(860) 621-3663
Par: ???
Difficulty: 5
Creativity: 2
Atmosphere: 4
Sadly, we find ourselves again at a course that isn’t too good and not all that fun to play. Although its ratings show that it is better than some of the courses we’ve played, its proximity to another great course makes playing here less than appealing. Unfortunately, this course is visible from I-84, which probably means that it does more business than it really should.
Let’s start with the atmosphere, the only ratings section in which this course seems to try to put some effort into. It all begins with the staff at the ball and club booth. Although the guy was nice enough, he came across as indifferent and you could tell this was nothing more than an after-school job for him. This is better than some courses we’ve been at, but one really does like to see people who enjoy their job and the game of mini-golf working the counter. From there the atmosphere tries to pick up with a decent landscaping around the course. This course isn’t the eyesore that some we’ve played are. However, even this takes a dip as you move around the course and find a few thorn bushes thrown in and a couple of places where the vegetation is slowly taking over the hole. More negative points on the atmosphere scale arise with the occurrence of those dreaded holes in the carpet for drainage. As we’ve seen in other lower-end courses, this seems to be the only solution to keeping water off the carpets, whereas better courses have found alternate ways to solve drainage problems. Going along with the water theme, the waterfall works but the little rivers that run through the course do not. The main problem here seems to be that the lake under the waterfall doesn’t have enough water in it to flow over it’s edge, causing the movement of the rivers. In another attempt to add some good to this course, there is a miniature version of Castle Krieg that sits upon a hill in Southington/Meriden. Even though it is not used as an obstacle this dash of local color adds points. There are two more small points that take away from the course atmosphere. First, there are flags in every hole. Now, while that may seem like a nifty idea, it’s a bit annoying when you have to keep pulling the pin. Second, some of the few obstacles and sand traps that exist are in disarray. They were in dire need of some paint and a little maintenance. Additionally, you can tell that the course has tried to move the cup placement from time to time because you can easily spot where the old cup was. You can even pick up the section of carpet where the cup used to be. (Good courses cover old cups with obstacles or find a way to make it near seemless). This makes for some nice ridges and strange putting if your ball happens to travel over the old cup. As one final note on atmosphere, this course had no pars on the holes.
Difficulty on this course is about average. There’s some hard holes and some easy holes, but nothing that really pushes the scale in one direction. However, we again found ourselves having problems rating the difficulty because of such design flaws as the drainage holes which adds to the misery of some holes. Another point that wasn’t mention above is that every hole slopes 3”down in the back where the sidewalk to the next hole begins. Thus, if you over shoot the hole and get within about 6” of the back wall, rest assured you’ll be back against the concrete. There is no saving yourself from the Golf Quest dip.
Then there’s creativity. Not much to say about that on this course because there is very little. There is one neat obstacle that almost guarantees a hole in one (except for myself of course) and nifty use of a water hazard. Other than those two standouts, one mostly finds lots of holes that are green and have a few bumps. This course also overuses the two-cups-for-one-hole concept. It’s fine to have something like that once and a while, especially if there is a penalty associated with one cup, but to do it 3-4 times on a course is ridiculous. What makes it even more confusing is that only one cup has a flag in it. Does this mean we are supposed to shoot at that cup? If so, then what the heck is the other cup there for? Again, we always look for the good in the bad and yes, this course did have a phallic hole. Chalk yet another one up for Mr. Freud.
As a last note to this review, it is only too fitting that Mandy nailed the free game hole on the final hole (she always gets them). Thus, we have a pass to a mini-golf course that we may never want to play again. Such is our luck.
Reviewed by Pat, Mandy and Putt
Reviewed in 2001