Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, April 25, 1993 TAG: 9304230449
SECTION: HORIZON PAGE: F-5 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: JEANNE LEBLANC and DON STACOM
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
On Cape Cod, Boston's playground for decades, minigolf has found its perfect natural habitat. Packed between drive-in ice-cream shops and motels like The Thunderbird and The Jolly Captain are grassy little courses worn by endless summers of putters' feet and flashy new adventure courses spouting elaborate fountains.
The exuberant goofiness of minigolf might seem incongruous so close to the sweeping, dune-rimmed grandeur of Cape Cod National Seashore. Maybe it's the immense sobriety of the stern Atlantic that demands relief on a truly trivial scale.
It's impossible to feel serious, after all, when you're hunched over a tiny stick, putting a hot-pink ball toward a grinning whale or a Lilliputian church. Perhaps that's what makes it the perfect vacation sport, something silly to do when the beaches are dark and the museums are closed.
On summer evenings, sunburned tourists line up under the floodlights at Pirate's Cove in South Yarmouth and hand over $5 each to putt past a pirate's half-sunken schooner and over plank bridges alongside roaring waterfalls. This is adventure golf, the latest permutation of miniature golf and a sign that the game is thriving on Cape Cod.
Minigolf, all the rage in the 1920s, has been on the decline for most of 70 years, save for a brief revival in the '50s. Yet, somehow, it survived. At beach resorts, it hardly faded.
Almost everyone who has drawn breath in this country has picked up a miniature golf club once or twice, although in recent decades it most likely was at a well-worn course that could use a coat or two of paint.
With a mild resurgence of interest in the late '80s came new courses and more revenues to spruce up the old ones.
There are about 30 miniature golf courses on the cape, and more than a dozen of them line Massachusetts 28, the overdeveloped main drag that meanders 65 miles from the Bourne Bridge to its terminus at the elbow of the cape. There are more courses scattered on side roads and a few on the deserted stretches of Massachusetts 6 towardthe cape's windswept fist at Provincetown.
Here are some of the noteworthy courses on the Cape:
Best: From its nifty statues to the immaculate, super-slow greens, Putter's Paradise, Massachusetts 28, West Yarmouth, is a pygmy Pebble Beach. Several greens have two-tone turf to mark off rougher playing surfaces. The centerpiece is a three-ton cement whale.
Best theme: If minigolf can be educational, this is where it happens. At Cape Cod Storyland Golf, 68 Center St., Hyannis, each hole tells the story of a cape town. The course is super-modern, the model buildings are precise and flawless.
Closest to the beach: If you want to get on the course before the sunburn takes hold, try Wellfleet Mini-Golf, the cape's northernmost course, on Massachusetts 6, Wellfleet. It's just a few miles from two entrances to Cape Cod National Seashore.
Instead of the usual ice-cream and hot-dog shack, there's a Chinese restaurant next door.
Most exciting: Cape Cod's original adventure golf, Pirate's Cove, Massachusetts 28, South Yarmouth, routes players along rope-sided bridges back and forth across a towering three-deck waterfall. Brick walkways and shrub-lined lawns are meticulously maintained.
Most scenic: Most Cape Cod courses are built in parking lots, but Bass River Waterfront Miniature Golf on Massachusetts 28, West Dennis, sits on the river bank under pink cherry trees. The course is small and handsome, with a charming view of anchored pleasure boats and a refreshing breeze.
Strangest hazard: Davy II is ultra-kitsch, a 12-foot blue-and-white whale that, inexplicably, swings a broom across the fairway. Time your putt wrong and Davy II sweeps the ball at you. He's at Hole 4 at Harbor Glen Miniature Golf, Massachusetts 28, West Harwich. The short greens are perfect for children.
Toughest: The most deceptively designed course on the cape offers a lesson in engineering. At Thunder Falls, Massachusetts 28 in West Yarmouth, nearly imperceptible slopes, banks and gullies in the fairway derail the best-planned putts. The turf is extra fast, too. Opened in 1988, this adventure course is set on an artificial mountain surrounded by 60,000 gallons of water in lagoons and fountains. One fairway runs through a cave beneath a 20-foot waterfall.
by CNB