Recently, I shared my first experience on the golf course in several years. I’ve yet to return but I certainly intend to as soon as possible. But another thing I recently tried out again was miniature golf. A new course was recently built near my home and just opened. Initially, it was supposed to be a Putt Putt Golf and Games franchise but for some reason that didn’t come to be. In the beginning, the setting was the same as Putt Putt with the bump boards on the course painted orange. For whatever reason, they’re now painted purple and the name of the establishment is Play Staytion.

I was excited to learn of this place for I have a history with Putt Putt. For eight years I managed the Putt Putt Golf and Games here in Asheville, NC. It was one of the most fun jobs I ever had, to an extent. I was able to play all the golf I wanted and played all the video games for hours on end, when I wasn’t working. When I began working there, I wasn’t married so the place became my home away from home. My working hours, however, were horrid in the summertime which eventually led to my leaving. On certain days, I could easily work 20 hours for I was responsible for everything, including all the course maintenance, including mowing and painting, doing repairs on the video games, keeping the game room mopped and waxed, ordering all the supplies and doing the paperwork, including the weekly payroll. Yeah, I was a busy boy but…I loved the perks!

In the summer we’d close at 2:00 AM and the fun began. There was a Japanese restaurant across the street from the course, and most of the male employees there were from Japan. They closed about the time we did so they’d come over. The one thing they loved doing was gambling and we’d have tournaments of winner take all, whatever was determined to be the bet. Needless to say, as the course pro, I came out ahead of the game most of the time. But they were truly Japanese and gracious losers. Sometimes we’d play until five or six in the morning, then go next door to Denny’s restaurant to chow down, where we’d then sit and play backgammon or cribbage. And if I was the big winner for the night on the golf course, I’d treat.

As for the game room, that was in the beginning days of videos. One of the first games we had was Pong, if you remember that, developed by Atari, a game that simulated table tennis. Atari went on to develop Asteroids and Centipede. Other games I loved were Galaga, Space Invaders, Defender, Missile Command  and Donkey Kong. But over the eight years I was there, I played ’em all, and during the winter when we closed at midnight, it was then that me and the gang would stay half the night playing videos.

But it was the putting that I mastered. We had three courses, a total of 54 holes, and each hole was configured in such a way that a hole in one was possible on any of them. All it took was lots of practice and figuring out the best shot. All the shots weren’t straight. Many of them you had to bank the golf ball off the bump boards. But between me and my buddies, we figured them all out. Each week we’d have a tournament, playing one of the courses three times, 54 holes. And during a couple of those tournaments that I set records that were never broken after I left. In a singles tournament, I shot a 19, making a hole in one on every hole but one. Then me and a buddy in a doubles tournament actually shot an 18, a perfect score, almost like pitching a no-hitter in baseball. And we were truly partners in that one for each of us made 9 holes in one apiece.

Just last week, me and Lynndee went to the new course to play. And it was different from the Putt Putt courses I was familiar with. They were official Putt Putt holes, but…none were of the configuration of the ones on my former course, and they were much tougher. I did ace a few of them but I certainly didn’t set any course records. I am going to talk to the manager, though, and see about setting up a weekly tournament.

And this facility sure has more than my old place. Not only does it have golf and games, they have go carts and batting cages. That’s the next thing I want to do, get in a batting cage and see if I can still hit a fastball… 🙂 Who knows? Maybe I can get my old swing back and become the oldest player in the Major Leagues. Yeah, right…dream on!