Mini Golf Courses

As in golf, mini golf courses usually have nine holes or eighteen holes.  In mini golf, the holes are significantly shorter and consist of only a putting surface.  Mini golf courses have a series of challenging obstacles such as ramps, tunnels, bunkers and animated barriers.  Most mini golf courses are based on themes like tropical jungles, fairy tales and pirates replicated through state-of-the-art props.

There are different types of mini golf courses. In the US and UK, mini golf courses use similar designs as the putting areas of golf but with irregularly-shaped areas made of felt rather than grass and obstacles made of stone and sand.  In Europe, most mini golf courses are geometrically-shaped.  However, there are only five mini golf course types officially recognized by the World Minigolf Federation (WMF) – Beton, Eternit, Swedish Felt, Cobigolf and Stargolf.

Paul Bongni, a Swedish architect, invented the Beton course in 1953.  The Beton course features a smooth concrete putting surface and continuous perimeter border of galvanized steel.  An Eternit course has a putting surface made of cement fiber and fiberglass obstacles.  One of the most impressive holes in an Eternit course requires a player to hit a ball up a ramp, through the air and into a net a number of feet away.  The Swedish Felt course is encased in a wooden frame.  It has eighteen holes with the standardized obstacles.  Cobigolf has one or two small gates in front of each obstacle.  Stargolf takes its name from the shape of Lane 18 but the lanes are eight meters long and 0.9 meters wide.