First you spread your limbo feet, then you move to limbo beat
Limbo ankle limbo knees, bend back like the limbo tree - Chubby Checker
Can’t help you with the origin, but I can tell you that the city of Branson, MO has taken it to a Science and Art form.
Branson, MO: The mini-golf mecca and Entertainment Gulog of the American South
By my reckoning, it was in the Shetland Islands, home of the Shetland ponies and the Shetland Sheepdogs. Folklore claims the Mini-Cooper S was drawn up there, and the 8-ounce beer can as well. Research for the fun-size candy bar was sketched out there, although the product planning was done in Rhode Island. Rudi Gernrich never did admit to vacationing there on that fateful summer.
Golf Magazine’s Encyclopedia of Golf, quoted at this site, credits James Barber of Pinehurst, NC, in 1916. Other similar games may have been played in England a few years before, but Barber seems to get the most credit.
Golf originated in Scotland, where they needed a game that didn’t require a flat pitch to play on. Miniture golf came into being when Scottish dwarves adopted the game.
/bad taste mode off. I said off godammit.
According to Snapple “Fun Facts” it was on the roof tops in Manhattan. Then again they also claimed a ducks quack doesn’t echo.
In any event I believe the year they said it started was after 1916.
I found an Atlanta Constitution story from 1915 about a department store in town which had converted their entire third floor into a miniature course. So it goes back before the Golf magazine cite, attributing it to the guy in NC.
The Titanic also had a miniature golf course on the top of its 12 decks, giving new meaning to sinking a putt.
:d&r:
Far more information than you really need can be found at the history section of the USProMiniGolf Association site
None of which predates my 1915 cite.
Except your uncited 1912 cite.
In Harpo Speaks, Harpo Marx’s autobio, he claims a group of his pals leased a Manhattan rooftop for a croquet league. Somebody in city government frowned on it, and that was that.
Now, to update “And Bob’s your uncle,” the above situation would be, “And Bob said you once were an inlaw, but there was a divorce.” 