Coyote Crossing Mini Golf (West Chicago, IL)

July 16, 2006, late afternoon

Drew, Karen, Alma and I decided to make a special trip out to Geneva because the only Carvel in Illinois was located there.  On the way back we stopped for a round of mini golf so the trip wouldn't seem quite so silly.  (As though driving 80 miles to eat ice cream and play mini golf is much better than doing it just to eat ice cream.)  The first thing I noticed was that the par was a scandalously low 37 - the entire course is par-2 holes with the lone exception of the 13th - which meant that we pretty much knew right away that none of us were going to be breaking par.  So, indeed, we did not - although Drew managed to match the par of 19 on the back nine, thanks largely to aces at the 11th and 16th holes.  Drew tied me at seven over when he aced the 16th and I made par, and he went on to win simply by making par on the last two holes, as I took tough bogeys on 17 and 18, with the ball just running over the lip of the cup - like the ones in Highland Park, the setting of the cups was not conducive to having borderline putts drop in - both times.  Alma, whose front-nine 24 left her in second place at the turn, ended up seven shots back due almost exclusively to a rough three-hole stretch from 12 to 14 where she went 5-4-4; she did card an ace just after Drew did at the 16th, however.  Karen found herself frustrated by the course layout on the front nine, but pulled things together on the way in with five pars and the only non-hole-in-one birdie of the day at the 13th.