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.

2 - The Bat

The Bat had no features or obstacles that resembled the roller coaster of the same name. It is unclear why this hole received that name. The hole was fairly basic.

3 - Roller Coaster

Roller Coaster started with a ramp that went up to the top of three separate tracks. Two of the tracks went to an upper area where golfers would have to hit the ball into a hole to get it to the lower area. The middle track took the ball directly to the lower area with the possibility of getting a hole-in-one.

4 - Basketball

Basketball featured a ramp golfers would use to shoot their ball into a basketball hoop. If the ball ended up in the hoop, it would travel down to a lower area where the final hole sat creating a good chance at making a hole-in-one. If the hoop was missed, golfers would have to shoot their ball into a hole in the upper platform to send it down to the lower platform to finish the course. This was considered one of the more challenging holes on the course.

5 - Gardens

Gardens was a simple three-leaf clover designed hole.

6 - Pioneer Village Covered Wagon

The Covered Wagon required golfers to shoot their ball into a covered wagon. If they hit it just right, the ball went into the wagon and then traveled to the hole. Any ball that didn't make it into the wagon went off to the green that was right of the wagon.

7 - Pioneer Village Blacksmith

The Pioneer Village Blacksmith featured a green area that resembled an anvil. The goal of this hole was to hit the ball up a curved ramp at just the right speed to land it in a hole that would carry the ball to the final hole. Hitting the ball a little softer would result in the ball getting to a hole that would put the ball into the final green spot. Hitting the ball too hard would send it into the anvil area.

8 - Bulgy the Whale

Bulgy the Whale featured a whale on a pedestal as the obstacle. Golfers had to shoot through the path that traveled underneath the whale. If they missed the path, the ball would fall onto a metal grate putting the ball out of bounds resulting in a penalty stroke.

9 - Tidal Wave

Tidal Wave featured a miniature version of the actual ride. During the final years of the golf course, the boat had a hole in it that golfers had to shoot the ball through. Prior to this, the boat would actually swing back and forth, and golfers had to hit their ball past the boat when it was on the upswing. The hole was much more entertaining when the boat would swing.

10 - Dracula’s Castle

Dracula's Castle had a castle-like structure that golfers would shoot their ball into. It had three openings. The center opening would take the ball behind the castle where the hole was located. The left and right sides would send the ball to a green area that was either on the left or the right.

11 - Wild Kingdom Train

The Wild Kingdom Train featured a tunnel at the top of a ramp to shoot the ball through. Sitting near the tunnel was a lion statue. If the ball made it through the tunnel, it would go to an area that would bounce the ball back and forth as it went down the ramp on the other side and into the area where the hole was. If the tunnel was missed, the ball would fall down a series of wooden steps to a different green area.

12 - Fire Dragon

Fire Dragon featured a double-looping obstacle complete with a little Colossus sign on the top of the first loop. Golfers had to hit the ball just right to get it to travel through both loops and then onto the final green area. Unlike other obstacles on the course, the Fire Dragon one wouldn't actually improve the odds of the ball going into the hole, but it was entertaining to shoot the ball through the loops.

13 - Kontiki

Kontiki featured a small volcano-like obstacle with the hole right on top. Golfers had to hit the ball just right to get it into the hole.

14 - Speedway

Speedway has a little bridge that golfers had to hit their ball over to get to the hole or take the long way around if the bridge was missed. A skilled golfer could easily get a hole-in-one on this hole.

15 - Gametime Pinball

Gametime Pinball was designed to look like a large pinball machine. Golfers shoot their ball up the side and then into the play area. Sadly, the pictures below don't do this hole justice because all the pinball-looking structures had been removed and replaced with rocks in the final few years the course was open. Prior to the rocks on the green, the hole actually had obstacles that looked like bumpers and flippers.

16 - Ferris Wheel

Ferris Wheel required golfers to shoot their ball up a ramp onto a green in an upper area. Earlier versions of this hole actually had the Ferris Wheel where the ramp sat. Golfers would shoot their ball to the Ferris Wheel where it would take a ride and get dumped out up top. The Ferris Wheel stopped working in its final years, so the obstacle was just moved off to the side and replaced with a ramp.

17 - Log Flume

Log Flume began with an upper area where a golfer would shoot their ball towards one of three openings. Each opening would send your ball into a flume track that would take it to the lower area. Must like the Roller Coaster hole, the center opening was the one to aim for because that path would aim the ball right at the hole. The other two paths would put it off to the side. The flume paths used to have water that would run on them as well to help push the ball along. The water was turned off in later years causing some balls to get stuck as they rolled down the path.

18 - Skeeball

Skeeball was the final hole on the course and featured an actual skeeball obstacle that golfers would shoot their ball into. The ring that the ball ended up in would determine the stroke score for that hole. This hole had an additional feature in its earlier configuration. If a golfer was able to hit the center hole, they would actually win a free round of golf and be able to play the course again. The center hole would trigger a red spinning light that sat on top of the skeepball bullseye and a siren would go off indicating that someone had won.

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.

Fun Facts

The two Pioneer Village holes were located on the east side of the golf course. Coincidentally, Pioneer Village is located on the east side of the park.

LagoonHistory.com has a picture of scorecard that features the layout of the course before the 2006 change.

Two of the obstacles live on at Lagoon today. The Bulgy the Whale obstacle was brought out of storage and placed next to Bulgy the Whale when the ride moved over by The Bat. The Ferris Wheel obstacle has been placed put in front of Sky Scraper.