Defunct: McPherson Park Mini Golf – Greenville, SC

Played on 6/15/15
Reviewed by the Pink Putter

Greenville, South Carolina is the bigger sister city to Spartanburg, kind of like Eagleton is to Pawnee, if you’re a fan of the TV show Parks and Recreation. It’s a good 30+ minute drive from downtown to downtown, however Greenville has great places to grab lunch and many lovely parks to stroll in. One of these is McPherson Park, located a few blocks from the hustle and bustle of Main Street. McPherson Park is 12.5 acres and offers a variety of amenities including a picnic shelter, playground, tennis courts, a bandstand, and most importantly, a free miniature golf course (bring your own ball and putter, that is).

Rating

Sandtrap – The only redeeming quality to this rundown, beat up, and average course is that it’s completely free. Like Sparkle City Mini Putt, McPherson is a public park where you can bring your own ball and putter, but unlike SCMP, there are no locations to rent balls and putters. Upon arrival, we checked in at the park shelter front desk to inquire about scorecards. The woman working was very friendly and informed us that they haven’t had scorecards available in many, many years. It took us a minute to figure out where to start. Each hole was numbered with a taped on piece of paper and the first hole had no logic as to its placement. We made our way around the course, only to encounter ripped turf, rotting wood and holes flooded with dirty standing water. The game play was somewhat varied and included jump shots, narrow paths, half figure-eights, slopes and small wooden obstacles. If you live in the area, it could be worth a visit to practice your putting skills, but we don’t recommend going out of your way to play this course.

Summer 2019 Update

The entire 18-hole McPherson Park course was rebuilt and reopened in May 2019. Photos from the ribbon cutting show a standard Par-level course but if it remains free, this is a solid practice course planted in a public park. We’d love to see more cities add miniature golf to their parks and hope this can become a trend. The rating for this course has been changed to a mulligan. We hope to have a chance to revisit and replay this new course down the road.

The Pink Putter fumbles her way through this course.

View of half of the course. — View of half of the course from across the bridge.

The bridge dividing the course into two sections. — The Pink Putter stands on the bridge dividing the course into two sections.

Mr. Tee putts across fake water, aka blue turf. — Mr. Tee putts around fake water, aka blue turf.

Mr. Tee ready to ride the curve. — Mr. Tee ready to ride the slope.

Pros
Free (bring your own ball and putter)
Well shaded for the hot Carolina summers
Playground, picnic area and tennis courts on premise
Public restrooms available

Cons
Run down- rotted wood, torn turf, debris on course
Average game play, not many unique obstacles
No scorecards

Nerdy Notes