Words by Mr. Tee on New Year’s Eve 2021
The USA opened up a little bit in what was a rollercoaster year for the planet. In our attempt to make up for lost time, we went a little wild and did a top-notch job checking quite a few courses off our bucket list while seeing friends and family from across the US. Our big trips were to Texas, the Florida Panhandle, The Jersey Shore, and Myrtle Beach as well as multiple visits to the greater Chicago area.
Between the two of us, we ended up playing or visiting over 80 courses in 2021 that we had not previously been to or experienced. We wanted to acknowledge our mutual favorites with a quick end-of-the-year “best of” list which you can find below. This has become an annual tradition that we started in 2019 and repeated again in 2020 with a list of new courses we played closer to home during a COVID year. Since 2021 was a record year for us in the sheer volume of courses, I’ll do an additional post with some further strong recommendations in what was an exceptionally busy year.
You can find me, Mr. Tee, talking in more detail about the top courses on my Puttcast podcast with Pat from The Putting Penguin in the 2021’s Greatest Putts: A Year in Review episode. We linked to the course reviews that are already published and expect to see the other course reviews in 2022!
2021 Top New Courses Played
Goofy Golf – Panama City Beach, Florida – Goofy Golf is a one-of-a-kind, larger-than-life mini golf mecca. It’s also a playground and an artistic wonder. Two unique 18-hole courses offer fun and challenging gameplay experiences, immersive theming, sculptures you can climb on/in and incredible beachfront views.
Cool Crest – San Antonio, Texas – In all our years of playing mini golf, we’ve never once used the word elegant to describe a course, until now. Everything about the 1929 and 1959 courses is the epitome of Art Deco elegance. Despite the concrete being over 70 years old, its clean, white surface with hardly a visible crack flows smoothly from one hole to the next, undulating up and down curved staircases and tiered levels of play. Add in lush plant life and you have an island of perfection in San Antonio.
Tee Time – Ocean City, New Jersey – Quintessential old school mini golf located in the heart of the OC Boardwalk. Its colorful and kitschy mechanized moving obstacles offer plenty of hole-in-one opportunities. Can’t think of a better place to putt on the entire Jersey Shore.
Goofy Golf – Fort Walton Beach, Florida – One of the many courses with the “Goofy” name that is part of mini golf history in the Florida Panhandle. 34 mini golf holes combine into 2 putting paths filled with colorful characters, fun play and moving obstacles. This well-maintained blast from the past costs a mere $3 per round, a price that is criminally low given how much fun you can have there.
Dreamland – Dripping Springs, Texas -“Everything is bigger in Texas” applies perfectly to Dreamland. The quarter of a mile in length Challenge course with 3 skill-based pin placements per hole coupled with the flow-y and fun Dream Course makes this complex a destination for anyone who seeks to find unique putting opportunities in the Austin, Texas area.
Flamingo Golf – Long Beach Island, New Jersey – Over 60 years old, this pastel-colored classic putting spot is our top choice for mini golf on LBI. The opportunity for hole-in-ones is high and the journey to the cup is filled with brightly colored bowling pints, a lighthouse, spinning paddles, a Ferris wheel and other delights.
Goofy Golf – Pensacola, Florida – These two courses offer a rare and unique mix of classic holes from the playbooks of both Goony and Goofy Golf courses that were more common in the middle of the 20th century. This hybrid of both game play design and course decor throws back to a classic era of mini golf.
