Played with Peter Vader, Greg Schaal, Jennifer Castro, and Manny Castro
Our trip to the Middle East for the Tasmeem Conference last year happened to be on the same weekend as the Skyway Open in Minneapolis so we missed an opportunity to play an annual temporary min golf course in our home town. We played and reviewed the 2013 and 2014 versions of the course and had a guest reviewer take on the 2012 iteration. The photos we saw from the 2015 course intrigued us enough so that we made sure to mark February 2016 on our calendar. The Pink Putter’s plans to visit family in a warmer climate on the last weekend of February meant I would be taking on the course without her. Fortunately, I was able to wrangle a number of friends to walk through the course on Friday and then play it on Sunday.
Rating:
Par – The reasoning for walking the course on Friday before playing on Sunday are two-fold. The simple reason is that it’s considerably cheaper on Sunday($15) versus Friday ($31.20-$41.50). Sure, each year the course is designed to support a charity but during the run of this courseI was unemployed so I held off playing for practical reasons. The other reason for walking the course on Friday is to see how the holes hold up throughout the weekend.
The two above are a great example of the best and worst of the course. The top photo was the 12th hole that we didn’t even play because it was so poorly designed and constructed. The 2nd photo features hole 15 and our friend Manny. This beautiful creation won an award for best design and you can see why. This was amongst a number of quite exceptional holes that we included pictures of below. Half of the course was a hole-in-one quality and the other holes were a mixed bag with many falling below average in design and/or play. I went back and forth between giving this a rating of Par and Birdie but landed on the lower of two scores because I do think previous versions of the course were overall much better. Fingers crossed that 2017 is a step up. We’ll play it again regardless!
The best holes of this course were exceptionally made and designed
Most of the holes (with only a few exceptions) were able to handle heavy usage
Cons:
System for returning putters and balls led to longer than normal wait times to start
Several holes with poor play design
Few too many holes with no putting for my own perference
Nerdy Notes:
17 holes, Par 51
One putter per group but everyone gets their own ball. In the past the balls and putter would stay with the hole.
Hole #5, 8, 9, 13, 14 (twice with differentcolors), and 16 were carried over from previous years.
Prices vary throughout the weekend. See website for details.