Putter’s Paradise Miniature Golf Return
to Connecticut
Page
(860) 828-7518
Cost: $4.50
Par: Challenging- 48,
Obstacles- 39
Challenging Putting
Course
Difficulty: 10*
Creativity: 2
Atmosphere: 0
*see below for an breakdown of this number- in short this course was hard for all the wrong reasons
Putting Through Obstacles
Difficulty: 10*
Creativity: 2
Atmosphere: 0
2001 Review
Terrible. If we had to describe this
course in one word that would be it. The only thing we liked
about this course is that they gave you metal-head putters instead of the
normal rubber-head. The first reason this course is terrible is the
overall condition of the course. Much of the ancillary parts of the
course, such as the waterfalls or little rivers, are dry and any objects set
along this course (as opposed to the “Obstacles course”) are poorly constructed
and in disrepair. In many places the mats are worn down almost to
the concrete and there are seams showing on almost every hole. In
addition, there are many divots or canyons in which the ball can easily get
stuck. Much of this is due to the design of the drainage system on
this course. Instead of doing something real with the drainage, the
proprietors obviously felt that the easiest and cheapest solution would be to
make sure all the holes have a severe slope to them, and that the mat forms a
chasm in some places for the water to run off, or for a ball to get hopelessly
stuck.
This leads us to the second
problem of the course: hole design. On 90%
of the holes on this course, if you don’t nail the hole in the first shot,
you’re doomed to at least a 3, more likely a 4, 5, or 6. Granted
this is supposed to be the “challenging” course, but even great miniature
golfers will find this sort of challenge frustrating. Trying to hit a two
after missing the first shot is near impossible. Part of this has to
do with the severe slope mentioned above. If you miss the cup by a ¼
inch, you’re doomed to watch the ball roll 15 feet, no matter how hard you hit
it. If you hit the ball a bit too hard or soft off the tee, it’s
almost guaranteed to fly over and land in a ditch or roll back helplessly to
the tee. Any skill you have won’t help you much on this course, save
for a few flat, decently built holes, but those are rare. Another drawback
is that on at least 50% of the holes, the cup is set on the top of a little
mound, making landing anywhere near the cup out of the question. If
you don’t put it in the hole, you’re easily looking at a 5-10 foot putt every
single time. There are no “tap-ins” on this
course. One hole was even designed so that the carpet was pushed
about a ½ inch up the back wall so that it is impossible to bounce the ball off
the wall. Since the hole sloped towards the back, unless you hit the
ball right in off the tee, or are lucky enough to get it away from the bottom
of the hill and right into the bottom of the cup, you’re doomed to a 5 or
6. Further proof of the poor design of the holes is the “clumping
effect” that we saw on nearly every hole. This effect is simply that
no matter where you hit the ball, no matter how hard you hit it, the design of
the hole brings all the balls to the same spot.
What may be the worst hole on the
course is the “Criss-cross” of holes 5 and
15. Essentially these two holes form and “X” with tees on one end
and holes on the other, sharing the same green space. Now, this
causes a problem when two different groups arrive on this hole at the same
time. Because of the lack of signs to tell you what’s going on, it
seems as if you can shoot at either hole, causing a huge headache for everyone
involved. Players and balls get in the way of each other and the
place turns into a mess. There was no creativity at all on this
course, as most holes are just knock-offs of the standard mini-golf
holes.
It’s because of all these factors
that this course ranks a 10 in difficulty. However, we consider this
to be a bad 10 and not a good 10. The holes themselves are not
designed to be difficult in a good way, with fancy water hazards, sand traps or
other devices that we have seen on other courses. They are designed
to make you frustrated once you miss the first putt. Now, we know
this may seem like the disgruntled ramblings of a bunch of people who didn’t do
well, but it’s not. In fact, one of our group
hit under par, and two of our group hit within eight strokes of
par. Basically, this course is terrible and provides no fun
whatsoever, especially when compared to the rest of the miniature golf courses
we’ve played (and the one down the street). It’s so bad that we
couldn’t even bring ourselves to play its sister course. Stay away
from this course at all costs; it’s not even worth the lower than normal price
they charge.
2005 Update
Yikes. So we tried
giving this course another go and it still was as bad as the first time we
played it. This time we started with the obstacle course and while
slightly better than the challenging course, we ended up with many of the same
conclusions (especially the clumping effect). The drainage system
was still flawed and many times I had to put my ball out of the drainage hole. We’ll
just say that after giving this course a second chance we won’t be playing
there ever again.
2011 Update
Putting Through Obstacles
Difficulty: 4
Creativity: 4
Atmosphere: 5
We are pleased to report a far
better experience on this course than in past years! We played one of the courses again as part of
the Putt Putt for Charity Mini-Golf Tournament
sponsored by American Eagle Federal Credit Union. Even though we have some of the same
complaints about some of the carpets in disrepair, the drainage holes, and the
chance that your ball will bounce out of the cup; we did find the obstacles were is very good condition.
Overall we had a some-what enjoyable
experience. (Of course it didn’t hurt
that play was free with advance registration.)
We would still not recommend anyone go out of their way to play the
course, but we would recommend that any local family at least sign up for this
even next year. Not only are you
donating to a good cause, you also receive free gifts, such as a lunch
bag. There are also other family
activities, which include go-karts, bumper boats, and a batting cage.
Reviewed by Pat, Mandy, Putt,
Michelle, Ryan
Reviewed in 2001, 2005 & 2011
2011 Pictures
Map