Portable Miniature Golf Course

After participating in the the Maker Faire for the past two years, we presented an idea to make a miniature golf course for the Austin show.

With our quick work flow, large ideas and CNC technology in our shop, we were confident at our ability to deliver a dense three hole miniature golf course on a short deadline.

And we were right. It was a smash hit.

The biggest challenge was making this course portable, easy to put together, take apart and ship.

We came up with a locking tongue and groove system so the greens could easily link together.

The greens are also a clam shell design that allows them to fold in half and stack on each other.
This makes them very compact, and also protects the green, and any props that are fixed to the green.

The props for the course are all made in a “flat pack” style, so they can easily fit in the gaps inside the clam shell greens.

Some remaining props were staked on top of the packed up play-fields, and then the whole thing wrapped and put on a standard pallet.

And now for a tour of the course....

Starting off the course was the obligatory mini- golf T-Rex. Though, we wanted to appeal to a “geeky-er” crowd, so our T-Rex is a giant version of the skeleton kit for kids.

The T-Rex led the way to the first hole...

The first hole was titled “The Mini-Golf Tribute Hole”
Each hole has three parts to it, and the Mini Golf Tribute hole was comprised of just that..... tributes to “traditional” mini golf.

So, we start of with the castle, complete with moat and opening & closing draw bridge.

After you get through the moat, you are in a field of obstacle blocks... that spell “MAKE”.

Then on to the windmill.... of course our windmill looks more like a power generating windmill.

And last part of the first hole, you wind up at the Tiki Volcano!

.....and then your on to the next hole.....

The Second hole is titled the “Science! Hole”

This one starts out with a “And Gate”.... for the electronics geeks.

Triggers on the floor of these two paths turn on and off the lights above.
When both lights are on, a door in the next stage opens to a clear golfing shot.

If the door is not open, you are forced to go through alternate routes with sand traps.

Once through the “And Gate”, you put your ball into a small trough.
Then pull this big red handle to lift your ball into one of the three clear tubes.

Then watch your ball wiz around and land on the next green. (The middle tube gets you the best landing!)

Finally you are left on the green in front of the Giant Pachinko machine!

Hit your ball into it and watch it come down from the top, bounce around all the pins and and in one the the cups.

The third and last hole was called “The Adventure Hole!”
This one starts you out in a Tiki Jungle, complete with vines on the ground and coming from the structure above as obstacles.

Once through the jungle, you are left in front of a strange looking box with a lever...

This section... the “minaturization ray” stars out by putting your ball into the first box.
You pull the lever, after your ball is inside, and a TINY golf ball comes out onto the green shaped like Texas.
You must putt your now tiny ball across Texas and into the box on the other side.
Pull the lever on this second box and have your ball “re-enlarged” to normal size.
You may now continue on the regular green.

Once clear of the miniaturization ray, you need to get through this dangerous spinning tube to complete the course.

Putt up the ramp and into the spinning tube to reach the finally of the course, the spinning hole.

And congratulations. You have completed the amazing three hole course designed and fabricated by Because We Can.

The original idea for Art Golf was created by Philo Northrup as a way to get a group of artists together on a single project.
Philo’s original Art Golf shows comprised of many artist, each creating one hole.

We have created the modular Art Golf play fields in the hope of helping see this vision again, on a larger scale.

Philo is working on getting funding for shows where we would give each artist a pre-made clamshell green (or three) and the artists could create the course on top.

For more information on Artgolf see the dedicated website

Or contact Philo Northrup