Putting Edge Fun Center (Lincolnshire, IL)

March 25, 2007, late afternoon

It's a bit early yet for mini golf season, even though it was absolutely gorgeous out today (if kind of windy to play mini golf anyway), but that's why God invented indoor mini golf.  Unfortunately, He also saw fit to make it glow-in-the-dark, which is pretty unnecessary and frankly a lot more complicated than indoor mini golf needs to be.  I guess there's no reason to play it indoors unless there's something different about it, but black carpeting that's impossible to read makes this an experience that probably isn't aimed at people who really like mini golf.  We nearly got stuck behind a foursome that knew nothing about mini golf rules or decorum, but mercifully the one thing they did know was, "Let faster groups play through," and so they did.  For all my dislike of glow-in-the-dark mini golf, I played pretty well; I was only hurt by invisible carpet rolls on a couple of occasions, and the generous par of 53 was easy to challenge.  After starting with a couple of pars, I foud my rhythm and birdied five holes out of six from #3 to #8.  I had a 23 on the way out, four under, but the back nine wasn't quite as succesful - a zig-zag in the carpet on #12 stuck me with a four, and I mishit a shot on #16 and ended up with a double-bogey five.  Fortunately I birdied another four holes, including one I was fairly proud of, at #17, where I noticed a star on the wall that appeared to be the spot at which players were supposed to aim; I proceeded to knock my drive directly off it, winding up just a few inches from the hole for the easy 2.  Alma found her footing after a 33 on the front nine, coming back in with a par 26 to finish six over.