Ellettsville, IN: Putter's Park Miniature Golf


Eric and I played putt-putt last night at the only outdoor miniature golf place near Bloomington, Putter's Park in Ellettsville.

The course is attached to Los Chachos Mexican Restaurant, where we ate dinner before playing. There is an office for the mini golf, but the sign at it directed us back inside to the cash register to pay for putt-putt and pick out a golf ball. The course is 18 holes and is $6 for adults, $5 for kids.




I drive by this place all the time and never realized how big it was. It took us close to an hour and a half for the two of us to finish the course, but we weren't adhering to the 5 stroke limit per hole (there was no one behind us). If you're looking for something fun to pass the time, this would definitely fit the bill.

The course is also really cleverly set up. Each hole is related to Indiana! The hole markers all have some tidbit about Indiana, and the hole itself is designed to reflect the topic. In terms of content, this course is pretty cool. It does need maintenance (lots of chipped bricks surrounding the holes and you can see buildings and other things are worn down) but for the obvious care put into the design of it, I would definitely go back.



Hole 1 was the hardest hole of the whole course for me. I didn't think that was very nice of the designers, but it is the dunes hole...the ball needed to get through that little area on the right of the bricks (see below). It took me 12 strokes to finish this hole (Eric only needed 4). Not a good way to start.




I did much better on hole 2, which had a little water jump.


Hole 2 also takes you under a waterfall en route to hole 3.





On hole 3, I got a hole-in-one. And I was so excited that I didn't take a photo of the course here. It was one where there were two pipes that could take you down a level; one of the pipes (at least) led your ball directly to the hole. I got it in that pipe, we ran to look at the hole, and there was my ball! I felt slightly redeemed for my poor performance on hole 1.


Hole 4 was Indiana basketball.


There was even a real basketball rim and net at the top of the ramp. We did not succeed in even making it up the ramp (the hole itself is to the right in the picture above), so we tried it off the record and our balls just got caught in the net. Cool idea though.



Hole 5 was a miniature version of the mill at Spring Mill State Park. We both got our balls in the shortcut pipe, but the pipe did not lead directly to the hole.





Abe Lincoln's childhood house at hole 6 had a trick to it - inside the door were two different tracks. The left side led closer to the hole and the right farther away. My ball went down the right side. Eric's went down the left and should have been a hole in one, but some maintenance issues prevented it from happening.



Hole 7 was maybe my favorite just for the giant cave. Wolf Cave is at McCormick's Creek State Park.







The hole marker for hole 8 was missing, but it would have probably been about covered bridges in Indiana.



Hole 9 was long and zig-zaggy - maybe supposed to feel like a corn maze.



Hole 10 had a whole bunch of (real) tires for the Indy 500, and the ramp was inclined like at the track. Eric got his ball to race around like it is supposed to.



Hole 11 had a train (if you were a small child you could easily fit in the cars and sit down). But it had some maintenance issues as well; I got my ball through the stone building only for it to hit the post of the house, when it probably should have gone through and to the hole.




The church hole is trickier than it looks.



I thought it was funny they had a Purdue hole. There is a pig on the course and some cows nearby.





The Hilly Hundred hole was fun, although I got stuck on two hills.






The limestone hole was my other favorite because the limestone layout reminded us of Stonehenge.






The riverboat hole was not interesting (just a slight slope up) so here are some photos of the lighthouse.

 


Hole 17 looked crazy. I just kind of hit my ball with no plan in mind and ...


...got another hole-in-one! I was so excited! Neither of us could believe it.




The last hole is definitely not par 5. It is maybe par 20.




Eric took a more unconventional approach to getting the ball up to the hole (which is near the wood decking in the picture above).




Once the scores were tallied up (both as actual values and again with the 5 stroke limit in place), despite getting two (!) hole-in-ones, Eric still beat me considerably. That first hole did me some damage, and Eric had several holes with 2-4 strokes. Hopefully I can get a rematch sometime now that we're familiar with the course.
Ellettsville, IN: Putter's Park Miniature Golf Ellettsville, IN: Putter's Park Miniature Golf Reviewed by Maria on 12:47:00 PM Rating: 5

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