Mini Golf at the Walker
By Aaron
Photo credit: Richie Diesterheft / Flickr.com
Not so recently, I visited the Walker Art Museum, not to see the art, but to do the mini golf course I’ve heard a lot about. Admission for one 11-year-old and a 13-year-old was $11. We chose our clubs and balls and set off. There are two courses with seven holes each. Each hole was designed by an artist. My brother and I chose the blue course, which allegedly was the harder of the two. Hole one met us with a 10-foot-tall metal statue of Paul Bunyan, whose left hand was swinging his axe. Behind the axe was another metal sculpture, this one a shoulders-up painting of … Theodore Roosevelt? Yes, it was him. A metal bust of him with a ramp leading into his mouth. The idea was to hit your golf ball, avoid Paul’s axe, and get the ball into Teddy’s mouth. From there, it would roll off a ramp in the back of Teddy into the hole.
"The place was sort of cool, but for upwards of $5 a person, it wasn't worth it."
The next six holes ranged from “Hey, that’s pretty neat,” to “Wow, that hole was lame. Somebody got paid to make that?” I admired the creativity in some of them, such as playing pinball with your golf ball to get it into the hole, or one where each shot would trigger multiple switches, so every shot would go to a different location. Some of the lamer ones included sort of an S shape made entirely of copper, the idea being that after the exhibit is over, the hole will be melted down, creating a totally “green” golf hole. Each hole had a paragraph about the hole, which was written by the artist(s).
My verdict: The place was sort of cool, but for upwards of $5 a person, it wasn’t worth it. However, you can still go and look at the holes up close, even if you don’t pay, and I would recommend that, just so you could see the cooler holes. But if you live pretty far away, don’t bother, it’s not worth the trouble.