Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, is a resort town and the crown jewel of the Grand Strand, a 60-mile stretch of beach in the Palmetto State. Much of the small city’s tourism is centered on miniature golf; the courses come one after another as you drive down Highway 17, which borders the Strand.

Mini-golf dates to the 19^th century. In Scotland the Ladies’ Putting Club of St. Andrews had a miniature course based on the conventions of the time that it was improper for a lady to “take the club back past their shoulder.”

Garnet Carter is generally considered the forefather of mini-golf as we know it; his course in Tennessee featured hollowed-out tree trunks, rock tunnels, and gnomes to accompany the themes conjured up by his Fairyland Inn. Carter patented and franchised this model, named it “Tom Thumb Golf,” and soon courses were sprouting up around the nation.

The recreation activity took hold in the lean years of the Great Depression. Scrap material – tires, pipes, and the like – made courses cheaper to produce, savings passed down to cash-strapped customers ever in need of leisure activities.

The market for miniature golf has ebbed and flowed ever since. But in Myrtle Beach, it mostly just flows. The city has more mini-golf courses per square mile than any other, and every year it hosts the US ProMiniGolf Association’s “Master’s” Tournament.

In 1926, mogul John T. Woodside provided the funds to pave Highway 17 and built the city’s first golf course. The Tom Thumb models seized the attention of the area’s real estate developers. Mini golf courses were cheaper to build and maintain than a traditional course, there was no shortage of available labor, and with a longer vacation season than most East Coast cities, the stars aligned. In 1935 a tourism magazine hyped the town as a destination, including the mini-golf courses, and the rest is history.

Nina Garinkel and Maria Reidelbach, in the book Miniature Golf, remark on the “Myrtle Beach Style” of mini-golf courses that came to be by the 1970s. It is “characterized by large central rockeries made of sprayed synthetic rock over which water, dyed blue or gold, cascades dramatically…Invariably a jungle atmosphere is invoked, replete with palm trees, thatched huts, and fiberglass ‘wild animals.’”

Bob Detwiler, president of the US ProMiniGolf Association and the man behind several courses in Myrtle Beach including Hawaiian Rumble, estimates that mini golf brings $25 million a year to the city. While there are other attractions along the Grand Strand and within city limits, it is the string of golf courses – those mountains, jungles, and exotic lands begging to be conquered with a small colored ball and a putter – that call out a siren song to many travelers. And with about 50 courses in place and healthy competition among them, mini-golf figures to remain an important part of the city’s economy.

I arrive in Myrtle Beach on a Sunday night and sail into Captain Hook’s Adventure Golf. As a fan of Peter Pan, I’m happy to be immediately whisked away to a mini-golf version of Never Never Land. Passages from J. M. Barre’s beloved novel are printed on wooden signs so that as you progress through the course, you re-live the tale. You enter a cavern and see “Hook’s Jailhouse,” eye silhouettes in the window of a tavern, board a pirate ship, find Tinkerbell locked away, and encounter treasure, among the many delights.

I play alongside a family of four from Tennessee – a husband and wife, and their two teenage children. We chat about my trip, Tennessee, California…the young lady asks me, ‘My friend says all the hills in California are brown – is that true?” I respond that for the most part, yes, they are green for only a few months every year.

On the way out of town, I stop at the Nostalgia City & Museum. This store/museum is filled with Americana: signage, famous life-size figures, vehicles large and small, license plates, tacky and charming souvenirs – a stuffed mermaid with an “I (Heart) Myrtle Beach” t-shirt combines both qualities – and various treats and knick-knacks.

Other tourist activities beg my attention, such as an aquarium and Ripley’s Believe It Or Not! Museum. However, the need for food, the presence of the rain, and most of all the constant conundrum of the cross-country trip – the push to keep going and see as many different things as possible – spur me to bade goodbye. It’s a tough call to make, but I promise myself to one day return to the ancient civilizations, jungle wonderlands, and exotic islands that promise fun and a momentary escape from life’s troubles.

Additional sources:

Ali Slagle, “Why Myrtle Beach Takes Mini-Golf So Seriously,” Atlas Obscura, https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/why-so-many-mini-golf-places-myrtle-beach

Ransom Riggs, “The Zany History of Mini Golf,” Mental Floss, http://mentalfloss.com/article/19567/zany-history-mini-golf

Many thanks to Julie Ellis, Public Relations & Communications Manager, who took the time to respond to my queries amid recovery from Hurricane Florence.