Putting on the Ritz : Touches of Hollywood Fantasy Are Now Par for the Course at Miniature Golf Locations

There are hazards. Also traps. And more often than not, unusual buildings and strange-sounding machinery. Sounds like the setting for “Raiders of the Lost Ark”? Perhaps, but you might not find too many Indiana Jones types in these settings.

Instead, you’ll likely see families (Mom, Dad and all the kids), senior citizens, teen-age couples, groups from businesses and medical facilities and many other types looking for something different to do.

The something different is a game that originated in the 1920s: miniature golf.

One of the most quintessentially American of leisure activities, miniature golf in Southern California is as fully and floridly developed as the back lot of Universal Studios.

Along with many other lingering fads, the game originated just before the Great Depression with what was at first just an attempt to build a small golf course. The fad flourished, spreading to the tops of skyscrapers in New York, inside ballrooms and country clubs a1852055663course in 1930 featured a bear cub chained near a hole and trained with honey-dipped balls to snatch any balls coming near it.

Higher Level of Complexity

All of these early miniature golf courses have disappeared from Los Angeles, victims of the rapid urban development of the past few decades. And fortunately, bear cubs are no longer called upon to perform such tasks. However, on the outskirts of the city, miniature golf courses built in the early ‘70s have taken the sport to a higher level of quality and complexity.

Now, most miniature courses are part of an entertainment package including an arcade, a batting cage and sometimes a water slide or bumper cars. The courses are much more challenging than in the early days, with three or four courses winding around artfully sculpted waterfalls and fountains accompanied by professional lighting and ambient music. The hazards, which usually are designed by the owners and built on-site, include the archetypal castle, windmill, gingerbread house and haunted mansion. But they also sometimes reflect the whims and fancies of the owner, such as at Castle Park in Riverside, which has a collection of “historical oddities” placed among its four extravagant 18-hole courses.

“At Disneyland, Knott’s Berry Farm, these kinds of amusement places, you never really do anything, it’s done for you,” said Rex Sessions, general manager of Golf ‘n’ Stuff in Norwalk, where one hole features a diminutive Western street of saloon and storefronts, including the Rex Sessions General Store.

“Here, nothing is done for you. You have to play. It’s more of a learning experience for the kids,” he explained.

John O’Leary, an office worker and miniature-golf aficionado, said: “It’s enjoyable because it’s a game in which if you concentrate, you can do better, but it’s not so difficult that you can’t even get started, like real golf.”

Then there’s the camp appeal. Recently, an underground nightclub Downtown billed itself as “Golf” for several weeks and offered a makeshift course.

The rules of the game are simple: Putt the ball into a hole that usually has a par of three. However, even the most experienced golfer can find it difficult to putt uphill with just the right momentum to make it up the constantly moving drawbridge of a fairy-tale castle.

Golf ‘n’ Stuff asks you not to use profanity on the course, while the ground rules of Camelot Golfland in Anaheim recommend that “whacking the cement, carpet or stands with your club isn’t necessary.”

Miniature golf is best played at night when the mixture of shadows and carefully placed spotlights increases the illusion of a fantasy world.

For those who are loath to jump into the major leagues of the game, Arroyo Seco Miniature Golf, 1055 Lohman Lane in South Pasadena, offers play over a nine-hole course for $1. The atmosphere here is much as it must have been for the original courses of the ‘20s, without the extravagance of the modern ones.

A true test of skills is provided at Golfland, 1181 N. Durfee Ave., in South El Monte, with four difficult 18-hole courses. Particularly challenging are the many anthill, or volcano-style, holes, the slopes of which can rise 3 feet. Those who can make a hole-in-o1852121188golfer’s hall of fame, while those who miss are doomed to frustration.

Also enjoyable are the water jumps, in which you have to hit your ball over a rushing stream; if you miss, there is a loud plunk and the brightly colored ball floats gently and quickly away from you. One wild shot resulted in 10 minutes of group confusion until the ball was discovered 20 feet away at the bottom of a lagoon.

Built in 1975, Golfland is a nicely sculpted network of hills and paths, bubbling fountains and simulated rivers. Unfortunately, there is not a single blade of grass visible--only a surfeit of red, blue and green Astroturf.

Not far from Disneyland in Anaheim is Camelot Golfland, at 3200 E. Carpenter Ave., which has four courses, each one guarded by a 10-foot knight in armor. If you can drag your children through the castle arcade room, you will find a pleasant array of attractions, including a purple windmill with a closing gate, a scale model of Big Ben and a giant clown face that likes to consume golf balls. The lagoons here look like swimming pools, and on a hot day children are illicitly running about in the water.

In nearby Stanton, Southern Hills Golfland, 12611 Beach Blvd., has two 18-hole courses that have a similar range of attractions.

Golf ‘n’ Stuff, 1055 E. Firestone Blvd. in Norwalk, has four 18-hole courses with some unique attractions, including a Smurf candy house, a giant rainbow-colored boot and an “occupied” outhouse. Perhaps the most unusual is the green-and-yellow tree house overlooking the third course with “Boys Only, Girls Keep Out!” painted on it. According to the sign nailed onto the tree, it was here that Timothy Roy spent 431 days in 1982-83 breaking the tree-sitting record for the Guinness Book of World Records.

The courses at Golf ‘n’ Stuff are pleasant and somewhat easy; the only truly unexpected hazard recently was that ants seemed to be breeding in the golf holes; any golf ball left in one for more than five seconds became infested.

True miniature-golf enthusiasts surely can drive out to Riverside to the mecca of this sport, Castle Park Miniature Golf, 3500 Polk Drive. Consisting of four 18-hole courses, the atmosphere of the park is lush and carefully thought out from the ornate wrought-iron railings to the movie-model quality of its haunted mansion.

Attention to Detail

Typical of the attention to detail is an enormous piece of artificial rock called the Gold Mine. The ball is hit up a ramp, drops into a hole and then comes out the side and is washed down a long mining sluice. If you walk up the ramp and peer through the bars of the tiny wooden door, you can see a scene of miners earnestly chipping away for gold. There is no sign to indicate this, and no one normally looks inside. A Castle Park supervisor said: “The owner doesn’t care if anyone knows its there, as long as he knows it’s there.”

Castle Park’s owner is Bud Hulbutt, who designed the miniature trains for Knott’s Berry Farm, and his miniature golf course is obviously a labor of love.

Scattered around the course is a collection of “historical oddities,” including an antique portable iron jail complete with iron cot and ball and chain. Hulbutt’s office is in a beautifully painted, and reputably authentic, Gypsy wagon parked next to the castle.

“I decided I wanted a hobby, to do something special,” Hulbutt said, explaining the origin of his course, which he and some others consider the “ultimate.”

“I took the time to visit different miniature golf courses around the country--some were fair, but none of them were the ultimate,” he recalled. “My accountant told me I put too much money into it, but sometimes you can go a little wild if it’s your hobby--more so than if it’s your work.

Music and Sound Effects

“Most people think of miniature golf as having those ‘funny little buildings.’ I try building authentic replicas of buildings,” Hulbutt said. The tugboat and pirate ship in the lagoon are detailed movie props.

He also enhanced his course by adding music and sound effects to each attraction.

Another interesting miniature-golf experience close to Los Angeles can be had at Malibu Castle in Sherman Oaks at 4989 N. Sepulveda Blvd. Three 18-hole courses that wind around a central lagoon, multileveled waterfalls and groves of palm trees form a rainbow-lit tropical paradise.

Each shot is challenging and every attraction is charming and superbly detailed. In one part of the lagoon floats a small-scale houseboat seemingly fully equipped for a 6-inch-tall resident. Malibu Castle is owned by Malibu Grand Prix, which has other similarly fine locations in North Hollywood, with a Western motif, and one in Redondo Beach that has two 18-hole courses.

Miniature golf courses usually are open seven days a week. Prices for children range from $3 to $3.50; for adults from $3.50 to $4.50. Discounts for birthday parties and groups are available.