Roadside Distractions: Pee Wee Golf

Known in various parts of the country as Miniature Golf, Mini-Putt, Goofy Golf, Midget Golf, Crazy Golf, or Putt-Putt, my brother Jimmy and I knew the wacky offshoot version of the grown-up game of golf as “Pee Wee” Golf. Jimmy was so enamored with the game in the 1950’s that he transformed a portion of our Castro Valley backyard into his own Pee Wee golf course and earning himself a Boy Scout Merit Badge. Typically, the game requires hitting a golf ball through a collection of themed barriers, silly obstacles, revolving windmills or rising drawbridges to sink the ball in the shortest number of strokes. Jimmy’s backyard course was designed and constructed in contoured dirt and featured an arched cement bridge.

Claims of creating the silly game can be traced to China in AD945, France in the 1400’s, Scotland in the 1500’s, and England in the early 1900’s, however one of the first documented American themed Minigolf courses was located in Mrs. Garnet Carter’s 700-acre resort “Fairyland Inn & Fairyland Golf Club” on Lookout Mountain near Chattanooga in the 1920’s. Each of the resort’s buildings were themed after familiar fairy tales while her “Tom Thumb” miniature golf course featured carefully positioned Garden Gnomes and a life size stature of Snow White. Unwittingly, Mrs. Carter launched a national minigolf fad that flourishes to this day.

We can recall seeking out the Fantasy Land Golf Course on early trips to Disneyland that featured a collection of diminutive park attractions, pirate themed courses at Lake Tahoe, and Santa Cruz Beach and Boardwalk’s indoor nautical course.  Closer to home was the Mini Golf Course on E 14th Street next to the Roller Arena in San Leandro, and the colorful dragon has been standing guard since the 1950’s creating new memories at the Golden Tee Miniature Golf Course on Castro Valley Blvd. Jim is still at it seven decades later transforming a pond at their home in the Sierra foothills into a kid-sized putting green for the great-grandchildren to enjoy.

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