Putter Around the Park

Putter Around the Park was an 18 hole, mini-golf course located at Lagoon.

Course Information

The Putter Around the Park mini-golf course featured 18 holes that were themed to various rides and attractions that could be found around the park. Each hole had a name to indicate what is was based on along with the par rating. Many obstacles or paths on each hole tried to follow the theme. Not all themed elements seemed to relate name of the hole, but that is what gave the course its charm. Golfers were encouraged to participate in groups of four or smaller to minimize the amount of time a group was on a hole. The final hole featured a skeeball-like bullseye ring. If a golfer was able to land the ball in the center hole, they were able to play the course again for free. This was later changed to scoring a one on the hole instead of winning another round of golf.

Many family rides have been built where Putter Around the Park was located. The entrance to the course was located where Flying Tigers now sits. Flying Tigers, Red Rock Rally, Jumping Dragon, Tipsey Tea Cups, and Ruka Safari all sit where the golf course used to be. The only part of the golf course that remains is the fountain planter that sits in the middle of rides in the area.

Rules

Holes

Below is a list of the holes in the order they appeared. This list is based off of the final layout of the course before it was removed.

1 - Ruby's Tubes

Ruby's Tubes is the name of the tube rental place in Lagoon-A-Beach. It is possible that his hole was called Ruby's Tubes because the two circular green area may resemble two Lagoon-A-Beach tubes sitting next to each other.

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2 - The Bat

No idea why this hole is called The Bat.

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3 - Roller Coaster

This hole starts with a ramp that goes up to the top of three separate coaster tracks. Two of the tracks go to an upper area where you have to hit your ball into a hole to get it to the lower area. The middle track takes your ball directly to the lower area with the possibility of getting a hole-in-one.

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4 - Basketball

This hole features a ramp to shoot your ball into a basketball hoop. If your ball ends up in the hoop, it will then travel down to a lower area where the final hole sits creating a good chance at making a hole-in-one. If you miss the hoop, you must shoot your ball into a hole in the upper platform to send it down to the lower platform to finish the course. This hole was considered one of the more challenging holes on the course.

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5 - Gardens

A simple three-leaf clover designed hole. If you hooked the ball on the left curve just right, it would easily send it towards the hole.

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6 - Pioneer Village Covered Wagon

A hole where you get to shoot a ball into a covered wagon. If you hit it just right, the ball goes into the wagon and then travels to the hole. Any ball that doesn't make it into the wagon goes off to the right where you get to play from there.

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History

Putter Around the Park originally opened up as Golf Fun in 1962. Each hole used to represent a different part of America. Miniature icons like the Statue of Liberty, Washington Monument, and Niagra Falls were among some of the obstacles that golfers would encounter on the course.

In 1981, Lagoon rethemed the entire golf course and changed the name to Putter Around the Park. The new features included miniature versions of Roller Coaster, Log Flume, Dracula’s Castle, the Ferris Wheel, and a Pioneer Village Covered Wagon just to name a few. Over the years some of the holes have been changed and rethemed. In 2006 a small piece of the course was removed to make room for a relocated Bulgy the Whale. This resulted in the removal of three holes: Fun Spot of Utah, Puff, #13 Merry-Go-Round. Three new holes were added to the course to fill in the gaps and the course was reworked a little. For example, Roller Coaster was moved from the #2 spot to the #3 spot with two new holes starting the course.

Lagoon started removing Putter Around the Park near the end of the 2008 season to make room for future development.

See Also

Fun fact: you can see a scorecard used to record game play over at LagoonHistory.com featuring a hole order that was different than the one listed above. While you are there, check out the article on the golf course for a great write-up on Putter Around the Park.