Documented April 28, 2019

Words by Mr. Tee

Up through 2018, we had only visited two official Putt-Putt Fun Center courses plus the nearby Adventure Landing in Raleigh which was a Putt-Putt location years ago before ownership changes. The unavoidable brand name of Putt-Putt in the greater world of mini golf looms large for us given our lack of direct proximity to this now mostly southern US chain. Any chance we get to experience the orange rails and green felt putting spaces, we take it.

Our mini golf design and consulting work brought us back to North Carolina late April 2019 to test play and make final recommendations for the phenomenal Bull City Mini. Knowing we would have some free time to take in more courses within an hour of Durham, NC, we dialed up the Putt-Putt corp website for North Carolina locations. After consulting the map, we determined a short drive to Wilson would help us take in an 18-hole course.

An hour drive and we landed…at a fully defunct course that had not been open for at least a year. Part of the reason we started A Couple of Putts was to document the active courses still out in the world because an endless amount of bad or incomplete information can be found online in relation to functioning courses and the state of those operations. In this case, we present the remains of what was once a small-town gathering space. While there is a beauty in the decay, we always would rather play. As a reminder, it’s always a good time to visit and enjoy your local mini golf courses. These shared spaces for fun only survive if you patronize them.