up.
(05:08):
Now they have laser tag at Putt putt places. But
I still love those go carts. Man. When we go
to Aisle of Palms last year, I found a place nearby,
I was like, we gotta go, and everyone was kind
of oh, I don't know, and the kids are sort
of like, yeah, I guess I'll do it. And I
was like, guys, we gotta go right, Like, what is
wrong with all of you? Who are you vacation? Man?
It was so much carbon monoxide bleak at the house.
(05:29):
You read no theo's go carts. I could do that
all day long, Yeah, for sure. And of course I
got the guy, you know, the teenager squeaky boys, teenager,
and I said, hey, man, which which one? Which was
Which is the fast one? And he was like number eight? Really?
Oh yeah? And sure enough it was really fast. He
(05:49):
just rain circles around everybody. I did such that I
even laid off on the gas a little bit, just
to catch up and let people, you know, act like
they outrace What a what a sportsman? Oh my goodness.
Well we'll talk about go carts one day more in depth,
but today we're just going to focus on the miniature
golf Okay. Yeah, this is a pretty interesting history, I think. Yeah,
(06:10):
I had no idea how far back it went until
we started researching this, and actually it goes all the
way back to the nineteenth century. And this is one
of those rare things that's been around a while, but
you can actually pinpoint like the first one and the
first miniature golf course in the world as far as
anybody knows, is that St Andrew's. It's the Ladies Putting
(06:31):
Club of St Andrew's Um and it was built in
eighteen sixty seven strictly for the women members of the
Ladies Putting Club. Yeah, there's a couple of things that
play here. Actually really just one thing, which is, uh,
not letting women do things, because there was a decree
basically that women shall not take the club back past
(06:54):
their shoulder, um commandment. Yeah, like a real golf swing.
In other words, was I guess improper for a for
a lady to do. The Victorian era was just so
stupid when it came to social constraints. I'm trying to
figure out why does that? I don't know, do trichy,
(07:14):
I would guess, well, I just wonder why a full
golf swing would it make their their dress rate rise
a little above the ankle or like, I just wonder why.
I think also, women were expected to not over exert
themselves physically, especially in public. Two could kind of construe
that as over exertion. Well, and then there's this, which
(07:35):
is from a book by Scottish baron Lord Wellwood talking
about women and when they should golf, when they shouldn't golf,
if they choose. I was going to do a Scottish accent,
but I'm just not feeling it. Uh. If they choose
to play at times when male golfers are feeding or resting,
no one can object, But at other times, must we
(07:57):
say it? They are in the way. It was kind
of snarky to add even the must we say it? Like,
do I even need to write this next sentence? It's
so just dripping lee obvious. But the long the upshot
of this is that's why they created the Ladies Putting Club.
Is just sort of get rid of them, Yeah, to
get them out of the way of the men. But
(08:19):
the joke was on the men, because this putting Green,
this first miniature golf course in the world, is still
around and it's still considered one of the finest. That's
actually nicknamed the Himalayas because it has all these kind
of mountains and hills and hillocks all built into it
um and they really kind of stand out from what
I understand against like the Scottish Seascape um and it's
(08:42):
a really revered miniature golf course. But it is exactly
what it sounds like. It is a golf course in miniature,
Like just like you take a classic golf course of
the variety that was born in Scotland and you just
kind of hit it with a shrink ray and then
you have a genuine, bona fide miniature golf course. And
(09:03):
that's how the whole thing started out. Yeah, I mean,
that's that's what we would call like a par three today,
right kind of it seems like par three courses are
um a little different. So this is like, yes, I
think it does require more than just a putter, and
a part three would require more than a putter, but
(09:23):
there seems to be a few different other kinds of
golf courses aside from the miniature golf course. There's the
part three, the pitch and put, and executive course is
all kind of qualified technically as miniature golf courses in
different ways. Yeah, the executive course they got the name
because evidently an executive could go player quick ground during lunch. Uh,
(09:46):
a lot of part three's, you might have a like
one par five and a couple of part four's. Is
that right on a part three on an executive course? Okay, Yeah,
that's what. That's really the only thing from what I
can tell, that differentiates it from a par three course. Yeah,
it's it's it's a golf course. It's a shorter and
therefore doesn't take as long. Yeah, And it's not like
(10:06):
the hole is smaller and the ball is smaller and
the clubs are smaller, like just just start get out
of your fantasy land there. Instead, it's just the distance
from the tea to the whole is shorter. There's fewer
bends and and stuff like that, so the actual experience
takes less time and less energy, and you can just
(10:26):
kind of fit it in in a shorter amount. Of time,
and I think that's the popularity of those things generally.
Although pitch and put courses I also saw there. Um
they usually consist of a wedge and iron and a
putter of what you need to play on those um,
And they're all about the focus on the short game.
And as a result, the men and women, just average
(10:47):
men and women who play golf can kind of compete
pretty evenly because it's all about the short game. It's
all about finesse rather than you know, just cheer power
of driving as far as you can on like a
traditional golf course. Yeah, I mean I'd love golf. I
just don't play anymore. Like I grew up playing golf
and it was not good, but I wasn't terrible for
(11:08):
as much as I played, and I still like it.
I just don't, you know, have the time or the
inclination anymore. But I like the big boy courses with
the big part fives. But I also love a fun
little part three like Florida has a lot of these
beautiful part three's, including some you can play at night
that are all lit up. Um, And that's always a
lot of fun too. Yeah. I tried to get acquainted
(11:31):
with golf as a youngster. Um my family had weirdly
enough because this is not like my family at all,
had um membership at heather Downs Country Club. Well yeah,
and I love the pool because they had like, you know,
tons of slush puppies and the best like nasty hot
dogs you can imagine. Um, and there was a pool
(11:51):
and all that. I think I told you the story
about Swim League, the swim team where I was the
worst swimmer on it. But I also tried to golf
for a couple of summers and it just did didn't
take it up. But I was back in Toledo like
a couple of years ago, I think right before Cleveland Show,
and I visited the country level. I just drove by
and I looked, and the pool is now just like
(12:12):
a green field. It's been filled in, like the little
the little um snack shop has been torn down. I'm like,
something really bad must have happened there for them to
do that to the pool. You know. Yeah, there's uh
the And I didn't get to go here much because
it was private. But Hidden Hills was a big neighborhood
near my house that had a country club that's still around.
(12:34):
Isn't it, well, the neighborhoods there, but you know, the
neighborhood has seen its better days, and the country club
and golf course is completely just shut down and grown over.
It's really it looks well, it is an abandoned place.
That's so cool. It is kind of cool. And and
then I had the idea of a movie, like a
old school type thing where a bunch of old a
(12:55):
bunch of like middle aged men that grew up there,
go back and raise some money and try and like
clean the place up and get it going again. Yeah,
to hilarity, there has to be like a greedy developer
that they're battling, right, So is that the neighborhood that
we got kicked out of when we tried to go
shoot like without a license once around that area? Remember
(13:16):
the security guard came up was like, stop what you're doing.
I don't remember that. Yeah, it happened one day. Was
it on the Gorilla? Now? It was like when we
were shooting shorts? I think I don't remember that. Yeah,
I'm pretty sure that was the one. Should we take
a break already? Sure? Okay, all right, we'll get back
(13:37):
and we'll talk about where many golf went from here
right after this definite sk SK should know alright, so
(14:03):
we're back. Nothing we've talked about right now constitutes miniature
golf in the mind of anybody who here's the words
miniature golf, right like, what what comes to mind are
things like putt putt or goofy golf, or windmills or
clowns or happy Gilmore or something like that. Right. So, um,
that all started. Actually, that didn't quite start yet. I
(14:26):
was really leading up to that, and then I realized
we had to keep going with regular miniature golf one
more time because it has to spread to America. And
it did, and we can actually trace that too, um
to the house of a guy named James Barber who
was an immigrant from England who was familiar with the
course the Ladies Pudding Club at St. Andrew's UM. And
(14:46):
he was rich enough that he said, you know, I
want a miniature golf course built on my estate, UM
at Pinehurst, North Carolina. And he did. He had like
an eighteen whole miniature course built right there in his
his formal gardens. And it's just beautiful. It is nice.
And uh, this was the first one in the United States,
and as it's called thistle dow u t h I
(15:09):
s t l e d h u and supposedly, as
legend goes, he when he first saw it, he said,
this will do. I guess he was. Uh, he was
not blown away maybe, I don't know. It sounds sold under.
He wasn't one of those spoiled brand you know, Robert Barons,
and instead was like, this will do. This will do
quite nicely. And they just left off the second part,
(15:30):
you know. Yeah, but it's called thistle do And uh.
They started hosting competitions a couple of years later, and
I think this is the first time miniature golf was
ever used, like those words wherever he used to describe
the Pinehurst outlook. Uh was that the newspaper? I guess, yeah,
it's there one claim to fame. Oh you know it's
(15:54):
true though it's probably true. Yeah, but they were the
one in the in a account of the competition, they
coined the term miniature golf. Up to that point, a
lot of people had called the Litliputian golf after the uh,
the little people in Goliver Guliver's travels, and that actually
that name actually stuck for quite a while. Um, so
(16:16):
we've got James Barber, who hosted or built the first
miniature golf course in America. But still this thing is
like directly connected to the Ladies Putting Club of St. Andrews.
It's a golf course in miniature. We still haven't quite
reached what we would consider miniature golf, and that wouldn't
(16:36):
happen until n which turned out to be a really
big year for miniature golf in America. It was like
there was something in the air and a few different
people kind of tapped into it around the same time
and it suddenly just took off like a rocket. Yeah.
Two of the guys were some entrepreneurs named Drake de
uh Delinois, I guess named John Ledbetter another good name.
(17:01):
And it's okay. He sounds like he'll he'll shoot you,
he'll lead better. Yeah, yeah, I can see that. Uh.
They did a pretty cool thing, which is they opened
up a course on top of a rooftop in the
Financial District in New York and that kicked off a trend.
There were I think about a hundred of those on
(17:22):
top of roofs. I guess it is before the big
rooftop bar hotel scene. They had golf courses up there. Yeah,
miniature golf courses again though those were like miniature golf courses,
so that I mean, that was a big deal in
New York. Just a hundred rooftop golf miniature golf course
loan in the twenties. That's that's a tremendous amount. Um
(17:42):
And I don't think there's a single one left actually, um,
there should be. There's there's so that kind of makes
the whole you know, there's one on on top of
Pont City Market where the house Stuff Works office is. Um,
is there golf up there? There's a miniature golf course
up there, and it makes a lot more sense now. Yeah,
it's kind of like a whole mini Coney Island up there. Yeah.
(18:03):
I mean I think I've only been up there when
we had at work events and the only thing I
did was the slide. I didn't know there was a slide. Yeah,
there's like a you know, you sit in a potato
sack and go down this big slide. Yeah, yeah, I
did that. That was fun. Yeah, there's a there's a
miniature golf course up there. We'll have to play sometime
when the whole pandemic passed totally. Uh And then later
(18:24):
that same year you said it was kind of a
boom yere for mini golf. Lookout Mountain Tennessee in Chattanooga,
which is a place where I think everybody should go
to see Ruby Falls in Rock City. It is a
tourist trap, but it's actually kind of neat. I mean,
the greatest of the great tourist traps, and it still
holds up too. Yeah. Get a a pecan log. Oh
(18:48):
my god, those are so good. They are so good.
There's that's what. That also supports my theory that candy
was perfected in the nineteenth century. Never remember honeycom conlogs
was that. I didn't know if the con lungs were
from way back then, but I believe it. Yeah, for sure,
they're definitely old timing. So these people, uh Garnett and FRIEDA. Carter,
(19:14):
they built a resort called fairy Land Club and it
was part of that whole sort of interconnected scene there
with Rock City and Ruby Falls. And they built a
miniature golf course and they said, you know what, Uh,
if you like golf, maybe you should try mini golf
because it doesn't take very long. It'll kind of scratch
(19:35):
that itch if you're not able to play a real
round and that's sort of how they marketed it at first.
And they they were the first people, I think, to
start adding the obstacles, right they did. Yeah, and um,
they used as they were building, like the n and
the resort complex. They used some of the construction materials
like train pipes and you know, barrels and things like that,
(19:58):
and you build them as hazards. And then because they
had this whole like fairytale theme going up there, they
also built rock City. They were the ones who built
Rock City, and that has like a cool, little weird,
weird but also very neat fairytale theme kind of hidden throughout. Um,
they they added that to their miniature golf course. So
(20:19):
they had these stationary obstacles and hazards that they added,
and then they also added the statuary of cute little
you know, mother goose type stuff. And they actually called
the whole thing Tom Thumb Golf and Tom Thumb, from
what I understand, is the earliest recorded English fairy tale
character from back in one and he was a little
(20:41):
tiny guy the size of his father's thumb, which is
where he got his name. So it was a pretty
appropriate name. They must have really like been pretty pleased
with themselves when they decided to call it Tom Thumb
Golf because it really it checked all the boxes. Yeah,
and we should mention too. We keep saying Rock City,
and if you're not from the South East, you might
think it's just some like redneck area with a bunch
(21:04):
of rocks. It's actually a very sweet natural wonder. It's
it's caves that you walk through caves. It's huge boulders
being held up by much much smaller boulders. That's really
neat way for probably tens of thousands of years that
you walk under. There's like yeah, there there's little cave
areas that you kind of duck into and they have
(21:25):
little fairy tale scenes with fluorescent day or fluorescent um yeah,
I guess kind of day glasses dark weird like gnomes
and in fairy tale scenes like that's the weird part.
It's like if Carl's Bad Caverns had you know, some
corny fairy theme. Mm. And then Ruby Falls is really
(21:46):
neat too. Yeah, it's a very cool like natural attraction
that they've done a good job of like underground water
making it easy to to make your way to. But yeah,
it's it's the whole thing is definitely worth going to.
And then of course they have this the very famous
like Sea Rock City barn sides that everybody's right of
and that was that was Garnet Carter who painted one man,
(22:08):
or paid one man to go around and offer to
give a fresh coat of paint to barnes all throughout
the southeast in exchange for letting them paint Sea Rock
City on the side. Yeah, it's um. If you've ever
driven around the North Carolina South Carolina area and south
of the border, you know I'm talking about south of
the Mason Dixon line. No, south of the border is
(22:30):
the name of this, uh sort of highway tourist trap.
I haven't heard of that. Yeah, it's it's it's the
same deal. I think it's I want to say it's
North Carolina, but it's basically like a glorified rest stop
with that has a Mexican theme where you can go, like,
I don't know, see mariachi band and eat good food
and by cheap. Jot skis the only mariachi band in
(22:52):
all of North Carolina. But what made me think about
it it might be was that they had the same
thing for like hundreds of miles in any direction. For
South of the Border and Rock City, they're very famous
for these billboards that tell you like, oh, it's coming,
You're getting closer, You're getting closer. That's really strange that
I've never heard of that. Then South of the Border
(23:12):
checking it's not have been paying attention. So so the
Carter's built like this Tom Thumb golf course. And again,
originally they just did this as kind of an amenity
at their Fairyland in in Fairyland um club. Uh. But
it was such a smash hit and Garnet Carter was
such a like born businessman that, um, they were like,
(23:34):
I think there might be something to this and they
saw either they saw it out or he sought them.
I'm not quite sure how it happened. But there was
another guy who really factors Bigley into this whole story,
but he's very frequently overlooked, and his name is Thomas
McCulloch Fairburn. McCullough Fairburn. Yeah, um, and he invented a
(23:56):
really cheap and easy technique for creating art ficial putting
greens that could be used for miniature golf courses. Yeah.
It was a crushed cotton seed holes oil you would
diet green and they would come in these big roles
and you just roll it over this foundation of sand
and boom. You've got an easy way basically to sort
(24:18):
of franchise these things with these prefab kits that they had,
and people loved it UM because it was you know,
when it was they called it midget golf for a
little while, not a term we would use today, but
that's what they called it in the nineteen twenties. And
this factors into a lot of stuff we've been talking
about the nineteen twenties lately, just these weird fads that
(24:40):
would pop up, and Tom Thumb golf was one of them.
It was UM. And part of the reason that it
got out from Lookout Mountain is because the Carters and
Um Fairburn kind of joined forces and used his technique
for making these greens very cheaply and used their kind
of like touch of whimsy, packaged it together and started
(25:02):
selling it prepackaged sets or prefabricated sets UM that could
be franchised out to anybody who wanted to start their
own Tom Thumb golf course. And so they spread really
really quickly, and like you're saying, like the twenties, they
were just looking for whatever craze could come along, crossroad puzzles,
dance marathons, flagpole sitting. Well, apparently miniature golf was the
(25:25):
king of them all as far as the twenties crazes went. Yeah,
this is a pretty startling statistic. Uh. In August of
the Commerce Department said that there were and apparently this
could be low by even as much as half five thousand,
twenty five thousand mini golf courses in the US, half
of which were built in that previous six or eight
(25:47):
months of the year. Yeah, that's a boom right there.
Can you imagine like in eight months, like twelve to
fifteen thousand mini golf courses being built in US? M hm,
it's crazy. I can just imagine. Aren't and freed to
Carter just rolling around on a bed of money in
their suite at the Fairy Landing? Yeah? And I mean
in a legit like job boosting market. Yeah. No, Well
(26:12):
that's a that's another thing too, write. I mean like
there was um uh, like flagpole sitting didn't make the
transition into the depression, and dance marathons did, but they
got kind of grim um apparently miniature golf, and I've
seen both, but but miniature golf seems to have made
the transition from twenties craze too, you know, kind of
(26:33):
national pastime that that made sense in the depression because
you could take your whole family out to play miniature
golf for pretty cheap um. So that was a big attraction. Um.
And then also if you were like a golf junkie,
but all of a sudden you didn't have the money
to afford greens fees any longer, at the very least,
(26:54):
you could go play a miniature golf somewhere. So it
kind of scratched that itch to a certain um, a
certain degree. So there was like a lot of popularity
that even after the craze kind of crested and waned
a little bit, um, it's still carried on pretty pretty
thoroughly through the nineteen thirties. And as a matter of fact, Chuck,
some some people were like that Tom Thumb Golf, the
(27:16):
official franchise Tom Thumb Golf, it's a little rich for
my blood. What else you got for me? Well, yeah, exactly.
Local entrepreneurs were like, I got exactly the thing, buddy,
you want to play half half priced miniature golf. Come
on in, like I've got a bunch of PVC pipe
laying around, yeah or yeah, so just basically whatever found
(27:37):
objects you could find, you you could you could come
across what we're called rinky dink miniature golf courses that
were basically knockoff Tom Thumb courses that used whatever found
objects the person who built it had lying around. Yeah.
New York had about a hundred and fifty of them,
Washington d C Had thirty. One of those is still
(27:58):
around the East Potoma Park course. Ye, and uh yeah,
the whole family could get involved. And I think one
of the the keys then and now too many golf
being popular and then putt putt, which will see you
here in a minute, is that you don't even have
to like golf at all. You can hate golf and
(28:18):
still go do putt putt and probably have a good time. Yeah,
as long as you do take it too seriously. Don't
take it too seriously. Please don't just relax. Don't be
that guy. That's what it's for. Um, you want to
take a break and then talk put putt? Yes, okay,
let's do that. Everybody shouldn't know if large sks, sks.
(28:55):
You should know are we there? Who me? But but
I thought you said are you there? I'm like, yeah,
I'm here, we are there, chuck, because UM, let me
set the set the table. Here you ready. H America
got a little burned out on miniature golf, especially the
(29:16):
tom thumb and rinkyding varieties, UM, and so a lot
of it died out, but some remained, some hopped along,
some are still around today. Actually, and by the nineteen fifties, UM,
there was a guy who was playing at one of
these courses in Fayetteville, North Carolina, which remembers the home
(29:37):
of miniature golf in the United States North Carolinas, and
UM he happened to have just gotten a prescription from
his doctor saying, you're about to have a nervous breakdown.
I prescribe you a month's rest from work. And this guy,
Don Clayton said, can do and he started playing miniature golf,
but he wasn't quite satisfied with it. Yeah. I imagine
if you were, UM on the verge of a nervous breakdown,
(30:00):
then tom thumb golf is a nice save for that
kind of kind of experience. Sure, if if you're charmed
by all the whimsical stuff and you don't take it
too seriously. Right from what I understand that, Don Clayton
was like, this whimsy sucks. We need something better than this,
and I think I'm just the person to build it. Yeah,
so he had the idea to to basically make miniature golf,
(30:26):
but without all the garbage, um, no clowns, amounts, no windmills,
and have a little, like I have, have a little
skill involved, Like you can go out there and if
you're like a good putter, you can actually compete and
have a good time. And it's still for fun, but
it's just not a silly kids game anymore. Yeah, Like
(30:47):
anybody who's been to an actual put put course can
tell you that it's I mean, there's a lot of obstacles,
and it's interesting and fun and there's some neat stuff,
but it does it just does not have all of
like the the moving bells and whistles that you're gonna
see on like other kinds of miniature golf, like goofy golf,
Like the obstacles are usually just like some blocks in
(31:08):
the way and stuff like that. Yeah, you have to
head around or bankingated elevated rombusses or things like that,
or like a labyrinth, you know, built into it. Um,
it's not like a clown's mouth or anything like that,
which is kind of like the go to description for
goofy golf, isn't it really? Yeah? And I think like
(31:28):
the craziest thing you'll see on a putt putt course
is where you those that are like two levels and
you can hit it into three different holes at the
top and you're like, you kind of take a little
bit of a gamble as to where it's going to
come out on the bottom. Uh, It'll either come out
close to the hole so you can get that part
two and I think they're all part twos on a
real put put course, or it'll spit you out way
(31:51):
far away, but you still have a chance to hit
that long putt for the for the two. Sure, there's
always a chance for you a second chance at putt
putt goes the motto, so um yeah. But so this
was Don Clayton's vision. He was like, I want to
make this a little less goofy. I want to make
it a little more interesting and skillful. Yeah yeah, chuck man,
(32:15):
he just sat up from his grave going I wish
I thought of that, because he did. Yeah, he died
in Okay, but he had a good run. I mean,
this is nineteen fifty four, when he was a twenty
eight year old man that he decided to try this. So, uh,
he went to his dad and said, hey, I've got this.
I've got this idea. Rather than basically, as a New
York Times obituary put it, um, rather than basically basically
(32:37):
making a human sized pinball machine for golf, We're gonna
make this a little more interesting. How about we cobble
together fifty bucks and we're going to build our own
little miniature golf course. And he did, and like a
shaded little lot. And with that they opened for business,
and within twenty nine days he and his father had
(32:59):
made one percent of their investment back. And Don Clayton said,
I think there might be something to this whole thing. Yeah,
so he, uh, he was initially gonna call it. He
went to the bank to open a business account and
he had to fill out the paperwork, and he was
going to call it the Shady Veil Golf Course. But
(33:19):
as the story goes, he didn't know how to spell veil.
I guess if it was v A I L or
v A L E. So he just said, uh, putt
putt and wrote down Putt. But it wasn't something he brainstormed. Apparently,
it was just sort of on a whim. And it's
a name that really really stuck. It's kind of brilliant
(33:42):
and its simplicity, I think divine inspiration. It almost feels like,
UM did that. It just kind of happened on a whim.
That's just absolutely great. But Um, he started to kind
of build the whole thing into like this enormous industry
pretty quickly because he was right. You know, there's I
did the man. If they made their dollars back in
twenty nine days, that means that over that month they
(34:05):
had twenty thousand, eight hundred paying customers a game. Yeah,
And so when they really got together and started Putt
Putt like they he was right. He was onto something
and it started to take off pretty quickly. Apparently at
its peak, Um, when you and I were going to
Putt putt, Uh, they were. They had something like two
(34:28):
hundred and fifty six courses throughout the world. Um, mostly
in the US and Canada, but also in Australia and
South Africa and New Zealand. Um, and it was. It
was definitely a thing. Like you said, all of the
holes were part two's right, yeah, And this was just
to be clear to fifty six doesn't sound like a
(34:49):
lot compared to the fifty thousand that uh they had
in the nineteen thirties. But this was his his own
putt putt golfin Games franchise. There was plenty of more
putt putt going on in the United States than that, right, right, right, yeah,
like knockoff putt putt right yeah, like the one in
Stone Mountain Park. Wudn't a put putt golfin Games. It
(35:10):
was just putt putt, but it was. It was great.
It's called Tap Tap. They also had trail skate across
from the putt putt, which was a roller skating trail
through the woods. What Yeah. It was like this two
mile paved you know, just basically like a big paved
sidewalk through the woods, and they rented roller skates and
(35:32):
you would just skate through the woods. It was really cool, man,
that's awesome. Country folk just have some of the best
ideas for businesses, you know what I mean. I didn't
think of us as country folk, but I guess it
kind of was roller skating through the woods country. I
guess it is. That's like Dolly Parton level country. So yeah,
they're all part two's um and it is. It is tough.
(35:55):
It's challenging. Apparently, in the sixty five year history of
putt putt, the have only been three perfect games where
you walk away with a score of eighteen, which is
that's that's really tough to do. I mean, like of
the millions and millions of games that of putt putt
that people have played, only three people have ever ever
(36:17):
gotten a perfect game, which kind of shows you how
like deceptively hard. The putt putt courses, you know, like
each one of those each one of those courses made
of um. I think they have something like a hundred
and eight uh trademarked holes like uh lanes I think
is what they're called, and miniature golf um where you
can just kind of take them and reconfigure them into
(36:39):
different different configurations. But they have a hundred and eight total,
and I guess each one of them is very, very difficult.
I don't ever remember getting a perfect game or even
imagining that I was going to get a perfect game,
you get a two or three holes in one and
that's a that's a good day for sure. So eighteen
(36:59):
there's actually a short, i think seven and a half
minute grant Land documentary on the most recent perfect putt
put game by a guy named Rick Baird who had
his perfect game in two thousand eleven. They capture it
really well in this in this documentary. It's really well done.
They've got like like a cartoon version of him putting,
(37:22):
and he's got like cartoons sweat just running down his face.
Oh man. Yeah, it was very nervous and he did it.
And he's actually a miniature golf pro um in his
spare time, which we'll talk about later. But there's so
he's from Charlotte, um Don Clayton was from Fayetteville, and
then um Joseph Barber was from Pinehurst. So it seems
(37:47):
pretty clear that North Carolina is the ancestral home of
miniature golfer at least the spiritual home of miniature golf
in the world. Frankly, I'm just gonna say it, in
the world. Yeah, And if you're looking for the creators
of the kind of mechanized courses, you can go to
and Scranton p A with Ralph and al loma Um.
(38:09):
Previously this you know, you had the putt putt, which
just had the sort of regular obstacles. You had the
tom thumb, which had kind of more outrageous whimsy, but
still things weren't moving. And that these are the guys
that brought in these rotating windmill blades or ramps that
moved back and forth, and they really kind of kicked
that to the next level. And uh, they you know,
(38:32):
they went into business big time. They started mass producing
these things, like the actual components and sold a ton
of them all over the world. Yeah, I think like
five thousand courses. Just pretty impressive. They're the ones who
came up with what we think of now is like
manature golf and goofy golf with the moving stuff, not
a fan, the clown mouth, don't forget the clown mouth
(38:53):
that opens and closes or yeah, like you said, a
windmill um. So it's kind of interesting that Don Clayton
brought miniature golf back to its roots of being a
lot more like regular golf, and then very shortly after
that branched off the Lomas who brought it back to
their that tom thumb roots. So that whole thing, the
(39:16):
evolution of miniature golf happened twice in just the same
way and that interesting. Yeah, and it also came back
full circle in the nineties with a return to the
sort of that original miniature golf because real golfers, people
like Jack Nicholas started to get involved. Uh. I'm sure
there were dollar signs, you know, in his eyes, but
(39:39):
he also probably loved it. I don't want to be cynical,
but I'm sure he made some money. But they have competitions,
you know, they are actual um prize purses. There is
a U S Pro Mini Golf Association. They have their
own Little US Open. I don't think they call it
the Little US Open. Uh they should, They totally should.
(39:59):
There's the World Mini Golf Sports Federation in Germany and
they sort of are the body that standardizes the obstacleson
stuff like that. On I guess what you can have
and what you can't have, yeah, which is kind of
funny when you think about it. It is, but it's
a pretty interesting list. You're like, oh, that'd be tough.
Oh that's hard. The slope circle with a v obstacle, Yeah,
(40:22):
that's just playing difficult. Um, and I think they should
call it the teeny weeny US Open. Welcome back to
the teeny weenie What's open? I was looking at the
UM the uh US Pro Mini Golf Association's website, and um,
there was a Tennessee State Open, and man, the picture
(40:42):
that they have of that course, it looks serious. Dude.
So like if you if you go to pup putt
and you always were like, I love this. This is
so challenging. I can score like a sixteen some or
I guess not a sixteen. I just don't play the
last two holes when I'm on a streak. Um, you know,
like a twenty or a twenty two or something like that.
(41:03):
You might actually have fun being a miniature golf pro.
And there are some serious courses out there for you
to play that are a couple of notches above your
average put putt course. I'd like to play one of those,
would you? I don't know if I would have fun? Club?
Should we talk about some of these famous courses? Yeah? So? Um.
(41:27):
From what I can tell, the United States is the
home of miniature golf. It's the capitals of miniature golf.
I don't believe there's any country. Like I was looking.
I was like, maybe Thailand is like even more into
it than the United States. I don't think so. I
think the United States is the place that has the
most miniature golf courses and has probably the most paying
(41:47):
customers for miniature golf courses. I could and I didn't
see anything like that. Yeah, I didn't see anything like it.
So the United States is the home of miniature golf
and the world capital of miniature golf than is Myrtle Beach,
South Carolina, which is ironic that it's not North Carolina,
but it's not everybody, I'm sorry, Yeah, I mean Myrtle
(42:08):
Beach is sort of one of those classic old school
beach towns that has all of the go carts and
the bumper boats and the mini golf. And they have
one called Molten Mountain. Uh, that's pretty cool. Like you
should go check out pictures of some of these places.
There are a lot of fun that has a volcano,
a working volcano that erupts every half hour, and it's
(42:29):
sort of an inside and an out thing, like I
think it's both indoors and outdoors, right it is. Yeah,
it's a pretty it's a pretty great one. And the
whole volcano thing. They're not the only one that's how
nuts So Myrtle Beaches, there's another one called Hawaiian Rumble.
They also has a functioning volcano too, And in fact,
on Highway seventeen there's a thirty mile stretch of it
(42:50):
that goes through Myrtle Beach where there's fifty more than
fifty miniature golf courses in a thirty mile stretch and
I'm sure a lot of opinions on which ones are good,
and yep, um, there's one I want to go to
in Palatine, Illinois. I think I said a couple of
these from Travel and Leisure maybe. Um. This one's called
(43:11):
al Graham Acres a L. G. H R I m Acres.
It's in Palatine, Illinois, Illinois, and it's a funeral home
like for real in real life. Yeah, like you know, uh,
they they take care of dead bodies and you can
also play nine holes on their death themed course in
the basement in the basement. First of all, the basement
(43:33):
of a funeral home is just creepy on its own,
but a death themed miniature golf course in a funeral
home that actually functions, that's that's just done right. Interesting. Yeah,
there's this one in Las Vegas to the Kiss themed win,
which I checked out on YouTube. I would I would
play this, even though it goes against two things for me,
(43:54):
which is not into indoor miniature golf. I really would
like to be outside. Uh, and I think Kiss sucks.
What I thought you were a Kiss fan? Oh man,
I thought you were a Kiss fan. No, not a
Kiss fan never. I mean, you know, I get it,
and I think it's kind of fun and funny. But
I never thought Kiss was like played good rock and
(44:16):
roll songs. Really, that's very surprising. I know Kiss fans
are gonna be so mad at me for saying their
music is not good, but I mean there's a reason
they dressed up in spit, blood and stuff, so there's
a but it's still it would be worth playing. I
agree it looks fun. The one that I would actually
travel to go play um is called Parking. It's in Lincolnshire, Illinois,
(44:38):
so I'd probably go there and then I dip down
or dip up. I'm not sure it's a palatine to
play Alga Makers, but Parking is like exactly what it is.
It's the pinnacle of a miniature golf course. If you
ask me, it's got it all. It's difficult, and it
has all the amazing obstacles and weird traps in um
(44:59):
functioning problems. To figure out that that a miniature golf
course should have, it looked pretty cool. I mean, I'm
a putt putt guy, but I was checking out pictures
and stuff. I would I would go. I would go
to parking with you for sure. Okay, we'll go. It's
gonna be a summer trip in two thousand and twenty
two or three. Fantastic um. And then if you want
(45:19):
to play, so I think, chuck, this one would be
up your alley. It's called Golf Gardens and on Catalina
Island in SoCal Alley. This one is like considered the
hardest miniature golf course in the United States. Um, not
just because uh, it's difficultly laid out, but also because
it's been played so much that's got all sorts of
(45:39):
weird notches and stuff that's not supposed to be there
in the playing surface. So that makes it all the
more difficult, which is kind of neat. And then if
you want to go retro, I think that one's been
around a while. Um, you can go down to Florida
and they have a historic mini golf trail that takes
you from miniature golf course and miniature golf course, all
of which have been around for at least fifty years. Amazing. Uh.
(46:03):
And if you like weird old stuff that's not in
use anymore, look up abandoned miniature golf courses. That's a
fun thing to do. And since I said it's a
fun thing to do, everybody, that means it's time for
a listener mail. All right, I'm gonna call this dad.
Male I got this very sweet email. I love it
when the families listening, you know, sure, especially when they're not.
(46:25):
I mean, I like families with young kids that listen,
but I also like it when the it's adults and
then older parents that are listening. Right. Hey, guys, hope
you're hanging in there. These are such tricky times. I
know you're I'm not the only listener that turns to
your show for a distraction or a soundtrack to washing dishes,
or background noise while trying to run, or just something
that feels normal during these abnormal times. A couple of
(46:45):
years ago, my now husband and I took a road
trip with my parents to stay with my now in laws.
As we pulled out of the driveway, we put on
Stuff you Should Know and spent the entire journey sharing
your catalog with them, and they were immediately hooked. My
parents continue to love your podcast, but every time my
dad refers to it, he mixes up the name I
love this stuff. So far, he's called you guys, you
(47:07):
should know, Sure, stuff you ought to know? Yeah, things
you need to know, and stuff guys. Stuff guys is
that's a good nickname. Lately he's just been referring to
you as the guys podcast, which is close enough for me. Eventually,
we're just going to get to the Yeah. Thanks for
(47:29):
all the amazing work and the thoughtful approach you have
to podcasting. So grateful to have multiple episodes to listen
to every week. That is from Merabeth, and she says
p s. I should add that the episode on fractals
is now infamously nap inducing in my family, but I
blame the long stretch of highway on that. Thank you.
That was very kind of you really pulled it out
(47:51):
at the end there. Um, who's that, Marabeth? Well, if
you want to be like Marabeth and get in touch
with us. UM we would appreciate that. Right now, you
can send it to us via email. It's the best
way to reach us at Stuff podcast at iHeart radio
dot com. Stuff you Should Know is a production of
iHeart Radio's How Stuff Works. For more podcasts for my
(48:13):
heart Radio, visit the iHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or
wherever you listen to your favorite shows. H
Hey, everybody. I don't know if you've heard, but we
have a book coming out finally, finally, after all these years.
It's great, it's fun. You're gonna love it. It's called
Stuff You Should Know Colon, an incomplete compendium of mostly
interesting things. Ye. And it's twenty six jam packed chapters
that we wrote with another guy named Knowls Parker, who's
(00:22):
amazing and is illustrated amazingly by our illustrator Carl Manardo.
And it's just an all around joy to pick up
and read. Even though we haven't physically held in our
hands yet, it's like we have Chuck in our dreams
so far. I can't wait to actually see and hold
this thing and smell it. And so should you, so
pre order now. It means a lot to us. The
(00:43):
support is a very big deal, So pre order anywhere
books are sold. Welcome to Stuff You Should Know, a
production of our Heart Radios How Stuff Works. Hey, and
welcome to the podcast. I'm Josh Clark, and there's Charles
w Chuck Bryan over there, and there's Jerry there figuring
(01:06):
out all the new contrivances of modern life. Yeah, I
mean we should tell people what's going on. I think
it's interesting, right, No, well, I'm gonna tell him. So
Jerry has figured out now how to operate the studio
McIntosh recording system and not be in the office. It's
(01:28):
pretty great. It's it's covid riffic actually. And so she
was just up on our skype on video and she's
still there. But when she switched it to mute, it
went to the distressing picture. Do you see that thing? No,
I just see j R. Like the letter J and
the letter are. Oh see there she is. She's back.
(01:48):
When she turned it off, there was I get a
photograph of Jerry that looks like she's like sick in
bed or something. It's weird. This is uh, well, it's
just Jerry's look maybe. So no, that's that's a diet
of nothing but me. So for fifteen twenty years, we'll
do for you. The weirdest thing is this is as
close as we've come to normal in the four months.
(02:10):
I know. Not only is it like normal, it's almost
like a throwback. Remember when we had the studio where
we would look out the window and she was there. Yeah,
that was great. That's kind of like this again. She
was a window creeper. Yep, professionally and in her personal
life too. So this is stuff you should know everybody.
I don't know if I said it. There are probably
(02:31):
a few people who are confused and aren't anymore. Um,
but we haven't gotten started yet, so prepared to be
confused again when we explained something in particular, Chuck, miniature golf,
I gotta ask, are you a fan? Uh? This made
me want to play again? Like I grew up playing
putt putt charm and have very fond memories of all
(02:52):
the different colored golf balls, you know, all like the
water trap that was really just a stagnant little pull
of concrete. You know. Put Pa was wonderful and great,
and there were arcades and birthday parties there that featured
heavily with g I. Joe action figures and stuff like that,
the good kind of three and three quarter inch ones. Um.
(03:14):
And yeah, I am a fan, if not just nostalgically, um,
in general. Yes, and which style And as you as
a listener will see soon, there are a couple of
different things. But did you grow up playing just sort
of the bare bones putt putt or the more miniature
golf clown's mouth windmill volcano. Well, Chuck. If you ask
(03:40):
me if I had a rich childhood, I will always
tell you, yes, sir, Yes I did. And the reason
why is because I grew up having putt putt close
by and Toledo when we played that a lot. And
then when my family would vacation in the summers on
Cataba Island on Lake Erie, and this is like pre
cleaned up like Gary, there was a like a run
(04:01):
down little like mini golf with like clowns, bows and
windmills and all that stuff right by the place where
we used to stay, like walking distance, and so we'd
play there a lot too. So I had the best
of both worlds, a really great, just top notch childhood.
So I grew up playing putt putt at Stone Mountain Park,
which we went to a lot because it was near
(04:24):
our church, and the youth group would go and do
put putt nights and stuff. So that was a lot
of fun. Uh. And I was sort of partial to
those that were like, you know, the real put putt
where it requires a little bit of skill. But I
am also a sucker for the beach town uh volcano, waterfall,
(04:47):
uh go kart bumper boat arcade scene Yep, don't forget
a laser tag. I never really did laser tag that.
I think that came around a little after I was,
you know, in my prime years for this kind of thing. Yeah,
it wasn't the same here, but I was looking up.
(05:08):
Now they have laser tag at Putt putt places. But
I still love those go carts. Man. When we go
to Aisle of Palms last year, I found a place nearby,
I was like, we gotta go, and everyone was kind
of oh, I don't know, and the kids are sort
of like, yeah, I guess I'll do it. And I
was like, guys, we gotta go right, Like, what is
wrong with all of you? Who are you vacation? Man?
It was so much carbon monoxide bleak at the house.
(05:29):
You read no theo's go carts. I could do that
all day long, Yeah, for sure. And of course I
got the guy, you know, the teenager squeaky boys, teenager,
and I said, hey, man, which which one? Which was
Which is the fast one? And he was like number eight? Really?
Oh yeah? And sure enough it was really fast. He
(05:49):
just rain circles around everybody. I did such that I
even laid off on the gas a little bit, just
to catch up and let people, you know, act like
they outrace What a what a sportsman? Oh my goodness.
Well we'll talk about go carts one day more in depth,
but today we're just going to focus on the miniature
golf Okay. Yeah, this is a pretty interesting history, I think. Yeah,
(06:10):
I had no idea how far back it went until
we started researching this, and actually it goes all the
way back to the nineteenth century. And this is one
of those rare things that's been around a while, but
you can actually pinpoint like the first one and the
first miniature golf course in the world as far as
anybody knows, is that St Andrew's. It's the Ladies Putting
(06:31):
Club of St Andrew's Um and it was built in
eighteen sixty seven strictly for the women members of the
Ladies Putting Club. Yeah, there's a couple of things that
play here. Actually really just one thing, which is, uh,
not letting women do things, because there was a decree
basically that women shall not take the club back past
(06:54):
their shoulder, um commandment. Yeah, like a real golf swing.
In other words, was I guess improper for a for
a lady to do. The Victorian era was just so
stupid when it came to social constraints. I'm trying to
figure out why does that? I don't know, do trichy,
(07:14):
I would guess, well, I just wonder why a full
golf swing would it make their their dress rate rise
a little above the ankle or like, I just wonder why.
I think also, women were expected to not over exert
themselves physically, especially in public. Two could kind of construe
that as over exertion. Well, and then there's this, which
(07:35):
is from a book by Scottish baron Lord Wellwood talking
about women and when they should golf, when they shouldn't golf,
if they choose. I was going to do a Scottish accent,
but I'm just not feeling it. Uh. If they choose
to play at times when male golfers are feeding or resting,
no one can object, But at other times, must we
(07:57):
say it? They are in the way. It was kind
of snarky to add even the must we say it? Like,
do I even need to write this next sentence? It's
so just dripping lee obvious. But the long the upshot
of this is that's why they created the Ladies Putting Club.
Is just sort of get rid of them, Yeah, to
get them out of the way of the men. But
(08:19):
the joke was on the men, because this putting Green,
this first miniature golf course in the world, is still
around and it's still considered one of the finest. That's
actually nicknamed the Himalayas because it has all these kind
of mountains and hills and hillocks all built into it
um and they really kind of stand out from what
I understand against like the Scottish Seascape um and it's
(08:42):
a really revered miniature golf course. But it is exactly
what it sounds like. It is a golf course in miniature,
Like just like you take a classic golf course of
the variety that was born in Scotland and you just
kind of hit it with a shrink ray and then
you have a genuine, bona fide miniature golf course. And
(09:03):
that's how the whole thing started out. Yeah, I mean,
that's that's what we would call like a par three today,
right kind of it seems like par three courses are
um a little different. So this is like, yes, I
think it does require more than just a putter, and
a part three would require more than a putter, but
(09:23):
there seems to be a few different other kinds of
golf courses aside from the miniature golf course. There's the
part three, the pitch and put, and executive course is
all kind of qualified technically as miniature golf courses in
different ways. Yeah, the executive course they got the name
because evidently an executive could go player quick ground during lunch. Uh,
(09:46):
a lot of part three's, you might have a like
one par five and a couple of part four's. Is
that right on a part three on an executive course? Okay, Yeah,
that's what. That's really the only thing from what I
can tell, that differentiates it from a par three course. Yeah,
it's it's it's a golf course. It's a shorter and
therefore doesn't take as long. Yeah, And it's not like
(10:06):
the hole is smaller and the ball is smaller and
the clubs are smaller, like just just start get out
of your fantasy land there. Instead, it's just the distance
from the tea to the whole is shorter. There's fewer
bends and and stuff like that, so the actual experience
takes less time and less energy, and you can just
(10:26):
kind of fit it in in a shorter amount. Of time,
and I think that's the popularity of those things generally.
Although pitch and put courses I also saw there. Um
they usually consist of a wedge and iron and a
putter of what you need to play on those um,
And they're all about the focus on the short game.
And as a result, the men and women, just average
(10:47):
men and women who play golf can kind of compete
pretty evenly because it's all about the short game. It's
all about finesse rather than you know, just cheer power
of driving as far as you can on like a
traditional golf course. Yeah, I mean I'd love golf. I
just don't play anymore. Like I grew up playing golf
and it was not good, but I wasn't terrible for
(11:08):
as much as I played, and I still like it.
I just don't, you know, have the time or the
inclination anymore. But I like the big boy courses with
the big part fives. But I also love a fun
little part three like Florida has a lot of these
beautiful part three's, including some you can play at night
that are all lit up. Um, And that's always a
lot of fun too. Yeah. I tried to get acquainted
(11:31):
with golf as a youngster. Um my family had weirdly
enough because this is not like my family at all,
had um membership at heather Downs Country Club. Well yeah,
and I love the pool because they had like, you know,
tons of slush puppies and the best like nasty hot
dogs you can imagine. Um, and there was a pool
(11:51):
and all that. I think I told you the story
about Swim League, the swim team where I was the
worst swimmer on it. But I also tried to golf
for a couple of summers and it just did didn't
take it up. But I was back in Toledo like
a couple of years ago, I think right before Cleveland Show,
and I visited the country level. I just drove by
and I looked, and the pool is now just like
(12:12):
a green field. It's been filled in, like the little
the little um snack shop has been torn down. I'm like,
something really bad must have happened there for them to
do that to the pool. You know. Yeah, there's uh
the And I didn't get to go here much because
it was private. But Hidden Hills was a big neighborhood
near my house that had a country club that's still around.
(12:34):
Isn't it, well, the neighborhoods there, but you know, the
neighborhood has seen its better days, and the country club
and golf course is completely just shut down and grown over.
It's really it looks well, it is an abandoned place.
That's so cool. It is kind of cool. And and
then I had the idea of a movie, like a
old school type thing where a bunch of old a
(12:55):
bunch of like middle aged men that grew up there,
go back and raise some money and try and like
clean the place up and get it going again. Yeah,
to hilarity, there has to be like a greedy developer
that they're battling, right, So is that the neighborhood that
we got kicked out of when we tried to go
shoot like without a license once around that area? Remember
(13:16):
the security guard came up was like, stop what you're doing.
I don't remember that. Yeah, it happened one day. Was
it on the Gorilla? Now? It was like when we
were shooting shorts? I think I don't remember that. Yeah,
I'm pretty sure that was the one. Should we take
a break already? Sure? Okay, all right, we'll get back
(13:37):
and we'll talk about where many golf went from here
right after this definite sk SK should know alright, so
(14:03):
we're back. Nothing we've talked about right now constitutes miniature
golf in the mind of anybody who here's the words
miniature golf, right like, what what comes to mind are
things like putt putt or goofy golf, or windmills or
clowns or happy Gilmore or something like that. Right. So, um,
that all started. Actually, that didn't quite start yet. I
(14:26):
was really leading up to that, and then I realized
we had to keep going with regular miniature golf one
more time because it has to spread to America. And
it did, and we can actually trace that too, um
to the house of a guy named James Barber who
was an immigrant from England who was familiar with the
course the Ladies Pudding Club at St. Andrew's UM. And
(14:46):
he was rich enough that he said, you know, I
want a miniature golf course built on my estate, UM
at Pinehurst, North Carolina. And he did. He had like
an eighteen whole miniature course built right there in his
his formal gardens. And it's just beautiful. It is nice.
And uh, this was the first one in the United States,
and as it's called thistle dow u t h I
(15:09):
s t l e d h u and supposedly, as
legend goes, he when he first saw it, he said,
this will do. I guess he was. Uh, he was
not blown away maybe, I don't know. It sounds sold under.
He wasn't one of those spoiled brand you know, Robert Barons,
and instead was like, this will do. This will do
quite nicely. And they just left off the second part,
(15:30):
you know. Yeah, but it's called thistle do And uh.
They started hosting competitions a couple of years later, and
I think this is the first time miniature golf was
ever used, like those words wherever he used to describe
the Pinehurst outlook. Uh was that the newspaper? I guess, yeah,
it's there one claim to fame. Oh you know it's
(15:54):
true though it's probably true. Yeah, but they were the
one in the in a account of the competition, they
coined the term miniature golf. Up to that point, a
lot of people had called the Litliputian golf after the uh,
the little people in Goliver Guliver's travels, and that actually
that name actually stuck for quite a while. Um, so
(16:16):
we've got James Barber, who hosted or built the first
miniature golf course in America. But still this thing is
like directly connected to the Ladies Putting Club of St. Andrews.
It's a golf course in miniature. We still haven't quite
reached what we would consider miniature golf, and that wouldn't
(16:36):
happen until n which turned out to be a really
big year for miniature golf in America. It was like
there was something in the air and a few different
people kind of tapped into it around the same time
and it suddenly just took off like a rocket. Yeah.
Two of the guys were some entrepreneurs named Drake de
uh Delinois, I guess named John Ledbetter another good name.
(17:01):
And it's okay. He sounds like he'll he'll shoot you,
he'll lead better. Yeah, yeah, I can see that. Uh.
They did a pretty cool thing, which is they opened
up a course on top of a rooftop in the
Financial District in New York and that kicked off a trend.
There were I think about a hundred of those on
(17:22):
top of roofs. I guess it is before the big
rooftop bar hotel scene. They had golf courses up there. Yeah,
miniature golf courses again though those were like miniature golf courses,
so that I mean, that was a big deal in
New York. Just a hundred rooftop golf miniature golf course
loan in the twenties. That's that's a tremendous amount. Um
(17:42):
And I don't think there's a single one left actually, um,
there should be. There's there's so that kind of makes
the whole you know, there's one on on top of
Pont City Market where the house Stuff Works office is. Um,
is there golf up there? There's a miniature golf course
up there, and it makes a lot more sense now. Yeah,
it's kind of like a whole mini Coney Island up there. Yeah.
(18:03):
I mean I think I've only been up there when
we had at work events and the only thing I
did was the slide. I didn't know there was a slide. Yeah,
there's like a you know, you sit in a potato
sack and go down this big slide. Yeah, yeah, I
did that. That was fun. Yeah, there's a there's a
miniature golf course up there. We'll have to play sometime
when the whole pandemic passed totally. Uh And then later
(18:24):
that same year you said it was kind of a
boom yere for mini golf. Lookout Mountain Tennessee in Chattanooga,
which is a place where I think everybody should go
to see Ruby Falls in Rock City. It is a
tourist trap, but it's actually kind of neat. I mean,
the greatest of the great tourist traps, and it still
holds up too. Yeah. Get a a pecan log. Oh
(18:48):
my god, those are so good. They are so good.
There's that's what. That also supports my theory that candy
was perfected in the nineteenth century. Never remember honeycom conlogs
was that. I didn't know if the con lungs were
from way back then, but I believe it. Yeah, for sure,
they're definitely old timing. So these people, uh Garnett and FRIEDA. Carter,
(19:14):
they built a resort called fairy Land Club and it
was part of that whole sort of interconnected scene there
with Rock City and Ruby Falls. And they built a
miniature golf course and they said, you know what, Uh,
if you like golf, maybe you should try mini golf
because it doesn't take very long. It'll kind of scratch
(19:35):
that itch if you're not able to play a real
round and that's sort of how they marketed it at first.
And they they were the first people, I think, to
start adding the obstacles, right they did. Yeah, and um,
they used as they were building, like the n and
the resort complex. They used some of the construction materials
like train pipes and you know, barrels and things like that,
(19:58):
and you build them as hazards. And then because they
had this whole like fairytale theme going up there, they
also built rock City. They were the ones who built
Rock City, and that has like a cool, little weird,
weird but also very neat fairytale theme kind of hidden throughout. Um,
they they added that to their miniature golf course. So
(20:19):
they had these stationary obstacles and hazards that they added,
and then they also added the statuary of cute little
you know, mother goose type stuff. And they actually called
the whole thing Tom Thumb Golf and Tom Thumb, from
what I understand, is the earliest recorded English fairy tale
character from back in one and he was a little
(20:41):
tiny guy the size of his father's thumb, which is
where he got his name. So it was a pretty
appropriate name. They must have really like been pretty pleased
with themselves when they decided to call it Tom Thumb
Golf because it really it checked all the boxes. Yeah,
and we should mention too. We keep saying Rock City,
and if you're not from the South East, you might
think it's just some like redneck area with a bunch
(21:04):
of rocks. It's actually a very sweet natural wonder. It's
it's caves that you walk through caves. It's huge boulders
being held up by much much smaller boulders. That's really
neat way for probably tens of thousands of years that
you walk under. There's like yeah, there there's little cave
areas that you kind of duck into and they have
(21:25):
little fairy tale scenes with fluorescent day or fluorescent um yeah,
I guess kind of day glasses dark weird like gnomes
and in fairy tale scenes like that's the weird part.
It's like if Carl's Bad Caverns had you know, some
corny fairy theme. Mm. And then Ruby Falls is really
(21:46):
neat too. Yeah, it's a very cool like natural attraction
that they've done a good job of like underground water
making it easy to to make your way to. But yeah,
it's it's the whole thing is definitely worth going to.
And then of course they have this the very famous
like Sea Rock City barn sides that everybody's right of
and that was that was Garnet Carter who painted one man,
(22:08):
or paid one man to go around and offer to
give a fresh coat of paint to barnes all throughout
the southeast in exchange for letting them paint Sea Rock
City on the side. Yeah, it's um. If you've ever
driven around the North Carolina South Carolina area and south
of the border, you know I'm talking about south of
the Mason Dixon line. No, south of the border is
(22:30):
the name of this, uh sort of highway tourist trap.
I haven't heard of that. Yeah, it's it's it's the
same deal. I think it's I want to say it's
North Carolina, but it's basically like a glorified rest stop
with that has a Mexican theme where you can go, like,
I don't know, see mariachi band and eat good food
and by cheap. Jot skis the only mariachi band in
(22:52):
all of North Carolina. But what made me think about
it it might be was that they had the same
thing for like hundreds of miles in any direction. For
South of the Border and Rock City, they're very famous
for these billboards that tell you like, oh, it's coming,
You're getting closer, You're getting closer. That's really strange that
I've never heard of that. Then South of the Border
(23:12):
checking it's not have been paying attention. So so the
Carter's built like this Tom Thumb golf course. And again,
originally they just did this as kind of an amenity
at their Fairyland in in Fairyland um club. Uh. But
it was such a smash hit and Garnet Carter was
such a like born businessman that, um, they were like,
(23:34):
I think there might be something to this and they
saw either they saw it out or he sought them.
I'm not quite sure how it happened. But there was
another guy who really factors Bigley into this whole story,
but he's very frequently overlooked, and his name is Thomas
McCulloch Fairburn. McCullough Fairburn. Yeah, um, and he invented a
(23:56):
really cheap and easy technique for creating art ficial putting
greens that could be used for miniature golf courses. Yeah.
It was a crushed cotton seed holes oil you would
diet green and they would come in these big roles
and you just roll it over this foundation of sand
and boom. You've got an easy way basically to sort
(24:18):
of franchise these things with these prefab kits that they had,
and people loved it UM because it was you know,
when it was they called it midget golf for a
little while, not a term we would use today, but
that's what they called it in the nineteen twenties. And
this factors into a lot of stuff we've been talking
about the nineteen twenties lately, just these weird fads that
(24:40):
would pop up, and Tom Thumb golf was one of them.
It was UM. And part of the reason that it
got out from Lookout Mountain is because the Carters and
Um Fairburn kind of joined forces and used his technique
for making these greens very cheaply and used their kind
of like touch of whimsy, packaged it together and started
(25:02):
selling it prepackaged sets or prefabricated sets UM that could
be franchised out to anybody who wanted to start their
own Tom Thumb golf course. And so they spread really
really quickly, and like you're saying, like the twenties, they
were just looking for whatever craze could come along, crossroad puzzles,
dance marathons, flagpole sitting. Well, apparently miniature golf was the
(25:25):
king of them all as far as the twenties crazes went. Yeah,
this is a pretty startling statistic. Uh. In August of
the Commerce Department said that there were and apparently this
could be low by even as much as half five thousand,
twenty five thousand mini golf courses in the US, half
of which were built in that previous six or eight
(25:47):
months of the year. Yeah, that's a boom right there.
Can you imagine like in eight months, like twelve to
fifteen thousand mini golf courses being built in US? M hm,
it's crazy. I can just imagine. Aren't and freed to
Carter just rolling around on a bed of money in
their suite at the Fairy Landing? Yeah? And I mean
in a legit like job boosting market. Yeah. No, Well
(26:12):
that's a that's another thing too, write. I mean like
there was um uh, like flagpole sitting didn't make the
transition into the depression, and dance marathons did, but they
got kind of grim um apparently miniature golf, and I've
seen both, but but miniature golf seems to have made
the transition from twenties craze too, you know, kind of
(26:33):
national pastime that that made sense in the depression because
you could take your whole family out to play miniature
golf for pretty cheap um. So that was a big attraction. Um.
And then also if you were like a golf junkie,
but all of a sudden you didn't have the money
to afford greens fees any longer, at the very least,
(26:54):
you could go play a miniature golf somewhere. So it
kind of scratched that itch to a certain um, a
certain degree. So there was like a lot of popularity
that even after the craze kind of crested and waned
a little bit, um, it's still carried on pretty pretty
thoroughly through the nineteen thirties. And as a matter of fact, Chuck,
some some people were like that Tom Thumb Golf, the
(27:16):
official franchise Tom Thumb Golf, it's a little rich for
my blood. What else you got for me? Well, yeah, exactly.
Local entrepreneurs were like, I got exactly the thing, buddy,
you want to play half half priced miniature golf. Come
on in, like I've got a bunch of PVC pipe
laying around, yeah or yeah, so just basically whatever found
(27:37):
objects you could find, you you could you could come
across what we're called rinky dink miniature golf courses that
were basically knockoff Tom Thumb courses that used whatever found
objects the person who built it had lying around. Yeah.
New York had about a hundred and fifty of them,
Washington d C Had thirty. One of those is still
(27:58):
around the East Potoma Park course. Ye, and uh yeah,
the whole family could get involved. And I think one
of the the keys then and now too many golf
being popular and then putt putt, which will see you
here in a minute, is that you don't even have
to like golf at all. You can hate golf and
(28:18):
still go do putt putt and probably have a good time. Yeah,
as long as you do take it too seriously. Don't
take it too seriously. Please don't just relax. Don't be
that guy. That's what it's for. Um, you want to
take a break and then talk put putt? Yes, okay,
let's do that. Everybody shouldn't know if large sks, sks.
(28:55):
You should know are we there? Who me? But but
I thought you said are you there? I'm like, yeah,
I'm here, we are there, chuck, because UM, let me
set the set the table. Here you ready. H America
got a little burned out on miniature golf, especially the
(29:16):
tom thumb and rinkyding varieties, UM, and so a lot
of it died out, but some remained, some hopped along,
some are still around today. Actually, and by the nineteen fifties, UM,
there was a guy who was playing at one of
these courses in Fayetteville, North Carolina, which remembers the home
(29:37):
of miniature golf in the United States North Carolinas, and
UM he happened to have just gotten a prescription from
his doctor saying, you're about to have a nervous breakdown.
I prescribe you a month's rest from work. And this guy,
Don Clayton said, can do and he started playing miniature golf,
but he wasn't quite satisfied with it. Yeah. I imagine
if you were, UM on the verge of a nervous breakdown,
(30:00):
then tom thumb golf is a nice save for that
kind of kind of experience. Sure, if if you're charmed
by all the whimsical stuff and you don't take it
too seriously. Right from what I understand that, Don Clayton
was like, this whimsy sucks. We need something better than this,
and I think I'm just the person to build it. Yeah,
so he had the idea to to basically make miniature golf,
(30:26):
but without all the garbage, um, no clowns, amounts, no windmills,
and have a little, like I have, have a little
skill involved, Like you can go out there and if
you're like a good putter, you can actually compete and
have a good time. And it's still for fun, but
it's just not a silly kids game anymore. Yeah, Like
(30:47):
anybody who's been to an actual put put course can
tell you that it's I mean, there's a lot of obstacles,
and it's interesting and fun and there's some neat stuff,
but it does it just does not have all of
like the the moving bells and whistles that you're gonna
see on like other kinds of miniature golf, like goofy golf,
Like the obstacles are usually just like some blocks in
(31:08):
the way and stuff like that. Yeah, you have to
head around or bankingated elevated rombusses or things like that,
or like a labyrinth, you know, built into it. Um,
it's not like a clown's mouth or anything like that,
which is kind of like the go to description for
goofy golf, isn't it really? Yeah? And I think like
(31:28):
the craziest thing you'll see on a putt putt course
is where you those that are like two levels and
you can hit it into three different holes at the
top and you're like, you kind of take a little
bit of a gamble as to where it's going to
come out on the bottom. Uh, It'll either come out
close to the hole so you can get that part
two and I think they're all part twos on a
real put put course, or it'll spit you out way
(31:51):
far away, but you still have a chance to hit
that long putt for the for the two. Sure, there's
always a chance for you a second chance at putt
putt goes the motto, so um yeah. But so this
was Don Clayton's vision. He was like, I want to
make this a little less goofy. I want to make
it a little more interesting and skillful. Yeah yeah, chuck man,
(32:15):
he just sat up from his grave going I wish
I thought of that, because he did. Yeah, he died
in Okay, but he had a good run. I mean,
this is nineteen fifty four, when he was a twenty
eight year old man that he decided to try this. So, uh,
he went to his dad and said, hey, I've got this.
I've got this idea. Rather than basically, as a New
York Times obituary put it, um, rather than basically basically
(32:37):
making a human sized pinball machine for golf, We're gonna
make this a little more interesting. How about we cobble
together fifty bucks and we're going to build our own
little miniature golf course. And he did, and like a
shaded little lot. And with that they opened for business,
and within twenty nine days he and his father had
(32:59):
made one percent of their investment back. And Don Clayton said,
I think there might be something to this whole thing. Yeah,
so he, uh, he was initially gonna call it. He
went to the bank to open a business account and
he had to fill out the paperwork, and he was
going to call it the Shady Veil Golf Course. But
(33:19):
as the story goes, he didn't know how to spell veil.
I guess if it was v A I L or
v A L E. So he just said, uh, putt
putt and wrote down Putt. But it wasn't something he brainstormed. Apparently,
it was just sort of on a whim. And it's
a name that really really stuck. It's kind of brilliant
(33:42):
and its simplicity, I think divine inspiration. It almost feels like,
UM did that. It just kind of happened on a whim.
That's just absolutely great. But Um, he started to kind
of build the whole thing into like this enormous industry
pretty quickly because he was right. You know, there's I
did the man. If they made their dollars back in
twenty nine days, that means that over that month they
(34:05):
had twenty thousand, eight hundred paying customers a game. Yeah,
And so when they really got together and started Putt
Putt like they he was right. He was onto something
and it started to take off pretty quickly. Apparently at
its peak, Um, when you and I were going to
Putt putt, Uh, they were. They had something like two
(34:28):
hundred and fifty six courses throughout the world. Um, mostly
in the US and Canada, but also in Australia and
South Africa and New Zealand. Um, and it was. It
was definitely a thing. Like you said, all of the
holes were part two's right, yeah, And this was just
to be clear to fifty six doesn't sound like a
(34:49):
lot compared to the fifty thousand that uh they had
in the nineteen thirties. But this was his his own
putt putt golfin Games franchise. There was plenty of more
putt putt going on in the United States than that, right, right, right, yeah,
like knockoff putt putt right yeah, like the one in
Stone Mountain Park. Wudn't a put putt golfin Games. It
(35:10):
was just putt putt, but it was. It was great.
It's called Tap Tap. They also had trail skate across
from the putt putt, which was a roller skating trail
through the woods. What Yeah. It was like this two
mile paved you know, just basically like a big paved
sidewalk through the woods, and they rented roller skates and
(35:32):
you would just skate through the woods. It was really cool, man,
that's awesome. Country folk just have some of the best
ideas for businesses, you know what I mean. I didn't
think of us as country folk, but I guess it
kind of was roller skating through the woods country. I
guess it is. That's like Dolly Parton level country. So yeah,
they're all part two's um and it is. It is tough.
(35:55):
It's challenging. Apparently, in the sixty five year history of
putt putt, the have only been three perfect games where
you walk away with a score of eighteen, which is
that's that's really tough to do. I mean, like of
the millions and millions of games that of putt putt
that people have played, only three people have ever ever
(36:17):
gotten a perfect game, which kind of shows you how
like deceptively hard. The putt putt courses, you know, like
each one of those each one of those courses made
of um. I think they have something like a hundred
and eight uh trademarked holes like uh lanes I think
is what they're called, and miniature golf um where you
can just kind of take them and reconfigure them into
(36:39):
different different configurations. But they have a hundred and eight total,
and I guess each one of them is very, very difficult.
I don't ever remember getting a perfect game or even
imagining that I was going to get a perfect game,
you get a two or three holes in one and
that's a that's a good day for sure. So eighteen
(36:59):
there's actually a short, i think seven and a half
minute grant Land documentary on the most recent perfect putt
put game by a guy named Rick Baird who had
his perfect game in two thousand eleven. They capture it
really well in this in this documentary. It's really well done.
They've got like like a cartoon version of him putting,
(37:22):
and he's got like cartoons sweat just running down his face.
Oh man. Yeah, it was very nervous and he did it.
And he's actually a miniature golf pro um in his
spare time, which we'll talk about later. But there's so
he's from Charlotte, um Don Clayton was from Fayetteville, and
then um Joseph Barber was from Pinehurst. So it seems
(37:47):
pretty clear that North Carolina is the ancestral home of
miniature golfer at least the spiritual home of miniature golf
in the world. Frankly, I'm just gonna say it, in
the world. Yeah, And if you're looking for the creators
of the kind of mechanized courses, you can go to
and Scranton p A with Ralph and al loma Um.
(38:09):
Previously this you know, you had the putt putt, which
just had the sort of regular obstacles. You had the
tom thumb, which had kind of more outrageous whimsy, but
still things weren't moving. And that these are the guys
that brought in these rotating windmill blades or ramps that
moved back and forth, and they really kind of kicked
that to the next level. And uh, they you know,
(38:32):
they went into business big time. They started mass producing
these things, like the actual components and sold a ton
of them all over the world. Yeah, I think like
five thousand courses. Just pretty impressive. They're the ones who
came up with what we think of now is like
manature golf and goofy golf with the moving stuff, not
a fan, the clown mouth, don't forget the clown mouth
(38:53):
that opens and closes or yeah, like you said, a
windmill um. So it's kind of interesting that Don Clayton
brought miniature golf back to its roots of being a
lot more like regular golf, and then very shortly after
that branched off the Lomas who brought it back to
their that tom thumb roots. So that whole thing, the
(39:16):
evolution of miniature golf happened twice in just the same
way and that interesting. Yeah, and it also came back
full circle in the nineties with a return to the
sort of that original miniature golf because real golfers, people
like Jack Nicholas started to get involved. Uh. I'm sure
there were dollar signs, you know, in his eyes, but
(39:39):
he also probably loved it. I don't want to be cynical,
but I'm sure he made some money. But they have competitions,
you know, they are actual um prize purses. There is
a U S Pro Mini Golf Association. They have their
own Little US Open. I don't think they call it
the Little US Open. Uh they should, They totally should.
(39:59):
There's the World Mini Golf Sports Federation in Germany and
they sort of are the body that standardizes the obstacleson
stuff like that. On I guess what you can have
and what you can't have, yeah, which is kind of
funny when you think about it. It is, but it's
a pretty interesting list. You're like, oh, that'd be tough.
Oh that's hard. The slope circle with a v obstacle, Yeah,
(40:22):
that's just playing difficult. Um, and I think they should
call it the teeny weeny US Open. Welcome back to
the teeny weenie What's open? I was looking at the
UM the uh US Pro Mini Golf Association's website, and um,
there was a Tennessee State Open, and man, the picture
(40:42):
that they have of that course, it looks serious. Dude.
So like if you if you go to pup putt
and you always were like, I love this. This is
so challenging. I can score like a sixteen some or
I guess not a sixteen. I just don't play the
last two holes when I'm on a streak. Um, you know,
like a twenty or a twenty two or something like that.
(41:03):
You might actually have fun being a miniature golf pro.
And there are some serious courses out there for you
to play that are a couple of notches above your
average put putt course. I'd like to play one of those,
would you? I don't know if I would have fun? Club?
Should we talk about some of these famous courses? Yeah? So? Um.
(41:27):
From what I can tell, the United States is the
home of miniature golf. It's the capitals of miniature golf.
I don't believe there's any country. Like I was looking.
I was like, maybe Thailand is like even more into
it than the United States. I don't think so. I
think the United States is the place that has the
most miniature golf courses and has probably the most paying
(41:47):
customers for miniature golf courses. I could and I didn't
see anything like that. Yeah, I didn't see anything like it.
So the United States is the home of miniature golf
and the world capital of miniature golf than is Myrtle Beach,
South Carolina, which is ironic that it's not North Carolina,
but it's not everybody, I'm sorry, Yeah, I mean Myrtle
(42:08):
Beach is sort of one of those classic old school
beach towns that has all of the go carts and
the bumper boats and the mini golf. And they have
one called Molten Mountain. Uh, that's pretty cool. Like you
should go check out pictures of some of these places.
There are a lot of fun that has a volcano,
a working volcano that erupts every half hour, and it's
(42:29):
sort of an inside and an out thing, like I
think it's both indoors and outdoors, right it is. Yeah,
it's a pretty it's a pretty great one. And the
whole volcano thing. They're not the only one that's how
nuts So Myrtle Beaches, there's another one called Hawaiian Rumble.
They also has a functioning volcano too, And in fact,
on Highway seventeen there's a thirty mile stretch of it
(42:50):
that goes through Myrtle Beach where there's fifty more than
fifty miniature golf courses in a thirty mile stretch and
I'm sure a lot of opinions on which ones are good,
and yep, um, there's one I want to go to
in Palatine, Illinois. I think I said a couple of
these from Travel and Leisure maybe. Um. This one's called
(43:11):
al Graham Acres a L. G. H R I m Acres.
It's in Palatine, Illinois, Illinois, and it's a funeral home
like for real in real life. Yeah, like you know, uh,
they they take care of dead bodies and you can
also play nine holes on their death themed course in
the basement in the basement. First of all, the basement
(43:33):
of a funeral home is just creepy on its own,
but a death themed miniature golf course in a funeral
home that actually functions, that's that's just done right. Interesting. Yeah,
there's this one in Las Vegas to the Kiss themed win,
which I checked out on YouTube. I would I would
play this, even though it goes against two things for me,
(43:54):
which is not into indoor miniature golf. I really would
like to be outside. Uh, and I think Kiss sucks.
What I thought you were a Kiss fan? Oh man,
I thought you were a Kiss fan. No, not a
Kiss fan never. I mean, you know, I get it,
and I think it's kind of fun and funny. But
I never thought Kiss was like played good rock and
(44:16):
roll songs. Really, that's very surprising. I know Kiss fans
are gonna be so mad at me for saying their
music is not good, but I mean there's a reason
they dressed up in spit, blood and stuff, so there's
a but it's still it would be worth playing. I
agree it looks fun. The one that I would actually
travel to go play um is called Parking. It's in Lincolnshire, Illinois,
(44:38):
so I'd probably go there and then I dip down
or dip up. I'm not sure it's a palatine to
play Alga Makers, but Parking is like exactly what it is.
It's the pinnacle of a miniature golf course. If you
ask me, it's got it all. It's difficult, and it
has all the amazing obstacles and weird traps in um
(44:59):
functioning problems. To figure out that that a miniature golf
course should have, it looked pretty cool. I mean, I'm
a putt putt guy, but I was checking out pictures
and stuff. I would I would go. I would go
to parking with you for sure. Okay, we'll go. It's
gonna be a summer trip in two thousand and twenty
two or three. Fantastic um. And then if you want
(45:19):
to play, so I think, chuck, this one would be
up your alley. It's called Golf Gardens and on Catalina
Island in SoCal Alley. This one is like considered the
hardest miniature golf course in the United States. Um, not
just because uh, it's difficultly laid out, but also because
it's been played so much that's got all sorts of
(45:39):
weird notches and stuff that's not supposed to be there
in the playing surface. So that makes it all the
more difficult, which is kind of neat. And then if
you want to go retro, I think that one's been
around a while. Um, you can go down to Florida
and they have a historic mini golf trail that takes
you from miniature golf course and miniature golf course, all
of which have been around for at least fifty years. Amazing. Uh.
(46:03):
And if you like weird old stuff that's not in
use anymore, look up abandoned miniature golf courses. That's a
fun thing to do. And since I said it's a
fun thing to do, everybody, that means it's time for
a listener mail. All right, I'm gonna call this dad.
Male I got this very sweet email. I love it
when the families listening, you know, sure, especially when they're not.
(46:25):
I mean, I like families with young kids that listen,
but I also like it when the it's adults and
then older parents that are listening. Right. Hey, guys, hope
you're hanging in there. These are such tricky times. I
know you're I'm not the only listener that turns to
your show for a distraction or a soundtrack to washing dishes,
or background noise while trying to run, or just something
that feels normal during these abnormal times. A couple of
(46:45):
years ago, my now husband and I took a road
trip with my parents to stay with my now in laws.
As we pulled out of the driveway, we put on
Stuff you Should Know and spent the entire journey sharing
your catalog with them, and they were immediately hooked. My
parents continue to love your podcast, but every time my
dad refers to it, he mixes up the name I
love this stuff. So far, he's called you guys, you
(47:07):
should know, Sure, stuff you ought to know? Yeah, things
you need to know, and stuff guys. Stuff guys is
that's a good nickname. Lately he's just been referring to
you as the guys podcast, which is close enough for me. Eventually,
we're just going to get to the Yeah. Thanks for
(47:29):
all the amazing work and the thoughtful approach you have
to podcasting. So grateful to have multiple episodes to listen
to every week. That is from Merabeth, and she says
p s. I should add that the episode on fractals
is now infamously nap inducing in my family, but I
blame the long stretch of highway on that. Thank you.
That was very kind of you really pulled it out
(47:51):
at the end there. Um, who's that, Marabeth? Well, if
you want to be like Marabeth and get in touch
with us. UM we would appreciate that. Right now, you
can send it to us via email. It's the best
way to reach us at Stuff podcast at iHeart radio
dot com. Stuff you Should Know is a production of
iHeart Radio's How Stuff Works. For more podcasts for my
(48:13):
heart Radio, visit the iHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or
wherever you listen to your favorite shows. H
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Chuck Bryant
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