So there’s a TV commercial that’s airing these days for some prescription medication or another, and one of the “regular folks having a good time, made possible by <Drug X>” scenarios is a middle-aged-looking guy mini-golfing with family. Okay, fine.
But one of the mini-golf scenes has him turning in five or six putters at the counter, after the game … and he’s also turning in five or six golf balls.
Now, I’ve mini-golfed all around the Northeastern USA, and in a bunch of other states ranging from the Midwest to Florida, to California, and even in that strange land known as Texas … and I don’t remember there ever being a final hole that was just a normal mini-golf cup that you’d reach down and pull the ball out of; it’s always been the entrance to some sort of inaccessible golf-ball collection area, either underground or locked up.
So has anyone ever been to a mini-golf place where you had to turn in your golf balls along with your putters when you were done? Or did the ad agency goof?
(Not really important or interesting … but what the heck, it’s not like we’re using this internet for anything important right now.)
I haven’t played miniature golf for many years (and I think putt-putt was someone’s trademark).
But I’ve played in at least one in CT where the start was semi-inaccessible from the last hole and the last hole was regular where you picked up the ball and turned it in.
I also played in several where the last hole would return your ball on an accurate shot entitling you to a free round. During my son’s college trip we stopped at a motel outside of Pittsburgh. There was a coupon for buy one get one free, so we played in the evening. We both earned a free game, but didn’t want to play anymore so we turned in both the putters and balls.
Though more likely, the family might have quit for some reason before finishing.
Probably just a mistake made by a writer/director that hasn’t played mini golf since they were a kid and forgot about that part.
Unless, just a WAG, if it was a med for arthritis and they’re trying to show that the person can bend over to pick up the golf balls and hold all the balls and clubs pain free.
It’s like seeing a commercial that ends with people wearing short sleeves and “accidentally” bumping into people with their elbows, you know that’s going to be for excema or psoriasis.
I have been to places like that - but they weren’t stand-alone mini-golf courses. They were on the grounds of a particular type of hotel that was more than just a hotel/motel but not quite a real resort.
I’ve enjoyed playing miniature golf for probably over 50 years now, and I have played many that ended in “take your ball back to the counter” and many that ended in “the clown ate my ball”
Putt-Putt is indeed a trademark still in force. They are a franshise system for operators of Putt-Putt “Fun Centers”. So they prefer people think of them as more than just minigolf sites.
And there’s not that many of them left compared to the 60s.
The -or “Putt-Putt,” if you insist- part of the OP would only be right if it was referring to people who, for some reason, only played at Putt-Putt Fun Centers.
Fun fact: Putt-Putt insists that all holes be par 2. Something which I think makes the game more boring.
I think all mini golf places I’ve bern to “ate” the ball on the last hole. I can’t be 100% certain. It wouldn’t shock me to see places that didn’t though. While I think losing the ball on the last hole is pretty clever and convenient for both customers and employees, it doesn’t significantly change the nature of the game itself, so I wouldn’t have expect it to be absolutely ubiquitous.
Where I grew up the oldest three miniature golf courses were all “return your ball at the end” types. It wasn’t until a Pirate’s Cove moved in (which was the first chain) that there was a course where the last hole took your ball.
The only mini-golf place I’ve been to in quite a few years now is The Fish Hole in Holmes Beach, FL (on my beloved Anna Maria Island). The 18th hole is just a regular hole, no ball-swallowing.
Back in the day, when I used to play a lot at a then-local Putt-Putt course (which had three 18-hole courses at the one location), I’d routinely play 17 holes then move on to the next course.
I think it makes it more interesting to the extent that they are different from other courses. The same hole at a different course might be par 3 because the sides are so uneven at other place that you wouldn’t be able to reliably approach the green in one shot, but with the same hole on a Putt Putt course, the sides will be metal or concrete so there is some skill involved which makes things interesting.
Of course, other courses occasionally have par 4s, which are indeed longer than Putt Putt holes, and it would be even better to have a skill-based course with longer holes, but I have never seen one.
But to answer the question, I also rarely have seen courses that do not have a final hole that eats your ball. In fact if someone else hadn’t jogged my mind about resorts where the mini golf is included, I’d question whether I’d run into them at all.
(A Putt Putt local to me used to have a “play most of the day for a fixed price” days, and the operators simply unlocked the box on those days and let people retrieve their balls themselves when they fell into the bucket. I guess if there were people playing only one game and were dishonest it would be a problem but oh well.)
I recently attended a wedding at which I spoke w/ an older gent who worked at those. From the way he described them (considerably more elaborate than the mini/putt-putt courses I had experience w/), it would surprise me if they DID swallow the ball at the last hole.
There was a rinky dink little mini golf place when I was a kid that may not have collected the ball on the 18th hole, just can’t recall that clearly. A Putt Putt down the road put them out of business pretty quickly.
I think Putt Putt sticks to par 2 to keep the players moving along and to jam as the holes and multiple courses closer together. They used to push holes in one too, if you recorded a hole in one on every hole on a course you got a free game. They also blinked colored lights for the different ball colors, first person to get a hole in one when the lights were blinking would get a free game. You’d get an orange ball for the free games so couldn’t win more free games with it.