Myrtle Beach: Mini-Golf Haven (and More)

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Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, is a resort town and the crown jewel of the Grand Strand, a 60-mile stretch of beach in the Palmetto State. Much of the small city’s tourism economy is based on a bevy of miniature golf courses, and it is for this reason that I select it as a destination during my two-month long cross-country trip in the fall of 2017.

Mini-golf dates back to the 19^th century. In Scotland the Ladies’ Putting Club of St. Andrews had a miniature course based on the conventions of the time that it was improper for a lady to “take the club back past their shoulder.”

Garnet Carter is generally considered the forefather of mini-golf as we know it; his course in Tennessee featured hollowed-out tree trunks, rock tunnels, and gnomes to accompany the themes conjured up by his Fairyland Inn. Carter patented and franchised this model, named “Tom Thumb Golf,” and soon courses were sprouting up around the nation.

The recreation activity took hold in the lean years of the Great Depression. Scrap material – tires, pipes, and the like – made courses cheaper to produce, a savings passed down to cash-strapped customers ever in need of leisure activities.

The market for miniature golf has ebbed and flowed ever since. But one location it is has synonymous with is Myrtle Beach. There are more mini-golf courses per square mile than in any other city in the United States, and host to the US ProMiniGolf Association’s annual “Master’s” Tournament. The courses are virtually all located on Highway 17, which borders the Grand Strand.

The groundwork for making Myrtle Beach a mini-golf haven started long ago. At the turn of the 20^th century, the development company Burroughs and Collins hoped to turn Myrtle Beach into the next Coney Island or Atlantic City, building a railroad in part to achieve that end. In 1926, mogul John T. Woodside provided the funds to pave Highway 17, and built the city’s first golf course.

The Tom Thumb models seized the attentions of the area’s real estate developers. They were, after all, cheaper to build and maintain than a traditional course, and there was no shortage of available labor. And with a longer vacation season than most East Coast cities, the stars aligned for the mini-golf boon in little Myrtle Beach. In 1935 a tourism magazine hyped the town as a destination, including the mini-golf courses, and it grew from there.

Nina Garinkel and Maria Reidelbach, in the book Miniature Golf, remark on the “Myrtle Beach Style” of mini-golf courses that came to be by the 1970s. It is “characterized by large central rockeries made of sprayed synthetic rock over which water, dyed blue or gold, cascades dramatically…Invariably a jungle atmosphere is invoked, replete with palm trees, thatched huts, and fiberglass ‘wild animals.’”

According to Bob Detwiler, president of the US ProMiniGolf Association and the man behind several courses in Myrtle Beach including Hawaiian Rumble, estimates that mini-golf brings $25 million a year to the city. While there are other attractions along the Grand Strand and within city limits, it is the string of golf courses – with mountains, jungles, and exotic lands begging to be conquered with a small colored ball and a putter – that calls visitors traveling along Highway 17. With about 50 courses in place and a healthy competition among them, mini-golf figures to remain an important part of the city’s tourism economy.

I arrive in Myrtle Beach on a Sunday night and sail in to Captain Hook’s Adventure Golf. As a fan of Peter Pan, I’m happy to be immediately whisked away to a mini-golf version of Never Never Land. Passages from J. M. Barre’s beloved novel are printed on wooden signs so that as you progress through the course, you re-live the tale. You enter a cavern and see “Hook’s Jailhouse,” eye silhouettes in the window of a tavern, board a pirate ship, find Tinkerbell locked away, and encounter treasure, among the many delights.

I play alongside a family of four from Tennessee – a husband and wife, and their two teenage children. We chat about my trip, Tennessee, California…the young lady asks me, ‘My friend says all the hills in California are brown – is that true?” I respond that for the most part, yes, they are green for only a few months every year.

I don’t want the night to end, really. But I am tired and hungry and seek to amend both. My lodging for the night is the Vancouver Motel. I get a great deal on this seaside, white-and-blue, clean and friendly place. I’d never find a deal like this in the ocean towns of my home state.

There are seafood restaurants abound, but I have to consider my loyalty to Yelp! Ratings and they don’t score particularly well. I’m not in the mood for seafood anyway, and discover, in another part of town, a little pizza place called Gino’s. It’s New York style delicious-ness, and I devour a small cheese pizza that fills the spirit as much as it fills the stomach.

The next morning, the rain comes. It arrives as I just reaching the Atlantic Ocean. A feeling of immense gratitude and bliss overwhelms me as I touch the water. I have done it. I have driven completely across the country, from Pacific to Atlantic, literally sea to sea had I just driven 30 miles west and then doubled back on the first day of this journey five weeks prior.

I want to linger on the beach, but the rain is strong. I grab a couple of shells as souvenirs and scramble back to the motel parking lot.

Rain is bad for mini-golf. Not surprisingly, I  am the only customer at Jungle Lagoon. The fiberglass giraffe, rhino, tiger, gorilla, and other creatures are my sole companions. I have to look for shelter now and then but the rain is not steady which affords me the ability to play the entire course. The progression has you ascending to a “Scenic Overlook” where you get a spectacular overlook of the city.

The Cancun Lagoon is different. It features half-inside, half-outside courses in addition to an all-outside course. I welcome the respite from the rain. Featuring a Mayan theme, the courses include cave paintings, waterfalls, potted plants, and several multi-level holes. It is less fanciful than Captain Hook, less endearing as Jungle Cancun, but just as appealing in its own way.

Of the three courses, there’s no doubt about my favorite: Captain Hook. And there are more to try – additional ancient civilizations, jungle wonderlands, and exotic islands. There’s also other tourist activities begging for attention, such as an aquarium and a Ripley’s Believe It Or Not! Museum. However, the need for food, the presence of the rain, and most of all the constant conundrum of this trip – the push to keep going and see as many different things as possible – have me leaving town.

I make an unplanned stop on the Grand Strand, to the Nostalgia City & Museum. This store/museum is filled with Americana – signage, famous life-size figures, vehicles large and small, license plates, tacky and charming souvenirs (a stuffed mermaid with an “I (Heart) Myrtle Beach” t-shirt combines both), and various treats and knick-knacks.

Then it’s another visit to Gino’s. This time I have it with ham and mushroom and admittedly the plain cheese was much better. But also, like the mini-golf, it’s a different version of the same thing the very next day…which only reinforces my overall approach to the cross-country adventure: see it, soak it up, enjoy it, and move on to the next cool thing.

Many thanks to Julie Ellis, Public Relations & Communications Manager, who took the time to respond to my queries in the midst of recovery from Hurricane Florence, and to all the businesses in Myrtle Beach that I patronized during my visit.

Additional sources:

Ali Slagle, “Why Myrtle Beach Takes Mini-Golf So Seriously,” Atlas Obscura, https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/why-so-many-mini-golf-places-myrtle-beach

Ransom Riggs, “The Zany History of Mini Golf,” Mental Floss, http://mentalfloss.com/article/19567/zany-history-mini-golf