Pier Park Mini Golf (Chicago, IL)

April 17, 2007, midday

It is perhaps a sign of mini golf obsession when you dash over to Navy Pier on your lunch break to play a local course you hadn't yet gotten to, but this was the last day above 60 for which I'd be in town until about May, so as we had done a couple weeks back, Drew and I squeezed in a round.  The Navy Pier course is relatively inexpensive but it's certainly not all that exciting - the website-touted "Chicago theme" is evident only on the signs that give the hole numbers, and the greens played lightning-fast.  Most problematically, the course does not feature a par.   I suppose it's aimed mostly at kids and there's no reason to hold the young'uns to a hard number - but most mini golf courses are aimed at kids and it doesn't stop them.   Even other courses I've played without hole-by-hole pars had a course par, but not so here.  Drew and I were forced to guess at what we figured each hole would get were it on a normal course and ended up with the numbers you see below.  Since neither of us beat this par you can tell we didn't just make it up so we'd look good.  The front nine was pretty much a back-and-forth affair; I went down a shot at #2, but at #3 Drew overcompensated for a berm in front of the tee and had the ball roll all the way back to him.  I went down a shot again at #5 when my drive got stuck on the other side of a rock from the cup, but gained it back at #6; at #8 I yanked a short par putt, but Drew did exactly the same thing at #9 and we made the turn at 23 each, three over our invented par.   To get around a group of adolescent girls and their grandma in front of us, we skipped ahead to #12, which apparently was the best thing that could have happened for me, as I suddenly aced the next three holes.  At #13, the ball bounced off several walls before trickling into the cup; Drew took four and was suddenly four shots back.  At #14 I aced again, but Drew matched me.  We played even through 18 and then went back to 10 and 11; I took my only four of the round on 11, while Drew made two to close the final margin to two shots.