A Couple of Putts and American Mini Golf Alliance Present…

The 1st Looniest Mini Golf Open
Saturday, May 13, 2023

Recap

Around the time of the 2022 Miniest Mini Golf Open, we were made aware that a new course had opened close to home in Shoreview, Minnesota. As you can see in Mr. Tee’s review of the Loon’s Nest mini golf course, we were immediately intrigued by the variety of play and layout.  It felt like an easy decision to add this course to our annual calendar and National Mini Golf Day, the 2nd Saturday in May,  for our annual celebration of the game. Given that we already host events in February and September, this would also allow us to keep our events spread out across the year.

For the first time, we opted for a single-day tournament, pushed the number of rounds up to three, and offered up an amateur division for those that are newer to competitive mini golf or want to play with players closer to their own skill levels. To top it off, our buddy and Mr. Tee’s Puttcast podcast co-host Pat Sheridan of The Putting Penguin used the tournament as an excuse to finally get to Minnesota to check out all of the courses we had in the Twin Cities.

In the week leading up to the event, it was looking a little dicey based on constantly fluctuating projections of a rainy Saturday. We crossed our fingers and although it did rain a good amount on Friday night and Saturday morning, the rain opted to take a break in advance of our 1 pm tee-off. We worked with the course staff to clear up any areas of standing water and were ready to roll just a touch after 1 pm with a field of 12 pros and 3 amateurs. Walkabout player Nick Windyk, course manager Ryan McCormick, staff member Jay Green, and local mini golf league organizers Reid Nelson joined us for their first forays into competitive mini golf in one of our events.  Jay came in with the unique distinction of holding the course record of 37. Local league events had seen top scores of 42 up to this point but due to the higher stakes, we expected the scores to go much lower.

For the first two rounds, we sent out pairs based on a random draw of competitors. After the 2nd round, we sent out the trio of amateur players immediately to finish, and then the 6 pairs of folks in the pro division with the higher scoring players going out first. After one day of practice, Pat took a lead of 4 going into the 3rd round with an 82. His deep experience in competitive putting, consistent play, and strong final round of 42 landed him at the top spot in the field despite the best rounds of the tournament coming that round by Erik Haselius (37) and Shawn Brown (39). Shawn tied Matt Roalstad for 2nd and Shawn won a two-hole tiebreaker on Hole #15 by one stroke. Erik’s tie of the course record landed him in a tie-breaker with Ryan for 4th but Ryan bested him by a single putt on Hole #18 to take home 4th. Over 3 rounds, Erik also had the most aces which garnered him a swag pack of goodies from OneShot Golf.

In the amateur division, The Pink Putter Robin Schwartzman beat newcomer Nick Windyk for the top spot. Jason Peterson had played in several of our past events and for the first time, he took home a medal with a 3rd place finish in the amateur division. Based on all of the feedback we received from the players, we’re planning on having this new division as an entry-level option for many of our events going forward.

Another fun one is in the books and we’re feeling good about running this tournament annually every spring / early summer. Thanks to all who came out and if you didn’t make it this year, hope to see you in 2024!

Notable numbers:

• No one in the 3-round tournament got a hole-in-one on holes 3,4,6,13,15,16 & 17. 3 is the only one that has been aced in our local league events
• Only 21 hole-in-ones were made by 15 players across 3 rounds which means that only 3% of first shots were hole-in-ones
• Holes #16 (3.49), #4 (3.42) & #13 (3.02) had an average score per hole of over 3 strokes.
• Lowest average scores per hole were on #5 (2.18), #7 (2.07) & #10 (2.27)
• Zack Haselius had the lowest round differential of one. He played consistently despite not getting the aces to fall with a difference of 1 stroke between his best and worst rounds.
• No one achieved a 2 on Hole #16 and not until the final round did anyone get a 2 on Hole #4. Funny enough, a deuce on four was achieved by Pat Sheridan, Matt Roalstad, Erik Haselius, and Nick Windyk in the 3rd round.
• This was the first outdoor tournament where we encountered rainfall during the championship. We feel fortunate and hope to avoid rain and/or rescheduling play due to severe weather for as long as we can.

 

2023 Tournament Rules and Regulations

Loon’s Nest Mini Golf at Island Lake Golf – 1000 Red Fox Rd, Shoreview, MN 55126

Pro: $30

Amateur: $25

3 Rounds for All Players

REGISTRATION

If the weather on May 13th is so bad that we have to cancel the tournament, we’ll share details on A Couple of Putts and American Mini Golf Alliance (AMA) as well as the Facebook event page.

American Mini Golf Alliance (AMA) Red Scoring Event – Not an AMA member? Join for free at amaminigolf.com/membership

Pro Prizes

Champion: $TBD cash (50% of purse) + Custom Made Championship Trophy + More TBD
Second Place: $TBD cash (30% of purse) + “Silver” Medal + More TBD
Third Place: $TBD cash (20% of purse) + “Bronze” Medal + More TBD
4th-5th Place: Loon’s Nest and/or American Mini Golf Alliance (AMA) mystery prizes

Amateur Prizes

Champion:  Custom Made Mini Amateur Championship Trophy + Prizes TBD
Second Place: Amateur “Silver” Medal + Prizes TBD
Third Place: Amateur “Bronze” Medal + Prizes TBD

Most Hole-in-Ones: OneShotGolf game swag pack including a hat, t-shirt, and stickers.

Pro: Open to anyone. The top-round scores are expected to be in the high 30s to mid-40s. Pros will be playing for trophies, medals, prizes, AMA scoring points per the current rubric, and a cash purse.

Amateur: Players newer to the competitive putting game or who have not finished in the top 3 of local or regional mini golf/golf events in the last 2 years. Amateur competitors will be playing for trophies, medals, prizes, and 1 AMA scoring point each.

Pro & amateur fee includes:

 

Format
Saturday, May 13th. Registration and practice open at 12 pm and we’ll review the rules at 12:45 pm. Rounds will start promptly at 1 pm. See the Rules of the Tournament below for more details.

All competitors who are American Mini Golf Alliance (AMA) members will receive points toward national ranking based on the current scoring rubric. This is a Red AMA scoring tournament

Rules of the Game

1. Players will start each hole at or behind the designated starting area. It will be clearly marked but if you’re going out to practice, it is the area on each hole 2 feet from the start of the turf.
2. No intentional chip shots to jump walls.
3. The ball can be moved the length of the championship scorecard (around 8.5″) away from any obstacle or wall for relief as long as it does not move the ball out of hazard or provides a significantly better direct line to the cup for your next putt.
4. Relief from an obstacle or wall cannot be used to give a line to the cup where it does not already exist. The player can move the ball further away from the cup to take relief to prevent creating a line that does not already exist.
5. If the ball goes off course out of bounds (OB), the ball will be placed at the place in the bounds of that hole where the ball last made contact with the green with relief with a one-stroke penalty added.
   • If the ball goes out of bounds in an area where there is not a flat space to place the ball inbounds, the ball will be placed at the nearest flat space away from the hole
6. On any putt, if the ball bounces back and exits the course out of bounds back through the tee-off area, the ball can be reset in the tee-off area by the competitor without a penalty stroke. If the ball is hit and returns to the tee-off area and stays within the tee-off area, the ball will be played from the position it stops in the tee-off area.
7. All of the holes contain inset plastic drainage divots. If the ball comes to rest on top of or within 6″ behind one of the plastic drainage pieces, the player is allowed to move the ball a putter head’s length to the left or right to avoid having to put out of or through the divot. Relief cannot be used to give a line to the cup where it does not already exist
8. For all tournament rounds, there is a 9-stroke limit. After your 8th stroke, you pick up the ball and move on to the next hole.

Rules of the Tournament

1. All holes will be played with each person completing the hole before others in their group play.
2. All groups will start at Hole #1
3. The ball can only advance to the hole through the use of the putter head.
4. If the math on your scorecard that you submit for your group is not correct, a +1 stroke penalty is added each person in your group’s score for the round.
5. One valid scorecard signed by each member of the group must be turned in after each round is completed
6. The tournament rounds will start promptly at 1pm on Saturday, May 13th.
7. Players can arrive after 12pm to sign-in, register or practice until 12:45pm
8. At 12:45 pm, there will be a review of the rules, time for questions, and a draw for group pairings for the first two rounds.
9. The pairings for the 3rd round will be determined by scores. Amateur players will go first and then the pros with the highest scores will go next. The best scores from the first two rounds will be in the last pairings.
10. All competitors in the tournament must score their rounds as well as the other competitors in their group.
11. No playing group will be less than 2 putters and no more than 4. For the first two rounds, playing groups will be pairs.
12. One scorecard signed by each member of the group will be turned in after each round
13. In the case of any ties for 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, and 5th place, the tie will be broken by 2 hole putt-off on Holes 1-2. “Honors” (aka putting first) on Hole #1 will be determined by a coin toss. “Honors” will alternate each hole regardless of the outcome of the previous hole. If scores remain tied after two holes, the competitors will play until one person has a lower stroke total than the other(s) on the next hole on the course.
14. If there is a tie for most hole-in-ones, those competitors will have a hole-in-one-only wins putt-off on a hole TBD. Each player will have an equal number of attempts to get an ace. If multiple competitors get a hole-in-one in any given set of attempts, the playoff will continue until a winner is determined by hole-in-one.
15. All other ties for prizes will be determined by the better single round in the championship
16. All competitors who are American Mini Golf Alliance (AMA) members will receive points towards national ranking based on the current scoring rubric
17. All scores will be posted at acoupleofputts.com/looniest within a week of the tournament