Aug 02

What would Tiger Woods shoot in putt-putt?

I’ve often wondered this age-old question: What do your putt-putt scores really mean?

I’m no rock-star putter. I’ve got a sort of Billy Mayfair stroke that cuts across the ball. Generally, though, I’m a solid putter. I don’t make a lot, but I don’t make a fool of myself, either.

At least not until yesterday. For the first time, my son Carter, who’s 7, beat me in putt-putt at a hilly, Pirate-themed joint in Canton Township, MI. I kid you not. The battle was fair and square. He whipped me by five strokes over 18 holes (I gave him one do-over that wouldn’t have made a difference in the final tally). Who loses to their 7-year-old in mini-golf? Anybody?

He was hot. I was not. What does it all mean? Am I an idiot with the flat stick? Is he a dead-eye for reading greens? Probably a little of both. I’ve taught him everything I know (which isn’t much).

This putt-putt course wasn’t all tricked up with clowns and windmills. All the holes were par 2s and most were straight forward challenges where you had to make a solid stroke for a shot at a hole-in-one. I can’t help but wonder what Tiger Woods or Jack Nicklaus or Ben Crenshaw would have shot on this course. Could they have lost to my son, who shot just six over par?

Talk about a great silly season event. Scratch the Skins Game. Let’s bring together the world’s best flat sticks, guys like Woods, Crenshaw, Steve Stricker and Brad Faxon, and see what they shoot on a mini-golf course.

Now that would be must-see TV. It would be unique and fresh and I’m betting the players would love it. Losing wouldn’t bruise their egos.

I hope somebody important really reads this blog because it’s one great idea to put the fun back in the game’s off-season.

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3 comments

§ kman said on : 08/02/09 @ 18:31
Great story. I would definitely watch that event
§ Ron Mon® said on : 08/02/09 @ 21:27
Putt-putt is astroturf over cement, hardly the same as USGA-standard greens. It puts a premium on distance when the holes are open; on aim when there is a Valderrama-style cork tree in the fairway, and on luck when a carom is required to nudge the ball closer to the hole. I used to take umbrage when my pals would tout their minigolf skills, until I realized that it's a fun game but it's not true putting. Pit yourself against your son on the local putting green, the himalayas, whatever, anyplace without backstops and containment walls and let us know who wins.
§ Matt mccaslin said on : 08/03/09 @ 14:03
In a putt putt tournament with the best putt putt pros playing, Tiger could perhaps finish 10th or right in that area if he played his A game. Some of the professional putters have been playing over 20 years and can score in the mid to low 20s on a regular basis.