Belmont’s Golf Range Back to Connecticut page

824 Ethan Allen Hwy
Ridgefield, CT 06877-2825
(203) 431-8989

Par: 49

Cost: $4 for adults Other Activities: Driving Range

Difficulty: 5

Creativity: 8

Atmosphere: 2

We didn’t know what to think the first time we saw this course as we walked out of the clubhouse. It’s set down a hill in back of the clubhouse that’s used for the driving range as well, so we didn’t have any idea what we were in for. Simply put, this course was unlike anything we’d ever seen before.

The first thing that struck us as we walked down the stairs was it’s use of triggered sound effects, which we had never seen on a mini-golf course before. For instance, when you walk on one of the steps Eye of the Tiger from the Rocky movies plays. On the first hole, when you walk by the polar bear, it roars. Later, when you are at the haunted house hole, spooky noises play as you enter the gate leading to the tee. We enjoyed this new twist to mini-golf, and we also enjoyed some of the obstacles that went along with them, such as the haunted house. These were ones we hadn’t seen before. One of the most interesting ones was an elephant that shot water out of its trunk over the hole to a bucket. It didn’t have much to do with playing the hole, but it was different. Unfortunately, that’s all the course has going for it.

To explain the atmosphere rating, lets start with the obstacles. They would have been new and great looking about 10-15 years ago. It’s obvious that no one has so much as put a coat of paint on them in years. The same goes for the carpeting. It was in some of the worst condition we’ve ever seen carpeting on a course. There were multitudes of bare patches throughout the holes. Although the grounds were neatly kept, the conditions of the holes themselves left much to be desired. Besides just the bare patches, nearly every hole was a design nightmare. At least 50% of the holes were designed like a valley, so that there were barely any flat surfaces on which to putt. Instead of lining up a shot, you just tapped the ball and watched it roll up and down the sides of the valleys, going where it pleased. Most of the time it ended up within a reasonable distance from the hole, but the lack of skill it takes to play these holes brings the fun of playing the course way down. In addition, the drainage is terrible on this course. On the 3^rd hole, we had to start about ½ way down because of the lake that formed in the first half after the rain of the night before. This is also the same hole that had the random house as an obstacle, which the ball could roll under. It was then difficult to get your ball back, because you couldn’t really see where it was. The 7^th hole also had a strange design, in that there was this curved valley you could putt into that looked like it would bring you right to the hole. Unfortunately, out of the 5-6 tries we gave the valley, the ball didn’t stay in there once, leaving us wondering what the real purpose of the design was.

I almost forgot to mention the dragon on the “19^th” hole. First, we really couldn’t tell if you won a free game or not if you got it into the small hole right under the dragon, but we soon forgot about it once we saw what the dragon did. When one of us putted the ball into the dragon, it moved it’s wings. When another one of us did it, it sprayed water out of its nose. Now that seems almost cool, but envision a 15 year old mini-golf obstacle moving its wings so slow you would think it had arthritis. In a word, it was crap-tacular (thank you Bart Simpson).

In all, these holes created a relatively average difficulty rating. As mention previously, there were many hole where no matter what you did, the ball would end up reasonably close to the whole. There were a few frustrating holes thrown in as well, where unless you hit a near perfect shot, you were doomed to never get the ball in the hole. In the end, we’re glad we played the course once for it’s unique use of sounds and obstacles, but the probability of us playing it again is very low. At a cost of $4 though, I would suggest that if you’re in the area give it a go once, just to experience the strangeness.

Reviewed by Pat, Mandy, Julie and Putt 

Reviewed in 2002

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Course Pictures (click to enlarge)