National Building Museum – Washington, D.C.

Mr. Tee in the Half Pipe

Played August 16, 2012

Reviewed by Mr. Tee and The Pink Putter

After hearing about the National Building Museum’s Mini Golf and knowing that it was only up until September, we seized the opportunity to make a slight detour on our east coast trip and head to D.C. We had anticipated long lines and a big crowd, but fortunately when we got there about an hour before close that Thursday evening we joined just a handful of couples and families who had the same idea as we did.

This one-of-a-kind course was comprised of 12 holes designed by leading architects, landscape architects and contractors in the D.C. area. Holes were inspired by architectural and landscape themes.

Rating:

Hole-in-one– While the course had its pitfalls (some holes with bad playability/structural integrity) overall this was a really fun play. Waiting in line for each hole we were entertained by mini golf fun facts that were written on the walls around each room. Every hole was extremely unique and due to the varying levels of playability, the idea of competitive scoring went by the wayside. I think we enjoyed documenting this course just as much as we did playing it. In fact, Mr. Tee was so excited he was shaking! (hence some of the fuzzy photos). In order to fit this course in to our trip we had to add 3 hours of driving that included some rough DC traffic. It was worth every second!

The line we didn’t have to wait in. Mr. Tee’s hands were shaking when shooting this photo
Well-designed scorecards
Hole 1
Hole 2

Hole 3

Hole 4

Hole 5
Hole 6 – Uphill and deceptively challenging
Hole 7
Hole 7 (side view)
Hole 8

Hole 9
Hole 9 Info

Hole 10
Hole 10 detail
Hole 11
Hole 11 detail
Hole 12

National Building Museum’s Promo Video

National Building Museum’s Photos

Pros

Unique play
Beautiful design
Fun Facts / History of mini-golf on walls
Indoors

Cons

Some holes had bad playability
Only 12 holes 🙁
Temporary

Nerdy Notes

  • 12 Holes, Par 30
  • Cost – $8 for Adults, $5 for Youth, Students and Seniors
  • Metal Putters with rubber covers
  • No flags in holes
  • Well design scorecards (as seen in the photo above)

You may also like