# How did Miniature Golf get started?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-miniature-golf-get-started/48803>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [January 7, 2001, 3:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-miniature-golf-get-started/48803 "2001-01-07T03:43:44Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 5\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Shane](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/shane/32/10599_2.png) [@Shane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shane)\
**Post date:** [January 7, 2001, 3:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-miniature-golf-get-started/48803/1 "2001-01-07T03:43:44Z")

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This is actually a question I have been meaning to post here since summer of 1998. My Dad and I along with a few people went for a quick game of Miniature Golf after going out to dinner one evening. Not much of a game I know. On the way home I was wondering how such a game started and when. I asked my Dad but he had no clue, then a thought came into my head that I should ask here. I would love to hear the many opinions about it here. So, how did Miniature Golf get started?

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**Author:** ![Kat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/b19c9b/32.png) [@Kat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kat)\
**Post date:** [January 7, 2001, 4:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-miniature-golf-get-started/48803/2 "2001-01-07T04:43:59Z")

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[Lecture Outlines: May 12](http://lda.ucdavis.edu/courses/classsites/30s99/parks/5.12.html) says (among other things):

> [@](#):
>
> IV. Miniature Golf  
> A. origins of mini-golf in the 1920s and 1930s
> 
> 1. James Barber of Pinehurst, North Carolina laid out a miniature golf course on his country estate in 1916  
> a. when it was finished he said, “This’ll Do!”  
> b. named the course, “Thistle Dhu”  
> c. it was a private amusement

This brings to mind another question: Who’s giving lectures about miniature golf? 😕 :eek:

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**Author:** ![Dinsdale](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/97f17d/32.png) [@Dinsdale](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dinsdale)\
**Post date:** [January 7, 2001, 10:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-miniature-golf-get-started/48803/3 "2001-01-07T22:18:33Z")

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\<hijack\>  
Anyone else ever see Putt Putt tournaments on TV? Those guys are incredible!  
\</hijack\>

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**Author:** ![Edward\_The\_Head](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/ce73a5/32.png) [@Edward\_The\_Head](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Edward_The_Head)\
**Post date:** [January 8, 2001, 2:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-miniature-golf-get-started/48803/4 "2001-01-08T14:27:32Z")

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> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by Dinsdale \*  
> \*\*\<hijack\>  
> Anyone else ever see Putt Putt tournaments on TV? Those guys are incredible!  
> \</hijack\>  
> \*\*

I used to play a lot of mini golf a few years ago so I knew a couple of the people that worked at the Putt-Putt place and they told me when the “pros” came to town they actually had computers that had all the different Putt-Putt holes with how to play them. You’d be suprised at how many greens are the same.

IIRC there was some history on the Putt-Putt homepage and a couple of sites had histories as well though I don’t know any anymore.

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**Author:** ![GasDr](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/ba9def/32.png) [@GasDr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GasDr)\
**Post date:** [January 9, 2001, 1:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-miniature-golf-get-started/48803/5 "2001-01-09T01:50:03Z")

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There is a club on Lookout Mtn. (Chattanooga, TN) called Fairyland club where minature golf was supposedly invented (I think around the 1930’s. Sorry, don’t know more details