By C.J. Hirschfield
I love reading Funworld Magazine, the official publication of the International Association of Amusement
Parks and Attractions. It was there that I learned that the enduring game of
miniature golf will be celebrating its centennial this year. That’s right: 100 years
of windmills, clowns, tubes, ramps, chutes, kitsch and Americana.
You may not know that
Fairyland’s original sets, designed in 1950 by architect William Russell
Everritt, were widely copied by developers of mini-golf courses in the 1950s and
1960s. Storybook theme parks and mini-golf courses both proliferated in the
postwar years, as families sought out affordable places to have fun together.
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| Filmmaker and mini-golfer Amanda Kulkoski. Favorite course obstacle: the "Pachinko hole." |
Amanda Kulkoski fell in love
with the sport in the 1980s, when she was growing up. So it wasn’t surprising
that her first job in her hometown of Green Bay, Wis., was at the local
miniature golf course. She’d sweep the holes, move boulders to alter a course,
hand out balls, sell soft-serve ice cream and clean the bathrooms.
“I loved to play – still do,”
she says.
