The Art of Putt-Putt

It’s not true that trying to learn to golf taught me to curse.  It did, however, colorfully increase my vocabulary.

Cutest here.  I took golfing lessons with several friends as a 40 (+ ?) year old and to say I was, and remained, spectactularly bad at it is an understatement.  The causes of my skill deficiencies resulted from lack of depth perception (where I learned that totally whiffing the ball is considered embarrassing), lack of coordination, lack of practice, and finally, lack of desire to excell in a game where the goal was to make as few shots as possible and only remember the hole where you came this close.

Minature golf, however, was another story.  Somewhat.  It was a date night in high school (Cool Crest anyone?) as well as a place to take your kids as they were growing up.  Something to do in the Ozarks on a cloudy day or evening.  Even though we don’t live in Myrtle Beach, S.C., the mini-golf capital of the world, we could find somewhere to play. 

So when Cute suggested we go (miniature) golfing, I was all in.  I confidently told him I could beat him but not to feel too bad about it.  I wouldn’t even brag too much.

Much to my surprise, now there are even more places to play than in my youth including Pennway Putt (the Ferris wheel “park” off I-35 downtownish), the Power and Light District, Lenexa, north of the river, more, with about 20 different courses within driving distance. 

That doesn’t even count the one we went to, the renowned Art Course at the Nelson-Atkins. On the south side by the sculptures, the course is shady, pleasant, and you can even learn a tiny bit about art as you go.  There’s food and drink and no extraneous rowdiness, on our night there anyway.

This course is not difficult and it’s colorful and very clever.  Nine holes, each one a play on something in the museum and each part of a gorgeous landscape. 

(Note, there are two non-golf holes in this quickie slide show.)

If you’re really ambitious, you can also go inside (for free) and find the artwork each hole is based on.

You might want to think about putt-putt instead of Netflix one evening this summer.  It’s just relaxing – even if you don’t win, even if you’re the one keeping score and even if, sometimes, you're adding to his score while deleting from yours.  No need to brag, indeed.

The end.