Par Excellence Redux Elmhurst Mini Golf (Front 9) – Elmhurst, IL

Played July 7, 2021

Reviewed by Mr. Tee

Back in the middle of 2019, we caught wind that the Elmhurst Art Museum was going to celebrate what is roundly considered the first artist-designed mini golf course, Par Excellence, with a new call for artists and an 18 hole course curated by Colossal. We already had read about and seen photos of the original 1988 School of the Art Institute of Chicago course and were impressed by the wild creativity and variety of holes. We knew that we had to propose an idea and were fortunate to be accepted in late 2019 for a course that was planned for the summer of 2020. We were well on our way in building our castle hole when COVID hit and inevitably led the world to a stop. The course would be delayed until 2021 and to ensure social distancing, the 18 hole course became two separate 9 hole courses that would run from July to October 2021 for the Front 9 and from mid-October into January 2022 for the Back 9.

Robin and I installed our hole in late June on a quick weekend jaunt to the Chicago area. Since I had a week off of work the following week, I made plans to return to play the whole course after it was installed. I popped by on the opening day, July 7th, and was thrilled to see all of the mini golf holes finally unveiled to the public.

Rating

Artist-designed mini golf is exciting for us because it almost always provides unique approaches to design and gameplay. Par Excellence Redux was no exception. We’re clearly biased about how our own hole turned out but loved seeing the different artists’ final creations after seeing their design submissions for over a year. All of the holes looked great and a number of them are really fun to play. Mini golf purists might get frustrated with the wild range in sizes of cups and a few of the holes that are non-traditional or don’t use the putter in the manner they are used to. Ultimately, this is a really fun temporary 9 hole course with a lot of imagination that’s worth finding a way to play while it is still open.

I made it! Drove back to play after installing two weeks earlier.

First three holes. Photography by Steven Koch

Proud to have our hole, Cross Section Castle, kick off this fun colorful course. Photography by Steven Koch

This one looks great and would be much better if the cup wasn’t so small and close to the ground

The felt garden on the “Hole Foods” building on #5 was a beautiful detail to this excellent build

This hole looks great but the steep angle made this one unintentionally frustrating. The pipe was updated later with a wavy red striped path to the cup that was an improvement.

We love Gautam Rao’s use of color and glad he put a few birds on it

Hole #9 has many different “outcomes” that make this a fun hole to play a few times when you visit

Cute little spot to safely return balls and putters

and next to it is the history of the original Par Excellence from 1988

The 1988 Par Excellence is considered the first artist designed course and looks wild!

Archival photo of the 1988 course courtesy of Colossal. Incredible!

Another one from the 1988 course from an archival Art Golf brochure

Bumped into John (middle) & Christopher (right). John McKinnon is the Executive Director of the museum and Christopher Jobson is the Founder & Editor-in-Chief of Colossal as well as the curator of the course.

Our friend and fellow Holey Moley alum Mick Cullen visited to play with his friend

Mick safely snapped a photo with a post of the art for our hole! Love seeing our friends playing our creations.

Par Excellence Website

150 S Cottage Hill Ave, Elmhurst, IL 60126

Pros

Many distinct and unique takes on traditional mini golf
Numerous holes played well, look great, and told a good story
Designed by a wide variety of artists employing different styles

Cons

A few of the holes played quite poorly

Nerdy Notes

9 holes, Par 24
Kiddies (4 & Under) – Free, Child (5+) – $5, Senior (65+) – $8, Adults $10
Reservations recommended and usually requested to play
Variety of sizes of rubber covered putters and mini golf balls
Gift shop has a number of mini golf goodies including t-shirts, custom balls, hats, games and more
Course was originally set to open in summer 2020 as a full 18 course but it was delayed a year due to COVID
Most, if not all, of the holes were ADA accessible
The Front 9 Artists: Julie Cowan, Benjamin Good, Neil Good & John Serafin; Current Projects; Andrea Jablonski & Stolatis Fab LLC; Annalee Koehn; Latent Design; Jesse Meredith; Gautam Rao; Robin Schwartzman & Tom Loftus (aka A Couple of Putts); and Elmhurst Art Museum’s Teen Art Council.