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Mini golf quest
Mini golfers are on a quest to get people to take their sport more seriously. That got a boost when Coca-Cola signed on as a major sponsor for the 2016 tournament, and the purse went up to $20,000.
Photo by Jon Stell
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Gold standard
Bobby Ward of Beech Island, who is known as “the Jack Nicklaus of Miniature Golf,” putts his golden, 20th-anniversary commemorative golf ball in the 2016 U.S. ProMiniGolf Masters Tournament in North Myrtle Beach. A longtime competitor in the world of mini golf, Ward was the first inductee into the U.S. MiniGolf Hall of Fame.
Photo by Jon Stell
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Ninth time’s the charm
Randy Reeves of Montgomery, Alabama, hoists the crystal trophy after decisively winning the 2016 ProMiniGolf Masters. Reeves had finished among the top 10 for the previous eight years.
Photo by Jon Stell
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Hands-free putting
Loris resident Niko Manou invented a new way to play golf using shoe clubs (or shlubs, as he calls them) and competed hands-free in the 2016 ProMiniGolf Masters. Read more about shloff at the end of the story below.
Photo by Jon Stell
On a cloudless October day in North Myrtle Beach, beneath a 40-foot volcano whose indigo waterfall sprays mist with each gust of wind, Bobby Ward lines up his first putt of the 20th annual U.S. ProMiniGolf Masters tournament.
The winner of the inaugural event in 1997 and the first-ever U.S. MiniGolf Hall of Fame inductee, Ward has been referred to as “the Jack Nicklaus of Miniature Golf,” and today he certainly looks the part. In a striped golf shirt tucked neatly into white shorts, with his gray hair parted perfectly, he stoops in an L-shape, nearly horizontal over his tournament-custom gold Chromax golf ball. He chokes down, exhales and gives his Ping Anser putter a few short, swift practice strokes.
Like all holes in the tournament, this is a par two. To make an ace, players must gently roll their shot between two miniature tiki totems. It’s a simple “front door” shot, which means he won’t need to bank the ball off one of the red bricks encircling the Astroturf. Still, Ward is locked in.
He knows that the U.S. ProMiniGolf Masters is a test in concentration and stamina. The competitors will play a total of 216 holes over the course of three days—five rounds at Aloha Mini Golf and seven rounds, including the final two, at the Hawaiian Rumble Course. And he knows what every golfer knows—that one mistake can ruin your chances at victory.
“I’ve always been calm,” he says later, between rounds. “If you get going too good and you’re not calm, you’ll lose it. Every hole, you should have concentration.”
Finally, with his head still and his stance widened, he hits the ball and watches it roll between the totems and into the cup. His tournament off to a good start, the 53-year-old from Beech Island gives a calm fist pump and moves on to the next hole.
Yes, it is a professional sport
Until you watch this tournament unfold, it can be hard to fathom that mini golf—a game played on outlandish courses, often by kids and families on beach vacations—has a professional circuit. Yet, every fall, competitors from around the world arrive in Myrtle Beach to play with an intensity that any athlete would recognize. Yes, the players are here to have fun; it’s still mini golf, after all, and this is still Myrtle Beach, “the Mini Golf Capital of the World.” But they take this not-so-serious sport quite seriously indeed—they are all here to win the crystal trophy, the green windbreaker (a nod to the PGA Masters’ green jacket) and the $5,000 first-place check.
Presiding over it all is Bob Detwiler, founder of the U.S. ProMiniGolf Association and the owner of both Hawaiianthemed courses. A former physical education teacher and tennis coach, Detwiler is also the chief cheerleader seeking to legitimize the sport.
“When I got into miniature golf, the first thing I said was that we needed tournaments. It’s a sport,” he says. “These people love it. Once they start playing, they realize it’s the best part of golf. When you watch PGA on TV, what do you see? They show them on the green, putting.”
Miniature golf distills regular golf down to its most nerve-racking moments. At a mini-golf tournament, there’s lots of collective breath-holding. Many of the players, after hitting their shots, lean to the left or right, as if they can guide the ball into the cup. Aces produce fist pumps and the occasional Tiger-esque roar. After near misses and lip-outs, you’ll see frustrated winces and putters nearly slammed to the ground. And the most exciting part of the game, of course, makes it the most humbling.
Ward finishes his morning round—before the catered chicken-bog lunch buffet—on hole 13, which contains a kind of miniature volcano with the hole in the crater. On his first shot, the ball doesn’t roll up the plateau and falls back into a kind of valley. He hangs his head but tries again. He misses. And then misses a third time. And a fourth. Finally, he walks away with a three over for the hole and a frustrating round of 39.
“You can make a one, so I’ll just call it challenging,” he says in his ever-humble and soft-spoken manner.
Living the dream
All the drama is partly a result of the serious money on the line. For the 2016 tournament, Detwiler landed Coca-Cola as a major sponsor, and the purse went up to $20,000. The money is certainly incentive enough, but these players are, in their own way, living out every kid’s dream on the miniature golf course—the chance to make the putt that wins it all.
Ward, who grew up near Augusta, Georgia, traces his love of the game to his childhood. At 11 years old, he was able to get Arnold Palmer’s autograph at the 1969 PGA Masters. Below his signature, Palmer wrote the numbers 58, 60, 62, 64.
“You know why?” asks Ward. “Those were the years he won the Masters. It meant that much to him.”
And so, this tournament means so much to these players, many of whom have retired from regular golf altogether. Either injury hinders them from being able to hit the long ball, or they’ve simply found miniature golf to be a more fun and accessible sport. They can compete at the highest levels and still go back to their day jobs pulling teeth, teaching classes, delivering mail, tending bar.
Still, many mini golfers are on a quest to get people to take their sport more seriously.
“From a public standpoint, we don’t have as much respect, because we’re not playing for a million dollars, and money always adds a certain amount of legitimacy,” says Rick Baird, a pro competitor who grew up in Lake City.
He fell in love with mini golf as a kid on summer vacations at the beach, and he still loves to bring his friends to the course and show them it’s no joke.
“At first, they kind of laugh a little bit,” he says. “Then they go out and shoot a 45 or a 50, and they get a different perspective.”
The first thing the casual player might notice is that professional miniature golfers don’t use the standard-issue rubber putters and monochrome golf balls the public does. They don’t look like they’ve just come off the beach; indeed, most look like PGA golfers, complete with rags and scorecards stuffed into their pockets. Many of them carry notebooks with information they’ve gathered about each hole.
One player who brings a high level of dedication to the sport is Olivia Prokopova from the Czech Republic. An international star and two-time winner of the ProMiniGolf Masters, she’s been playing the game since she was 3 years old, and she typically arrives in Myrtle Beach a month before the tournament to prepare. In 2016, Hurricane Matthew cut her practice short, and she struggled to stay in contention.
“I’ve played bad,” she admits in broken English. “But everybody can play bad. I’ll be back.”
Good sports
The most oft-cited reason for loving this sport is its fellowship. Although the players differ in personality as much as they differ in the putting stances, at the masters level, they all seem to root for one another. They applaud a good shot. They offer a consoling pat on the back for a close miss.
“The thing I enjoy the most is the camaraderie,” says Bobby Ward. “Like a family, we all hang out together—eat together, stay together, have a wonderful time together. While we all take the tournament very seriously, it’s always secondary to hanging out.”
“It feels like these people are all family. They look out for each other,” says Becky Newport of York—a former player herself who is here to cheer on her husband, Greg, one of the top contenders. They met at a miniature golf tournament, and for the 2016 Masters, she wears a shirt that reads, “Team Newport—The Better Halves of Mini Golf.” So, when she says family, she means it literally.
And this year, she certainly has plenty to cheer about. Heading into the final round, Greg Newport finds himself in second place, eight shots behind Randy Reeves. Newport arrives at the Hawaiian Rumble on the final day in the cool dawn hours, wearing a red victory golf shirt, like Tiger Woods.
“One thing about this game is there’s no defense,” he says before the start of his round. “I can only control what I do on the course. If I start making aces and keep making aces and cut the lead in half after this round, I have a shot.”
Ever the good sport, Ward, who is out of contention, volunteers to carry the leaderboard for the final round. Spectators and other players are climbing up hillsides, leaning on palm trees and crossing indigo creeks to get a view of the shots. It is a remarkably hushed atmosphere. This is, beyond a doubt, serious competition. The difference between third and fourth place, for instance, is $1,000, and perhaps a single mistake. And, almost tauntingly, Bob Detwiler has hung the green windbreaker over the crystal trophy, beside the final holes.
Newport starts strong, trading a birdie for Reeves’ bogey. But, alas, that will be the end to the drama. Reeves, a postal worker from Montgomery, Alabama, is a top competitor who finished second in 2008 and 2009 and in or around the top 10 for the past eight years. But this year, as if making up for all his near victories, he runs away with it. He shoots the best score in the history of the tournament and wins by 16 shots.
After the round, Newport concedes with good sportsmanship: “When you’re playing with someone playing that well, it’s fun to watch. Randy really deserved it.”
And it’s hard to imagine someone looking happier than Reeves himself. He slips into his green jacket, signs his scorecard and hoists the trophy to a roar of applause.
“It feels great, man!” he says. “Been a long time coming.”
Ward makes his way through the crowd and gives Reeves a congratulatory handshake. Together, they will wear their green windbreakers to the closing ceremony at Crocodile Rocks and sit with the other past champions as the good times roll.
In the coming weeks, Reeves will have his winner’s plaque hung beside the past winners in lobby of the Hawaiian Rumble, and before long, it will be tourist season. The volcano will start erupting, Jimmy Buffett music will pour from the loudspeakers and the beach crowds will return. But the professionals will go home and play the course over and over in their minds before they return next October. The possibility of a victory is just too thrilling to let go.
As Ward says with a smile, “I’ll be playing this game as long as I’m physically able.”
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Shloff it off
When Niko Manou wanted to get back in the game of golf but found that his arm pain prevented him from doing so, he simply made up a new sport and a new word for it. “Shloff” is a hybrid of “shoe” and “golf,” and, as the name implies, the sport requires you to kick the golf ball, rather than hit it with a traditional golf club.
Manou, a resident of Loris, designed his very own “shlubs” (shoe clubs)—rectangular metal pieces that he attaches to the toe area of his shoes. To drive the ball, he uses an old-fashioned field-goal kicker’s pendulum kick. A putt requires a softer touch, obviously, but the same straight-leg movement.
The best thing about inventing his own sport, he says, is that it’s helped him find renewed interest in life.
“Look at me,” he says, between rounds at the 2016 U.S. MiniGolf Masters. “I’m out here. I’m having fun. I’m meeting people. I’m not on my couch. It’s fun.”
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Get There
Are you ready to test your putting skills in high-stakes competition? The 21st annual U.S. ProMiniGolf Masters tournament will be played Oct. 12–14 at Hawaiian Rumble, 3210 Hwy. 17 South, North Myrtle Beach.
The tournament has several divisions and is open to any player, regardless of experience. Registration fees range from $130 for elite competitors to $55 for amateurs and $20 for juniors (age 12 and under).
For more information or to register for the tournament, visit prominigolf.com or call Danielle Maloni at (843) 458‑2585.