275 Valley Service
Rd.
North Haven, CT
06473
(203) 239-(GOLF)
Cost: $6.50- 18 hole,
$3.50- 9 hole Other Activities: Driving Range,
Basketball, Batting Cages,
Par: 45- 18 hole, 21-
9 hole
18 hole “The
Little Links” 9
Hole “Quinni Mini”
Difficulty: 3 Difficulty: 3
Creativity: 3 Creativity: 1
Atmosphere: 3 Atmosphere: 2 Course Pics!
We expected much more from a place that calls itself the only game in town and touts itself as the “ultimate sports complex.” Granted, there are several activities to take part in when you come here, but everything in the place was a bit run down. You had that feeling that if you were playing there 15 years ago, everything would be awesome. It was as it they tried to do too much with not enough, then decided to not make any adjustments to it over the next two decades. The most stunning example of this was the nine-hole course, which was definitely worse than the eighteen hole course. Before we get to individual courses, a bit about the overall aspects. The courses have sort of a “faux legitimacy” to then, as the landscaping and layout is very nice, but the holes themselves need a lot of work. There are weeks and moss growing on some carpets, much of the carpeting is worn, the “sand traps” are, in most cases, nothing more than areas of carpet that had been cut away to the asphalt below, and the rubber heads on many putters were loose, causing you to continually tighten them or else your ball would go wildly astray. In some cases, we also noticed very lumpy carpeting (as if it hadn’t been pulled down tight) and the courses had the dreaded metal cups with large rims that made any shot close to the edge of the cup go astray. The scorecards were nifty though, as each of the holes was named showing some thought went into the course.
As for individual aspects, the 18-hole course had very little in the way of creativity, although there were a couple that were unique. There was also no theme to that course. On the 9-hole side, there was a Native American theme that was somewhere near disrespectful. For some reasons the obstacles (which were in AWFUL shape) were dogs dressed in Native American dress. It was a very strange idea and the execution of which turned out terrible. While we scored high on both courses, much of it has to do with the aforementioned defects and most people who don’t get as frustrated as we do will come in around par.
The one bonus that saved one atmosphere point for this course was that it not only featured bubble hockey (one of our all-time favorite arcade games), but it was bubble hockey with the actual U.S.A and Canada stickers on the guys (many places just have red and blue people now). Also, for the first time ever, we saw bubble-soccer (and we’re not talking about foos-ball). That was very cool and we do give props to the place for having that. However, our overall recommendation is that you’re better off finding a game in another town if you’re looking for a good miniature golf course.
Reviewed by Pat, Mandy, and Putt
Reviewed in 2004